Protecting the Press
Stephen Myles
When the details of Peter Roebucks death emerged the same conclusion seemed to be drawn but no one really put down the words on paper. Older relatively wealthy man, connections to an orphanage in South Africa, being investigated by Sex Crimes police over allegations, jumps out of window. If you add a, b and c together you manage to arrive at the same conclusion.
Two important things must be considered in relation to the developments. Peter Roebuck was and will remain regarded as a great sports journalist, insightful and well-worded. This does not change whether or not he enjoyed molesting young underprivileged men.
The media has decided to more or less hold a respectful distance from the matter, this is a good thing, but would they show the same restraint was he not a community member? More often than not the major media outlets of the western world are more than eager to publicly condemn an individual well before the true facts have emerged, hypocrisy is an accepted norm of modern society but appears particularly infuriating when present in our newspapers and news programs.
All that happens now is we sit and wait, to see whether Peter Roebuck and the allegations slide into irrelevance or are determined and outlined by his peers when the true facts emerge.