Why was Herald Sun editor Bruce Guthrie sacked? He was told it was because he couldn’t get on with his boss Herald Sun managing director and former editor-in-chief Peter Blunden. But was the real reason for his removal a front-page story that embarrassed Victoria’s police commissioner?
Rumours are swirling through the media industry that Guthrie’s dismissal was triggered by a complaint directly to Rupert Murdoch about a Herald Sun report of controversial free travel taken by Victorian police chief Christine Nixon courtesy of Qantas in late October.
The Nixon story was given full front page treatment by Guthrie in the edition of October 23 after the commissioner and her husband took a freebie aboard the airline’s inaugural A380 flight between Melbourne and Los Angeles.
Under the headline, “Beverly Hills Cop”, Nixon defended her decision to take the free flight and accommodation at the luxury Sofitel Hotel in L.A.
It is believed that within hours of publication Blunden had passed on to Guthrie serious misgivings about the paper’s coverage. Rupert Murdoch arrived in Melbourne three days later. According to insiders, concerns over the Nixon story were passed directly to the News Limited chief. Guthrie’s fate, they say, was sealed during his visit.
In court documents lodged yesterday in support of Guthrie’s wrongful dismissal claim, Blunden is alleged to have distanced himself from the sacking, claiming it was the work of a third party.
Asked by Guthrie who was responsible, Blunden allegedly replied: “It’s complicated and it’s confidential. I can’t go into it too deeply. But essentially a third party got involved. That person said something to someone who said something to someone else and it went from there”.
Other insiders dispute the Nixon theory behind Guthrie’s sacking, but still implicate Rupert Murdoch, perhaps the “third party” referred to by Blunden. Blunden they say, had never been easy with the way in which Guthrie had edited and re-moulded the Herald Sun as a paper keen to take on the lucrative A-B demographic traditionally captured by The Age. He had made repeated comments to Herald Sun staff through the entire duration of Guthrie’s editorship expressing these misgivings, misgivings that had ultimately been expressed to Murdoch directly during his Melbourne visit..
Whatever the cause, the sacking baffled many media insiders. In the eight weeks before it Guthrie had accepted the PANPA Newspaper of the Year Award, the News Limited Website of the Year Award and delivered record readership growth despite industry-wide circulation falls. Writing in The Age the day after Guthrie’s dismissal, Andrew Rule reported Hartigan had expressed misgivings about removing his appointee. In September he’d given Guthrie a pay rise and a bonus for his performance in the job.
Four days after Guthrie’s sacking the Police Commissioner, who’ll step down early next year, issued a public apology over the Qantas trip and said she would be making full restitution of the costs of the travel and accommodation.
The dramatic mea culpa came after the intervention of the Office of Police Integrity.
It’s somewhere between 1000 to 100,000 times more difficult to be a police commissioner of Nixon’s ilk than a police constable. I have treated both.
A news paper has responsibility to the community if it expects the status of influence in its own right in the community it serves.
It should not even imagine it can get away with damaging somebody of interest just because it can without obvious assessment of fairness and correctness.
I have been the victim of a massive murderous stabbing of my integrity to serve a ratings urge.
You need more than a fact about a trip unless you just want to write about the trip.
Fairness may be the name of the duck that decided too land on Guthrie’s head.
If Guthrie’s problem was going for the A-B readership for the Herald-Sun (which wouldn’t sit easily with having a go at Christine Nixon) then he ought to be forgiven for having at least half a brain. As almost everyone has access to easily legible broadband delivery of online news, including the actual newspaper or the day, it will be people with more money to spare who actually buy newspapers, so it is really a no-brainer to go for the A-Bs, especially when there are now fewer than half a dozen people writing regularly for the Age who have any standing or credit and its Letter page is usually a pack of drivel designed only to make The Age’s residue of readers happy that they occasionally get their names in print. I’ve given up The Age and count on others to tell me what’s in the Deaths column. Missing a few funerals is tolerable.
Maybe I don’t read enough but I’ve never understood what Christine Nixon did wrong or why she repaid her airfare and expenses. My understanding is that her husband is a retired senior Qantas exec and he was offered a trip for 2 on the inaugural A380 flight…she had holidays due and went with him as his wife,and essentially as a private citizen…I think she had every right to be p.ssed off with the story,but I also don’t reckon it was a hanging offence for Guthrie.
Can’t believe the accuracy of the conversations between Hartigan et al…did someone have a recorder??
Interesting that you can’t google the story of 23rd October 2008 under that headline “Beverly Hills Cop”.
Personally I think she did compromise herself. You shouldn’t accept free gifts while holding public positions of influence and power. You never know when it can be used as leverage in the future. The punishment is the thing. A severe diet would probably be a good penance for her. 100 laps of the football oval. 400 metre sprints. ‘Rotten’ Ron running the prisons in NSW should be made to join her.
It suggests to me people in power lose perspective, or she’s been under so much pressure for so long her judgment lapsed. More’s the pity that so many politicians have compromised their independence so often and much worse. From friendly house renovations to little side trips in China to freebie tickets to rugby games from people with a demonstrated interest in the exercise of policy.
It’s all “special people” stuff cutting you off from the People who are the real employers. I wouldn’ t discount the federal ALP Govt influence on the Murdoch regime via Brumby ALP either. Dealmaking behind closed doors etc, mutual back scratching. Just like they do with other Big Media. The ALP are notorious for trading in promises and favours past and future to manage the Tribe and their wage slaves.
I was feeling sorry for Guthrie however if he was behind the beatup on Christine Nixon, he has lost my support. IF he was behind it that is.
Nixon took a freebie flight on the airline on which her husband is an executive- hardly a hanging office unlike the murders, breakins, drugs and corruption which the BOYOS at Vic police are surrounded with. The Herald Sun did Victorians a grave disservice in attacking a woman with Nixons credentials and leaving us in the hands of the BOYOS.