When facts like this one happen, it’s hard not to be frightened by the power of the media and, especially, by the cosequences of an unfair media coverage…
On the 12th of April, outside the Royal Court of Melbourn in Australia, an Aussy-born Muslim guy, suspected of riot, was leaving the Justice Court, when two camera crews from two different stations started following the guy and his father along the street.
The father of the suspect asked the cameraman of one of the crews (Simon Fuller by Channel Nine) to stop following them… not for one, neither for two, but for 25 times!
Simon Fuller, after having justified himself saying “I’m just doing my job, mate”, kept on following the two and eventually called the father “a f***ing terrorist.”
The fact would be already serious enough, but, what made it even worst is that the verbal altercation was aired by Channels 7 and 10, but none of them broadcasted the full recording of the event. Instead, both TV channels edited the footages in a way that painted the father as hostile and aggresive without any apparent reason.
Simon Fuller (which has consequently been sacked by Channel Nine due to this happening) apologized at the time, but it was too late, as the damage was done. Also, his apologies sounds absolutely meaningless, since this story cannot be taken as a simple fact of personal racism, but it rather seems the revealing sign of a deeper discomfort and of a radicated bias towards Muslim people in Western societies. How can people still rely on responsible journalism when facts like that happen?
How can regular people go over their prejudices, when these are reinforced from the media themselves?
Unfortunately many people use the power of the media just for their own purposes, playing with people’s mind. But, luckly, this kind of bad behaviour is often compensated from all the journalists and the professionals of the information, who work for an accurate and fair coverage of news.
Here you can watch the integral video version broadcasted by ABC: http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2870685.htm