It has been a curious week in Andrew Bolt’s world. First the popular Herald Sun columnist surprised us by turning up at the child abuse hearing in Rome wielding a microphone on Sky News Australia. As Bolt has been Cardinal George Pell’s staunchest supporter in the media, questions were raised about how he would handle the assignment. But we were assured by Sky that Bolt was just a “Sky News contributor” and not a reporter. (The Sky news reporter was in fact Cameron Price.)
It was then revealed by 2GB that while in Rome Bolt had secured “an exclusive, one-on-one interview with Cardinal Pell” which will air on Friday morning on 2GB and Sky News. Would this be like a spin doctor interviewing his own client, we wondered?
Bolt, who calls himself a friend of Pell, was true to form at first, reminding Sky viewers that some of the allegations were “clearly not right”, there was no “smoking gun” and Pell was the victim of a witch hunt. But on Tuesday after hearing Pell’s damaging cross-examination during which the cardinal said the story of Father Gerald Ridsdale’s crimes was sad but “of not much interest to me” Bolt did a 180-degree turn and became a critic.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) March 1, 2016Sky News contributor Andrew Bolt's take on Cardinal Pell's testimony today. https://t.co/ymBOQ1To3x
“Those words about the Ridsdale case – where George Pell said that it was a sad story but it was not of interest to me – I just think those will be hung around his neck for the rest of his career,” Bolt said on Sky News, before repeating that the day was a “disaster” and a “shocker” in an interview with Steve Price on 2GB and then again in his Herald Sun column.
Was Pell a liar or just “dangerously indifferent to his responsibilities and to the warning signs that children were being raped”, Bolt asked. But the new Bolt – who said he was a hero on Twitter for the first time in his life – retreated just as quickly as he had appeared. By Wednesday’s appearance on Sky News, Bolt was apologising to Pell. The backflip with pike was so striking it shocked even his media stablemates.
2GB presenter Ray Hadley called it the “most amazing about-face I’ve ever seen”. “Andrew Bolt’s performance was bizarre,” Hadley told listeners on Wednesday. “He started to channel Pell. I can only assume he’s spoken to Pell and all of a sudden he’s … saying completely the opposite on Sky News. It’s more than strange. I don’t understand it in any way, shape or form.” Hadley said for “Andrew to write what he wrote … he has completely and utterly recanted on that – and I think an explanation is required”.
The only explanation we got was a mea culpa in his Herald Sun column on Thursday in which readers were treated to poetry he had written aged 13 about surrendering to a mob: “But fear sealed my mouth, Held me back. And soon I was yelling with the rest.”
“My God, it was sweet,” Bolt said of the “new” Bolt. “For once, I trended on Twitter with praise, not venom. For once, I appeared on a TV panel show where everyone else agreed with me. For one giddy day, I felt the joy of being a David Marr or a Robert Manne, praised for the fury of my sanctimonious denunciation of a man I had reduced to the crudest caricature. Former NSW premier Kristina Keneally even tweeted, in rare admiration, that I had been more savage on Pell than she.”
Sky still can’t say whether the touted interview with Pell will go ahead. We think it will depend on which version of Bolt turns up for the chat.
Fairfax apologises as readers await the fate of Paul Sheehan’s column
We can reveal that an investigation by the Australian Press Council is under way into Paul Sheehan’s article about “Louise” which appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald last month but was quickly amended after Sheehan admitted in a second column that it was almost certainly fabricated by his source.
The press watchdog has received at least one complaint. (The council always confirms a single complaint has been made but never reveals the number of complaints.)
In the first column, which ran off the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald, Sheehan claimed Arabic-speaking males had brutally raped and bashed an off-duty nurse and the police had done nothing about it. The amended Louise column, which remained online for more than a week, has finally been taken down.
The second column “The story of Louise: why the police have no case to answer, but I do” now carries a note: “UPDATE: The original story has been retracted.” In his mea culpa Sheehan apologised to the police, but not to the Middle Eastern community or to victims of sexual assault.
But on Monday the Sydney Morning Herald did step up and apologise to those groups in the paper and online (but omitted Sheehan’s name): “In a column published on February 21 headlined The story of Louise: the hidden scale of the rape epidemic in Sydney, Fairfax Media reported the details of an alleged sexual assault. A subsequent column published below acknowledged key elements of the original story were unable to be substantiated. The original story included aspersions against the Middle Eastern community and raised untested allegations of inaction against the NSW Police. Fairfax Media sincerely regrets the hurt and distress the reports caused to these groups, and our readers, and unreservedly apologises.”
Sheehan’s column did not appear on Monday. Editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir has given no indication of when or if it will come back.
A Current Affair called out on Asian tradies story
Three years after A Current Affair apologised for the infamous “All-Asian Mall” story, which was about Asian shopkeepers “taking over” a shopping mall in Sydney, the Channel Nine show has disgraced itself again by calling out on social media for stories about “Asian tradies”.
“Have you had an experience with Asian tradies? Painters, tilers, plasterers … what did you think? Did they do a good job, were they cheap? If you have a story and are happy to be interviewed on TV please email aca@nine.com.au,” a post on its Facebook page read.
The post was quickly deleted when ACA executive producer Grant Williams was made aware of it. Williams, who was the executive producer when the Asian mall story aired, told the Weekly Beast it was not authorised by him and he hit the roof when he saw it.
“The social media junior has done us no favours,” Williams said. “We’re doing a positive story about Asian tradies, how quickly they turn up, and how well they do the job.”
To give ACA its due, the program has done several positive stories about refugees and the Muslim community in recent years, including a 12-minute feature on Syrian refugees.
Australian Press Council takes the Oz to task
The Australian has had a significant loss at the Australian Press Council (APC) this week after a series of nine articles about former South Australian government minister Jennifer Rankine were found to have breached the council’s general principles. The Australian’s Adelaide bureau chief Michael Owen had made several allegations about the appointment of a public servant by Rankine.
“They were prompted by her resignation as the South Australian minister for education on 2 February 2015 and made repeated allegations concerning Ms Rankine and the appointment of a public servant,” the APC said in its adjudication.
“The series of articles ended on 5 May following a public statement by the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption stating his investigation concluded that none of the allegations were substantiated.”
The Oz printed the adjudication in full on page two and amended all nine articles which ran across print and online. Two aspects of Rankine’s complaint were upheld and one, about publishing a correction, was not upheld. In one, the council ruled the article was “not fair or balanced” and in the other that the paraphrasing of the complainant’s remarks “was not an accurate paraphrase and repeated the inaccuracy”.
View all comments >
comments
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion.
This discussion is closed for comments.
We’re doing some maintenance right now. You can still read comments, but please come back later to add your own.
Commenting has been disabled for this account (why?)