Some thoughts on the miners’ interview
May 23rd, 2006 by Hil
I watched the Ch. 9 interview with the two rescued Beaconsfield miners on Sunday night, and far from being bored, was quite fascinated. Some thoughts:
I was rather touched to watch how they were still taking care of each other. If one was struggling to keep his emotions in check, the other stepped in to relate something funny, or change tack, or give a reassuring touch, while he gathered himself together.
There was not one mention of god or praying. Their spiritual sustinance had been thoughts of their families and taking care of each other. I wonder if this secular aspect would be allowed to persist in a Hollywood version of their story.
These big boofy guys were wonderfully resilient and resourceful. They had good sense and medical knowledge and used them. One was less articulate than the other, but as someone here said, he pegged out the four corners of what he wanted to say, and left you to fill in the middle. I liked that description.
Channel 9 were really lazy. Their editing was sloppy, and they used an old graphic of the men’s position, obviously from a few weeks ago, presumably because they hadn’t been bothered to do a new one with the info the men provided. But I was glad the interviewer for the most part just let them talk without much interuption.
My daughter is an armchair media critic - she was horrified by Tracy G.’s efforts, thought it was pathetic. She seemed to particularly object to the use of the expression “are you serious?” She’s not a normal 60 Minutes viewer - I don’t think she quite knew what to expect.
As I reminded her, they did fly a chopper over a besieged house once upon a time.
Hi! One of my kids commented on the “are you serious?” too, and it was rather objectionable. Someone else in my family said, though, that doing that interview wouldn’t do her career any harm at all, and I guess he is right.
I’d forgotten about the helicopter - thanks for reminding me!