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Mitchell Pearce: The fault lies not in footy stars, but in ourselves

2nd February, 2016
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Mitchell Pearce celebrates for the Roosters. (AAP Image/Action Photographics, Grant Trouville)
Expert
2nd February, 2016
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There hasn’t been a bigger storm in a schooner glass since Todd Carney tried to follow in the steps of the great yogis and reach enlightenment by drinking his own urine.

Unluckily for Carney, a bystander captured it on their smartphone and made sure that anyone in the world who wanted to see it could.

Last week, Mitchell Pearce got himself into a similar spot of bother when he stayed out way past his bedtime.

We all know that both men belong to the large club of people who are unable to guarantee their behaviour when they start drinking, and are well advised to give the grog away.

More Mitchell Pearce:
» Roosters need to take a long, hard look at themselves
» The new and improved NRL Code of Conduct
» Mitchell Pearce speaks for first time following Australia Day scandal
» Whatever Pearce’s punishment, make sure he learns from it
» Roosters stand down disgraced captain Mitchell Pearce
» Footage emerges of Pearce simulating sex act with a dog

Pearce’s behaviour was out-and-out wrong, and exactly what happens when people who shouldn’t drink, do.

But it was you and me who escalated the event from the NRL’s weekly bogan-behaves-badly story into a full-fledged, week-long, contract-shredding scandal.

The media’s helpful pre-release beat-up, “I can’t tell you exactly what’s on the tape, except that it’s shocking,” made watching it ASAP that extra bit compelling.

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If you’re reading this, I’m betting you watched the video as soon as you could, just to see what the fuss was all about. Even though everyone on Facebook said it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as they were expecting.

Bizarrely, my straw poll of everyone I know who watched the video indicates they’re equally outraged that someone filmed the incident.

The person filming didn’t intervene when unwelcome advances were made against another partygoer, or when the host’s sofa was damaged, but that’s not why they’re outraged.

They’re outraged that Pearce’s privacy was breached – and worse, within a few hours that person had sold the recording for a small fortune.

Everyone’s waving the hatchet at the anonymous and supremely self-interested person who filmed the whole sordid scene. That they had sold it to a media agency within a few hours proves they recorded with profit in mind.

But it was only worth a fortune because the media buyers know that the general public are clickbait monkeys. Cued up like Pavlov’s dogs, deep down we like nothing more than drooling over footage of the private failings of the famous. For the average Australian, there’s no tastier schadenfraude than seeing an NRL gladiator fall on his sword.

A grainy smartphone video is not a scandal. A grainy smartphone video plus a few hundred thousand views is.

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Well done us.

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