Is it over yet?

Alison Baden-Clay is dead. A white, middle aged woman of middle wealth and attractiveness is dead. Her womanising husband this week was found guilty of her murder. This shit happens every day, yet the media saturation of this woman is as suspicious as the crime itself. Why does she mean so much to us, no let me rephrase that, why does she mean so much to the media? She was white, she was moderately wealthy, she was wholesome looking housewife in middle Australia and now she is dead. Nothing much there to be honest but if the press coverage of this case is anything to go by, this murder is the most reported event in Australian history. Yet what do we have? An unfaithful dull real estate husband in debt, a woman struggling with mental health and three little girls that lost everything overnight. To be honest that doesn’t intrigue me but what does is the case or lack thereof. Instead of reporting about the fact that the case had zero evidence or the fact that the biggest murder trial in recent history doesn’t even have any evidence to suggest that she was in fact murdered or let alone by whom, the media has taken this very, very personally. Certainly members of the media, namely female journalists, have made it their mission to report every sordid detail about the lives of this people despite anyone giving two hoots. I can tell you Australian media, the word around the water bubblers are disbelief, amazement, annoyance and bewilderment and these emotions are not directed at the convicted murderer in this case. Why are we meant to care so much about this case? Why must our thin papers have 24 page spreads, including lift outs, celebrating and demonising the players in this tragedy? Did I miss something? Do I not realise the importance of these people? Why does this case mean more than the other crimes that have played out in this country’s history? Yet some people have go nuts over this case. Parking lots have been created around where her body was found, the colour yellow has been dedicated to her alone, and a day has even been set aside to celebrate her life each year. Now I am not ignorant of the devastation that murder can bring, my family has been through our fair share of these sorts of crimes. I know personally how life changing this terrible crime is, yet I struggle to understand why some murders are weighed more heavily than others. Was Alison life more important than others that have been killed? Was Gerard more terrible than other husband that killed their wife? According to the media they are and this is what is the most shocking and upsetting part of this whole sordid affair. The media made this the biggest crime or at least the most reported crime in Australian history and this why there was a parking lot erected on the site where her body was found, this is why there was commemorative poster of Alison in the paper earlier this week. The media has once again made the news and we as the consumer have been shamed into giving a damn. I am sorry media but I don’t give a damn. It doesn’t make me heartless and it doesn’t make me less of a person it just makes me more aware of the fact that this sad episode just adds to the tapestry of pain that makes humans who they are. I feel for them all, I want to hear about them all not just this case because you decided that it would resonate with us. You the media, become too close to this case, it become personal. You the media failed at the one thing you are required to do by become a part of the story itself. For some unknown reason you decided that this woman represented every woman out there and you couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes it is sad but this sadness is not just reserved for this woman and it isn’t your job to tell us otherwise. If you bothered to notice, if you bothered to do your job, you would see these stories everywhere. They may not have the money the Baden-Clay’s had, they may not be as appealing to look at, their children may not be blonde, their husbands may not be so unfaithful but they are there just as tragic as the ones that aren’t packaged in such a commercial way. If you are the word of people then please don’t tell the people what that word is. If this case was so personal to you then maybe you need to spend some time working out why it affected you so much, as to most of us out here in the real world, this case was simply another sad event in a world where sadness grows on trees. Be fair, be objective, be informative and stick to the facts and let the people decide who their tears will fall for and then you can call yourself a journalist.