Is there a particular public scandal that intrigued you?
Public scandals are why I love the media, and also why I hate the media.
Most of the time the media take a story and slap on the term ‘scandal’ generally as a means to sell more papers, or attract more viewers to a news / current affairs show.
Australia has had more than it’s fair share of ‘scandals’, however none of them have really intrigued me. I was just looking over a list of ‘scandals’ and there are quite a few that grabbed my eye.
Firstly, I think that the most prominent one in Australia most recently was the Essendon Football Club drug scandal. Basically, the club was investigated for usage of prohibited supplements, which then blew up into a massive controversy and ending in the club being fined a record AU$2 million. As much as I can’t stand football (primarily because a) the sport is ridiculous and b) because it’s pretty much a religion in this country), I was quite surprised that this had even come to light. What surprised me the most was that there were all these people saying how shocked they were at just the concept that there could even be drugs in sport.
Are you fucking kidding me?
Drugs and sport go together like cake and buttercream frosting. It’s that simple. These people are either so completely ignorant as to what is going on in their own clubs, or they’re trying to cover it up.
The next major scandal at the moment has been the Craig Thomson Union Fund scandal. Basically the crux of this scandal was that this guy, Craig, used his Union credit card and spent a truck load of union-members’ money on all kinds of stuff that he shouldn’t have, including paying for prostitutes and escorts. I think what I was the most surprised by, was finding out that hookers accept credit-card payments… I just thought they were cash-only.
I guess it puts a whole new spin on the phrase ‘swipe your card’…
There was a massive overseas scandal on the usage of horsemeat in consumer foods. This was something that actually did concern me, because I couldn’t believe that people would even consider eating horsemeat – just the thought of it grosses me out. But humans are cannibals, and will eat all kinds of animals, regardless of how big or small they are. When this scandal broke in the media, we were buying meat from Aldi, which was one of the major stores involved, so we immediately stopped buying from there as a precaution, and sourced our meat directly from a butcher.
Also in overseas news, there was the whole phone-hacking ordeal with Rupert Murdoch sitting right at the very top of it all. I think that it was great for something like this to come to light; exposing the underhanded ways and lengths the media will go to in order to get juicy details for their next big story. It’s just disgusting, and ever since then, I’ve stopped engaging in numerous News Corp holdings… well, except Australian Good Taste and Donna Hay magazine… what can I say, food is my weakness.
I think the last major one that made me groan and rolls my eyes in sheer disbelief at the sheer ignorance of the case was that involving the cases of sexual abuse within the catholic church. For as long as I can remember, there’s always been constant commentary regarding priests and abuse of children, predominantly young boys. Priests had / still have a stigma attached to them as being paedophiles, and the church knows all about it, but covers it up etc etc. So imagine my lack of shock and surprise when this ‘scandal’ was brought up in the media. Parliamentary inquiries, Royal Commissions investigating numerous claims of abuse… it was as though this issue that society, in general, had been talking about for years and years was only NOW starting to actually be taken seriously enough to warrant proper investigations.
Are you kidding me?
And people are behaving as though this information is all so sudden and brand new, and so completely inconceivable. Which, in turn, makes me even sadder about people and society. How could you be so oblivious and ignorant of this?
Look, I can appreciate that many victims have been haunted and tormented by the memories of what happened to them, and I can appreciate that they may not necessarily want to come forward and put the spotlight on themselves for a multitude of reasons, but they also need to understand that unless people like them actually say something, nothing is going to change. Those within the church will still abuse their power and position; children are still going to be abused; nobody will say anything about it, and the cycle will just continue as it has for however many years.
And the worst part of it all, is that if a child dare say anything or speak out about it, then who knows what the consequences could / would be. Maybe the child would be labelled as being a liar, and a Son of Satan – and then barraged with passages from the Bible, and made to repent for sins that are not his.
Unfortunately, the cynic in me can’t help but assume that this kind of abuse will never stop. Priests will always be protected by the Church, and let’s face it, the Church is a law unto themselves. It’s unfortunate, but this is just another reason as to why I cannot stand religion, ESPECIALLY Catholicism / Christianity. I think that the Catholic Church is perhaps one of the most evil and underhanded organisations in the world.
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