sydney people are pretending to be from melbourne. the weather drops below 20 degrees (but only just, it's currently 18) and people wear heavy coats and scarves. well, some people. and it's ridiculous. it's warm in my 2 layers of thin cotton.
the sydney morning herald is pornographic in its coverage of the victorian fires. it makes me feel ill. it makes me wish i still believed in objective journalism.
the language is loaded with nationalistic rhetoric of fighting for survival against the 'hellfire'. yes, the anzac spirit lives on. in journalism at least. and perhaps everywhere, if people are getting off on this reportage. which i think maybe they are. otherwise there'd be alternative narratives and more criticism, right? though maybe there's not much space for criticism these days.
the fire is not a fire, but a hellfire. journalists are ranting about how much we love our country despite it being so cruel and relentless. it's all very dorothea mackellar:
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me.
the facts are sad without all this idealogical porn that seems more interested in projecting certain nationalist fantasies than informing people about what's happening.
The names make the enormity of the loss all the more real to an uncomprehending nation.
SMH recounts the names, ages, occupations, and family situations of the dead. SMH is writing the first draft of the inevitable miniseries. and a gripping tale it will be:
TOWNS have been declared crime scenes, and the death toll in Victoria's bushfires could top 200 as the grisly search for bodies continues in communities that were wiped out.
the metaphor of crime scene, like that of terrorism, bombing and war zones are present on every page and by-line, pointing to the 'cruel injustice' of it all. the 'unfathomable' events resulting in the loss of 'innocent lives'.
what the fuck is an innocent victim anyway? argh. shut the fuck up!
just now, wading through the SMH files (i feel so dirty) i found this story opening with:
AUSTRALIANS have watched in disbelieving horror as nature stripped away the nation's clothing of civilisation, leaving great swathes of this wide brown land a blackened ground zero.
This was Australia's greatest natural disaster, and the date on which the fires raged into an inferno - February 7, 2009 - will be marked on the nation's calendar of grief, perhaps like April 25.
i feel nauseous. and angry. when i should be feeling sad.
Oh, I weep for the state of journalism when I read articles such as that in the Sydney Morning Herald. My uncomprehending eyes cannot fathom such unyielding linguistic horror, such inexplicable use of metaphor. And yet I know that, in time, we will as a nation stand together and rebuild our journalism. Indeed, our ability to pull through these unspeakably terrible times of mediocre journalism is what makes us all Australian. We will refuse to be victims (unless we are innocent victims). Nay, we are all battlers and we will survive this hellish onslaught of porno for pyros journalism.
ReplyDeleteoh, that is beautiful! brings a tear to my eye.
ReplyDeletethanks Tom :)