news. what news?

When I was doing the Hinch current affairs programme on television I used to call Adelaide the Suppression capital of Australia. Courts over there would hand out suppression orders like confetti. Accused child-molesting priests, crooked lawyers, crooked cops, would all get their names suppressed.

Now I am starting to worry and wonder about what is going on in Melbourne. Have our newspapers lost their nerve?  What ever happened to the Pulitzer line: publish and be damned?

I remember several years ago when newspapers would not name the laboratory that had stuffed up on women’s pap smear tests.

 The failure to name the company struck fear in the hearts of thousands of women. That’s why I named them.

There are two classic examples of journalistic cowardice, in my opinion today, in one of the most successful newspapers in this country – the Melbourne Herald Sun.  The merged version of the Melbourne Herald and the Sun-Pic.

I’ll deal with the minor one first, and I can do this as a former metropolitan newspaper editor. There was a tragic story yesterday about a little boy who had his leg chopped off with an axe. Big story. Covered most of Page Three. The headline: “Baby Axe attack. Expert team saves toddler’s life and limb”.

He was allegedly attacked by his own mother. The story said the mother and son could not be named for legal reasons. Why not?

I don’t know her name. But if did I would name her.

But the bigger copout by the Herald Sun today covers two pages. All of Page One and much of Page Four.

The Page one headline says: Melbourne millionaires bought shares linked to Telstra secret deal”.  It features a stupid calendar and an artist’s impression of the backs of anonymous people.

The big headline: Rich club. It says that ten of Australia’s richest people swooped on shares in the same company that brought down Steve Vizard – all before crucial information was made public. It’s all about Sausage  Software  but where is the  sizzle?

Despite its Page One splash the newspaper says – about twenty pars in – that  the Herald Sun has chosen not to name the investors at this stage for legal reasons”.  Why not?

They must have checked the share register to get their Page One story. I’m not naming the mystery millionaires because I don’t know who they are. But if it so important that it covers Page One why didn’t a major newspaper have the guts to go with the names.  This is soft journalism. And they have the temerity to put on Page One the boast: Newspaper of the Year.  And I work  for them. Well, I do at the moment.

Tuesday, November 8, 2005

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2005