Posts by Damian Christie
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I'm pretty sure Wellington Zoo do this on occasion...
You've just got to be able to hide really, really well at closing time.
The keepers at the Wellington Zoo take the cheetahs for walks, that's definitely worth seeing. I made a YouTube video a year ago that shows it very briefly (and other animal highlights). I'm surprised to see now that it's had 6,700 views!
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It is just the blog world's assumption that all "msm'' (love that term) are mindlessly gratutious that gets on my nerves.
Yes, and I've jumped in to defend us (the MSM) here at PublicAddress System from time to time too. It annoys me when any conversation about the media inevitably turns to "everything on TV is shit and I burnt my TV and I hate TVNZ and everything it stands for and I could do a lot better than those morons and why don't they bring back Buffy?"
Bashing TVNZ is a national sport, and in the blogosphere bashing the MSM is just as popular. But as you also note, we can be our own worst enemy.
As an aside, I recently accompanied my girlfriend to a wedding in Wanganui. After too many hours and too many Tuis, I was bailed up by a well-meaning but quite full on chap.
"You know what you guys really need to look into?"
"No, what's that?"
"Graham Henry, find out why we really lost the World Cup."
Oh ok. Then a minute later, the same guy.
"You know what you guys really need to do more of?"
"No, what's that?"
"The Prime Minister, and that other guy, Keys [sic]... get some stories on those guys."
Oh ok. A minute later..
"You know what you guys really need to do?"
"No, what's that?"
"Tell people stuff that's happening."
And that's why I've really left TVNZ. Thanks to him I've got three ideas that are going to see me carry off an unprecedented clean sweep of the Qantas awards by a freelancer.
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I shall now withdraw from the blog world
Stick around Ian, have a good look. You might find you enjoy it.
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Ian and Felix you both make very good points and I appreciate having the benefit of your considerable experience here.
If you re-read my original blog, you'll note that I didn't say there should never be such stories, or even that I think they are wrong. I simply said I'm not the person to do them (because, as Ian points out, I care about the consequences), and I won't do them again.
Of course the stories of the Tsunami should be told. Yes, if a father of two boys killed in a rock slide wants to pay tribute to his sons, he should be welcome - whether the media want to broadcast it, and people choose to watch it, is a different matter.
But if a grieving father doesn't want to talk, and we either decide ourselves, or are told by our editors, our EPs, our bosses, to keep calling, to turn up on their doorstep even when they've repeatedly said no -and I know this routinely happens- then that is wrong. Would you have done that in Banda?
Life is uncomfortable sometimes, but to my mind those who have already been landed with the lion's share of that discomfort should be spared further hurt at the hands of the media.
(And for the record, I did make such protests, and at least one of my EPs will recall me objecting loudly and strenuously after being asked to do what I considered a completely gratuitous death-knock. But at the same time I accept that it's part of the job of a daily current affairs reporter, and I should either do it (after objecting strenuously and loudly), or leave.)
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That journo is now fairly high-up in tvnz news and current affairs....
I'd be interested to know who that is Rob - if you feel inclined to share just quietly, my email address is on the right. Are you a shooter still?
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I find it hard to judge the audience for such stories. That the PA readers support my decision doesn't surprise me (but I'm still very, very appreciative of that support and the comments above), but what about the 'mums and dads' that most such shows are aimed at - do they want to watch grieving families?
I was just talking to mum on the phone, who I often use as a yardstick in these sorts of things, middle-income, middle-class, mid 50s and so forth. I told her about what I had to do on Monday and she said "I don't think people want to watch that sort of thing, it makes me feel uncomfortable watching people grieving like that". I honestly have no idea how widely shared her view is, and despite the new enlightened multi-media era we live in, I don't see great signs of progression. In fact things look more and more like that great Australian satire Frontline.
Speaking of which, Johnno, your case studies remind me of a great episode of Frontline, where a reporter secretly films a grieving husband saying "we just want to be left alone to grieve in private". The footage is played the first night, then the soundbite is used again the following night, over top of shots of the family at the funeral. The track ends and returns to [host] Mike Moore, who adds: "And let's just hope people grant them that wish."
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But was it an attempt at irony, following up a bold statement about journalistic integrity by giving oxygen to that waste of oxygen Lohan?
Yeah, duly noted, but I was just looking for a bunch of things to write about. Probably shouldn't have made a joke about Heath Ledger's cat either. But I've never claimed my blog was journalism. Although you won't see me chasing around grieving families on Cracker either.
Rebecca Not sure which psychiatrist Christie you're referring to, but no. Nor Don (above), nor Julie either.
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The father didnt seem unhappy to be talking to you ... maybe it can actually be theraputic to talk through such events?
No, he wasn't unhappy - although the mum didn't want to appear, and said she felt it was turning into a 'media circus' - but he certainly seemed more resigned to talking, rather than willing per se.
And yes, it might be therapeutic sometimes to talk things through, but is that the media's job, to provide therapy? My argument is more whether people should want to watch this sort of thing, because that's what drives us to do the stories, not a sense of altruism towards the victims' needs.
Most disgusting moment of the whole day? When the father told me that one of the photos of his son had gone missing via an unknown reporter. I'd love to find out in which article/item that photo later turned up...
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SHOW THE IMAGES
There's a line. Yes you need to show suffering, you just don't need to show ALL the suffering. Perhaps this is where the reporter comes in, to try and explain the gap between what you're being shown and what no-one should have to see.
One specific image I still can't shake, is a shot inside a small hut, where dozens of babies bodies were lined up, presumably for identification, or counting or something. Right or wrong, I didn't use it. Sure there's an argument that everyone should see it, but I wonder if I'd be happy knowing that several hundred thousand NZers were as haunted by the image as I was.
Likewise, when there was that spate of videotaped beheadings in Iraq, TVNZ received all the unedited footage. I watched a man having his head sawn off with a blunt machete. Should that have made the 6pm news?
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It was great to meet you too Mark. And yes, compared to Afghanistan, which clearly has more general security issues, it would've be hard even for a scaremongering sensationalist journalist to beat up a threat based on what I saw while I was there. Unless you count my driver in Karachi who said the markets were too dangerous for me, and took me to a shop run by his friends instead... but I'm not sure if I should believe his assessment...
As to whether I got out at the right time, as a journalist it kinda feels the opposite. I have no desire to put myself in the line of fire, but at the same time I'd like to be there when the news is being made.
So things are still okay there Mark? I'd heard that things were genuinely unsettled in the days after Bhutto's assassination, but again that could've been in one street, in one town, where the cameras happened to be...