The handling by News Corp of the Dean Laidley story over the last 24 hours has been dreadful. Even now, this afternoon, they have run this story about a police office being stood down and above the headline they have one of the images that resulted in the standing down of the officer.
This is disgusting gutter stuff from a publisher that has made publishing such stuff an art.
Is there anyone with power at News Corp who understands mental health challenges and how to respect those facing such? It appears not.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing when I saw that front page this morning. Absolutely disgusting and reprehensible from the Herald Sun. Notwithstanding the fact that the photos were leaked, they didn’t have to publish them. Shame. No conscience.
If I was the editor of a major tabloid newspaper, I wouldn’t hesitate in publishing the photo’s. They would be all over social media anyway. Effectively, social media is the competition for a tabloid newspaper. No point in competing in the quality in depth news space. The Age and the ABC have that covered and the market for that is comparatively small. The real blame lies at the police integrity level, the photos shouldn’t have been available to any media platform in the first place.
Peter, it’s refresshing to read an objective comment on the situation re the real issue You’ve nailed it.
What the first police officer did is criminal. What others did, equally so. What any media outlet publishing the images is so, too, in my view. Competitive pressure is not a justification for acting as News Corp. appears to have done.
A core issue here is mental health. But rather than respect that, chased clicks and revenue win out.
The real situtuation is that if News didn’t cover the story, the public and others wouldn’t know about the poor Police behaviour.
I’m with News on this one.
New Corp. could run the story without the photo. This is mental health issue.
True. Good point.