u may wish to check out the story from within the Canberra Times about out-going
editor Michael Stevens bowing to pressure from a sporting body last week to not
run a back page lead story. A CT sports reporter got wind of the 2007 Black Opal
horse race being cancelled and spoke to the racing officials concerned. That
evening the Canberra Racing Club CEO rang Stevens expressing concern about how
last weekend’s Black Opal race (run on Sunday) would be tarnished by such
so-called
negative
news – even thought they didn’t deny it. The CT night
team was dismayed when Stevens emerged from his office after the phone call and
instructed the sports sub-editors to pull the story off the back page. They cut
the story by
half and softened its angle” and ran it well inside on the
racing and sports results page.