In an earlier blog post I mentioned that I was going to write about a media incident that recently threw our lives into a bit or turmoil. Well, my life hubby is not as affected by such things as me. He is stronger than me when it comes to matters of the heart. I take more personally things said, I need to analyse and do a full check of myself before I can move on. It was a tough week! Here's the first part of the story:
A few weeks ago, The Project on channel 10 contacted us about a doing a story on the high costs of IVF, especially if you experience several unsuccessful rounds in your journey to trying to have a baby. Anyway, a few months ago hubby set up a crowd-funded page for friends and family overseas who had indicated they would like to donate some money so we could do a fifth and final attempt to give our little girl a baby brother or sister (she regularly asks me to grow a baby in my belly and also prays for a baby, a 'real one, not a pretend one'.). The Project came across this page and that is how they made contact. The premise for the interview (that would be televised nationally) was a focus on the high costs of IVF and making people aware of these high costs and that the gofundme page would be mentioned briefly if someone felt the desire to donate. No pressure, no expectations. Well that is how I understood it.
Sadly, my intrigue about appearing on national TV clearly clouded my thinking, that a controversial topic like this could potentially be a great hook for viewership. The interviewer was great. We covered plenty of information. The televised interview wasn't bad, though there was some parts of the interviewI would've not cut out. Anyway, the story did talk about the high costs of IVF though there was more mention of the crowd-funding than I expected. The panel were pretty positive about the cause though, in our interview the part where we explained that setting up crowd-funding made it much easier for friends and family to donate was omitted for the general public.
On their website and Facebook page things went absolutely crazy. All it said was 'Would you crowd-fund a baby?' Seriously? That is not the story I signed up for, but they capitalised in my life, my journey and made a media spectacle of my family. I am not impressed at how it was portrayed on the internet at all. I sent them an email but by the time the posts were removed all the bitter, ugly comments had already scarred my heart. The fact that they could use something so sensitive to promote viewership is beyond me. I really should know the media better.
I have learnt a valuable lesson and I will share more about this with you tomorrow. I hope you will follow my story of stupidity. Someone said 'Go big or go home', well this story of embarrassing myself certainly went big - if you are going to make a fool of yourself, why not do it nationally. (Hey, at least I can laugh at myself now, despite some lingering heart ache)
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