By Glenn Dyer



Coming
from Crikey, this is probably going to look like a gratutious case of
the pot calling the kettle black. But this must rate as the mother (or
at least aunt) of all corrections – in The Sydney Morning Herald this morning:

Last weekend, in an article headlined “I’m innocent, says bag handler,” The Herald
ran a photograph and a report about an alleged cocaine smuggling ring
through Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport. The photograph was captioned
as being of Barry Phillips, a Qantas baggage handler who has been
suspended from work while police inquiries continue.

The
photograph was, in fact, of an unidentified man, claiming to be Mr
Phillips. Quotes in the story attributed to Barry Phillips also came
from the same man. The deception occurred on Friday night after the Herald
visited an inner-city hotel to interview Mr Phillips, who had come to
police attention as a regular drinking companion of one of the alleged
leaders of the cocaine syndicate, Michael Hurley.

The Herald
has since discovered that while the real Mr Phillips was in the hotel
at the time, and the man who introduced himself as the baggage handler
was not Mr Phillips. He claimed to have had a “pretty rough day” being
interrogated by the NSW Crime Commission, a fact not previously
disclosed. On Monday The Herald received a letter from a lawyer
who represented the real Barry Phillips at Friday’s Crime Commission
briefing, revealing the deception.