Interesting exchange yesterday with my friend and fellow blogger Erica Bartle of Girl With a Satchel.
Erica sent a tweet re a blog post in which she awarded points to Zoo magazine for including AFL footballer Brendan Fevola – he of the leaked Lara Bingle naked picture scandal – in a pre Australia Day list of those Zoo deemed guilty of ‘un-Australian’ behaviour. I responded that I didn’t think the feature genuine – that it was, in fact, a mockery given that Zoo attributed Fevola’s action to causing everything from the breakup of Bingle’s relationship with Michael Clarke, Australia’s subsequent cricket losses and drought in Africa.
By releasing a nude photo of his former fling Lara Bingle to a women’s gossip mag, the Brisbane Lions goose caused the break-up of Aussie golden couple Lara Bingle and Michael Clarke.
(This) caused Clarke to become a rubbish cricketer, and caused the demise of the national cricket team, and caused the value of the dollar to fall, and caused drought in Africa and caused the continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Zoo is making a mockery of Bingle’s experience by saying that what was ‘un-Australian’ was that it ruined their enjoyment of cricket; what was horrific was not how it affected Bingle, but what happened, as a result, to the sport. And I doubt they give a stuff about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, unless it involves pics of ‘hot’ Israeli female soldiers with rifles. There’s little doubt Zoo’s readers regret seeing Fevola’s snap of a vulnerable younger Bingle naked and wet. More likely, Zoo and its readers see men like Fevola and Shane Warne as legends for their behaviour.
Erica then posted this piece, revising her original stance. Where others would dig their heels in and not admit they called it wrong, or conveniently eradicate all traces of the original blog post, Erica wrote a new one with a revised conclusion.
Commendations GWAS. (Maybe one day she will blog about discovering my soft and cuddly side).
Monday Media Study: Lad-mag endorsement v talking point
Media commentator, author and Collective Shout co-founder Melinda Tankard Reist and I had a DM marathon this morning. We often do. Since meeting Melinda last year, we’ve become regular online sparring partners; she thinks I’m soft, I think she’s too hard-line. But we generally respect each other’s opinions. What’s more, she has research to back up her opinions. Piles of it. And books. And co-collaborators, such as Clive Hamilton, University of NSW academic Nina Funnell and her fellow Collective Shouters.
