News: Zorba: There are no winners

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ManlyBacker

Winging it
<div class="content-item" /><p>THERE is a group of innocent young boys at the Harbord United Devils under-12’s who hope their coach turns up for Saturday’s match with Mona Vale. For the past two years the youngsters have hung on to the every word of their coach - the now shamed Footy Show host Matthew Johns. </p>

<a href="http://www.silvertails.net/news/General-NRL/zorba-there-are-no-winners.html">Read the full article</a>
 
DSM5 link said:
I just hope he's only talking footie to these youngsters.

That's a low comment DSM5.  What, are you now going to label him a rock spider (paedophile) as well?
 
DSM5 link said:
I just hope he's only talking footie to these youngsters.
I do not often post nor do I like to criticize others for their comments for we ostensibly live in a free society that condones and promotes free speech.  (Or, that is what we are told anyway.)
But I must take exception with this comment.

What else would he be talking to 12 year olds about except football? 
I think now he may have some explaining to do to these young boys which will not be pleasant.

For my part, I am sick of hearing about it.  Every news item leads with this story.  All talk-back radio is airing it.  All newspapers are printing their take on this story.  The reason is simple it is saucy it is bad news and it has human drama and it has happened to a celebrity.  It has everything that sells air-time and papers and puts advertisement revenue in their pockets.

Even politicians (who are supposed to be running the country) are having their two-bob’s worth on the subject.
GIVE EVERYONE A BREAK –let them patch up their lives as best they can and get on with what they have left. 

I for one am so sick of every time I read an article it is thrust in my face, I’ve made some changes however. 

Here is what I have done:
I never watch the Channel Nine Footy Show anyway;
I don’t watch the News on pay TV anymore;
I will selectively listen to talk-back radio if they are not bleating on about it;
I have cancelled my sports subscription to FOX; and
I am going to watch the Swans v West Coast Eagles on Saturday.
I still think I’ll have to support the “Eagles” though just because of the name. :(
 
When do we start talking about footy?
 
Matty Johns' work with the Harbord Devils shows he generously works to help others, to contribute. Much as we might want to define people as good/bad, these concepts are always simplistic distortions of the depth and breadth of the individuals.

When people see a man cruelly kick a dog, most can empathise with the pain of the dog.  The truly compassionate can empathise with the pain of the man as well.
 
Don't worry Rex, the PR machine is already working overtime to resucitate his career.  There will be the obligatory story about working with kids (already started on that one, tick), the obligatory 100k walk for something, the support of the wife, his mates and family (done, tick), the tears, the scratched car, it will go on for months and then he'll be back, suitably admonished and penitant, and on the sidelines on our telle.  All that will come out of this will be the demise of Reg Regan, thankfully (tick).   
 
DSM5 link said:
I just hope he's only talking footie to these youngsters.

I can't figure out whether you continually say stupid things to try and get a reaction out of people or whether you are just an idiot, at the moment I'm leaning towards you just being an idiot.
 
It has happened in Central West Rugby that some coaches took an under 13s road trip and plied them with grog.  

Something I doubt someone of Johns' profile would have done, or would do.
 
I'm sure he wouldn't.  Interesting that some poster thought that I was referring to pedophilia in my early post.  I thought that Matty might just give them some tips on picking up chicks along with tips to win the game..Good luck with the AFL eaglerock 08, you'll be back.   
 
DSM5 link said:
Don't worry Rex, the PR machine is already working overtime to resucitate his career.  There will be the obligatory story about working with kids (already started on that one, tick), the obligatory 100k walk for something, the support of the wife, his mates and family (done, tick), the tears, the scratched car, it will go on for months and then he'll be back, suitably admonished and penitant, and on the sidelines on our telle.  All that will come out of this will be the demise of Reg Regan, thankfully (tick).    

Exactly DSM.  The media work hard to protect their assets, and Matty Johns is seen as an asset, just needs some reimaging. Others not seen as direct assets need to be imaged into various roles to fit the simplistic good/bad characters we might see in "B" grade movies.  They then become assets of a different type - the bit part players and villians.
 
I'm not a big fan of Matt Johns however it’s a very sad reflection of society today that every little thing that you do in the public can be turned against you, scrutinised and hung by the media circus.

The 4 corners reporter should have done her detective work a little more thorough on this story before she hung John’s and others, she has basically crucified these guy’s purely and simply for the sole reason she is vying for a new role as the host of today tonight or ACA.

Lawyers and majority of journalists in general are all oxygen stealing leaches who should have been terminated at birth. They are not in search of truth it’s just who can tell the best story to win the prize.

I hope that Matt and his wife can get their life and future back together and sue the crap out of the journalist and the ABC. Why doesn’t the ABC stand the journalist down for not reporting the full facts of the story or for John’s to present his version of events. If the cow truly stood by her convictions she should have appears on the footy show last night.
 
It wasn't the reporter putting on a show for 11 wanking blokes while his wife and kids were back home in sydney OEE.
 
I hope he does sue, gets plenty, and then Trish can give the idiot the boot and take the lot.  Putting up with him must be a real chore.  Screwing him after his away trips must be a real lottery. 
 
Matabele I'm not saying that the others who took part is this or the act itself being acceptable.

What I am stating is that journalists can just openly make accusations and portray the story how they want it to be portrayed without being accountable for it.

I'm not a fan of Johns but do believe there are two sides of the story and I don't find it acceptable that he is solely hung for it as is in the case of our own player involved in an allegation. Jury by media has irreversible consequences.
 
I agree OOE - it reprehensible that just one side to any story is presented. She phoned Johns to indicate she had a story and he revealed details to her of what occurred. But she certainly did not advise him of the extent of the hatchet job or the depth of the woman's feelings or use any of the information she obtained from him. It is all very reminiscent of the farcical reporting in Brett's case. Last night Channel 10 News listed Gallen as one of the known players in the room, but just didn't bother to mention that he had taken no part in it and was the last to arrive when it was all over. I am at the point where I don't believe anything that is in the press without making further enquiries. Facts are usually misquoted or just plain made up.
 
ManlyBacker link said:
But she certainly did not advise him of the extent of the hatchet job or the depth of the woman's feelings or use any of the information she obtained from him.

Why would she when (probably as she suspected) he then immediately turned around and his used priviledged position in the media to try and pre-empt the situation and put his own spin on it?
 
Sometimes the media have to be judge and jury

    * Richard Ackland
    * May 15, 2009

All but a hermit would know of the absolute cracker of a Four Corners story on Monday night, called Code Of Silence. The intriguing thing is, I hear people insist the code of silence should have extended to Four Corners.

In other words, journalists have an obligation to stay schtum about a scandal in instances where no charges have been laid and where no findings of guilt have been made.

To air allegations outside a court of law amounts, variously, to gossip, to trial by media, to character assassination. Geraldine Doogue on Radio National's Saturday Extra teased with the issue last week. "There are other reactions, of indignation, towards Four Corners, I noticed. Why return to cases where no charges have been laid, these people say, with one person's word taken against another."

The answer is that journalism wouldn't function at all if reporting depended on the say-so of the police or the courts. Many allegations of wrongdoing, suspicious happenings or maladministration would simply go undisclosed.

Like it or not, sometimes in life the media have to be the judge and jury. All one can hope for is that the role is carried out carefully and responsibly.

The other element in the equation is that once a charge has been laid an investigative program such as Four Corners couldn't proceed to air. The prospects of media prejudice and contempt start ticking the moment a charge is brought.

Four Corners managed to achieve something rare in journalism - a change of attitudes, a rejection of complacent acceptance of rottenness.

The suffering of that group sex victim in New Zealand was so powerfully wrought that you just knew Matthew Johns and the whole apparatus of rugby league crisis management and subterfuge were finished.

Maybe it is no accident that it was Anne Connolly who was on the team that worked on the Four Corners program, the same Anne Connolly who did the research on the "cash for comment" story for Media Watch in 1999.

According to Media Watch this week, Victoria police's Chief Commissioner Simon Overland was unhappy that the identity of a suspected firebug was reported. Some of the questioning of this individual by commercial TV reptiles left a lot to be desired, and the old codger was even trapped into doing a lie detector test on A Current Affair, with "inconclusive" results.

Overland said: "The media was asked not to identify any possible suspects as this had the potential to compromise the investigation and in turn the success of any prosecution."

He didn't explain how it might compromise the investigation, all he added was that it could jeopardise the safety of the individual named.

The Media Watch presenter, Jonathan Holmes, went tongue in cheek, saying: "Well, come on, chief commissioner, let's keep a sense of proportion. What's the biggest murder investigation in Victoria's history beside the struggle to increase ACA's ratings?"

I think there is a more fundamental issue at stake. If there is a story with a public interest component its publication should not be at the command of a police officer, chief commissioner or otherwise.

On Wednesday in Melbourne there was a further bushfire-related attempt at media management. The bushfires royal commission has dreamed up an elaborate "protocol" to stop news reporters and camera crews following "lay" witnesses in the street and filming or questioning them.

From now on witnesses will be asked before giving evidence whether they wish to be filmed, photographed or interviewed as they leave the hearing.

If they agree, they can be filmed and questioned only "from a fixed position outside the court". According to Quentin Fogarty, the flack for the commission, "the commissioners are quite adamant about this". There followed definitions of who is a "lay" witness and who is a "public" witness.

Fogerty insists the "protocol" is working "perfectly". One of the lay witnesses said he was happy to be taped as he left and to be interviewed by The Age. That got up the nose of the other media and legal advice was sought about how far these commissioners could extend their authority over the streets of Melbourne.

None of which is to say that on occasions reporters do not behave swinishly. The point is that victims of such treatment may have a remedy without switching off journalism altogether.

You'll notice the legal eggshells over which Four Corners gingerly tiptoed on Monday night. I don't think the reporter Sarah Ferguson directly asked the New Zealand woman identified as "Clare" whether she consented to one, two or five sexual encounters.

If she had answered "no", then the recognised rugby league players may well have been able to bring defamation proceedings against the ABC because an imputation of sexual assault had been raised.

As in the criminal jurisdiction, such a civil case would have been heavily stacked in their favour because on a factual basis it is her word against the insistent chorus of male voices that the whole thing was consensual. One against eight.
 
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4 3 1 28 6
3 2 1 10 6
4 2 2 39 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
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