My utmost sympathy for those affected by the mass murder. My contempt for the criminal perpetrators.
But the garbage going on in media and emanating from politicians, journalists and other public figures makes me want to puke.
A country that claims something like this makes it realise how wonderful it is is a sick country indeed.
Gotta agree … entirely with the first three sentiments … but also with the rest of th above comment … what the hell is going on? I’ve got all the sympathy in the world for the immediately, and even the remotely affected, but I’m sure missing what the point of all the rest of all this is about?
Peter Chris, you are so spot on. I too feel sympathy for the victims and their families, but no more sympathy than I feel for the two families who recetly lost all members in car and plane crashes in SA and QLD recently.
It is the mawkishness, the Oprah-like soul bearing and the syrupy coverage that reminds me too much of an overblown episode of Big Brother that offends me.
What is happening to this country? Where is the stoic teeth-gritting and the sombre gathering at memorials in times such as these that used to characterise the hardy Australian spirit?
I’m sure this is not a creation of the victims themselves. This is a creation of our intrusive, self obsessed media.
Perhaps this sentimental, and undignified coverage is a clumsy communal act of atonment by our media (and maybe even our politians) who have probably been doing just a little bit of soul searching in the last year, because deep inside, when they first heard the story, about the bombs going off, they maybe thought to themselves, among other things, ‘wow, this is brilliant, this is going to make such great copy’.
Rex
I think the rest is about ‘harvesting the grief’ by the media and politicians, and an episode of mawkish emotionalism by sections of the public.
It’s formulaic. TV shows the tragedy over and over again (with sombre music), media slips in a quote or two about mateship and the Australian spirit shining through, interviews friends and family of victims to provoke tears, politician makes a speech about how it touched us all and we’ll never forget, and now let the healing begin etc.
John Quiggin 
Nice emblem.
My utmost sympathy for those affected by the mass murder. My contempt for the criminal perpetrators.
But the garbage going on in media and emanating from politicians, journalists and other public figures makes me want to puke.
A country that claims something like this makes it realise how wonderful it is is a sick country indeed.
Gotta agree … entirely with the first three sentiments … but also with the rest of th above comment … what the hell is going on? I’ve got all the sympathy in the world for the immediately, and even the remotely affected, but I’m sure missing what the point of all the rest of all this is about?
Peter Chris, you are so spot on. I too feel sympathy for the victims and their families, but no more sympathy than I feel for the two families who recetly lost all members in car and plane crashes in SA and QLD recently.
It is the mawkishness, the Oprah-like soul bearing and the syrupy coverage that reminds me too much of an overblown episode of Big Brother that offends me.
What is happening to this country? Where is the stoic teeth-gritting and the sombre gathering at memorials in times such as these that used to characterise the hardy Australian spirit?
I’m sure this is not a creation of the victims themselves. This is a creation of our intrusive, self obsessed media.
Perhaps this sentimental, and undignified coverage is a clumsy communal act of atonment by our media (and maybe even our politians) who have probably been doing just a little bit of soul searching in the last year, because deep inside, when they first heard the story, about the bombs going off, they maybe thought to themselves, among other things, ‘wow, this is brilliant, this is going to make such great copy’.
Rex
I think the rest is about ‘harvesting the grief’ by the media and politicians, and an episode of mawkish emotionalism by sections of the public.
It’s formulaic. TV shows the tragedy over and over again (with sombre music), media slips in a quote or two about mateship and the Australian spirit shining through, interviews friends and family of victims to provoke tears, politician makes a speech about how it touched us all and we’ll never forget, and now let the healing begin etc.
The Backyard Blitz Bali Bombing special. Puke.