More non-journalism – DomPost on Bethune
More non-journalism, this time from The Dominion Post with an article entitled.:-
Bethune circled cell 1200 times a day, says wife
As if we bloody well cared
The article leads off with:-
Anti-whaling activist Pete Bethune spent 143 days behind bars in Japan walking around his tiny cell 1200 times a day, clocking up 10 kilometres, to keep fit.
A huge crowd is expected to turn out at Auckland Airport this morning to greet the protester when he sets foot back in the country.
Let us remember this man is a convicted criminal. He worked with a bunch of vandals and lunatics, the Sea Shepherd Society who are proven liars and guilty by their own admission of many acts of vandalism and sabotage.
UPDATE #1 – Kiwiblog records an even more egregious instance on non-journalism and bias re Bethune.
UPDATE #2 – The original article read, as noted above:-
A huge crowd is expected to turn out at Auckland Airport this morning to greet the protester when he sets foot back in the country.
When he walked through the international airport, Bethune was greeted by about three supporters and 20 media
So no huge public demonstration of support for Bethune, despite the media grovelling and promotion of this criminal protester.
Another example of a major media failings.
Comments are closed.
Ed – how is ‘foreign jail’ even faintly racist, xenophobic or even a taunt?
Have I read the reports wrongly?
Was Bethune being help on New Zealand soil?
Btw – my house guests presently are a Columbian man and a Japanese woman and, though I’ve pressed them to find the racist, xenophobic elements of my comments, they say they are unable to.
Untrustworthy foreigners!
Probably lying.
Bethune’s hardly brave, he’s a manipulative and dangerously murderous fool, and should have been jailed for his first murder off Guatemala. Narcissistic, narrow minded, incompetent, do we need to go on ? That’s he’s a “hero” to the Green movement says a lot more about the Green’s than they should be comfortable to acknowledge.
Abandon him in a foreign jail, nice little xenophobic, indeed almost racist, little taunt there Mr Guyton. Under the skin is not the right description, unless one wants to compare him to lice. He’s someone I for one would like to laugh at, but am rather to sickened by his callous behaviour towards other humans. He attempted to kill again in the southern ocean, and instead got his sorry ass handed to him on a platter, deluded fool, but a dangerous deluded fool.
Do I care about Mr Bethune?
No.
Does it matter that alex doesn’t care about Mr Bethune?
No.
Inventory2 – Bethune not a hero? Agreed. I’d never call him one. Neglectful of his family? Value judgement there and of no bearing on the issue. Do you think such background information should be pertinent to everybody who makes the news? How about politicians?
Adam – not brave? Have you sailed in the southern ocean? Taken your boat close by to a ship many times your size in an effort to protest their actions? Not brave? Hmmmm…
Bethunes actions may well have put him in a Japanese jail but I didn’t say the ‘right’ did that. From my reading, ‘your crew’ clamoured for his continued incarceration there, rather than expressing the wish that he, a New Zealander’ would be able to return home and not be trapped in a foreign jail. Am I right or wrong about that?
Bethune lives under the skin of conservatyive New Zealanders where he effortlessly irritates.
Thought you were big on brave acts for noble causes.
It’s interesting to see how quickly the ‘right’ were to abandon a New Zealander in a foreign jail and wish him the worst when it came to sentencing.
Robert; Bethune is a convicted criminal. He’s not a hero at all. He also seems to pay scant regard to the needs and wants of his family. I hope that his stay at the Tokyo Hilton has given him an altered perspective on what’s important in life, but I doubt it.
Robert
The problem is that Bethune is not a brave act for a noble cause he is reckless and in my view counter-productive.
I abhor whaling, but think that Bethune and Sea Shepherd are in fact imeding progress on the isse, not assisting.
The ‘right’ did not abandon Bethune in a Japanese jail, he by an act of crass stupidity and attempted martyrdom put himself there.