Screening
Here's an interesting story about a Sydney man making a desperate dash to Lebanon to rescue his wife and child from the midst of a sudden and violent war.
This story has been featured on various TV news programs and in the major newspapers over the last 24 hours. It's a fair human interest story, and the man seems apolitical and sincere, but there's a central disquietening question; how, exactly, did the media become aware of this man's plans?
It's difficult to believe that someone frantic to race across the world to save their nearest and dearest draws up a plan that looks likes this:
1) find passport.
2) get money out of the bank.
3) book airline ticket.
4) organise a press release, send out photographs of wife and child, and pose for photo ops.
I'm not saying that there's anything shady about Mr Abdallah. I'm simply concerned that the mechanics of this story seem to be suspiciously well-oiled, and that the media probably doesn't want us to know anything more. It looks like someone is turning this mercy dash into a PR exercise... and I think we deserve to know who and why.
Pay no attention to the man behind the screen, indeed.
This story has been featured on various TV news programs and in the major newspapers over the last 24 hours. It's a fair human interest story, and the man seems apolitical and sincere, but there's a central disquietening question; how, exactly, did the media become aware of this man's plans?
It's difficult to believe that someone frantic to race across the world to save their nearest and dearest draws up a plan that looks likes this:
1) find passport.
2) get money out of the bank.
3) book airline ticket.
4) organise a press release, send out photographs of wife and child, and pose for photo ops.
I'm not saying that there's anything shady about Mr Abdallah. I'm simply concerned that the mechanics of this story seem to be suspiciously well-oiled, and that the media probably doesn't want us to know anything more. It looks like someone is turning this mercy dash into a PR exercise... and I think we deserve to know who and why.
Pay no attention to the man behind the screen, indeed.
posted by Blandwagon at 5:31 PM
1 Comments:
Be nice, ntk. I'm quite fond of the Lebanese, as they are a passionate people who appear to have only two settings:
1) You are my beloved brother for whom I would lay down my life and the lives of all my family.
2) You are a filthy abomination whom I one day hope to kill, then bring back to life, in order to kill again.
Which of these you get depends on many things, including the time of day, prevailing winds, sunspots, etc.
To a certain extent, it doesn't matter if Keysar Trad is behind this story or not. What matters is that this appears to be another example of the media accepting PR instead of getting journalists to unearth and compile stories.
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