chris murphy · @chrismurphys
7th Aug 2011 from Twitlonger
STATEMENT BY MATTHEW NEWTON 7th AUGUST 2011
I am writing this in response to the so called ‘profile piece’ on me by Andrew Rule that appeared in various News Limited publications on the weekend of the 6th and 7th of August 2011. The amount of conjecture, presumption and spurious information contained in this article is utterly mind boggling.
As I wish to be brief, and not give this article undue attention, I am not going to single out, one by one, all of the glaring gaps in its logic, tone, and over confident conclusions.
The opening words about certain people ‘deciding’ that I suffered from mental illness are absolutely inexcusable.
The only people who ‘decided’ I was mentally ill were several mental health specialists and I can assure you it wasn’t a swift diagnosis.
A disease of the mind is one that is designed to convince the afflicted that they don’t have one. Mental illness is an extremely serious issue in this country and around the world so to treat it with disgusting glibness is unforgivable. I urge anyone who feels even the slightest pang of doubt about their own mental stability or mood changes to seek help or at least talk to someone about it. Don’t be put off by the ignorant and the judgmental.
This ‘journalist’ writes as though he is literally inside my head and has been virtually since the day I was born; basing his arguments on ‘anonymous’ sources from various stages of my life. I don’t give any value to the words of someone who does not have the conviction or honesty to put their name to their own words. I believe the only time someone is justified in saying something and not have their name stand beside that statement is when their life or the lives of the people close to them could potentially be put in danger by doing so. But we are not living in Berlin before The Wall came down and I am a private citizen with no power to harm or effect their livelihood.
If my assumption is correct about the anonymous source from my high school days, which I think it is, then it is no surprise that he may feel dissatisfied by his own life and unfulfilled dreams, given his intellectual and emotional issues. Also, I am fairly certain this individual had, for him, a pretty big secret he was hiding from his parents and friends which may also account for a substantial amount of bitterness and isolation. I hope he has come to terms with his inner torment and is living a life true to his undeniable and irreversible nature. And I wish him luck.
Every one of these anonymous statements seems very convenient. They suit the ‘journalist’ and his easily digestible, clichéd point of view about me too neatly. Nothing is ever that simple. Then again we must remember that this is a man who wrote simplistic faulted accounts of some of the most atrocious and complex crimes in our country’s history, so the shoe of generalisation most definitely fits. I’m sure the freelance pay cheque didn’t hurt either. I also know that he has paid a heavy price for his untrue portrayal of the lives of other people he has hurt in his publications.
Finally the unprovoked attack on my family, yet again all from anonymous sources, is cowardly and mean spirited, pathetic and graceless. I guess the need for informed reporting and factually based investigation really has disappeared, at least from the newspapers that published this creative piece of tabloid trash.
Matthew Newton