Mulan misrepresented (again)
My letter was published in The Australian today:
News that trachoma has now “all but disappeared” among the children of the Mulan community is most welcome but why does your report (Washing Rids Town Of Eye Disease, 8/4) attribute that to the so-called shared responsibility agreement?
In December, you reported (Routine Routs Eye Disease, 10/12/04) that the face-washing program had commenced 18 months before the agreement was made. You also reported that the rate of infection had fallen from over 70 per cent to 16 per cent before the Government became involved.
Why, if the program was in place and showing results, was it made a precondition for a petrol bowser deal? Has a similar commitment ever been demanded of a white community?
Rather than representing a government success, the Mulan agreement shows that Aboriginal communities are forced to jump through hoops to satisfy pig-headed ideologues.
Robert Corr
Greenwood, WA
But is that enough to change the newspaper’s coverage? Of course it’s not:
As reported in The Australian yesterday, the inaugural agreement, signed with the remote Mulan community in Western Australia, has been a resounding success.
Rates of the potentially blinding eye disease trachoma have been cut from 70 per cent to zero since the community members promised to shower daily, wash their faces twice a day and reduce rubbish in the desert settlement.
Sadly, The Australian is prepared to ignore its own reports of just four months ago if the facts interfere with its editorial position.
Being a veteran of over 100 letters to editors, I can say that it is not possible to change the aspect of a newspaper’s coverge of any given event. Newspapers are one of the most powerful forms of communication anywhere, if not the most powerful. Editors will always be snot-nosed opinionated galahs and no letter to them will change that. Why? Because even when they are wrong they have the same right to their view as everyone else. They are just lucky enough to get paid for it.
If people want to be famous then they shouldn’t try to sway the opinions of editors. Get out there and change the world around them instead, it is a far more realistic (but still challenging) goal.
Editorial position – sounds contagious!
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