The debate over the media circus surrounding Schapelle Corby‘s return to Australia has been playing out across social media all weekend (is it okay? is it problematic?), and at last it’s reached mainstream media – a.k.a. breakfast television.
“I realise there’s interest but why oh why oh why,” the Channel 9 host said. “Schapelle Corby, rightly or wrongly, has been convicted of drug smuggling. She’s done her time and has the right to live her life in relative peace — if that’s what she wants. Maybe she wants mayhem. Whatever. I do not care.
“There are far more important things in life that pursuing and losing Schapelle Corby. We in the media have a responsibility to inform, but I reckon we were all made to look like idiots yesterday.”
“There are far more important things in life than pursuing and losing Schapelle Corby.” –@KarlStefanovic #9Today pic.twitter.com/lZtxG7mY82
— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) May 28, 2017
Meanwhile, over on Channel 7, ‘Sunrise‘ host David Kochie defended the hyped-up media coverage.
“We had family dinner at mum’s last night, three generation of adults, all saying the media coverage was over the top,” he said this morning.
“Then for the next 25 minutes [we] discussed how she’ll settle back into Australia, was she guilty or not, what her Instagram was saying… I said, ‘I think we rest our case’. Everyone’s so interested, it’s amazing.”
He’s not wrong: Corby has wracked up 149k Instagram followers in the space of two days, which she’s largely used to document her trip home, including turning the camera back on the media.
Basically, at the end of the day: we’re all way too interested in the Corby story, and should probably back the fuck off.
But for every online comment claiming “nobody cares about this story” there’s another 500 people reading it, so in the end only one thing is certain: Corby is, absolutely, 100%, going to appear in ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!‘ before the end of the decade.
Photo: The TODAY Show / Twitter.
