The Australian's non-exclusive 'exclusive' first published by P&I
January 24, 2022
When is an exclusive not an exclusive? When it runs in_The Australian._ Pearls and Irritations had the real Paul Keating exclusive over the weekend.
Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian is at it again: “Exclusive - Paul Keating has launched a scathing attack on Britain, saying Australia’s oldest ally suffers from ‘delusions of grandeur and relevance deprivation’”. What’s the scam?
The scam is the Keating story ran in John Menadue’s Pearls and Irritations, exclusively, two days earlier. Somehow, Rupert’s rag ran a page one Keating “exclusive”, a page two Keating “exclusive” and a story on its opinion pages, all bagging Keating and failing to give attribution to earlier press reports, the actual exclusive.
Shonky journalism as usual from Murdoch’s mob, even topped off by a hyper-ironic column in its media section by former editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell titled, “Facts come second for journos partial to worry porn” which notwithstanding the newspaper’s daily sensationalising about the military threat from China, and the daily barrage of purported “exclusives” put the boot into “catastrophist journalism”.
You couldn’t make this stuff up … oh wait, they do. Pearl and Irritations’ storyhere:
Michael West
Michael West is the founder of michaelwest.com.au, focusing on journalism of high public interest. He spent eight years as a commentator with The Australian and another eight years with the Sydney Morning Herald as a journalist and editor,
Michael is a Walkley-award winner and Adjunct Professor at the University of Sydney’s School of Social and Political Sciences.