THE WILSON FILE - the arrogance at the heart of the innuendo

[rjay 23,922]

It's not that hard to call out Hird as being an egotistical, stubborn fool.

What I maintain is wrong with Caro is that she writes entirely negative, often hyperbolic material, appearing to be some sort of righteousness fighter.

With Melbourne, she continually bleated about people needing to stand down or be sacked or be removed, or how that would happen. In some instances, it didn't. With Essendon she did the same, and in most cases she was right. That doesn't mean her journalism was good.

I think you are right in that she does come across as negative and self righteous but in the Melbourne case (apart from some of the over the top comment pieces) she was on the money. Non of the main culprits in the non tanking affair are at the club any longer.

[Whispering_Jack 27,988]

Thats why she's called a journalist!

... and there is good journalism and there is bad journalism.

A few years ago I was privileged to be a function where the keynote speaker was Carl Bernstein of Bernstein & Woodward/Watergate fame. During question time he was asked what he thought of today's breed of journalists and he was critical of exactly the type of journalism that Wilson practices at the Age - pieces that combine reportage (often but not always accurate) with the journo's own opinion (but not necessarily branded as "opinion pieces"). Bernstein was highly critical of that practice.

Of course, he was speaking mainly of the political arena and that phenomenon was already widespread by then. Unfortunately, it’s progressed on to sports reporting and in my view, this has been a deliberate progression in the case of the Age and its chief football writer as it descended into tabloid journalism when its circulation began plummeting. Wilson is good at what she does but she’s also become exactly what Bernstein was critical about when he spoke that night.

After question time, I spoke with him briefly and asked him when he first knew he was onto something with the Watergate break in story and he replied that it was when he started getting criticism and agitated reactions from his detractors, particularly unwarranted personal attacks. That was what made him more determined than ever to dig deeper.

[Machsy 2,858]

Well, Caro never actually writes about football anyway.

She instead writes solely about football politics.

My issue with her is, like WJ, the reporting of opinion in a manner that suggests it is fact.

That, and her propensity to get so many facts wrong, yet hold onto them like a dog with a bone, even when they've been proven to be untrue.

Certainly the most offensive football "journalist" out there, in my eyes.

[Slartibartfast 15,774]

So many good articles.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/time-to-put-players-club-and-the-game-ahead-of-lengthy-legal-stoush-20140613-zs6zp.html

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/failed-afl-report-says-of-hawthorns-tasmanian-push-20140606-zs08k.html

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/midlevel-afl-clubs-unhappy-with-equalisation-plans-20140603-zrwpt.html

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/by/Caroline-Wilson

Enjoy.

[rpfc 27,476]

Er, thanks...

[Sir Why You Little 34,509]

So many good articles.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/time-to-put-players-club-and-the-game-ahead-of-lengthy-legal-stoush-20140613-zs6zp.html

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/failed-afl-report-says-of-hawthorns-tasmanian-push-20140606-zs08k.html

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/midlevel-afl-clubs-unhappy-with-equalisation-plans-20140603-zrwpt.html

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/by/Caroline-Wilson

Enjoy.

BANG!!!!

[Slartibartfast 15,774]

Er, thanks...

No probs. I've been a fan for a while and thought you might have missed some of the articles.

Glad to be of assistance.

[Whispering_Jack 27,988]

So let me get this right.

A few reasonable articles by Wilson written in 2014 somehow validate the rubbish she produced during her nasty little vendetta against the Melbourne Football Club two years earlier.

It misses the point of the thread too because my main issue with Wilson was her editorialising dressed up as factual articles. Some of the examples put forward are actually factual articles at which she's pretty good. The problem is when she has an agenda and selectively attacks one club for perceived wrongs while looking away at those of others. Her comment about why Carlton was not pursued for tanking in 2005 to 2007 remains a classic example of sheer journalistic stupidity.

On the Essendon situation, Wilson has been reasonably on the ball but I give a great deal of the credit to the investigative talents of her colleagues Baker and McKenzie whose work blew Dank's position wide open.

One of the links provided was the story she produced with those two gentlemen about Dane Swan attending a fund raiser and being in the company of Mick Gatto. Despite the quality of the rest of their work, this story is both reprehensible and objectionable and demonstrates well the point I make at the beginning of this thread about the arrogance at the heart of innuendo.

Sadly, the Age has diminished dramatically as a newspaper since this thread started. Co-incidentally, I picked up a copy today and looking at, it appears little different to the Herald Sun.

Thankfully, Melbourne's fortunes have improved dramatically in the same time frame so I'm rather happy having a little giggle at the demise of Caro's little rag.

[Machsy 2,858]

No probs. I've been a fan for a while and thought you might have missed some of the articles.

Glad to be of assistance.

You don't say.

She's a gutter "journalist" and we're all worse off for having "journos" like her.

[Return to Glory 7,728]

... and there is good journalism and there is bad journalism.

A few years ago I was privileged to be a function where the keynote speaker was Carl Bernstein of Bernstein & Woodward/Watergate fame. During question time he was asked what he thought of today's breed of journalists and he was critical of exactly the type of journalism that Wilson practices at the Age - pieces that combine reportage (often but not always accurate) with the journo's own opinion (but not necessarily branded as "opinion pieces"). Bernstein was highly critical of that practice.

Of course, he was speaking mainly of the political arena and that phenomenon was already widespread by then. Unfortunately, it’s progressed on to sports reporting and in my view, this has been a deliberate progression in the case of the Age and its chief football writer as it descended into tabloid journalism when its circulation began plummeting. Wilson is good at what she does but she’s also become exactly what Bernstein was critical about when he spoke that night.

After question time, I spoke with him briefly and asked him when he first knew he was onto something with the Watergate break in story and he replied that it was when he started getting criticism and agitated reactions from his detractors, particularly unwarranted personal attacks. That was what made him more determined than ever to dig deeper.

Great post WJ. Very little journalism goes beyond the superficial and, as we witness with our major metros, journalists simply take a position and stick with it. You only have to look at The Australian to get a sense of how our news is presented along ideological lines.

[Return to Glory 7,728]

WJ, if you ever get the chance have a read of Nick Davies' 'Flat Earth News'. It was Davies who really broke the UK Phone Hacking scandal. But I digress.

[Outside fifty 967]

BB I would not consider her latest piece great journalism at all. She has taken a subjective stance of the Essendon doping saga from the start. In many ways she is not much better than Robbo. I will concede she is an infinitely better writer than Robbo, but then again so is my daughters hamster. Whilst I will admit to enjoying her more recent articles this is only because they don't refer to the MFC. I am more than aware how biased they are, it's just that I share the same bias, this however doesn't make it right. The truth is that the two major Newspapers in this town have both taken an opposing stance that is subjective in nature. That can never be considered good Journalism.

[John Crow Batty 8,255]

I worked for the old Herald and Sporting Globe in the old days so I understand how the better journalists work. She is very clever telling things like they are and dodging law suits. People should carefully read between the lines to what she writes. There is a hell of a lot of truth there.

[Machsy 2,858]

I worked for the old Herald and Sporting Globe in the old days so I understand how the better journalists work. She is very clever telling things like they are and dodging law suits. People should carefully read between the lines to what she writes. There is a hell of a lot of truth there.

I look forward to your critical analysis of her next article, so you can tell us what she's really saying...

[DemonOX 8,530]

Is she any relation to D (DH) Barrett?

[John Crow Batty 8,255]

I look forward to your critical analysis of her next article, so you can tell us what she's really saying...

All I can say is don't dismiss anything she says without trying to think about it first. May be hard for some. Especially those with agendas or locked in prejudices

Edited June 13, 2014 by america de cali

[PJ_12345 1,098]

Is she any relation to D (DH) Barrett?

Yep, they both come from the Periplaneta australasiae family

[chook fowler 18,243]

Yep, they both come from the Periplaneta australasiae family

You have the wrong genus - it's Scarabaeoidea - otherwise known as the dung beetle

[Sir Why You Little 34,509]

All I can say is don't dismiss anything she says without trying to think about it first. May be hard for some. Especially those with agendas or locked in prejudices

I didn't like the way Caro wrote about the Tanking issue....We actually broke no rules...And we all know what we did, but it was the AFL who should have got hammered because they dangled the carrott

Caro didn't write it like that though did she....I hated the Tanking years...so in one sense i am glad it exploded....but the way Caro got so personal..i will never forget...

The Bombers are going to get done for Drug Cheating....They are going to fight the process...where is the duty of care to players and wives/girlfriends??

Totally different parameters.

[rumpole 480]

All I can say is don't dismiss anything she says without trying to think about it first. May be hard for some. Especially those with agendas or locked in prejudices

It's not a matter of questioning her veracity. It's more about the way she deals with her material. In that respect, she can be brilliant at times as she is in the Essendon doping article but at other times she's an absolute [censored].

Robbo tells the truth in his articles as well. It's when he starts expressing his opinion, he gets problematical.

[John Crow Batty 8,255]

I didn't like the way Caro wrote about the Tanking issue....We actually broke no rules.

Caro didn't write it like that though did she....I hated the Tanking years...so in one sense i am glad it exploded....but the way Caro got so personal..i will never forget...

Totally different parameters.

If she gets personal its because she is referring the the real culprits for whatever she's writing about.

[rpfc 27,476]

Yes, she knows what she is doing - that's the point.

My issues surrounded the inaccuracies (some might call them 'lies') that she created and permeated about my club.

But each to their own.

She is up there with the best in the industry - but that is more a comment on the industry.

It's in a terrible state.

[Little Goffy 12,583]

You have the wrong genus - it's Scarabaeoidea - otherwise known as the dung beetle

Dung beetles are a massively underrated contributor to Australian life.

It's not a coincidence that Australia's cafe and outdoor eating culture massively took off within a few years of the dung beetle being (very carefully, as part of a CSIRO program) introduced to Australia to manage the disasterous livestock dung problem that was drastically reducing viable land for grazing, and quite literally causing a plague of blowflies.

Dung beetles collect and bury livestock dung (for later use) faster than the egg-laying and larval stages of the blowfly, cutting out the life-cycle and drastically reducing numbers.

Next time you have a meal or coffee outdoors and are bothered by a fly, remember that before the dung beetle introduction program there would have been five to ten times as many hanging around. Then raise a toast to the dung beetle, and the biological sciences team at CSIRO who combed the world and conducted years of study to identify a specific beetle that would not cause ecological side-effects.

- - - - -

Anyway, as for Wilson, I agree with the common perception that she overdoes the ethically questionable blending of a few facts with extensive opinion and hyperbole.

Like most of us, I was seriously sh1tty about her tone and the relentless, unconstructive campaign she wages against the MFC administration for years.

While I still think she could have been a lot more constructive and informative, I do wonder how many of us would have stayed disciplined if we'd been privy to the same lines of information she had. It certainly turned out that the egg was well rotten under the shell.

That said, the tanking hunt was totally out of line given that she completely ignored even the simultaneous tanking of other clubs, and the decade of accepted and persistent tanking that was the context.

[chook fowler 18,243]

Dung beetles are a massively underrated contributor to Australian life.

It's not a coincidence that Australia's cafe and outdoor eating culture massively took off within a few years of the dung beetle being (very carefully, as part of a CSIRO program) introduced to Australia to manage the disasterous livestock dung problem that was drastically reducing viable land for grazing, and quite literally causing a plague of blowflies.

Dung beetles collect and bury livestock dung (for later use) faster than the egg-laying and larval stages of the blowfly, cutting out the life-cycle and drastically reducing numbers.

Next time you have a meal or coffee outdoors and are bothered by a fly, remember that before the dung beetle introduction program there would have been five to ten times as many hanging around. Then raise a toast to the dung beetle, and the biological sciences team at CSIRO who combed the world and conducted years of study to identify a specific beetle that would not cause ecological side-effects.

- - - - -

Anyway, as for Wilson, I agree with the common perception that she overdoes the ethically questionable blending of a few facts with extensive opinion and hyperbole.

Like most of us, I was seriously sh1tty about her tone and the relentless, unconstructive campaign she wages against the MFC administration for years.

While I still think she could have been a lot more constructive and informative, I do wonder how many of us would have stayed disciplined if we'd been privy to the same lines of information she had. It certainly turned out that the egg was well rotten under the shell.

Have to wonder how right her basic theme is about Essendon.

Quite right re the Dung Beetle. I thinking more of the natural habitat that they have in common with the aforementioned Journos. There the similarity ends.

[bing181 8,167]

The program was so poorly managed that the Club and club doctor can't even tell you which players took what supplements.

Agree with your post Bob, though the above has always been questionable in a "The dog ate my homework" kind of way.

Either they (the club, or people at the club) knew but the records have since been destroyed/lost, or they "forgot" to take notes.

Given that the players were sent offsite to a clinic, someone must have given instructions on what to administer to who and how and when. 30 or 40 players on a program of multiple injections etc. over a long period ... something had to be on paper.