Sunday, August 24, 2008

Rip her to shreds

Domestic violence is a game of two halves. Here is one half, brought to you by the New Zealand Herald, and entitled Water assault charge for Veitch. The charges, you will agree, are trivial:
The Herald on Sunday has obtained details of some of the police allegations and charges against the 34-year-old.

According to police, one relates to an incident at Mangawhai sometime between April 2003 and April 2005 in which he allegedly pushed Dunne Powell on to a bed and threw a glass of water into her face. Another charge is understood to refer to confining Dunne-Powell in a corner.
The other half is brought to you by the Sunday Star-Times and entitled The Veitch saga: what Kristin told police. And this is what Kristin said:
Kristin Dunne-Powell has told police that broadcaster Tony Veitch kicked her on three occasions during their four-year relationship before the incident which injured her back.
While both papers seem to have obtained their information from the police, it seems the Herald either was not told about the charges relating to the kickings or has chosen not to mention them.

It's a funny old game, innit? These papers go to such lengths to capture the female readership with all those pull-out and throw-away sections about lifestyle issues and all the treat-them-like-idiots non-news stories. Yet when a woman gets a kicking or three from one of the boys, they fall over themselves in their efforts to help him.

Blondie:

1 comment:

Jake said...

Hmmm. I sometimes wonder if this in not so much the media sticking up for one of its own as various newspapers deciding there's money to be made in manufacturing controversy, and so playing along with Veitch's PR campaign. Once he's been made a pariah (as he has), there's no more mileage in it -- by going with the crazy ex-/blackmailer/didn't really do anything anyway angle, they get to sell more papers, have more exclusives, and keep it in the public sphere for longer.

Not so much maliciousness as cynicism, perhaps. But it's very difficult to say which is worse.