Nelson’s departure: teargate

It’s close enough to an axiom of journalism: read or watch reports on something with which you are vaguely familiar and you’ll realise what error-laden, generalised, distorted, liberally twisted rubbish is peddled in the name of news. Well, most times. I watched the Nelson presser this afternoon, go to woe, and yes there was one tear. A single drop perched just beneath the inner corner of the right eye, rolling no further than the cusp of Nelson’s cheek. He popped it out when Mrs Nelson the third (I  think it is) said some nice things in praise of her man. And there, he said, digressing momentarily, is a little insight into the reality of the political life, an existence so hard and determinedly brutal that the smallest hint of affection prompts a sudden tingling burst of tear(s) and a blush of emotional effusion. How sad that is.

Anyway, there was just one tear, quickly mopped aside. It was enough to make the lead on the ABC evening news, some gush on a tearful farewell. Through the afternoon it featured in gleaming closeup on Fairfax websites. I’d be prepared to take money on its being featured in the morning press.

Good grief. There was only one, and it didn’t in any way represent the moment. But it suited some confected view of the story, never mind that it was at odds with the broader reality, and it starred. How much modern news is like that? The selective harvesting of fact and image to fit some abstract notion of actuality.

Nelson, in fact, bore himself with dignity, said the right things, and said them with crisp purpose. How dull.