April162010
Lisa Pryor goes after the intern
So I am late in blogging on this one, but I thought I should mention Lisa Pryor’s column in Sydney Morning Herald a couple of weeks ago.
In the piece, Lisa Pryor mentioned an article I wrote for Crikey about the Hey Dad! scandal. I gave A Current Affair a ‘Wankley’ award for their coverage of Sarah Monahan’s allegations against former co-star Robert Hughes.
Pryor wrote:
“A Crikey intern, Tom Cowie, said the current affairs program ‘has been entirely distracted by the back-stage drama’ on the sitcom and described the story as ‘current affairs television at its seedy and sordid best’.”
She went on to write that Hughes — should he have been defamed — has more lucrative avenues to pursue than Monahan. Now, while I agree with her main point, that abuse victimes need a satisifactory form of redress, I also still believe ACA went about it the wrong way.
How can Hughes ever receive a fair trial if the media has already played out every possible conlucsion? ACA rates incredibly highly, and it would be doubtful that a jury could be slected without a member having watched the offending broadcast, or read about it afterwards.
Pryor also argues that with Monahan and Hughes now both residing overseas, the chances of conviction are quite low. While this may be the case, it does not make it OK to then completely attack a person when they have little chance to defend themselves.
The whole affair has been completely seedy and, thankfully it has now faded from the headlines.
Oh by the way Lisa, thanks for mentioning my name in a major metropolitan daily. I’m still trying to get a hold of a copy to put on the wall!
Tags: /sydney morning herald /hey dad! /intern /sarah monahan /robert hughes /defamation /Crikey
