With Friends Like David Marr...

...you know the rest.

Book Claims Henson Scoured Playground For Models

Gosh. And I'd already asked what would happen if someone ever found kiddie porn on his computer but this is so much better. Apologist for all that is artistic (no matter what), David Marr has written a book about the Henson kiddie pictures debacle.

To recap, I didn't think it was kiddie porn and the whole thing was made about something other than the reality - that every adult involved had let this girl down and that she had been unable to give informed consent. I did think it was a bit creepy, though.

Anyway, His Shrillness, David Marr, mentioned in his book that Henson was given a guided tour of a St Kilda primary school trawling for models. Normally, this would be known as kerb-crawling.

Marr got his head on Sky News (probably the only ones game to show him) and said this (as reported by the SMH):

"The impression has been put about by Senator Heffernan and by others that he kind of roamed, roamed the playground unsupervised, perhaps interviewing children, perhaps photographing children.

"That is not the case. The impression that he is sort of loose in the playground is actually factually wrong."

Okay, fair enough. But dude, he was trawling for models for his pictures.

The SMH again:

'Mr Marr said Mr Henson was accompanied by the school principal at all times and he did not tell the children he wanted them to model for him or take any photographs.'

Oh, well, that makes it perfectly acceptable. Nobody knew why he was there, Henson would pick kids he liked the look of (wow, is this sounding like a brothel to you yet?) and then the principal would put Henson in contact with the parents of the kids he liked the look of. Woah, there, hold on a minute. The principal did what?

It wasn't bad enough the principal had let the guy on the premises without telling the kids or the parents who he was or what he was doing, parents would then be contacted by Henson so that he could ask that they pimp their kids out to him.

This is frickin' awesome! Why didn't I send my son to that school? We coulda been famous. Like that twelve-year-old girl and her profoundly retarded attention-whore parents.

So here we have a podium of stupid. In third place is David Marr, a clueless idiot par excellence. For someone so intelligent he is so completely, self-consciously off centre he has lost where the centre is. He'll lay the blame at the hideous treatment he claims has been perpetrated upon him by the Anglican Church - newsflash: they disagreed with his lifestyle choices, quelle horreur. And to add insult to injury, when he tells them to reform, they tell him to get stuffed. So now he doesn't believe in God, which in the Christian world is cutting off your nose to spite your face. Doesn't leave himself with much wriggle room, come judgement day.

In second place, is the principal of the school, now sacked, thankfully. Wonder if Henson will dig them out of the crap with a helping hand? Probably not.

I save the winning idiot title for Bill Henson himself. He and Marr clearly have a moral compass that points in odd directions, because not only did Henson do something reprehensibly creepy, Marr is defending him with the kind of slack-jawed dismay only he can display when someone disagrees with his impeccably, implacably correct correctness. Henson is obviously off the planet, he has no idea where the line is but Marr should know better. He's a journalist who lives in the real world some of the time (if you count being molly-coddled by Tony Jones on Q&A and working for Fairfax the real world). He's supposed to be uncovering and eviscerating those responsible for betraying trust. What does he do? He defends it.

Marr doesn't have kids. In a way, thank goodness he's gay so he can't have any so we won't be seeing them nude in some art gallery while Marr and the artistic nutcases (who remain silent today) defend the exploitation.

Malcolm Turnbull, who Cath Deveney confidently proclaimed the only public voice of reason when the stink first happened, has expressed disgust. Ouch.

Henson's supporters painted him as the little boy lost last time around. Marr has now outed him as a kerb-crawling creep. Wonder who'll want to be profiled by Marr in future?