DESPITE his foul mouth, the comedian Richard Pryor could be extremely funny, especially his routine about being caught by his wife in bed with another woman. “Who you going to believe,” he demanded, “me or your lying eyes?”* Pryor has been in his grave for quite a few years, but like all great philosophers his teachings live on, as readers of The Phage must surely have noticed. With every fresh example of that paper’s disregard for truth, contempt for accuracy and disdain for ethics, the louder its insistence that it represents “quality journalism”. Fairfax’s woes – declining circulations, withered revenues and depressed stock -- suggest ex-readers’ perceptions are a good deal more acute than those of the widow Pryor. Consider just a few of recent blots on the Phage’s escutcheon:
1/ Having destroyed Theo Theophanous with accusations of rape and, as a result, drawn a stern dressing down from the Press Council for its stitch-up, the Phage is now being sued for $20 million worth of slander by the purported victim, who swears she did not give an interview to the paper’s reporter, Carolyn Webb.
It is difficult to tap a vein of sympathy for either party in this case, as each seems no less appalling than the other. But get beyond that and one observation is irrefutable: if there was even one “quality journalist” on staff, the original story would not have been published and the paper would not now be heading back to court.
2/ While denouncing Rupert Murdoch’s hacking, the Phage was doing plenty of its own. Computers have been examined, police are investigating (and being sued), and only the Great Bunyip knows where it will end.
Does the Phage have an editor? Yes it does, and his defence of his paper’s right to plumb that Labor database is one of the things now hampering Victoria Police’s investigation.
Does the Phage have an editor? Yes it does, and his defence of his paper’s right to plumb that Labor database is one of the things now hampering Victoria Police’s investigation.
3/ Speak to a “quality journalist” and one might imagine that comments will be rendered as uttered. That was not the experience of Claire Watson, whose name came to the paper’s attention when its reporters were accessing the Labor database mentioned above.
“I feel my privacy has been breached by the journalist [Royce Millar], not the ALP," Watson complained to the Australian. "I agreed to share information with the ALP, but not with The Age. He seemed dodgy and was pleased with himself. He was so indignant with the ALP, but it is clear he was hacking my file. He was trying to whip me into outrage about it."
It is not that the Phage is a biased paper, it is that it is a thoroughly bad and terminally dishonest one. A city like Melbourne, a wonderful place to live, deserves better. Much better.
*Do not try this. It does not work.
