You may have heard the story about federal MP James Bidgood who witnessed a newsworthy event yesterday [1], took photos of it, and reportedly sold them to the media [2], with the money going to charity.
The event in questions was a protester setting himself on fire outside Parliament House. The opposition and sections of the media have jumped all over Mr. Bidgood for his actions, but I really can’t see the problem.
If a newspaper photographer had been there, or a television camera crew, or even if I had been there with a camera, there would have been footage and/or photos. The photographer or camera crew would have taken the pictures back to the newsroom for their News Director to decide if they wanted to publish it, whilst I would have taken the photos home and published them here on this blog.
People sell photos of newsworthy events to the media all the time, so I can’t understand what the problem is here.
Joe Hockey, a man for whom I have a great deal of respect, has been the loudest critic of Mr. Bidgood…frankly Mr. Hockey, pull your head in, and ask Julie Bishop to actually answer a question the next time she appears on Lateline.
As for Mr. Bidgood. He has apologised for his actions (unnecessary in my view), but I will be writing to him to support his actions. What he did was attempt to bring the truth to the public, and it’s nice to see a politician doing that for a change.
Samuel
Comments Disabled To "I don’t see the problem"
#1 Comment By padders On December 4, 2008 @ 1:29 pm
Don’t encourage him Samuel. What he did was wrong because in the first instance he attempted to sell the photos for money. It was only then that he realised: “gee, I could be seen as profiting from this guy’s distress…hmmm, maybe not a good look”, and settled for a donation to charity instead. Besides, I would have thought an MP (of all people) would have stepped in and protected the guy from harming himself, rather than photgraphing the event with a view to making a nice thousand bucks on the side. Tacky, the whole thing.
#2 Comment By Samuel On December 4, 2008 @ 2:27 pm
I suppose that does seem to be the general consensus on the story…that he tried to sell the photo. There have been squeals of “no he didn’t” from various quarters, but you’re right that the story seems to be that he did.
That said, if somebody doused themself in petrol in front of me, unless I had ready access to water or something else that I could use to smother them, I would call the fire brigade, and if I had a camera on me, probably photograph the incident.
I wouldn’t sell the images, but I would almost certainly public them, and I might offer them to the media for free.