Politicians and their media consultants use various techniques to influence the media and therefore the public's opinions on certain topics. This was made abundantly clear by the 2001 “children at sea scandal” and politicians using the media to “control the agenda”; both of these examples attenuate how politicians rely on the media and vice versa. Politicians and the media have an interdependent relationship that means politicians have the ability to influence how the media reports stories. The 2001 "children at sea scandal" was one such example which saw the Howard government create false portrayals of asylum seekers arriving in Australia. The 2001 "children at sea scandal" is a prime example of how the government can intentionally manipulate images and videos that influence public opinion on certain issues. On 7 October 2001, images of children allegedly thrown off refugee ships were brought to the attention of Phillip Ruddock, the Immigration Minister. HMAS Adelaide was the first Australian vessel to intercept asylum seekers. Upon arrival, the Australian Navy conducted a rescue operation taking photos and videos of the operation. The next day, the Prime Minister, John Howard, became aware of the images and commented: "I don't want people in this country prepared, if those reports are true, to throw their children into the sea." John Howard, October 8, 2001, (Weller 2002). This led to manipulated images of the event being sent by post, later released by the Defense Minister, Peter Reith's media relations department. Because of the government's release of manipulated images of what had happened at the asylum seekers event and refusing to redact the... medium of paper... is a highly effective strategy and therefore being able to control the scope of what the media reported to the public. Bob Hawke was able to notice the differences between print and electronic media and their respective impact on audiences. This led Hawke to use Works Cited(Dellit, A 2002, How the 'children overboard' lie development, Green Left Weekly, March 6, 2002.(Herd, A 2006, Amplifying outrage over children overboard, Social Alternatives Vol. 25 No .2 Second Quarter, 2006)(Macken-Horarik, M 2003, Working across boundaries in racist discourse: the challenge of the 'Children Overboard Affair' in media texts, Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, 2003)(Marks, K 2001, Australian Prime Minister wins third term in 'Time of Crisis', The Independent - London, 12 November 2001) (Weller, P. 2002. Don't Tell the Prime Minister. Carlton North: Scribe Publications.)