The Forum > Article Comments > The scandal of defending George Pell: Amanda Vanstone's moral support > Comments
The scandal of defending George Pell: Amanda Vanstone's moral support : Comments
By Rob Cover, published 23/12/2015Character defences by former government ministers only lead to greater suspicion and, in fact, reduce the effectiveness of debate and dialogue.
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Why does he speak of scandal reporting rather than reporting? Why does he feel the need to try and justify it? There is no need to justify the act or reporting the facts – everyone can accept that reporting the facts is a reasonable thing to do. The aim of reporting is not to cast judgement but to present the issues so that the consumers of media can make their own judgements. The word scandal is a judgement. It immediately says that the acts reported are scandalous and that is a derogative word meaning acts which the reporter believes are bad acts and should be punished. It is for the justice system to make those decisions and not for reporters. No matter what anyone thinks about the acts or any subsequent cover-ups they have to be treated with the same caution and equity as any other facts about any behaviour which breaks the law.
Child abuse and the miss-handling of it are not special cases outside our justice system and any accused person must be assumed innocent until proven otherwise. That is one of the fundamental values of our society and it is more important than achieving justice for victims of abuse or cover-ups. Any victim who does not hold to those values does himself no favours by trying to usurp those values. By all means seek justice but only within the confines of the justice system.
Similarly the phrase ‘moral panic’ is equally emotional. Something done in a panic is usually not done very well and there is more risk of injustice because of that. Every issue before the justice system should be attended to with due diligence. Everyone has the right to be heard – that too is a fundamental cornerstone of our civilisation.
Trying to manipulate the justice system by words which are irrelevant to that system shows a serious lack of priorities.