Once again, Clarence Valley Council fails to consult the community. This time it's CCTV

 


It would appear that there is no tier of Australian government that is not intent on recording as much as possible about the lives and activities of its constituents.

On this occasion it is Clarence Valley Council, intent on encouraging the installation of CCTV cameras in the predominately small business districts scattered along the length of the river, and being this particular council, once again not asking residents using these streets whether or not they wish to shop, pay their bills or have a coffee under the gaze of one or more 27/7 street spies.

The Daily Examiner 19 December 2012:

An innovative program funded by Clarence Valley Council will provide local businesses with financial support to install CCTV.
The program is focused on addressing crimes, including vandalism, graffiti and break and enter, throughout the Valley.
"While we must keep in mind that our levels of these crimes are relatively low in comparison with other areas, there are some concerning incidents of crime happening locally which the business community and council are rightly concerned about." said the Mayor, Richie Williamson.
"This program will work hand in hand with other council and community strategies that target crime."
The program was developed after a series of consultations with NSW Police and the local business community…

So with Clarence Valley Council intent on encouraging private business to intrude on our everyday lives, is there likely to be any real and lasting benefit from the Big Brother effect?

Apparently not:

Though billions of dollars are being spent world wide on CCTV systems, there is actually little evidence as yet of the success of CCTV to combat or deter crime or its cost effectiveness in doing so..

The evidence that the benefits of CCTV will fade after a period of time are backed up by a number of studies. [Townsville City Council paper 2001]

 

CCTV was found to have no significant impact on total offences, total offences against property (including other theft (excluding unlawful

entry), unlawful entry, other property damage, unlawful use of a motor vehicle and handling stolen goods) and total other offences (including drug offences, liquor (excluding drunkenness)) occurring in Surfers Paradise. Findings from Broadbeach indicated that CCTV had no impact on total offences or total offences against property (including other theft (excluding unlawful entry) and other property damage). [Bond University Humanities & Social Sciences papers 2006]

 

The American studies that met the criteria for the meta-analysis generally showed worse outcomes that those in the UK, showing an undesirable or null effect on crime….

Regarding violent crime, there appeared to be no statistically significant change in the level of crime anywhere in the 500 foot range around the cameras. [American Civil Liberties Union]

 

But before we rush to put all of Melbourne under surveillance, we should heed the example of Britain, which, in the past 20 years has spent billions of dollars on more than a million CCTV cameras across its cities, yet still has one of the highest crime rates in Europe.

Indeed, four years ago the policeman in charge of monitoring London's massive CCTV network described it as "an utter fiasco" that was responsible for solving only 3 per cent of crimes.

Detective Chief Insp Mick Neville said that police often avoided trawling through CCTV images "because it's hard work" and he believed criminals had no fear of CCTV.

The marginal effectiveness of CCTV in preventing crime has been well known for at least a decade. In 2002 a British Home Office review of studies into the effectiveness of CCTV in preventing crime found the overall reduction in crime in areas with CCTV was only 4 per cent. Half the studies examined showed CCTV had no effect on crime at all, and all showed it had no effect on violent crime. [The Herald Sun 28 September 2012]

 

The deputy director of the Sydney Institute of Criminology, Garner Clancey, says it is ''absolutely'' possible to move around the city without being caught on camera but most trips will be captured dozens if not hundreds of times.

However, there are questions over whether the huge costs to councils and the impositions on citizens' privacy are justified in an era when crime rates are falling.

''Crimes like motor vehicle theft and burglaries are falling,'' he said. ''Do we then say there's a point where cameras aren't cost-effective so we turn them off?

''Some of the crimes that have been increasing are around domestic violence where technologies like this will never have any impact so it's a difficult balancing act.'' [The Sydney Morning Herald 26 October 2012]

 

* Photograph found at Google Images

Quote of the Week

“if life is a game of cricket, there is some doubt over whether Mal Brough should even be allowed to carry the drinks”

{Malcolm Farr on 17^th December 2012 in The Punch}

Which Ian Causley would that be?

As always, we at NCV are willing to take advice about matters we don't get right.

Whilst travelling away from the local area one of the lads from the table of knowledge has informed me that yesterday a letter to the editor of the local paper (The Daily Examiner) appeared above the name of an 'Ian Causley', but no address appeared. Now, how could that have happened?

Is the letter writer a local, a legend in his own lunch time, or a visitor from who-knows-where?

Unhappy at coverage

I am very disappointed with the reporting by The Daily Examiner in regard to ,,,

Ian Causley

Telling It Like It Is: Metgasco at Glenugie on the NSW North Coast

 

Henderson’s Allegations Baseless

Barry Fletcher, Glenugie

 

I write regarding the item ‘Lawless vigilantes delay CSG drilling at Glenugie’ featured in an ABC North Coast news item of 5 December, 2012, and available at http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/12/05/3648111.htm?site=northcoast.

These are the reported words of one Peter Henderson, identified as the CEO of Metgasco.

He was described as not mincing his words and while he may not have been mincing his words he was effectively mincing the truth in so far as he spoke of ‘lawless vigilantes’ taking unjustified action.

I was the ‘police liaison person’ on that day. I am not a lawless vigilante. I am a retired Probation and Parole Office now working peacefully as a Tea Tree Farmer within the small water catchment where Metgasco have begun their ‘activities’. My wife and I are long-term residents here and live just 1300 metres from the drilling site.

To describe me, or the gathering of people, of whom Deb Whitely was one, as ‘lawless vigilantes’ is simply wrong and offensive as well. In using these words Mr Henderson should realise that he is not endearing himself or Metgasco to the general public. While his non-mincing of words may appeal to some, it is a losing strategy among those who give genuine thought to the implications of Metgasco’s activities in this area and elsewhere.

Mr Henderson was not an eye-witness to the events of that day. He was not in the vicinity. He has relied on hearsay and that hearsay is wrong.

I also take issue with these words in the news report:

‘… while frustrated contractors looked on in disgust’.

An interview with the contractor who drove the truck to which Deb Whitely locked on may well give a different picture. May I suggest that someone from the media actually ask him. Ask him also if he intends to continue doing contract work for Metgasco after his experience on that day, which included meeting in a friendly atmosphere with some of the ‘lawless vigilante’ ladies who brought him a cup of tea while he sat for three and more hours in his truck. I believe that they were some of the ‘Knitting Nannas’ from Grafton. Hardly lawless vigilantes!

I spoke to the police a number of times on that day as ‘liaison person’. Every police officer was courteous to the people present in the difficult circumstances of such a gathering. The people too were co-operative with police yet stood their ground within the law. There were no arrests of ‘lawless vigilantes’.

Mr Henderson’s ill-chosen words do him no credit and are offensive to the people present on that day including Deb Whitley and by implication represents a serious criticism of the police for failing to deal with ‘lawless vigilantes’.

Let Deb Whitley’s words be heard:

‘It’s an extreme measure and I don’t know if it would be the best way but it seems like we have no choice, because we don’t seem to be heard by the government, or by Metgasco, or by mining companies about our fears in the area.’

I have expressed my views on the above to the ABC but I think it is an important enough issue to be brought to the attention of your readers, many of whom, I expect, take notice of the ABC. I believe that the general public should be informed of facts in relation to the happenings of that day and the activities of coal-seam gas companies in general.

The 10 Pound Pom too busy "doing very important things" to read Rares judgment

Lord luv a duck! Australia’s most infamous assisted immigrant is at it again.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has admitted he is supporting friend and former colleague Mal Brough even though he has not read the damming Rares judgement.

The reason he hasn’t bothered to look at this judgement?

Why he’s been too busy “doing very important things” back in his mother country.

Presumably it’s been taking all his energy to brush up on his “Oxford cast of mind”.

Pic from The Suite World

The pain is not over for Brough, McArdle, Pyne, Entsch & the rest of Abbott's merry men

Ashby and his backers get an early and unwelcome Christmas present.

In the matter of James Asby v Commonwealth of Australia and Peter Slipper:

Knit happens! Clarence Valley loop of the Knitting Nannas Against (Coal Seam) Gas have a blog

 

http://knaggrafton.blogspot.com.au/

 

Along with other community members from the Clarence Valley and supporters from elsewhere in the Northern Rivers, the Grafton Loop of Knitting Nannas Against Gas (KNAG), has been in regular attendance at the Glenugie site where coal seam gas miner Metgasco plans a test drill.

Australia and the Internet in 2012

 

 

 

Google's search engine is probably still the most popular method to look for information on the Internet and Google Trends is often a window into what Australians are searching for.

Here are four graphs created in December 2012 broadly covering general interests, selected Australian identities and terms covering some of this year's topical subjects:

 

In the last graph the term racism had too few searches to register

 

And one more for the Northern Rivers....  

 

 



Google’s Zeitgeist 2012 gives a global view of  the most popular search terms.

How we see our public hospitals on the NSW North Coast

 

Even though Hospital Performance 2012 shows New South Wales has some of the longest emergency department waiting times in the country and the Healthcare in Focus 2012 report indicates that we are more likely to die than our metropolitan cousins within a month of public hospital treatment for heart attack or stroke in regional NSW, it appears that the majority of patients are relatively satisfied with the care they received as outpatients.

 

Comparisons of standardised ratings of outpatients’ overall ratings of care in NSW public hospitals, February 2010*

 

 

*Outpatient care module of the NSW Health Patient Survey 2010

 

 

Patient Care Experiences: Outpatient services in NSW public hospitals  August 2011

 

Inquiry into Closure or Downsizing of Corrective Services NSW Facilities: attempting to politicize or bluntly telling it like it was?

A political decision was made by the O’Farrell Government to use the NSW public service as a cost cutting measure in the face of a 2011-12 budget deficit that wasn’t.

 

One of the local casualties was Grafton Gaol and its staff.

 

The Daily Examiner has taken a disapproving tone towards unspecified politicizing during NSW Legislative Council Select Committee into the Closure or Downsizing of Corrective Services NSW Facilities hearings:

 

SIX Grafton witnesses called to give evidence into jail downsizing and closures shrugged off attempts to politicise the debate during yesterday's hearing at the South Grafton Ex-Servicemen's Club.

The Select Committee into the Closure or Downsizing of Corrective Services NSW Facilities called six witnesses: Mayor Richie Williamson, Clarence Valley Community Union representatives Tony King and Kassie Packwood, and Sandy Stewart, James Paterson and Jeremy Challacombe, from the Chamber of Commerce, to give evidence and answer its questions…..

 

I didn’t attend any of the Inquiry hearings to date so I have no idea how many speakers giving evidence mentioned the political background and, as the Grafton hearing transcript has still not been posted online I remain unenlightened.

However, what the Sydney hearing transcript shows is that one member of the select committee, Liberal Party MP David Clarke, appears to be more inclined to put the O'Farrell Government's case for the gaol closure than to seek to understand how this closure unfolded.

One has to wonder if this attitude continued once the Select Committee came to the Clarence Valley.

 

I do have a transcript of this speech from the 10 December 2012 Grafton public forum which accompanied that day’s hearing and readers can make up their own minds as to the legitimacy or otherwise of addressing the politics behind the gaol closure:

 

Firstly, I would like to thank the NSW Legislative Council for holding this Inquiry and for coming to the City of Grafton today to get an on-the-ground appreciation of how important an institution Grafton Gaol has been to the local economy and social fabric of the Clarence Valley.

 

A little over a year ago, I was fighting a by-election as the Country Labor candidate for Clarence, and one of my campaign issues was to warn of the possible privatisation or closure of Grafton Gaol.

 

My submission to this inquiry, written on behalf of Country Labor’s Grafton and Lower Clarence branches, outlines how this wasn’t hot air; we ended up with an effective closure, forced through without consultation.

 

This inquiry hopefully will put the downsizing of Grafton Gaol into some Statewide context and give Graftonians some answers to their questions about why this most political of decisions was made.

 

The people never accepted this decision and instinctively rallied to protest against it, in a way seldom witnessed in such a traditionally conservative rural area.

 

I pay tribute to the real heroes of the six-day picket outside the gates of the gaol -- those folk of all ages and backgrounds who came out of their homes and camped out to defy the powers that be, and keep a vigil over their gaol.

 

This decision came from Sydney; Corrective Services senior management had wanted to break up the culture of Grafton Gaol (whatever that meant), and this was a convenient fit with the Liberals ideological slashing of State public service jobs.

 

What would Grafton-born Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page – founder of the old Country Party and Australia’s 11th Prime Minister – have  thought of the National Party’s weak capitulation to the Sydney Liberals’ agenda?

 

Sir Earle was a conviction politician; he harboured the northerners' resentment of the 'Sydney octopus' and the Page family had been active in calls for a new State.

 

In January 1915, Sir Earle launched what became the Northern New South Wales Separation League in Grafton and in a grassroots network, formed more than 20 local branches.

 

He argued that metropolitan interests had stunted northern growth. The New State movement did not prevail, but its spirit lives on from time to time. It did in the people’s picket line.

 

The State Member for Clarence's evidence to this inquiry in Sydney and his recent comments to The Daily Examiner are unconvincing and smack of revisionism.

 

Regardless of when the MP was told of the plan to axe ‘x’ number of local jobs, he should have instinctively known that the right thing to do was to fight for those jobs.

 

Instead, he was quite prepared to sell out Grafton. Remember when this fellow was Mayor of Maclean Shire Council, he denigrated Grafton City Council when it suited his political campaign against council amalgamation.

 

And what can one make of the State Member for Clarence’s quote: “I was in the middle of an accident. It was an exceptional set of circumstances and everyone was on holidays, including the Premier.”

 

The electorate was looking for exceptional leadership, but it wasn’t to be found.

 

And the leaders of the Nationals, the party that so many of the electorate voted for in March 2011, were absent and silent as this betrayal of the bush was played out.  

 

Peter Ellem

Walking the Bendy Bridge to protest against coal seam gas exploration in the Clarence Valley

Grafton Bridge, Sunday 16 December 2012

 

According to CSG Free Northern River’s Facebook page:

 

At the final tally there were approximately.....1,000 people in attendance….a very good turnout in numbers for a quickly organised short notice event…

As the year ends Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's disapproval rating climbs to the second highest in Nielsen poll history

 

Fairfax-Nielsen telephone poll for 13-15 December 2012

Columns left to right: Sept 13-14, Oct 18-20, Nov 15-17, December 13-15

Media reports indicate that 75 per cent of Nielsen poll respondents were aware of the AWU affair
Poll respondents numbered 1,400
Margin of error is +/- 2.6%

 

The Age 17 December 2012:

If preferences are instead calculated

by how respondents say they will allocate them,

the gap between the parties is narrower,

with the Coalition on 51 per cent and Labor on 49.

As 2012 draws to a close Alan Jones is finally forced to publicly apologize for racist remarks which led to a full-scale riot in 2005

 

The text of the forced apology:

 

"On 28 April 2005 on my breakfast program on Radio 2GB, I broadcast comments about Lebanese males including Lebanese Muslims.

"The comments were made following a Channel Nine television current affairs show about the conduct of young Lebanese men in Hickson Road at the Rocks.

"The Administrative Decisions Tribunal has found that my comments incited serious contempt of Lebanese males including Lebanese Muslims.

"Those comments were in breach of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act.

"I apologise for making those comments which I recognise were unlawful.

"I also apologise on behalf of Radio 2GB."

The reason for this apology:

13 In the decision granting leave for the complaint to proceed, the Tribunal characterised the complaint as relating to three comments made by Alan Jones (AJ): Ekermawi v Jones and Harbour Radio Pty Ltd t/as Radio 2 GB [2010] NSWADT 262 at [3]. Those comments are italicised. The immediate context is also included.

 

First comment

 

P: The police obviously can't or won't do anything about it. The politicians are not listening to us as usual. If need be, mate, I'll get babysitters for my kids on Sunday and I'll be down there.

AJ: OK. Now, let me tell you, P, let me just say this to you because - you know I'm the person that's led this charge here. Nobody wanted to know about North Cronulla. Now, it's gathered to this, we really have to be hands off here we don't want a situation whereby there's open warfare between people calling themselves Aussie whites and people calling themselves Lebs or whatever. We have at least alerted the government.

 

Second comment

 

AJ: And the text message urges Aussies yesterday to take revenge and Lebs and wogs. Now it's got pretty nasty when you start talking like this. It says, "Come to Cronulla this weekend to take revenge. This Sunday every Aussie in the Shire get down to North Cronulla to support the Leb and wog bashing day . . ."

I do understand what people are saying, let's give the police a chance to do the job. And I can understand the young blokes who've sent that text message yesterday, "Come to Cronulla this weekend to take revenge", it says. "This Sunday every Aussie in the Shire get down to North Cronulla to support the Leb and wog bashing day, bring your mates, let's show them that this is our beach and they're never welcome." Well, now that's not the way, I do understand what you're saying, P, but we've just got to back off a bit here. We're not giving any ground to them. I'm saying backing off and letting, backing off and let the police do the job.

 

Third comment

 

AJ: Yeah, well I've got, I've got a stack of emails in front of me, let me read you this one, "Alan, its not just a few Middle Eastern bastards at the weekend, its thousands. Cronulla is a very long beach and it's been taken over by this scum. It's not a few causing trouble. It's all of them, it's an attitude that you feel whenever you go there, it's just straight out racism against the skippies, it will not go away, the police have their hands tied - I'll come to that later in the program - reduce numbers and powers, I wish there was an answer".

Coal Seam Gas: "the constant noise of drilling went on, 24/7, for months on end...followed by diesel motors rattling away for years to drive the pumps"

Letter to the Editor in The Daily Examiner 10 December 2012:

Democracy inaction

OUR elected representatives appear to have no understanding of the meaning of the word democracy, flippantly rejecting public concerns about coal seam gas mining and the climate consequences of burning it.
Fortunately some media outlets are prepared to publish opinion pieces based on the solid evidence that is available, and bring the facts to the public.
On December 4, The Guardian's George Monbiot summed up the issue with the following comment -
"Preventing climate breakdown - the four, five or six degrees of warming now predicted for this century by green extremists like, er, the World Bank, the International Energy Agency and PriceWaterhouseCoopers - means confronting the oil, gas and coal industry. It means forcing that industry to abandon the four-fifths or more of fossil fuel reserves that we cannot afford to burn. It means cancelling the prospecting and development of new reserves".
At Wednesday's meeting in Lismore, local member Thomas George and minister Brad Hazzard were left in no doubt as to the general public's thought about the way their concerns have been scornfully dismissed.
One lady's statement registered with me above many others: "What I struggle to understand is why my property has to be trashed to provide cheap fuel for China," she said.
As I left the Lismore venue an elderly man told me: "You have no idea how intrusive this bloody awful industry is. I've got a cluster of four wells grouped within metres of each other, just 210m from my home. They were all drilled at different times and the constant noise of drilling went on, 24/7, for months on end. That was followed by diesel motors rattling away for years to drive the pumps.
"It's just endless and we can't get away from it. Yet planes have to stop running overnight, and we can't mow our lawns before 7am on a Sunday because of the noise."
This is what Glenugie residents will have to put up with if Metgasco finds a viable gas resource at The Avenue drill site.
So is it any wonder the workers have been met with abuse and opposition?

John Edwards

South Grafton

More belt tightening on the way for APN newspapers?

 

In recent years the number of press releases (often published almost verbatim with source unattributed) masquerading as news articles has been steadily growing in Australian mainstream media generally and in Northern Rivers media in particular.

 

With little or no critical evaluation of the contents of these releases finding its way into print and journalistic opinion frequently being substituted for investigation; sometimes by the time one reaches page five of any newspaper it almost feels as if the proprietor should be paying readers and not the other way round.

 

APN News & Media, which has an established presence in regional New South Wales, saw its shares hit a new low that immediately wiped an estimated $33 million off its market value after declaring its publishing revenue down 10 per cent in the second half of this year on 13 December.

 

With another $25 million in cost cutting scheduled for 2013, it is hard to see how regional newspapers like The Daily Examiner and The Northern Star will be able to resist the temptation to pad their daily issues even further with the viewpoint of political and industry interests churned out in cost-free publishable form by people paid to further party or corporate agendas.

 

It’s becoming harder and harder to believe that print media has a legitimate future as it begins a slow devolution in the direction of 17th Century propaganda sheets.

Time to turn off more lights?

 

This is an image of Australia at night, created by Canadian scientist Felix Pharand-Deschênes:

 

 

According to The Climate Group, between 30 November - 6 December 2012 the combined greenhouse gas emissions of NSW, Vic, Qld, SA and Tas were 33 per cent above 1990 levels.

Electricity from coal this year to date produced 1.058 million tonnes CO2e in these five states.

How much of the light intensity in this picture would be reduced if Australian businesses turned off all those unnecessary, electrical advertising and architectural lights which blaze from their buildings each night?

Sometimes the young make my heart sing - Part Seven

Jules Rau's Photos

 

Squee Alert!

Le merle lointain ‏@merl04 

Otter pups pic.twitter.com/fKe4aRqN Retweeted by Cranky Frog

 

Antipodean Watergate: What did Tony know and when did he know it?

21 April 2012 front page

 

At 1am in the morning of 21 April 2012 The Daily Telegraph online published a series of articles and an editorial^** breaking news that the then Speaker of the House of Representatives Peter Slipper was being taken to court by a member of his staff.

 

On that same day Opposition Leader Tony Abbott issued a media release titled Statement on Peter Slipper MP.

 

The timing of this media release is now a subject of interest, as there is speculation that Abbott knew the basic facts concerning the application to the court before news broke in the Australian media.

 

The Sydney Morning Herald 13 December 2012:

 

The metadata of the media release on the Ashby matter sent by Mr Abbott's office to media outlets indicates it was "created" at 11.08pm on Friday, April 20, 2012 - before News Limited published its exclusive story on the Saturday.

Asked to explain the discrepancy between the time the document was apparently created and transmitted to the media at 9.17am on the Saturday, Mr Abbott's office said that during April the computer server timestamps were sometimes out by up to 10 hours.

AAP saw several other documents on an office computer which showed the same discrepancy.

"Our records clearly show that the press release was drafted, converted into a PDF, and issued on the morning of the April 21, 2012," a spokesman for Mr Abbott told AAP. [my red bolding]

 

Abbott’s maths just don’t add up. In endeavouring to explain away what at first glance appears to be a pre-emptive media release, he forgets to check the Internet and therefore does not discover the fact that his Statement on Peter Slipper MP media release is quoted in the published transcript of an 8am radio show a whole 1 hour and 10 minutes before the revised time he gives for transmission by his office of that same media release.

ABC AM Staffer accuses Slipper of sexual harrasment

Adam Harvey reported this story on Saturday, April 21, 2012 08:07:00

 

ELIZABETH JACKSON: The Federal Opposition has called for the Prime Minister to stand down the Parliamentary Speaker Peter Slipper after allegations today that he sexually harassed a young male staffer and misused taxpayer-funded Cabcharges.

In a statement issues this morning the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, said it was "incumbent on the Prime Minister to require him to stand aside until the matters were concluded before the courts"…. [my red bolding]

Obviously the media release began its journey before the start of the business day, so when was it created, where and by whom?

 

Footnote:

^**Read extracts of the allegations made against Speaker Peter Slipper

^**Sexual harassment allegations include claims of bizarre behaviour

^**Editorial: A scandal that is no small matter

^**Crisis: Court case a slippery slope for Gillard

Update:

14 December 2012 snapshot of the document properties

of the April 2012 media release

Statement on Peter Slipper MP

supplied to Australian Parliament House by Tony Abbott

 

UPDATE 17 December 2012:

 

I have been sent the original, unedited PDFs by a journalist. Looking at the PDFs & the date formatting, it seems the date output by MS Word 2007 has defaulted to a “null time zone” format, meaning it is timestamped with the local time....

Some testing by twitter users with Word 2007 & Adobe Acrobat have confirmed that a file output by Word 2007 with a null time zone will be reverted to Zulu time upon being edited & saved in Adobe Acrobat as there is no timezone information available so Acrobat assumes Zulu time. This does mean that the original files were output at 23:08 (& 32 seconds) on 20/04/12 in the AEST (+10hrs) time zone, meaning Abbott’s office was not only aware of the impending report from News LTD, but had enough time to prepare a statement the night before. [Sortius 10 Hours of Bullshit ]

 

UPDATE 18 December 2012:

 

The Australian today; The Department of Parliamentary Services, however, backed Mr Abbott's explanations on Monday after The Australian raised the issue earlier in the day. "The date stamp on the document in question is incorrect," said a DPS spokeswoman. "The press release was created on the 21 April, 2012.

"DPS technical staff can see that the original Word document was saved at 9.07am on April 21, 2012 AEST. The document was converted to a PDF at 9.08am on April 21, 2012 AEST.
"The time on the date stamp is 10 hours behind AEST due to a technical problem."

This limited explanation does not explain why it was only the PC of one particular staffer which was affected and only one particular media release among the multitude Abbott sent out in 2012.