mark nottingham

Where have the Professional Journalists Gone?

Tuesday, 13 December 2005

Australia

Like a blogger trying to pump up their buzz, the New York Times declares;

Australian Unrest Spreads to Other Cities

What’s happened now? Have Melbourne and Brisbane been overrun by rioting yobs? No, this is what the Times is referring to;

Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio reported Tuesday that a family of Middle Eastern origin was attacked in the western city of Perth by a group of 11 white men, who threw eggs, shouted abuse and kicked their garage door.> The 42-year-old father, who did not want to be identified, said his family was badly shaken by Monday night’s incident.> “I don’t know if we were mistakenly identified,” he said. “What I definitely know is it was something linked to the escalation in New South Wales.”> Perth police Superintendent Shayne Maines said authorities could not rule out a link between the attack and the racial violence in Sydney. ”There was some suggestion they did make ethnically-related comments to the occupant of the house,” Maines said.> In Adelaide, a taxi driver of Lebanese origin, Hossein Kazemi, was injured when he was punched by a passenger during an incident Tuesday.> “There was some sort of discrepancy and argument over the fare,” a South Australian police spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity. “Apparently during the assault, the victim, because he was of Lebanese origin, was taunted about the stuff in Sydney and Cronulla beach.”

Come on. While these events shouldn’t be trivialised — indeed, Australia needs to do some pretty deep introspection, and Howard’s and Beasley’s claims that it’s just a “law and order problem” are deplorable — this is irresponsible journalism. “Unrest” is people in the streets; while this may be (and probably is) racially-motivated, the copy boys have waxed too poetic on this one, again.