Channel 7's News Chief Peter Meakin - blinded by bigotry

During a Compass episode (ABC TV) about well-known media personality Mike Willisee returning to his Catholic faith, Peter Meakin, a former colleague of Willisee's at the Nine Network, commented facetiously that Willesee had 'lost his marbles and found religion.' Few people could express such contempt for religious belief in so few words.

Meakin was News Chief at the Nine Network when their magazine program 60 Minutes, pretending to be a serious news program, launched one of the most vile attacks on an individual in Australian television history. That attack on Archbishop George Pell came through the agency of David Ridsdale, whose background and motives were never revealed. Indeed, it's not too late for Meakin to confirm or deny that David Ridsdale is a homosexual activist, who had connections with radical homosexual activist groups.

Meakin is yet another media figure whose virulent anti-religious bigotry has the privilege of being financed by a billion dollar media company. The regular negative reports about the Catholic Church that appear on Seven's news bulletins and tabloid program Today Tonight bear Meakin's stamp.

But being blinded by anti-religious bigotry is not the only blindness that Meakin has suffered from. Erin O'Dwyer, writing in the Sun-Herald on June 4 this year, brought that blindness under scrutiny. His report was about the way 'big names lessen the "idiot" drink-driving impact." It was prompted by the following:

Meakin, 64, was sentenced...to 14 months' periodic detention and banned from driving for eight years after he was convicted of drink driving and dangerous driving.

He accelerated past a random breath testing site on the northern beaches on October 4 last year when police signalled him to stop. Two officers had to leap to safety to avoid been hit by his car.

After he pulled over, he recorded a blood alcohol reading of .10. It was his third drink driving offence. Erin O'Dwyer's report

This is truly serious stuff. His defence lawyer had to plead before the judge that Meakin not serve a custodial sentence. Meakin got off the custodial sentence where others would have been locked up. Erin O'Dwyer was right to raise the significance of Meakin's actions with regard to the drink driving campaign and the senseless deaths of young men who ignore the dangers of drinking and driving.

But was the issue of Meakin's dangerous behaviour and his conviction turned over ad nauseam in the media? Was he set up to be filmed secretly during his worst moments? Were private unguarded film clips run time and time again on television. Did Neil Mitchell hammer it day after day? Did Neil Mitchell haul in a group of specialists on his program with their off-the-cuff comments painting Meakin as psychologically sick. Did they call for Meakin's sacking? The answer is a resounding 'no'.

Perhaps some media figures stayed away from the Meakin affair because they thought, well, it could have been them. Yeah? At least they can be assured that no camera crew would film them in their worst moments. And even if they did, TV bosses like Meakin would not allow the clip to go to air - unless it was to smear the opposition.

A group of skateboarding feral males ambushed Monsignor Geoff Baron, Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne, in a clever sting. The film they took secretly of the ambush was posted on You Tube, the internet video clip free-for-all. That was a year ago.

Last Saturday in a dramatic promo for Channel 7's six o'clock news bulletin, the viewer saw snatches of a Catholic priest beside himself in a frenzy of rage and directing the foulest language at a group of young men who were surrounding him. We know now that Peter Meakin and his news hounds had been alerted to the existence of the You Tube film clip of Monsignor Baron, now a year old. Their showing it on their news bulletin precipitated a media frenzy, as Meakin knew it would. What kudos in sticking it to the Catholic Church so excellently.

There would hardly be a media entity that has not run this clip or talked about it endlessly. When the affair dies down and the media bloodlust has moved on to something else, it will be resurrected whenever it is opportune to stick it to the Catholic Church and its clergy. Neil Mitchell has been hammering away at it for two days now, showing just where his blind spot is. Indeed, it's a blind spot on one of the most serious problems our society is facing. And he won't look at it and see its significance no matter how many people point to it.

The language that Monsignor Baron used is extraordinarily lurid and foul, exhibiting an arresting creativity. It's shameful stuff. This is what the Channel 7's news bulletin highlighted. It's what radio commentators focused on. But there's real hypocrisy here. Your average media hack is not exactly famous for his nice delicate clean mouth.

One can hear the same sort of foul-mouth abuse at any football or cricket match (often more disgusting if not so luridly creative) coming from the mouths of feral male concentrations, just like those surrounding the priest. It's the sort of foul-mouth language you are subjected to if you run into these feral skateboarding gangs around Melbourne city and suburbs and get in their way. At the entrance to the local shopping centre there is usually a concentration of young people who make no attempt to moderate the foul language they are obviously used to uttering. A stream of abuse follows if anyone says anything about it.

But it's a Catholic priest that the hypocrites in the media only ever want to hang from the nearest tree for using foul abusive language. This is the first point to note about the stomach-turning indignation levelled at Monsignor Baron.

Most people reach a breaking point at least once in their lives, where stress, torment, frustration overwhelms. Any honest person would admit that in such circumstances they say and do things they would not normally do. They act out of character. It is incomprehensible perversity that claims that such rare outbursts actually reveal the person as he is.

Monsignor Baron was clearly pushed to the limits of endurance. And this is the really serious issue of the affair that the media dangerously turn their backs on in their rush to pillory the priest. Anybody who views the clip will know that it is no exaggeration to say that that gang of skateboarders circled the priest like of pack of bloodthirsty hyenas. The clip 'also shows the priest being spat on, pushed, threatened and baited by the skateboarders, who repeatedly throw things at him,' the Sun-Herald reported. It's the sort of intimidating behaviour that would cause extreme anxiety in anybody, causing them to panic in a similar way.

Monsignor Baron was ambushed by a group of young males who have proven they have no moral consciousness. They are the male types who mocked humiliated and bullied the girl in the Werribee affair. They are the types that set fire to her hair and forced her to perform sex acts on them. They are the types who form gangs armed with machetes and knives. They are the types that gatecrash parties, bashing and stabbing at random. They are the types that beat-up cab drivers, that unmercifully bash and rob old women in the street, that king hit a forty-eight year-old national sporting star, killing him - they are the types that are constantly in the news, causing fear and anxiety especially among the older people in our society. They are one of the most serious problems in our present society.

It's more important for media news bosses like Peter Meakin to destroy a Catholic priest using foul language than to contemplate the reasons that a generation of young males is out of control. Let any situation prevail rather than let such an opportunity go by.