Together, let us sit upon the ground, sing sad songs and chronicle the end of John ‘Sam’ Newman’s television career:

Thursday - Newman sees footage of Tasmanian tourism minister Paula Wriedt, finds her attractive and expresses a desire to “come on her”. He is pulled into line and castigated by James Brayshaw, who Newman tells to “shut up”. He writes off the incident as a misinterpretation.

Friday - Nine defends Newman for the umpteenth time. The producer of The Footy Show  suggests he’s done “nothing wrong”, and that Newman is “horrified” his comments might have been taken in a sexual context. Despite apparently having nothing to apologise for, Newman ‘phones Wriedt to apologise.

Saturday - Female MPs predictably call for Newman’s removal from the show. Wriedt’s father admits that she was upset by the incident.

Monday - Wriedt attempts to take her own life and is rushed to hospital for emergency treatment.

Now, nobody in their right mind would suggest that ‘Sam’ Newman is directly responsible for Wriedt’s suicide attempt. Reports suggest that Wriedt had many more pressing issues in her life than a single smutty remark: a second marriage breakdown, separation from her two children, the burden of being a state minister, a failed bid for the deputy leadership and declining voter support. But it cannot have helped. The crass comment drew unwanted media attention to Wriedt at what was obviously a difficult time in her personal and professional life. Newman was not aware of Wriedt’s personal situation but that’s precisely why more respectful and circumspect commentary or ‘comedy’ is necessary.

This could be the last straw for Nine, which has ridden with Newman over many blips and freefalls but has probably had about enough. To use a term from one of ‘Sam’s own personal obsessions, he may find himself ejaculated from television forever.

Seriously.

I was going to start this post by making a joke about how I once tried to use MySpace and was so angered and frustrated by its hideous design, slow loading times, and complete lack of usability that I tried to top myself. But that would be in poor taste so I won’t.

Instead I’m going to have a bit of a laugh at the media’s newest sensationalist campaign in the wake of the tragic suicide deaths of two teenage girls: “Our Society’s Kids Are Addicted to MySpace and Are Catching the ‘Emo’ and are Making Suicide Pacts and Are Killing Themselves So We Must Ban MySpace and the Internet and ‘Emo’ and Childhood.”

Does any news outlet in the country ever let the concept of correlation vs. causation get in the way of a good sensationalist headline any more? Where were the “Listening to Nick Cave Music by Candlelight While Wearing Black Makes Kids Kill Themselves” headlines fifteen years ago?

Go read Jeremy and Adam 1.0 who have both written good posts about this topic.

UPDATE (6pm): Well fuck me dead:

[John] Howard was asked if the government could improve monitoring of the internet or educate parents in a bid to stop a similar tragedy.

“I think the greatest thing that has to be said about this is that parental responsibility in the end is the key to behaviour by children,” Mr Howard told ABC Radio.

“Government can’t educate parents to be responsible if they don’t have an instinct for responsibility.

“And whilst there are things the government can do there is a limit before you start running up against freedom of speech.”