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I CONFESS! I CONFESS!

A shocking Hinch confession on a Sunday morning – and I don’t even go to church.

I have been caught by the radio “cash for comment” scandal from which Sydney’s notorious mouths for hire – John Laws and Alan Jones – escaped virtually unscathed. There, I have confessed. Exposed. Humiliated.

I have been pinged by the powerful, omnipotent, Australian Broadcasting Authority, and my crime was of such magnitude that the owners of 3AK felt so threatened and so cowered that they threatened me with suspension from the airwaves last Tuesday.

I wasn’t involved in radio’s version of extortion or kickbacks.

I didn’t ebulliently praise a telephone company on air while secretly taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the phone company. I didn’t attack the banking villains and then change my mind and start praising them while forgetting to tell my listeners that I was quietly on the banks’ payroll and was virtually accepting hush money a la Laws.

I didn’t stop praising one Telco (Optus) because another one (Telstra) started showering my radio station with money a la Jones.

I didn’t even rave about what a great car a Volvo or a BMW is while omitting to confide in listeners that I had been given a free one.

My radio crime is right here on this page. I write a regular column for this newspaper. Hardly a secret. This column carries my name and even my photograph.

My dastardly crime was that under the new Disclosure Standard set down by the ABA (after the Laws-Jones inquiry) I had not revealed, had not disclosed on the 3AK website, that I received money for writing these words.

Shock, horror! A print journalist for nearly 45 years “ hiding” what he does for a living.

I was asked by station management, after several misguided (maybe even malicious) media inquiries to reveal the details of my newspaper contract. I declined.

And I am so confident of that position – legally, ethically and morally – that I am happy to reveal details of the saga here in the offending column.

Several weeks ago I was approached by a producer from the ABC’s Media Watch asking questions about why I had not disclosed my newspaper connection on the 3AK website.

I explained the reasons in detail in two interviews and subsequently I was not mentioned in a story Media Watch did on the ABA and compliance issues.

This week I was approached by the Australian newspaper’s Media writer Mark Day asking similar questions.

I gave him the same answers that I gave to the ABC. Explanations that I also gave to 3AK management.

I happily conceded that yes, I write a fortnightly column for the Sunday Herald Sun. I am a professional journalist -- unlike Laws and Jones who call themselves entertainers – and I have been for more than forty years.

I stressed that this column has no connection with my radio career. My name is prominently featured on the column. If I went on air and urged listeners to BUY the Herald Sun then I believe I would have to register my connection. If my association with this newspaper demanded that I praise the publication then the same would apply.

It doesn’t. In fact, I regularly give the daily and Sunday editions of the newspaper a kicking on my radio programme about specific stories or issues. And as a former newspaper editor I can be a righteous “Monday morning quarterback”.

If I wrote under a pseudonym, or had somebody else write my column

(as Laws did for years in Sydney until the cash for comment scandal) and if I used it to praise 3AK there could be legitimate questions from the ABA. It would be unethical.

I stressed that the column was not in breach and in fact I raised it with the 3AK Compliance Officer last year and Nick Pappas -- a former Chief Magistrate in Victoria – agreed with me.

Think of this: I have written seven books. In the next few months I may sign a new contract with Penguin that pays me a healthy advance. That has tiddly-squat to do with my radio programme or my radio responsibilities unless I went on air and praised Penguin Books.

I am also involved in a company, which plans to launch a new product in this country next year. That is none of the ABA’s business. It is none of 3AK’s business -- unless I go on air and tell my listeners what a great product it is. And don’t tell them – or you – that I own it and will make a profit from it.

I believe I know what “full and frank disclosure” means – and I welcome the crackdown on the exploiters. In fact there has not been a more trenchant critic of “cash for comment” by radio hucksters than I have been.

I would happily reveal and list on any website any commercial deal I had with any company that could be perceived to involve the radio part of my profession. A free car, if I had one. A bank. Telstra. Whatever. The truth is: I do not.

I have called Jones and Laws harlots, radio whores and extortionists – have mouth, will grovel -- and thought the ABA treated them lightly for their transgressions. I believe they traduced an industry I love and admire. And have said on radio and in print that I personally believed their transgressions deserved the sack.

But I am now a rebellious villain while Golden Tonsils and the Parrot laugh all the way to the bank.

Footnote: In the midst of all this I went to Sydney to honour one of the greats of Australian radio. Bob Rogers was honoured for his 60 years in the business. His peers genuinely showed him what they thought of him. Jones and Laws know what their peers think of them. And that’s a comfort.

Hinch can be heard on Talk 1116 3AK. 8.30 –Noon. Mon-Fri.

Alan: Can we talk about this. I will have to make some disclosure. dh

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2002