Hall Of Shame - Page 2

SallyAnn · 02-24-2006, 02:20 PM

I wonder whether Rosemary "so help me" McCleod ever spares a thought for the numbers of Indonesians who are handed lengthy jail terms under the Indonesian justice system. By thinking about what has befallen Schapelle, we are in effect considering what is fair justice for crimes for everyone, everywhere. Surely it's healthy for any society to question whether someone has been found guilty beyond reasonable doubt, whether the sentence fits the crime and indeed whether a country has applied its own laws properly.

"So help me's" heavy-handed attempt to depict our values, culture and in fact the entire heritage of our western civilisation as vile (Mr Costello in his current state of mind, would have her booted out of Aus) compared to that of Indonesia is one-sided and false. However, where the possibility of stopping to reflect on what true justice involves exists, considerations of race and culture become irrelevant and it can become of benefit to everyone.

But it's probably difficult for "so help me' to get her head around these sorts of ideas because she appears to have convicted Schapelle on her "family circumstances". What's the bet while Mercedes was busy helping victims of the Bali bombings, "so help me" was sitting cross-eyed in front of her computer churning out her particular brand of offensive drivel.

admin · 02-27-2006, 04:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SallyAnn

I wonder whether Rosemary "so help me" McCleod ever spares a thought for the numbers of Indonesians who are handed lengthy jail terms under the Indonesian justice system. By thinking about what has befallen Schapelle, we are in effect considering what is fair justice for crimes for everyone, everywhere. Surely it's healthy for any society to question whether someone has been found guilty beyond reasonable doubt, whether the sentence fits the crime and indeed whether a country has applied its own laws properly.

"So help me's" heavy-handed attempt to depict our values, culture and in fact the entire heritage of our western civilisation as vile (Mr Costello in his current state of mind, would have her booted out of Aus) compared to that of Indonesia is one-sided and false. However, where the possibility of stopping to reflect on what true justice involves exists, considerations of race and culture become irrelevant and it can become of benefit to everyone.

But it's probably difficult for "so help me' to get her head around these sorts of ideas because she appears to have convicted Schapelle on her "family circumstances". What's the bet while Mercedes was busy helping victims of the Bali bombings, "so help me" was sitting cross-eyed in front of her computer churning out her particular brand of offensive drivel.

Couldn't agree with you more Sally Ann, she cetainly has an assortment of 'issues she needs to deal with. I would go on but I think I have made it clear how I feel :)

SallyAnn · 02-27-2006, 04:23 PM

You've done a great job on "so help me" admin.

Inspired to think of a "hall of shame" thread for bad journalism re. Schapelle and drug cases in general. I've read some outragiously terrible stuff in my time.

BeeSting · 04-29-2006, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by True_Blue

In the case of Corby and Leslie, the combination of beauty, gender and race inevitably made it easier for them to attract attention. Both Corby and Leslie were "telegenic" as Terry O'Gorman, the president of the Australian Council of Civil Liberties, put it. O'Gorman said, "I know it is a cynical thing to say, but they were white, female and pretty".

Err, not that it matters, but Leslie is not strictly speaking "white". Her father's a white Australian, her mother is Filipino. That makes Leslie Eurasian. Who cares what her heritage is, but is Mr O'Gorman blind or incapable of coming up with a more original explanation than this?
More to the point, Leslie did NOT attract sympathy. It was the complete opposite.

Are these "experts" REALLY so thick that they can't see that most people consider heroin much worse than marijuana (or 2 ecstasy pills)? And unlike Corby, there was no question that the Bali Nine were guilty. Being 'telegenic' admittedly created extra media attention, but the sympathy came from people who believed Corby was innocent. Also, drug smuggling cases seldom get much attention - the reason the Corby case initially created a stir was because it was so bizarre. Marijuana, INTO Bali? (No matter what Matthew Moore wrote about "Aussie Gold", there is not a shred of evidence that such a trade exists.) If you look up archived media reports immediately following Corby's arrest (you can find plenty online), this is plain to see. Alexander Downer was calling the case "curious" and journalists took it from there ...

Another young white Australian girl, 24 year old Kelly Rae Trueman from Melbourne, was caught trying to smuggle 5 kilos of cannabis out of India about a month ago. She faces up to 10 years in prison.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/com...5E2862,00.html
She has confessed to everything, and the media reaction to her plight has been one big yawn. I've no idea what Ms Trueman looks like, but there's no doubt about her guilt and the case isn't unusual the way Corby's was.

From the amount of times I've heard that concern for Corby is really only interest in seeing a telegenic "attractive young woman", I can only conclude that the people saying this are all heterosexual guys, or lesbians.

Schapelle is indeed a beautiful girl - I remember staying home from school to watch the "guilty" verdict and marvelling at how she managed to look so lovely in such dreadful circumstances. But that wasn't what kept me glued to the TV. (I wish I'd taped that verdict btw. I wouldn't want to see it again for voyeuristic scrutiny - in fact I was in tears by the end of it - but it was much longer and very different to the unofficial, edited transcript you can read online; no matter what "experts" say about Indonesian judiciary, I was shocked by the amount of times the judges made clear that the onus was on Corby, to prove her innocence. I was also shocked when one of the judges said that in convicting and sentencing her, the judges were "taking into account" the fact that she might be innocent.)

If they weren't heroin traffickers, I'd consider a "date" with Bali Nine members Scott Rush, Michael Czugaj or Matthew Norman (before he shaved his head). They aren't bad looking. But I guarantee that if Renae Lawrence resembled Corby or Leslie, the reaction would be the same. Overwhelming condemnation. Looks do not get anybody that far.

If anything, being 'telegenic' got Corby nothing but a harsher than usual sentence. With all the media looking on, the judges had a chance to make an example of somebody before a wide audience. *sigh* 'The Jakarta Post' wrote as much in an editorial, and the judges never demanded or asked for a retraction.

BeeSting · 04-29-2006, 07:17 PM

Someone ought to email this pic to Rosemary "so help me" Mcleod. Some Indonesians failing to respect Australian sovereignity, lol!

I'm dreaming aloud here, but if I emailed people like her with this pic, it wouldn't be to say, "See? They hate us." It would be to ask whether she's so racist herself, that she thinks Asians (or Muslims) couldn't possibly possess complex character traits - like becoming "emotional", rude, angry, irrational, abusive or just upset over something (the Papuan asylum seekers) that hasn't got anything to do with their day to day existence?

BeeSting · 04-29-2006, 07:57 PM

Btw I found something I think is worthy of this thread.

Since when was it the job of the Sydney Morning Herald to give free PR to Mick Keelty and the Australian Federal Police? Precisely WHAT have they done to deserve this kind of sycophantic press?

I won't post the whole thing; just the part about Corby and the Bali Nine. I'd love to know what the 'other' unwitting drug mule - the guy whose luggage was used without his knowledge by Qantas baggage handlers to smuggle drugs on 8/10/04 - would say in response to Keelty's comments about "the universal excuse" of "every" drug courier:

"Keelty On The Beat"

"There have been a lot of on-the-ground operational, and public perception, problems that have come out of working with overseas forces," says one former AFP staffer.

"The Bali nine is a classic example. So is Schapelle Corby."

There is little doubt that in the court of public opinion, the AFP's reputation took a beating in these drug mule cases.

The AFP had been tipped off about some of the young men and women who were part of the Bali nine but Keelty says they had eight names, of whom just five travelled.

He could not have tipped off the youngsters - as many have argued the AFP should have - because the whole investigation would have collapsed, he says.

The Indonesians had every right to arrest the Australian couriers. "It was their sovereign land," Keelty says.

As for the fuss surrounding Corby, Keelty is blunt and unsympathetic.

""Every courier, whether they are coming into Australia or whether they are going into Vietnam, going into Thailand, will say the drugs are not mine. It's the universal excuse … If Schapelle Corby wasn't a very attractive young lady, the reaction might have been quite different."

Consider it from the Indonesian side, he adds. Protesting that the cannabis in Corby's bodyboard bag had been planted was the "universal excuse" of drug traffickers and would open the floodgates if accepted with no hard evidence.

[The floodgates? Keelty already said it was the "universal excuse" of every drug courier. What difference would it make to acquit accused drug smugglers, in cases where there's no proof that they did it and a lot of reasonable doubt? Or does Keelty mean no drug courier should EVER be acquitted, just in case it sets a dangerous precedent? If so, what would be the consequence of such a precedent? People with their lives or their freedom on the line wasting the time of courts all over the world by protesting their innocence? Big deal! That's what the courts are there for. The judges and prosecutors get paid bucket-loads for what they do. I'm not sure about Bali, but they do in Australia.]

Even so, Keelty remains popular. He is probably the only prominent security figure regarded highly by both the Prime Minister and Australia's Muslim community.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/...916722841.html

05-10-2006, 12:57 AM

The writer seems uninformed, and biassed.
Also, what has "Race" or "Blue eyes" got to do with it?
A real journalist would also write a short, concise article - not a novel.

Regarding her statement "Muslim countries - and Indonesia is predominantly Muslim - are worthy of our tourist dollars, but not of the genuine tolerance of equals"; I hardly think Indonesia is currently showing any tolerance towards Australia over the Papuan situation, so who is treating whom equally?

05-11-2006, 08:21 AM

Quote:

""Every courier, whether they are coming into Australia or whether they are going into Vietnam, going into Thailand, will say the drugs are not mine. It's the universal excuse … If Schapelle Corby wasn't a very attractive young lady, the reaction might have been quite different."

Consider it from the Indonesian side, he adds. Protesting that the cannabis in Corby's bodyboard bag had been planted was the "universal excuse" of drug traffickers and would open the floodgates if accepted with no hard evidence.

This is entirely true but, once the Indonesian police knowingly and willfully contaminated the evidence with their finger prints, their claim that "she was in possession of it so it was obviously hers" must be discarded by any civilized court (as opposed to a kangaroo court with a predetermined verdict). It could in fact be argued that the Indonesian customs and security people put the marijuana in Corby's luggage so they could shake her down for a bribe-- noting that similar things have been done to other travelers.

It's hard for the Bali 9 to argue that they didn't know about dope that was actually strapped to their bodies but remember that the body board bag was not under Corby's control from the time she checked it at Sydney to the time it came to the baggage claim area in Denpasar. Anyone could have put the marijuana in at Sydney or, for that matter, Denpasar.

deidre plummer · 05-12-2006, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by admin

ok here is a perfect example of an idiot calling herself a journalist - Rosemary McCloud is this fools name and she would be the most narrow minded fool whos garbagae I have had the misfortune of reading. Is it any wonder that she writes for a website called 'stuff'

Check this crap out would ya

30 January 2006

By ROSEMARY MCLEOD
So help me, I'm returning to the subject of Schapelle Corby, that martyred, doe-eyed white Christian woman caught up in Muslim machinations in Indonesia. Or so we would have it only a few short months ago.

How did it happen that this Australian woman with a mysterious past became a cause celebre? How is it that on both sides of the Tasman letter-writers to newspapers could barely contain their venom, or their tears, over her plight?
The Corby case should go down in history not as a travesty of justice, which it increasingly looks certain it wasn't, but as a barely-veiled expression of racial and cultural intolerance. It had the hallmarks of the hysteria of a former age, when the children's storybooks of the British Empire throbbed to the drumbeats of black savages pictured tying blonde white men and women up and lowering them, still in jodhpurs and pith helmets, into big black cooking pots. It reeked of the time when Western culture was obsessed with the idea of white slave trafficking; when every female tourist half-believed she'd be abducted by a passing sheikh and swept off to be a plaything among the Bedouin if she strayed but a step from her orderly tour guide's path.
We, who are barely Christian in our beliefs any more, still feel a kind of Western class loyalty against the Muslim faith, which is now only as extreme as our own faith formerly was. We burned heretics by the trainload over points of doctrine, and tortured them by ever more savage and ingenious means to make them confess to wrongful thoughts that wouldn't raise an eyebrow today. We waged crusades against the Muslim world on specious pretexts, massacring innocents in their thousands. But all that history is forgotten now. We've become the saviours of whales, not of heathen souls. We're the good guys.
They, on the other hand, are mostly dusky skinned. They, who still believe belief is important, are fanatics, their countries corrupt, and leaders venal. As for their justice systems - while ours is spotless, theirs, we believe, isn't worthy of the name. Muslim countries - and Indonesia is predominantly Muslim - are worthy of our tourist dollars, but not of the genuine tolerance of equals. We visit them conscious that our ways are the right ways, and theirs misguided. We're happy there so long as we can get drunk, and buy sex. And if we can smuggle drugs through the Muslim world, why wouldn't we?
I like to think that if the Corby case had happened in a bigger culture than Australasia, it would have been reported differently, that investigative journalists, those commendably curious and heartless individuals, would have dug away at the surface of the story and revealed much more about her background and her family than ever happened while her case was an active, ongoing media circus.
So why didn't it happen here? Was it because journalists went along with public sentiment, rather than searching for the truth? Was it easier, and did it make for better headlines, when she was presented as an ingenue?
I can't help wondering, now that more is known about her family circumstances, how long that information was available.
It's interesting to compare Corby's charmed treatment with the equally tortuous media saga of Joanne Lees, the Englishwoman whose fiance Peter Falconio was murdered in Australia's outback, while she was abducted. The killer was convicted last month.
Lees was also attractive to look at, but the media disliked her from the outset, who knows why? She had to face insulting innuendoes about whether she lied about the abduction, and the inference - long before the case was heard - that she might have known more about Falconio's death than she let on. She also suffered the public humiliation - again, well before the trial - of the revelation that she'd been unfaithful to her fiance.
Maybe the media were worried about affecting the outcome of the Corby trial, but if they're capable of such delicacy of feeling, why didn't the same gallantry extend to Lees? Lees was innocent, a victim, but she was effectively tried in public as if she was a criminal. Corby, who may well have been guilty all along, was treated as if she was a saint.
So is it drug-running that we're tolerant of, as opposed to sexual infidelity? Do we regard drugs as so trivial that trading in them should be treated as a misdemeanour, with other governments and cultures forced to share that indulgent view?
More likely we see the Corby case as illustrating an ongoing, unstated fear of the immigrants beating at our shores, who take life too seriously for our collective comfort, and pack their alarming certainties in their luggage.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,...a16077,00.html

What a wonderful way with words you have Rosemary. I really think that you have hit the nail on the head. Being brought up as a strict 4th generation aethiest I find it hard to understand what religion has to do with the Corby case. You are right though........perhaps it has a lot to do with it. I did not know that Schapelle was christian, nor does it matter. I have run through mosques as a child, lived in buddhist temples (as a child) on weekends, been a minority in colour and seen the same sun rise and set every day without fail. I cannot abide by the fact that this government has done nothing for Schapelle whether she be muslim or christian. I cannot understand that her little brother was forced to investigate and retribute her without the help of the Federal Police.

Rosemary, your nails hit hard, because they are a reflection of what people view as normal which is sad. Schapelle and her brother are innocent and are not icons of 'white Australia'. Well written though and very thought provoking.

Dhadi · 05-18-2006, 07:47 PM

Seems to me like this reporter is jelous of Corby's good looks and the support that she has. Why can;t some people just except that alot of people beleive that corby did not get a fair trial and they believe she is innocent. Not only in Australia but also in Indonesia. What alot of you may not know is that there are also sites and blogs by indonesian people who support Corby. Many educated Indonesians have wrote to newspapers in support of her aswell.
this reporter is also as already been said just milking the girls bad situation for a story. She doesn't mind getting paid for the story she did on Corby does she??

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