Thursday, September 22, 2016

Sometimes I have no respect for the media

I want to get a job as a writer when I finish university. I've been looking into my options and there is a lot of stuff I can do from positions in government departments to universities to journalist positions. I have no idea if I'm going to be successful in getting one of these jobs. There are very, very few where I live. Most of them are in the Eastern states. But I'm looking. I have been dabbling with article writing these past few months and have even tried calling myself a freelance journalist. But the title doesn't feel right. I think I'm just a writer. I might sometimes write fiction, or an article, or a blog post...but I'm just a writer. I would love a job writing for a blog someday but I want to be able to keep my opinions and my voice. I dislike how some news organisations are really, really fucked up. Like total propaganda for the government and I find it extremely disturbing. I'm talking about the right-wing media of course. There was an article recently about two girls who were a "new breed of bludger" who didn't want to work. It was so ridiculous. Bloody Scott Morrison even said he would "personally look into their case" which really conjures up the image of him re-arranging his belt, doesn't it? "I'll handle this, fellas." Christ.

Well! It turns out the article was (surprise, surprise) total fucking shit. Lies. Total lies. And all I can think is "How could they do this to that girl? How could they call themselves journalists?" This isn't the first time the media has lied to gather hysteria and outrage. But it really disgusts me because they went after a pair of god damn highschool girls who haven't even been on Centrelink and have now ruined their lives. Who is going to want to hire them now? God knows. Those poor children. They took advantage of them. And for what? To push the government's agenda that the poor people are to blame for all of our problems. What's stupid about what they did was it was just so...well dumb. You're supposed to have ethics in journalism and they took a big, giant steaming shit on them. What's even more dumb is they committed slander and deliberately ruined this girl's life and reputation and have given her a successful suit for slander on a silver platter if she wants to go ahead with it. And I hope she does.