“Exclusive” may be the most over-used adjective in journalism. Still, it’s a word that causes editors to salivate. In print and television newsrooms around the world.
These days, it hangs off endless tabloid and TV yarns like gaudy “sale” signs in department stores on Boxing Day.
“Exclusive”. When it obviously is not.
Bruce Lehrmann during the 2023 Spotlight interview.Credit: Seven
For decades, tireless investigators – such as Kate McClymont in this masthead and Chris Masters on ABC television – have adorned the profession with their groundbreaking exclusives. As a society, we all benefit from their exemplary journalism.
But, at the other end of the “exclusive” scale, is the tawdry, bungled saga of Channel Seven’s ho-hum interview with Bruce Lehrmann. And the salacious intrigue of sex, drugs and lies that now surrounds this network coup.
It comes at a time when journalism is reeling from social media diatribes, relentless and senseless attacks on the ABC, along with the asinine allegations of so-called “fake news” by Donald Trump and his camp followers, in Australia and elsewhere.
When I first began at the ABC – almost 60 years ago – journalism rated slightly above used-car dealers and real estate salesmen as a trustworthy profession. Today, I suspect, it ranks below them both. Rank being the operative word.
I am saddened by the fact that journalism is on the nose. I honestly shake my head at how often a complete stranger will rhetorically ask me, in a cafe or the local newspaper shop: “What’s happened to journalism?”
Channel Seven’s grubby Spotlight ‘exclusive’ puts my beloved trade to shame
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05.04.2024
“Exclusive” may be the most over-used adjective in journalism. Still, it’s a word that causes editors to salivate. In print and television newsrooms around the world.
These days, it hangs off endless tabloid and TV yarns like gaudy “sale” signs in department stores on Boxing Day.
“Exclusive”. When it obviously is not.
Bruce Lehrmann during the 2023 Spotlight........
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