Beaconsfield mine rockfall survivor describes impact of his lost anonymity in new podcast

Beaconsfield mine rockfall survivor Todd Russell describes the ongoing impact of his lost anonymity in a new podcast by a Tasmanian journalist and academic.

• No answer on AFL team means no contracts for Hawks, Roos: Premier
• Boycott to stop Facebook’s $2.5m a day ad profit

BEACONSFIELD mine rockfall survivor Todd Russell describes the ongoing impact of his lost anonymity in a new podcast on so-called accidental celebrities.

The podcast, by Tasmanian journalist and academic Fiona Reynolds, has been sitting between first and third positions on Apple’s Australian podcast chart since its first episode launched earlier this month.

Launceston journalist Fiona Reynolds' new podcast Accidental Celebrity explores the impact of sudden fame on 'ordinary Australians’ including mine rockfall survivor Todd Russell.

The weekly segments also feature interviews with people who were thrown into the media spotlight by accident or tragedy, including Stuart Diver, Rosie Batty, Lindy Chamberlain and Bruce and Denise Morcombe.

“Throughout my journalism career, I saw many ordinary people suddenly became the focus of media and public attention through tragedy,” Dr Reynolds said.

“I wondered whether these accidental celebrities had anything in common.”

Mr Russell, in an episode to be launched on March 1, gives a brutal assessment of the national media attention directed at him and fellow survivor Brant Webb in the days after their miraculous rescue from the collapsed mine in northern Tasmania in 2006.

Rescued miners Todd Russell (front) and Brant Webb wave as they walk from the lift after they were rescued.

“There’s just no privacy,” Mr Russell says in the episode titled The Great Escape.

“You had them camping up on the hill with those big telescopic lenses. I thought that was quite rude when you’re trying spend time with the family because you’ve been away from them for 14 days.”

He also reveals his ongoing struggle with fame.

“The trouble with being such a high profile person is that you’ve got to be on top of your game 100 per cent, because as soon as you’re seen doing something wrong and someone catches it on a telephone or something like that, they think ‘Well, we would make some money out of this’ and then they go and sell it to a network and the next you know you’re back in the spotlight again. That’s my fear,” Mr Russell says.

Beaconsfield mine disaster survivor and Beaconsfield Fire Brigade chief Todd Russell.

Having worked across print, radio and television journalism for 30 years, Dr Reynolds said she had plenty of “cringe” moments during the interviews.

“We in the media make these people publicly recognisable, often whether they want to be or not, then they have to live with the consequences of that,” Dr Reynolds said.

“It’s become impossible for most to get an ordinary job. If listeners better understand the role everyone plays in the news cycle and can see accidental celebrities as ordinary people, which is how they see themselves, then I’ve done my job.”

Accidental Celebrity The Great Escape launches on March 1. Go to

www.accidentalcelebrity.com.au

Originally published as Beaconsfield mine rockfall survivor describes impact of his lost anonymity in new podcast