Gail Patterson, Don Patterson and Heather Wilkinson were murdered.
This is how media systematically erased them while turning their killer into some kind of grotesque food icon.
From the moment we knew a woman was suspected of murdering Heather, Gail and Don using mushrooms, the media across the globe turned this story into a farcical money-making machine.
The victims’ names were mentioned only in passing. Their photos were rarely used.
The puns ran thick and fast on every front page after the guilty verdicts. One paper featured Gail, Heather and Don’s photos.
Mamamia couldn’t even be bothered with the word ‘murder’, while the ABC watered the crime down to a lunch (PS: the victims are not death cap mushrooms – this is called othering).
The satirical media outlets turned the killing of three people into a joke while social media page owners took the piss with stupid memes.

The ABC’s live verdict blog didn’t even have a photo of the victims.
The recipe itself had more mentions than Gail, Heather and Don.
There were more photos published of the left-overs than the victims.
We now know more about the town of Morwell and ‘a day in the life of a journalist covering the trial’ than we do about the victims.
A massive mural of the killer appeared in Melbourne. And of course these photos were published more than photos of the victims.
Media are under no obligation to erase and other victims of violent crime. Ever.
But they do. And they do this because they are too obtuse to bother reporting ethically on violence .
The why is simple? Money. Every time you click on a story that erases or others the victim of a violent crime, you put money into the coffers of media outlets, their shareholders and their senior management.
The only way to change this story is for us not to engage with the product.
Erasing the dignity of victims is not journalism – it’s profit over humanity.

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