Our Media Glass House teams continue to be bemused by events surrounding a court case playing out in Cairns in Far North Queensland in which a magistrate’s order prevents the publication of the name of a “prominent person” who has been tangentially linked to the parties involved.

We won’t bore our global readers with the minutiae of the case, largely because we fear being sued, but nevertheless the magistrate’s order has not prevented the identity of the “prominent person” becoming widely known by the proverbial every man and his dog.

The name of the person concerned, now formally referred to by prosecutors involved in the case as “MM”– apparently short for “married man” – was blasted across social media by someone unconnected to the case who was present when the name was said in open court but prior to any legal gag order.

That individual has since found themselves in what’s known in legal circles as deep shit.

The entire saga raises the question that has been evident since the advent of the internet – just how in the age of social media can court orders like the one imposed in Cairns be enforced?

Our MGH teams have no answer to that but continue to suggest that until an answer is found our legal system itself is in a similar position to the original poster of the banned name – what in Latin is known as alta cacas.

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Speaking of the challenges of the online world, just who if anyone is subbing or even just casually reading stories on news websites before they are published these days?

Yesterday ABC News Online posted a feature story examining events in the NSW town of Hay in the lead-up to the Farrer by-election that saw One Nation candidate, David Farley, elected to replace retired local MP and Liberal Party leader, Ssussan Ley.

Mr Farley is notable for being the first One Nation candidate elected to the House of Representatives.

The party already had one MP is the lower house before the by-election in that rather ample ruddy form of former National Party leader and deputy PM, Barnaby Joyce.

But this is how the ABC story presented the result…..

Obviously the relevant paragraph should have read something like: “He was sworn in to parliament a month later as the first One Nation member ever elected to sit in the House of Representatives.”

A simple but crucial difference especially at a time the national broadcaster’s biggest defence against those who would do it harm is its ability to deliver unimpeachable factual reporting.

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Some of our MGH researchers are old enough to recall the brief moment when Australians took an interest in the very, very rich man’s “sport” of ocean yacht racing when in 1983 Australia II’s crew took the America’s Cup off the Yanks after the big silver mug had been bolted down in a glass box at the New York Yacht Club for, from memory, 436 years.

Those faded memories came flooding back on reading a story in News Crap Australia turdbloids early last week quoting Australia II’s skipper John Bertrand who was, for some reason, giving advice to the Socceroos on the eve of their World Cup match against the USA. (below)

Whatever his advice, clearly it didn’t work given the 2-0 result, as the same MGH researchers who were walking the earth in 1983 could have predicted.

You see they also recall the challenger elimination heats for the 1995 America’s Cup in which Mr Bertrand was involved as a key figure in the One Australia syndicate’s bid, although not as skipper.

They remember watching TV to see One Australia snap in two and sink very quickly. (below)

That element of Mr Bertrand’s CV is never mentioned as much as the glory years after 1983 before the Yanks took the Cup back in 1987.

Who has held it since and right now is anyone’s guess…. if anyone still cares, seeing contenders in recent decades fly around race courses in contraptions that bare little if no resemblance to real yachts like the 12-metre ones of decades well past, keels winged or not.

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