no news is good news?

We’re enjoying the response to media censorship by the military government in Fiji. “Man gets on bus” and “watching paint dry” are some creative responses from The Fiji Daily Post to the clampdown on press freedom. Meanwhile in New Zealand the press pages are filled with breathless reporting on the guilty plea of Tony Veitch, sports journalist, now convicted for injuring his former girlfriend with reckless disregard. He broke her back by kicking her on the floor. This disturbing story has polarised opinion: who is the victim, and who the perpetrator? To what extent was the conclusion predetermined by the case being played out in the media over ten months? Frankly I find comment such as the former girlfriend being a mercenary b—ch, and Veitch undeserving of public opprobrium, a disturbing insight into a rich seam of largely tacit bloke-ism in NZ culture. It doesn’t take much at times to flick the scab off this unattractive trait. Celebrity sports jocks have done themselves a lot of damage in the public eye in recent years by (I'm speculating) enjoying their larger than life image so much they start to imagine themselves as invulnerable.