… go straight pass the courts
“Thank God Justice David A. Anderson is still alive,” the compilers of this column have remarked far too many times to remember, “otherwise he’d be rolling in his grave!”
The “justice” is just an honour bestowed on David Anderson, by the way, from journo work colleagues. He’s not a jurist but he was a damn fine court reporter at The Telegraph in Brisbane and is the author of Pitfalls in the Law for Journalists.
Ended his career as a damn fine chief sub at the ABC. And no, he’s not that David Anderson.
We at the MGH think of him often because we are often faced with examples in the mainstream media that thrash the basic tenet that pervades his excellent tome – the quaint notion that under our legal system people are innocent until proven guilty.
For example, let’s roll the tape of last night’s Nine News Brisbane 6pm bulletin about a couple of tradies who bravely thwarted a house and car robbery by three teenagers “armed with knives”.
Take it away, reporter Clare Todhunter: “Two young bandits ran away while a third confronted the tradies with a knife.
And shortly after: “All three eventually captured by police.”
See, the three captured clearly being the young thieves who smashed into a house and tried to steal a Porche. “All three of these teenagers [reminder: the ones who smashed into a house and tried to steal a Porche!] are charged with a raft of offences over this incident,” Clare concluded.
At least she was in total agreement with newsreader Andrew Lofthouse who declared during his lead-in that the tradies had “helped police track down the young crooks”.
With Lofthouse and Todhunter so adamant the police arrested the right offenders, a messy and costly court process seems really unnecessary, wouldn’t you think? And it’s probably fair enough to assume that police always arrest the right people anyway?
Okay, enough of the sarcasm. All we ask is that Nine News readers and reporters show some professionalism and use words like “police later arrested three teenagers and have charged them with multiple counts….” It’d not rocket surgery, is it?
And why? Sure, in this crazy craft of journalism, reporters can probably take a punt and assume those arrested are guilty. But one of the lessons from Anderson’s book is that if you go down that sloppy and lazy path – “the axe murderer ran from the house and police later arrested him” – every now and then a case is going to come along that bites you in the bum bigtime. That’s our words. Mr Justice David A. Anderson would never have been that coarse.
Want another example, from just last night’s 9 News out of Brisbane? The yarn about former Test cricketer Stuart MacGill being charged with a serious drug trafficking offence. Reporter Sophie Upcroft reminded us of the incident back in 2021 where MacGill claimed to have been kidnapped at his restaurant, a story that MacGill had spun and which “won over detectives who originally accepted his claims…”
But Upcroft adds: “….but now the fifty-two-year old has been caught out; new evidence leading police to charge Macgill over the drug deal at his restaurant that led to his alleged kidnapping.”
Oh, dear. Lovely cricket analogy there but really? Caught out? Like a naughty boy caught with his hand in a lolly jar? And the drug deal is a matter of fact? We only needed to use “alleged” for the kidnapping. The MGA would like to think Sophie would have steered clear of “caught out” – it is rather accusatory, is it not? – if she had read Pitfalls.
It looks like Ms Upcroft might be in that cohort of modern journalists who find the whole court process rather tedious and unnecessary.
Justice David A. Anderson would be rolling in his grave right now… if he was dead but he’s not.
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 