AFL boss: media organisations “disgraceful” in exploiting 13 year old girl
Andrew Demetriou slams media for relentlessly pursuing a 13-year-old girl and exposing her identity.
- Published by David Knox
- on May 28, 2013
- Filed under News
AFL boss Andrew Demetriou said hit out at media organisations for pursuing the family of the 13 year old girl at the centre of racial comments directed at Adam Goodes during Friday’s Indigenous round.
Demetriou said he was proud of how the league, club and Goodes had handled the situation but claimed some media outlets had exploited the girl.
“To pursue relentlessly a 13-year-old girl, a minor, to go after her, to seek her comments, speak to her family, expose her, has been really disappointing,” he said.
“Sometimes you can cross the line … in this case there’s been very little regard for her age.”
TEN confirmed to TV Tonight that the mother had not requested the girl’s identity be concealed during an interview. Pooled footage also aired on Nine News without pixellation.
But Seven News says the mother requested her identity not be revealed, and ran pixellated footage, along with the ABC.
The Herald Sun also ran a photo without pixellation. She has also been named by some media.
“Some of the behaviour’s been disgraceful and you do have to draw a line when you’re talking about minors,” said Demetriou.
Yesterday TV Tonight questioned whether media should do more to protect children when interviewing parents who may not be media-savvy.
Meanwhile the AFL boss also took aim at Tom Waterhouse and the Nine Network for their promotion of live betting odds during broadcasts.
“We’re all paying the price of an outrageous advertising campaign by one individual whose got in people’s faces and they are absolutely entitled to be outraged by that,” he said.
“I think one network didn’t cover themselves in glory either in the way they’ve promoted live gambling.
“We support the changes. We’ll act responsibly and I think they go far enough.”
Source: AAP, SBS
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- Tagged with ABC News, AFL, Nine News, Seven News, TEN News
10 Responses
The wrong thing was said, racism should not be tolerated at all but putting a minor on television didn’t sit well with me either.
Actually, some of us would like to sit back and watch the football, while knowing that the many Indigenous players in the league, past/present/future, are being encouraged and appreciated by the fans and their employers; something that Australia has, if looking at time in a long glance, only just started doing itself.
Maybe the Indigenous Round and the Winmar photo need to be employed by the AFL a bit more often to actually educate those who still struggle to identify, as well as pointing out that the apes in this society are not people of different coloured skin, but are the ones who are not accepting of people standing up for their right to live in their own skin, no matter the colour or heritage.
The AFL brought this on themselves by promoting an Indigenous round and the overuse of that Nicky Winmar photo. By succumbing to political correctness the AFL has ruined this girl’s life. Let’s hope we see no more sanctimonious talk about “racism” and are allowed to just sit back and enjoy the footy.
Don’t agree.
Demetriou sometimes to me sounds pretty sanctimonious. This is one of those times.
I am with Josh, this organization is forever trying to cover thing up, almost akin to the Catholic church !
And Demetriou is a disgrace for allowing a drug policy that lets players self report and keep it quiet, and have three strikes.
No other sport in the world does that.
Glass houses Andrew…
It’s not often that I find myself agreeing with Andrew Demetriou, but on both counts here I reckon he’s spot on.
Media Watch had an excellent take on this last night. You can catch it again late tonight on ABC1 or on-line.
Filmlover: Media Watch did stories on UK murder and on Think Tanks. What are you saying they did on this story?