The Australian. Think. Again.

I had the rather extraordinary experience of being editorialised against by The Australian last weekend in a piece described by NYU Journalism Professor Jay Rosen as “deeply dishonest… built on a lie”. Why was I the subject of all this attention? As a matter of personal and professional integrity, I had tweeted extensively about the outing of a public servant, Dr Greg Jericho, who blogged under pseudonym Grog’s Gamut. His name was revealed by The Australian’s young new Canberra Press Gallery recruit, James Massola. The newspaper's Media section editor, Geoff Elliott, penned the piece – one of twelve stories on the #groggate theme at last count - which alleged that I had elevated the unmasked Jericho to “the status of freedom fighter and likened him to Steve Biko”.