Steve Irwin - now for the international media feeding frenzy

The vision of Crocodile man, Steve Irwin, feeding a huge crocodile while holding his one-month-old baby in his arms is on first viewing disconcerting to say the least.

Further viewing (especially from a second camera), explanations from other professionals in the field, and the comments from those actually present at Irwin's Zoo on the Sunshine Coast have put the incident into perspective. They reveal the occasion to be far less dangerous than originally seemed the case. Indeed, as Irwin himself pointed out, his baby son and those watching were far more likely to be killed by a car as they left the zoo.

At worst, Irwin could be accused of being imprudent and unwise in his action, both as regards the action itself and the performance in front of the world's blood-lusting media. It is naive in the extreme not to realise how vulnerable he was making himself to the unconscionable figures who decide what appears on television and in the newspapers. There will never be enough blood in the world to satiate these corrupt minds.

So we had a repeat of the usual out-of-control media feeding frenzy as the disgusting editors of the worldwide media competed with each other to draw as much blood as possible. As usual the British press showed themselves without peer in their professional manipulation of the film material. There are two points for the observer to note after getting over the initial revulsion provoked by the media. In the first place, is this the first case of an international media frenzy?

Media assassination has been refined in recent years. And it is usually concentrated on an individual editors think is ripe as a target for mob incitement. This a special gift of the moral-less persons who run the media organisations: being able to distinguished the individual in public life that has become vulnerable. But the media assassination, as far as I can observe, is normally a local thing. The great example in Australia during 2003 was without doubt the media assassination of the Governor-General, Dr Peter Hollingworth.

This was almost a paradigm case of the unconscionable venal media editor colluding with a high profile vicious vindictive paranoid fanatic to perpetrate one of the most shameless political events in Australia's history. But it did not seem likely that such a violent comprehensive media elimination could be exercised on an international level - that is, not before the Irwin case. The constant repetition of the one visual sequence will alone ensure that Irwin is crippled forever.

This, I thought, was something new and should be a warning for all those in international public life and those of us who observe them. Then I wondered whether it was all that new. There was the seemingly similar case of Michael Jackson holding his baby outside a third or fourth floor hotel window. Those scenes, too, were continually repeated. On further reflection, it is not really a similar.

There is no equivalent in the case of Jackson to the zoo professional and the many safeguards existing around the animal enclosures at Irwin's zoo. More to the point, Jackson's action at the time was just the latest strange behaviour exhibited by someone who for most people was famous for being famous. No, Jackson's case is a case of celebrity gone wrong over a period of time and not of sudden violent gratuitous media assassination.

But there is a case of international media feeding frenzy that predates Irwin's case and is far more vindictive, far more extensive and far more unrelenting. The disgusting British press excelled themselves here. It was the attempted media assassination of the British Royal Family at the time of the death of Princess Diana. And it is ongoing. I refer the reader again to my book, The Media of the Republic.

If Irwin's case is a sign of what is to come in the international media (keep in mind Rupert Murdoch's constant campaign to dominate the world media and the various media instruments he has already to reach an international audience), then the observer should return to the British Royal Family case to gauge just how vicious, unrelenting, venal and unconscionable the international media can be.

The second point to note can be stated briefly. I continually wonder why so many people are led by the nose by the media editors and their bosses - why so many succumb to manipulation that any self-respecting Nazi, Ku Klux Klansman, Red Guard, or KGB functionary would be proud of.