[LINK] grog gamut

[Karl Auer]

On Mon, 2010-10-04 at 15:30 +1100, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
> However: if there's genuine news value in the story, why should News 
> *not* publish?

On that basis, "if I can find it out and anyone is interested, it's OK
to publish". Nope, doesn't fly.

What was attacked here by News Limited was the man's privacy.

To what end? The arguments given for the "outing" were utterly specious.
There was no public interest at all, unless you belong to that peculiar
sect that believes public servants should have no opinions of their own
and if they do should not utter them.

They might have been some legitimate public interest if it had been
(say) Julia Gillard blogging, but it wasn't.

>  I can't think of anything in Australian law that 
> guarantees anonymity of a publisher

There is law, there are ethics, and there is common courtesy and simple
respect. News Limited gets one out of four - nice work.

> motivations rather than boring 
> facts determine the right and wrong of a story.

So anything that's not against the law is OK? Jeez, Kim.

> I'm also a little offended by the theme that only journalists who agree 
> with the condemnation of News Limited are capable of thinking about the 
> story or offering worthwhile contribution. Everybody else, and it's just 
> "journalists sticking together, don't understand the world of social 
> media, blah blah blah".

It's not against the law to say that! How can you be offended by
something that is not against the law?

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer/                   +61-428-957160 (mob)

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