From "CRIKEY":
Has the Press Gallery ever stooped so low?By an angry Labor staffer
The past week has been without doubt, the most disgraceful week in the history of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. The entire gallery was so scared of others getting the jump on them they were prepared to engage in a week of baseless speculation driven by rumour and innuendo about Mark Latham, rather than facts. They completely suspended the requirement that only stories that are proven by the facts be run.
So on Saturday we had Louise Dodson telling SMH readers "the Labor leader is yet to respond to other revelations - reports of a raunchy video taken at his bucks' night before his second marriage." So why should he Louise? If I start a rumour the Prime Minister is a child molester does he have to respond to that as well?
The Sun-Herald also couldn't resist smear and rumor rather than facts, "Speculation has focused on a bucks' night in 1991, before Mr Latham's marriage, at which a stripper was a surprise guest".
Steve Lewis disgracefully ran the following allegation in The Australian on Saturday: "One Government minister told The Australian the Liberal Party was pursuing allegations that Mr Latham was involved in an incident during an earlier election that led to an unknown person breaking a collarbone."
So, now it's official. If the government makes up an allegation and tells The Australian then Rupert Murdoch's so-called quality broadsheet will publish it, regardless of the fact the reporter has absolutely no facts whatsoever to back it up. Ok Steve, I am now investigating whether Tony Abbott is a closet homosexual. I have no facts to back this up, but I am investigating it. Are you going to publish it? Thought not.
Most disgracefully of all, Glenn Milne, who himself has experience of a broken marriage and some pretty saucy rumours about his behaviour on overseas trips, repeated the allegations by Latham's wife, and also declared the rumor and innuendo a fact.
"And over the past 48 hours there's been fevered speculation in Canberra about the existence of a raunchy buck's night video involving Latham - and whether that was the smoking gun about to be fired by Sunday . Frankly, this was always going to happen. It was just a matter of time. Political insiders have always been aware of several stories - untested it has to be emphasised - about Latham's attitude to women."
Lincoln Wright deserves a special dishonourable mention for the News Ltd attempt to trump Sunday by again digging into the failed marriage and running one side of a marriage break up as though it were new, and a fact.
Given this new willingness to purse the formerly off-limits area of politicians personal lives I assume the front page next week then will be about the Liberal "family man" and front bencher who rams his personal morals and religion down everyone's throat in Parliament and in his electorate, yet has been carrying on a long term affair with a staffer. If not why not?
This has been without doubt the saddest and sorriest week in the history of the Press Gallery.
CRIKEY: Wow, what a spray naming and shaming the big offenders. How on earth will the papers deal with complaints like this going forward? We bet they won't publish letters like this one but Crikey is more than happy to facilitiate the debate so send your feedback to
[email protected] and don't be afraid to have a go at us if you reckon we've overstepped the mark as well.
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And I loved the way that the "witness" (who verified that Lathan had hit the other fellow first) was silhouetted, because he didn't wish to be identified! 