Media coverage causes pub brawl
A group of grieving men has allegedly been involved in a brawl with television reporters covering the deaths of a father and his two sons on the NSW south coast.
Around midnight at the Commercial Hotel in Bega, the group allegedly surrounded journalists from 7News, the Nine Network and Channel 10, upset at the media coverage of the tragedy.
It revolved around an animation broadcast on Nine News that showed a re-enactment of a pram with children falling from a wharf and the father jumping in after them.
Channel 10 reporter Daniel Sutton is reportedly suffering a cut lip and bumps to the head, with Nine News reporter Denham Hitchcock being treated at Bega Hospital.
It is understood both groups were drinking.
Members of the Bega Roosters Rugby League Club were mourning the loss of their mate, Shane O'Neill.
Mr O'Neill, 28, drowned while trying to save his two young sons, Riley, 4, and 15-month-old Travis, after the boys fell from a wharf at Tathra, near Bega, on Tuesday night.
Lifesavers jumped into dark choppy ocean waters minutes after hearing that a father and his two sons needed rescuing but were still too late.
Tony Rettke, the vice president of Tathra surf life saving club, and club president Scott Meaker arrived at the wharf within minutes of receiving a call for help.
They found 37-year-old Robert Brown, a protective services officer with the Australian Federal Police , in the water groaning and clinging to a rope.
Mr Brown had been on the wharf when Mr O'Neill dived into the sea after his two sons.
He jumped in to help them but also struggled in the rough conditions
"He (Mr Brown) was calling out. Not really saying anything," Mr Rettke said.
"He was holding onto a rope that some other fishermen had thrown over."
