Is Bindi Being Manipulated? Do We Like Eating Cheezburgers?

Those wacky UK tabloids aren’t all about electricity-spewing nervous systems, celebrity boob jobs and “The Time I Caught My Dog Having Sex With A Lesbian Makeup Artist” stories – sometimes they’re really on the money.

Today is such a day: in a moment of rare editorial clarity, The Mail wonders aloud “Are they turning Little Miss Croc Hunter into a money-making machine?“

We’d like to say, YES, YES THEY ARE! In any case, the piece draws attention to the less-savoury side to Steve Irwin, whcih most people managed to forget once he Died Doing What He Loved™.

My first encounter with Bindi Irwin is still clearly etched in my mind. Just a few weeks after she was born, her father Steve swept her up in his arms and marched along the zoo path, beckoning me to follow. ‘This is where it begins,’ he said.

Minutes later he was holding a huge python so close to Bindi’s face that its flashing tongue brushed her cheeks. ‘I want her to learn young, mate,’ said the proud new father, known to the world as the Crocodile Hunter.

Yes, he wants her to learn that animals are there to be manhandled and shoved in the face of newly-born babies, which, we might remind you, are sometimes considered a tasty treat by certain snakes.

What a GREAT GUY!