canterella Sun Apr 19, 2009 10:54 am
I don't like Michael Laws at the best of times, but I completely agree with what he wrote about this whole sorry affair:
TONY VEITCH is right. The media are like Saturn they devour their own children.
It is the nature of the beast that birthed him. A circular existence of manufactured celebrity and faux glamour, where there is no grander spectacle than attesting to the villainy of a colleague gone bad.
Of course, it may be the ultimate hypocrisy for the media to fashion morality to fit their teeth. They judge and condemn, or excuse and condone, according to no greater moral code than the immediacy of the front page or the lead item. And their bottom line is always profit.
But Veitch was an active part of that world. As a breakfast host for Radio Sport, he enjoyed playing judge, jury and executioner to any number of errant sporting personalities. As a talking head for TVNZ, or an entertainer for Touchdown, he parlayed his perky personality for profit. Life was good and along with the status came a collective salary of $500,000 a year.
And then that fateful night, at the end of a toxic relationship. Thursday's district court confession was the inevitable consequence.
I wrote a little less than a year ago that I empathised with Veitch because my resignation from parliament 13 years ago had similar trappings of over-reaching ego and rampant denial. But I also noted that his "mea culpa" of the time was crafted and insincere a ruse to shift responsibility.
I'm not convinced that anything has changed, particularly given his post-sentencing performance on the steps of the Auckland District Court. This was an act of anger, not some concession of contrition. Because the former broadcasting star wanted to make two points, and he did.
First, that he had plea-bargained only because the trial was so far away. His argument seemed to be that if the trial had been tomorrow, then his original "not guilty" plea would have been vindicated.
Second, elements of the media were even bigger bastards than him, and that he was now coming for them.
There will be those who welcomed such defiance. And yet it is a hollow anger, scooped of its sanctity by the realisation that things got so bad for the feisty broadcaster that he tried to take his life. Three times.
When questioned as to why, Veitch said that it was because he wanted to make things better, especially for those who loved him. Although that logic might appear cock-eyed this Sunday morning, it was the one act of nobility that one can ascribe to the man. Sometimes suicide is selfless an act of love rather than selfish escape.
Yet Tony Veitch is not a bad man. He is not beyond redemption nor rescue. And the nature of justice is that one's sentence is society's satisfaction. Once it is concluded, then our interest should and must end.
I have little doubt that TRN's general manager, Bill Francis, will re-employ Veitch, and sooner rather than later. That is his commercial decision and there is no right or wrong either way. TRN is a privately owned radio network answerable only to its shareholders.
Similarly, Television New Zealand will restrain itself from re-employing Veitch. TVNZ is a publicly owned corporation with its own peculiar and political sensibilities.
It is still embarrassed by its initial reaction to the Veitch affair and by its adoption of the Kim Il Sung school of ethics.
But Veitch does need to be counselled by both his media adviser, Glenda Hughes, and by his legal counsel about going after the media in the belief that this will somehow restore his reputation.
How? He is a convicted spousal abuser. He kicked a woman when she was down and broke bones in her back. He admits such. He escaped other counts of assault only because of a plea bargain. He was, as Judge Jan Doogue noted, "the author of his own misfortune". He has a criminal conviction for injury with reckless intent.
What did any media commentator say, write or broadcast that was worse than that? Sure, talkback boofheads like Willie Jackson have characterised him as a base mongrel but fair comment, surely. That's not defamation it's honest opinion. An opinion based upon the facts.
At the moment, New Zealand is running roughly 50/50 on Tony Veitch. Fifty percent think that he's been punished enough and that this should be the end of it. And the rest think that he should never play any public role, ever again. Despite misgivings, I tend to be in the first queue.
He is not a paedophile, he is not a rapist, he is not a murderer. He has not defrauded the vulnerable of their life savings. These are crimes that should carry a lifelong stigma. And I generally believe in the doctrine of the second chance. And even the third if the proprieties of acceptance, apology and atonement are observed.
Thursday's act of bravado will test that public slack. The best route to Tony's rehabilitation is for him to keep his counsel, do his community work, and accept a role as an unpaid advocate against spousal violence. And then the majority of the public of this country will forgive him. Maybe, even forget.
And for those of the media who were unfair, overly critical and just plain nasty there is a simple revenge. Live a good life. Slowly succeed. If there is one thing that all critics hate it is being ignored. And that you win despite them.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/opinion/2344631/Michael-Laws-Penance-and-success-will-shut-up-the-critics
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