The Examiner of 23rd August, 2013 ( electronic edition: Watch our Bass candidates in action ) contained either a terrible gaffe by the editors or an outright prejudiced clout aimed at a standing candidate for Bass in the coming federal election. I would like to be charitable but when I received no answer for my ‘Letter to the Editor’, I have to give said paper a ‘Byline’: ‘Shonky’. Wiktionary meaning is, ‘Of poor or dubious quality or shoddy, unreliable’.
I have been buying, reading, writing for, and interviewed by the Examiner since arriving in Tasmania in 1972. We have had a very harmonious relationship. I used to be proud of working with one of the oldest newspapers in the world. Things change. Recently, The Examiner announced the highly controversial fine of $50k on John Gay without allowing reader’s comments and THEN they likewise showed similar favoritism towards two Bass Candidates. Goodness, I still miss Michael Courtney (ED) who always answered phone calls, letters or queries and who, amazingly, was always ready for a face to face conversation and was flawlessly fair. But then, our popular culture has changed. There was a time newspapers saw themselves as the eyes and ears of a community and a force for the good of its readers as well as a corrector and navigator for politicians. We do not have to look at the Big Press to discover transparent favouritism to the detriment of accurate news.
During my journalism master degree studies I was taught by some very skilled professors. They said, amongst other teachings, the good journalist must not take sides, must always seek to be accurate, well researched and must never try to embarrass a person…unless they earned that embarrassment such as Richard Nixon who earned his stripes.
So…to the said electronic edition of the Examiner. The election coverage showed a usual picture of the three major candidates for Bass sitting at a table and getting ready for a debate. All you had to do was click on the box and electronically, the story flashed onto the screen. There was a face-on picture of G. Lyons and his story. Click another box and there was A. Nickolic’s face-on picture and his story. Click on the third picture and there was a picture of the Greens candidate, Lucy Landon-Lane, not face-on but ass-on! I am not a medical doctor nor even good at fixing things but there is not much doubt that the ‘corrupted’ (that is what such manipulation of a story is called) picture was meant to demean, disgrace and degrade the Greens’ candidate. Oh, well, we might laugh that I should not get my knickers knotted as it is just a minor happening. “No big deal!” some might say.
It IS a big deal when the only local newspaper for northern and northeast Tasmania can corrupt the news when it wishes.
There is a precedent. You may remember when Malcolm Fraser was being given unholy hell in his last election; the media pounced unmercifully. They came up with the picture which certainly caused great concern for the Liberal camp. It was that famous snap of him from below his very tall frame. The picture focused on his large (now huge) jaw and his generous (now cavernous) nostrils. Various forms of the picture ran almost daily. He was made to look like a gargoyle. Incidentally, Mr. Fraser lost the election. No, the picture did not make him lose the election but it is worth a question mark as to what impact the grotesque shot had as well as giving a black mark to journalists.
Lucy Landon-Lane is not going to lose the election because of one corrupted picture. However, we DO get another insight into the level of journalism we see too often in The Examiner. There go any letters to the editor I might contribute in the future. Yes, of course I have a bias. However, I seek to compose my writings without fear or favour as I was taught in journalism school fifty years ago. I wish The Examiner would go back to basics and quit playing favourites.
Pic*: of Lucy Landon-Lane at an anti-pulp mill protest
