Australia: "The Circle" faces backlash after mocking war hero

Submitted by Minuteman on Wed, 2012-02-29 02:51

Link here. Excerpt:

'Network Ten's The Circle is facing a furious backlash from viewers after the hosts mocked war hero Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith, suggesting he was dim-witted and "not up to it in the sack".

The panel was discussing the Victoria Cross recipient after he appeared in a candid Sunday Night profile and aired a shot of him shirtless in a pool.

After one of the hosts commented on Corporal Roberts-Smith's physique, Yumi Stynes said: "He's going to dive down to the bottom of the pool and see if his brain is there".

Then as the shot of the war hero, who single-handedly stormed a machine-gun position in Afghanistan, was displayed again Stynes said "S-A-S" in a mocking voice.

Shortly afterwards veteran journalist George Negus chimes in saying: "What if they're not up to it in the sack?"
...
"What I didn't estimate was how much my joke was not appreciated. I sort of intimated that maybe he wasn’t very smart, because how could you be that buff and spend that much time in a gym and be smart as well? And people have been a bit angry and I’ve been getting a lot of angry messages."'

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Comments

What I've found interesting in this story is that there is a huge amount of backlash, particularly in the comments attached to the news stories, with the average joe agreeing this is wrong - but almost to a person, they see it as wrong just because he's a war hero.

They are right, of course, if this guy is brave enough to stand up and risk his life for his country then he doesn't deserve unwarranted character assassination by two brainless idiots on tv, especially as he risked his life to save his patrol.

But to my eye it's also a classic example of double-think. We all know that you can't see a beautiful woman, and say "well, she's obviously a brain-dead bimbo" on live tv. We all know you can't see a beautiful woman in a picture, and say "I bet she's crap in the sack" without losing your job in micro-seconds. But apparently it's not such a huge crime to say the same about a guy.

I admire the backlash, I just wish this key point was getting picked up too.

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Submitted by GaryB on Wed, 2012-02-29 21:34