It’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry over The West
Australian these days.

It’s true, some West journalists shed tears last
Friday when popular science writer Carmelo Amalfi finally pulled the pin after a
protracted legal battle with editor Paul Armstrong over allegations of workplace
bullying.

But the diminutive Amalfi emerged beaming from his
three-month ordeal, presumably cashed up after signing a confidential deed that
swears him to secrecy over the West’s terms of settlement.

It ended a tense stand-off after three failed
conciliation conferences at the Australian Industrial Relations Commission,
company attacks on media union involvement and the threat of an independent
investigation by Worksafe
WA.

Meanwhile, fresh from its
WA Supreme Court conviction and fines for naming and shaming a nine-year-old,
near-homeless Aboriginal boy on page one, the West has turned its righteous
attention back to gay bashing and Muslim terror.

Yesterday’s
(Wed) edition talked up an “emotionally-charged community debate” over same-sex
foster parents, an issue the West pursued with gusto in July when a 13-year-old
boy with two female carers was found dead after running away from home.
Although unnamed “family groups” supposedly
questioned whether gay rights had overtaken children’s rights, the only critic
quoted yesterday was a senior State Opposition Liberal MP who reckoned
predictably that foster kids are generally better off with traditional
couples.

Armstrong led the page boldly with “Gay foster carers fuel
criticism.”

Earlier, the West got it horribly wrong in right-wing
commentator Gerard Henderson’s Tuesday’s column linking Australian Muslim
radical clerics with an alleged al-Qaida threat to attack
Melbourne.

The idea was to illustrate
Hendo’s pro-Howard rant with a photo
of Melbourne Sheikh Mohammad Jamal Omran, quoted as saying proposed federal
anti-terror laws reminded him “of Stalin.”

Alas, to the untrained infidel eye, one bearded
raghead must look just like any other because the West published instead a photo
of moderate Perth Mosque Imam Sheikh Omran mouthing what appeared to be
anti-Howard sedition with the caption “Crying ‘Stalin’ rules.”

Tuesday’s cock-up resulted in yesterday’s (Wed) embarrassing
correction headline “Wrong sheikh in photograph” and an “apology for any
distress.”

However it was too late to save the hapless Perth Iman from
being targeted with abusive telephone calls and obscene gestures after a similar
anti-Muslim hate attack two years ago when the Perth Mosque’s doors were daubed
in racist graffiti.

With Armstrong returned from a three-week London
break and recharging his tabloid batteries, it’s back to business as usual.