One of the most clicked-on stories on Australian news sites right now is one about Abbott having a cheeky cigarette.
Not Tony Abbott, the health-nut Prime Minister we elected and whose decisions our nation’s welfare currently depends upon (whether we like it or not). Nope, it was his middle daughter Frances who is stealing headlines.
And why? Because the 22-year-old Whitehouse Institute of Design fashion student and cancer fundraiser was snapped with her new boyfriend smoking said cigarette outside a Dolce & Gabbana cocktail party in Melbourne last Wednesday night.
Aaaand, that’s it. Yep, that’s the whole story.
Except apparent it isn’t — because Australian news site after news site has taken these unspectacular images and ran with them, whipping up the bare-bones fact into the sort of media storm that would have us believe Frances’ life choices were of greater international consequence than, say, the abductions of those Nigerian schoolgirls or the latest from Ukraine.
This from Yahoo News:
“The photo, which has appeared online, has caused waves on social media with one user commenting that the taxpayer would now have to foot her future medical bills.”
News.com.au snipe:
“We can’t help but wonder what Frances’ fitness-loving dad would think of her little habit?”
Other newspapers are gleefully publishing speculation about whether her discussion with Smith at the time might possibly have been heated, while one or two liberally splash around the following (hilarious!) pun: “Smokin’!”
The dubious assumption underlying the choice to run these photos is that Frances, because of her relationship to a politician, is open to public scrutiny.
That because she bears the Abbott name, her privacy need not be respected.
That because her dad’s famous, she is fair game.
And that is where I — despite working in the media myself — disagree.
Yes, Frances has occasionally exposed herself to the public eye, albeit peripherally. During her dad’s election campaign last year, Tony Abbott’s family were front and centre. Frances and her little sister Bridget also took part in a Sunday Style shoot at the weekend to support Witchery’s 2014 White Shirt Campaign, which raised awareness and funds for Ovarian Cancer Research.
She and her sisters have spoken up once or twice in their dad’s defence following various awkward gaffes (who could forget the “sex appeal” comment”?) The Abbott girls also attend big-ticket events once in a while — Melbourne Fashion Week or David Jones events, for example.
But these fleeting moments in the limelight do not make Frances a celebrity, whose income and success requires a certain level of public exposure and may, at least to some degree, mean that papparazi-style photos “come with the territory”.
The personal decision of an adult human to have a cigarette — and Frances Abbott is hardly the first Australian woman in her early 20s to light up after a drink — is not illegal, nor scandalous.
Reporting it was not in any way in the public interest.
Yes, the public may have been interested — but when that becomes the basis of an editorial decision to publish something, we risk a slippery-slope into snarky, mean-spirited speculative journalism.
I don’t know Frances, but she’s got her own life to live; her own career to pursue; her own image to carve out. Let’s leave her be.
Do you agree? What did you think of the coverage of Frances smoking?
Here are a few moments the Abbott (and Rudd) daughters have been in the public eye:
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Top Comments
Ummm no. Your assumptions are all wrong.
Frances abbott is coming under this sort of scrutiny because:
-Tony abbott has the lowest public opinion of any australian PM, ever.
-Frances abbott accepted a scholarship that doesn't even exist, in a deal that was done behind closed doors.
-Her father granted funding to the institute that gave her this free tuition.
-It wasn't disclosed on his pecuniary register.
-He was lobbied for this funding in front of a 400 guest function.
-The person who exposed this corruption is being prosecuted.
-Tony abbott needs a discount on his legal fees pertaining to the case.
-Frances abbott put HERSELF in this position, by allowing herself to be paraded around by her father during his election campaign.
-Tony abbot just spent $6.2 million on BMW tanks that would be perfect in a 3rd world war zone, a brazilian favela, or the russia/ukraine border. Australia has no environments that even come close to these.
-Purely by coincidence, in 2012, BMW let bridget abbott be the face of their sydney racing carnival.
-Tony abbot's team has delivered the most unpopular budget in history.
-Tony abbott just did a deal with clive palmer to repeal the mining tax, a deal that will benefit palmer and the rest of his big mining buddies.
I could go on all day........
During the 2013 Federal election campaign, a News Ltd journalist by the name of Gemma Jones trawled through Marcus Rudd (Kevin's youngest child) Facebook profile and found an old photo of him smoking a cigar, with college friends, several years ago, in a different country. It was splashed across the Daily Telegraph. He was 18.
Where's the outrage?