Boom! Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap…

That’s the sound of a million journalists, bloggers, and gossipmongers typing away frenetically at the announcement of Schapelle Corby’s guilty verdict.

Nothing else matters now. Whether she’s a looker, whether the media is trying to sway popular opinion, whether politicians are merely grabbing for attention, and even whether she did or didn’t do it.

It just doesn’t matter.

Appeals will be lodged, news shows will run their special reports, and exclusive interviews. Regardless of the verdict, this circus was always going to happen.

If she were found guilty (which she was), then there would be explosions of outrage, and the media would lap it up as one of our own is shackled in a gruesome display of what it would dub “injustice”.

If she were found not guilty, there would be an explosion of outrage from anti-drug groups in Indonesia, our media would lap it up as Schapelle’s prayers were answered, and that “justice” was found. Cue Indonesian media outlets decrying the Indonesian justice system for being coerced by pressures outside the Indonesian jurisdiction.

It was always going to be lose-lose.

The only difference would be the side of the bars the interviews with Corby would take place.

May her God help her through her ordeal, somehow.