Friday 5 January 2018

Jack Tame emotes after the Newtown, Connecticut mass shooting (Dec. 12, 2012)

Evil Hypocrisy strikes at Herald on Sunday
HORRIFIC DISPLAY OF DOUBLE STANDARDS

16 December 2012
Anybody unwise enough or bored enough to peruse the tabloid rag Herald on Sunday might get the impression that its editors have suddenly discovered a collective conscience. Today the rag has come over all emotional—both in the headline-writing department and, above all, with its young superstar columnist, who was rushed to Connecticut to check out the horrific scene, to connect with the evil zeitgeist, and (most importantly) to share his deepest feelings about what’s gone down.
The front page is a beauty. It blares out: “EVIL STRIKES: A PARENT’S WORST NIGHTMARE.” A photograph of grieving parents is captioned in large type: “Lynn and Christopher McDonnell were inconsolable yesterday on learning their 6-year-old daughter Grace was killed in the US shooting. It was a scene repeated by 19 other sets of grieving parents. SPECIAL 3-PAGE COVERAGE, 3, 4 and 5.”
Page 3 headlines how “brave staff” tried to save the children from a “rampaging madman”.
But what’s really interesting, and unwittingly revealing, is the sidebar story, by Jack Tame. Rushed to Connecticut and forced to come up with SOMETHING, Tame has contributed a cliché-larded, solipsistic little think-piece entitled “A walk on the dark side”. He notes that Newtown is “a mass of human grief”; he notes that it was a “callous, extraordinary attack”; he notes that some journalists wiped tears from their eyes. “So many kids,” he sighs.
Then he moves on to the really important issue: his own feelings. In this briefest of articles, he manages to use the vertical pronoun no less than five times, and the word “me” twice. “I know the gravity of the massacre will affect me increasingly over the next few days,” he assures us.
So you have been warned: expect more emotive pieces about Jack Tame’s feelings over the next few days.
Oddly, the Herald on Sunday has never used a headline like “EVIL STRIKES” to highlight any of the massacres of civilians in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan or the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In fact, its editorial stance, along with almost every single one of its line-up of columnists, has supported whatever evil has rained down on the men, women and children of those countries. It has been quick to accept whatever it is told by military and political P.R. flacks from the U.S., Britain, and Israel and to repeat the most outrageous vilifications of their victims.
Can we now look forward to the Herald on Sunday labeling EVERY act of mass murder as “evil”? Or is this three-page splash of emotion just a one-off?
  • muzza3.1
    An Oklahoma high school student is in custody on charges he plotted to bomb and shoot students at the Bartlesville High School auditorium on the same day 26 people were shot and killed at an elementary school in Connecticut.
    Police arrested 18-year-old Sammie Eaglebear Chavez at about 4:30am Friday after learning of the alleged plot Thursday.
    How to spot BS 101 – And why these sorts of articles begin to make the whole episode reek of suspicion!
    Notice that the schools name was Sandy, like the storm, just a coincidence I guess!
    • Colonial Weka3.1.1
      Assertion isn’t fact. Back it up muzza.
      • muzza3.1.1.1
        Hi Weka,
        Neither are the AP press releases, which have been the dominant *conveyor* of this event, so perhaps you should be asking them to back it up!
        I’m not the establishment trying to sell a story, only commenting on what reads like yet another made up load of garbage!
        Just like the *individual* who *tried* to blow up the Federal Reserve – Never happened!
        • Colonial Weka3.1.1.1.1
          “so perhaps you should be asking them to back it up!”

          Well, quite, but I’m not really into exercises in futility.
    • Morrissey3.1.2
      Thanks for that, Muzza, but the point of my post was to point out the hypocrisy and mediocrity of this third-rate newspaper and its vacuous “reporter”.
      • muzza3.1.2.1
        Yes I got that Morrissey, and agree…
        Articles can be vacuous be they from a *face* like Tame, or a *faceless* entity like the AP!
        @ VTO – Tame is simply a puppet acting as *news reporter*
    • rosy viper3.1.3
      “How to spot BS 101 And why these sorts of articles begin to make the whole episode reek of suspicion”
      This is not a surprise. It’s at least the third student plot mass killings this year (from a quick google – ‘student arrested for plotting to kill’). One in May and another in March.
      It’s just more prominently placed given the latest school tragedy, imo.
  • vto3.2
    Jack Tame lost it for me when he reported at the Pike River Memorial that the west coasters were off to the pub to mourn “in the only way they know how” (his words)
    Ignorant young toss-pot. Out of his depth. I imagine you needs learned skills to be a journalist but it seems you also need judgment, wisdom, a deeper knowledge of society and an understanding of history. All were missing with Tame.
    • Morrissey3.2.1
      “Jack Tame lost it for me when he reported at the Pike River Memorial…”

      If you can bear it, have a look the empty-headed little article he wrote today: he explicitly compares the atmosphere of Newtown, Connecticut to Greymouth….
      “In some ways the town reminded me of Greymouth in the days after the Pike River Mine explosion. Only smaller. Tighter. And these families have no hope at all. I tried not to stop or dwell too much at any point, to remain busy, knowing I’ll probably reflect on Sandy Hook Elementary for many months or years to come. I know the gravity of the massacre will affect me increasingly over the next few days.”
      • vto3.2.1.1
        Oh for fucks sake.
        Well thanks Morrissey it seems it confirms my initial impression of his stature and shortcomings.
        • Tigger3.2.1.1.1
          How heartless you lot are. Clearly this tragedy has seriously affected Mr Tame and we should all ensure he’s given as much support as possible, especially in the coming days.  I myself intend to send him a card telling him that I’m thinking of him at this difficult time.  I’ll also send flowers.  Anyone know what kind he likes?
    • Tim3.2.2
      Jack Tame = trainee Max Headroom, aided and abetted bya corporate TVNZ anxious to create “***STARS***”.
      ……next

      (Heather du Plessey-Aleen perhaps) – except she’ll be Matilda Headroom
    • tc3.2.3
      Jack tame is as good as it gets with TVNZ which applies an appallingly low standard now, Rawdon, bambi, alimawful etc Mark Ellis wouldn’t look out of his depth in that shallow pool of journalistic talent.
      In the past an experienced senior figure got such a large assignment, this one can’t even plagiarise the quality stuff. The pike river comparisons show how dim witted and tasteless the lad is.
    • Sympathy for Connecticut, but nothing for Gaza




Thoughts and wishes to the people of Connecticut, what
can one say about this tragic event. As someone who has
family in CT, including younger relatives, this is an awful day.
Here’s hoping there is not a day like this again in CT or
anywhere.
  • Morrissey6.1
    “…what can one say about this tragic event.”

    Of one thing we can be sure: Brett Dale will not say anything intelligent or insightful about this tragedy.

    “Here’s hoping there is not a day like this again in CT or anywhere.”

    Far worse than this is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan every day. You have been loud in your support of it. And your blood-soaked cheerleading for the carnage in Gaza last month makes your words of solicitude nothing but the most callous hypocrisy.
    • Morrissey:

      As someone whos got family in the area, including younger relatives, I think I have just as much as right to comment as anyone else. This is a tragic event. 
      • Morrissey6.1.1.1
        Then condemn the far greater massacres being perpetrated in the middle east, instead of applauding them, you hypocrite.
        • Brett Dale6.1.1.1.1
          Dont see the connection, at the moment my concern is how upset my
          younger relatives  are in CT, maybe you should stick to prank calling murray deaker.
          • Morrissey6.1.1.1.1.1
            “Dont see the connection…”

            You don’t? Then you are either dimmer or even more depraved than I thought you were.
            • Again my sympathy goes out to the victims and the  families and the children who
              survived and who will now be terrified, here’s hoping again, they get the help they need.
              • Morrissey
                Is that sympathy expressed for the victims, the families, and the survivors of the massacre in Gaza? If not, your words are insincere and worthless.
                • Again. dont see the connection,  shouting out Gaza or Iraqi everytime an unrelated tragic event happens in the USA,is cliche.

                  Again, this is a tragic event and my thoughts and wishes goes out to people in CT.

                  Its a shame people have a a problem with people giving sympathy to Americans.
                  • Morrissey
                    “Its a shame people have a a problem with people giving sympathy to Americans.”

                    I have no problem with people giving sympathy to Americans. I have a great problem with people who applaud mass murder expressing selective sympathy.
                    It’s like if someone were to loudly, publicly, speak out in support of the PERPETRATOR of a knife-murder, then pretend that he is a VICTIMS advocate.
                • OneTrackViper
                  I will become sympathetic to the Gazans when they stop firing rockets into Israel.  But, when they stop firing rockets, then the Israelis will stop trying to stop the rockets, which means peace will return. and then I won’t need to be sympathetic.
                  Hey, maybe that means its in the Gazans own hands.  That is IF they want peace of course. Or maybe what they want is what they always say they want and that is to push the Israelis into the sea.  But that would be mean, wouldn’t it.  It can’t be right.
                  • Yep, because in a conflict between an economically-repressed, militarily-occupied people and powerful military occupiers supported by the United States, it’s definitely the people whose land got invaded who need to prove they’re interested in peace. 🙄
                  • Morrissey
                    El Stupido blithered moronically: “But that would be mean, wouldn’t it. It can’t be right.”
                    You are an ignoramus.

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