Reaction from the newspaper world and the media in general – both managements and journalists – has differed widely to yesterday’s front page of Brisbane’s The Courier-Mail (above), its latest take on Sunday night’ tragic road deaths in Maryborough.
Spokespeople for The Guardian Australia, The Monthly, The New Daily, The Saturday Paper and Crikey expressed disgust over the paper’s splash, with the general consensus being it represented “a very sad day for the craft of journalism in this country”.
The journalists’ union, the Media , Entertainment and Arts Alliance, also condemned the paper for “putting the very existence of journalism at grave peril”.
But a spokesperson for Peter Costello, chair of Nine Entertainment Co, publishers of The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun-Herald saw little wrong with the paper’s front-page but added: “We might have been a little more subtle about it, being independent always.”
But Channel 9, Channel 7 and Channel 10 in Brisbane congratulated The Courier-Mail for its “honesty and bravery in telling things the way they are”.
“It’s about time the Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was taken to task for her abject failure in eradicating youth crime,” a joint statement declared.
Chris Jones, editor of The Courier-Mail (pictured) , did not respond to requests for an interview but senior journalists at the masthead backed his judgement.
“I really don’t know what else people could expect from us,” one long-term reporter told us. “We are, after all, known fondly as the LNP’s Bowen Hills branch.”
Professor Hennie Jonkinham of Jcollege told The Bug the paper’s splash could be forgiven if people considered the redhot hatred that existed at News Queensland towards the Palaszczuk Labor government.
“Chris Jones is just the latest of the editors of The Courier-Mail and The Sunday Mail who have had their hearts broken by the voters of Queensland who have refused to obey their demands to throw that government out at the last three state elections.
“Their obsession with seeing an end to Labor at a state level – well, Labor at any level really – is almost palpable. It’s so viscerally intense you can almost hear and feel it.”
STOP PRESS: Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath is expected to resign her commission any moment now, following today’s Courier-Mail splash, a most worthy follow-up to yesterday’s effort.
Want to be alerted immediately a new blog hits Australia’s longest running and most offensive satire site? Simply click on the Follow sign or the link below to be emailed new yarns the moment they are uploaded! The very second we go far too far – and trust us we will – you can then quickly unfollow via the three dots!
The Bug Online 