_The Australian_has become very liberal with their use of the word ‘EXCLUSIVE’.

My sister-in-law once worked for an Indonesian store erasing use-by date stamps to fool consumers into thinking the products fresh.

Her skills could be employed at The Australian where EXCLUSIVE gets mightily over-exposed. On 29 April the News Ltd daily used it to promote a page one story: Bats bit crazy: wet, wild world on our doorstep by Amanda Hodge Southeast Asia Correspondent.

Some hack has a different definition of the noun from Merriam-Webster: A news story at first released to or reported by only one source because the yarn appeared on 1 April here: https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/bat-viruses-in-indonesia-by-duncan-graham/ It was filed on location.

Maybe the label wasnt Hodges doing. Shes produced much excellent copy from this region, though along with other Jakarta-based correspondents like the ABCs Anne Barker has apparently shot through and may now be quarantined in Oz.

I asked Hodge her whereabouts She declined to reply. Which is her right.

Just as its mine to say: Followers flatter, but dont fool readers and palm off stale stories as fresh. Thats unpalatable.

Duncan Graham