Mike's Minute: Posie Parker protestor - why do we cover the attention seekers?

Published: March 30, 2023, 8:28 p.m.

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I reached peak despair this week with the profile of the person who tossed the soup, or paint, or juice or whatever it was at Posie Parker.

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The Posie Parker debate was bad enough. We have big stuff going on right now that deserves a great deal more attention.

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But it\\u2019s a human trait to become preoccupied with high drama so we had the high-drama scrap about Posie and who ended up making a bigger dick of themselves.

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But we weren\'t satisfied with that. We then decided to make a celebrity of the offender, the juice thrower.

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Stuff, as in the website, did a profile on them. They also seemed to go to the trouble of a photo shoot.

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They sought her out, they interviewed her and they asked her for her thoughts.

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She played up to it all as so many of those sorts of people do. And by "those sorts of people", before you reach for your Twitter account to cancel me, I mean the attention seeker.

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The sort of halfwit that hasn\\u2019t got the intelligence to make a sensible point, but the sort of person who resorts to a form of violence to get their message across.

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In my world, there isn\'t a lot of difference between a physical punch or some soup or sauce. Yes, one hurts more than the other but the intent is the same.

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The only attention this person should have got is from the Police - and thank the good Lord that arrived yesterday and a court date is set - although I do note the bravado as espoused by the attention seeker has long since vanished and been replaced with a plea of fear as she scarpers from the country.

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But as regards the media stepping in with the spotlight - why?

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Are we honestly that devoid of anything to talk about, that anything will do and attention seeking thuggery is now headline worthy?

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I\'m sad to report this radio station unfortunately fell for it. We interviewed her and that was a mistake.

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These things are often argued in newsrooms. The argument is that everyone deserves a say and you can get them on so you can have a scrap with them.

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I\'ve never subscribed to it. It\'s too cheap and too easy and, as I say, more often than not it plays right into the attention seeker\'s modus operandi.

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In discourse, whether civil or not, groups like the media have an increasingly important role to play and that role does not involve a platform for literally anyone.

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I am a big believer in free speech - but not free speech for the sake of it and not for incitement or idiocy.

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The aim is to uplift the quality, not drag it through the mud.

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Money, time and energy went into giving the person attention and they revelled in it, as they so often do.

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A lot of people showed their true colours this past week. Next to no one covered themselves in any sort of glory.

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And those in the media who thought it made sense make that list.

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