The Australian has become very liberal with their use of the word ‘EXCLUSIVE’.
My sister-in-law once worked for an Indonesian store erasing use-by date stamps to fool consumers into thinking the products fresh.
Her skills could be employed at The Australian where EXCLUSIVE gets mightily over-exposed. On 29 April the News Ltd daily used it to promote a page one story: Bats bit crazy: wet, wild world on our doorstep by Amanda Hodge ‘Southeast Asia Correspondent’.
Some hack has a different definition of the noun from Merriam-Webster: ‘A news story at first released to or reported by only one source’ because the yarn appeared on 1 April here: https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/bat-viruses-in-indonesia-by-duncan-graham/ It was filed on location.
Maybe the label wasn’t Hodge’s doing. She’s produced much excellent copy from this region, though along with other Jakarta-based correspondents like the ABC’s Anne Barker has apparently shot through and may now be quarantined in Oz.
I asked Hodge her whereabouts She declined to reply. Which is her right.
Just as it’s mine to say: Followers flatter, but don’t fool readers and palm off stale stories as fresh. That’s unpalatable.
Duncan Graham
Duncan Graham has been a journalist for more than 40 years in print, radio and TV. He is the author of People Next Door (UWA Press). He is now writing for the English language media in Indonesia from within Indonesia.
Duncan Graham has an MPhil degree, a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He lives in East Java.
Comments
2 responses to “DUNCAN GRAHAM. Not the Freshest Meat in The Australian.”
I read and I agree – with both Duncan’s essay and Gavin’s footnote!
Duncan,
I am not in the least surprised at your experience, as a viewing of ‘Media Watch’ (ABC Mondays) regularly comes up with examples of plagiarisms in the media of whom the “Australian”and its stable mates are regular offenders . I guess that is what happens when ownership narrows to one or two major players , revenues fall, newsrooms are closed, foreign correspondents are too expensive to maintain in foreign news bureaus and we loose the major news agencies. Add Google and Facebook and the whole edifice crumbles. Bye bye honest journalism!