At the centre of News Ltd’s Pauline Hanson photo scandal is the Sydney paparazzo Jamie Fawcett.
He acted as the go-between — and received a $15,000 fee — for bringing the dodgy photographs to Neil Breen, editor of Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph.
Breen then circulated the pictures around the group’s Sunday tabloids in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth in what became a national circulation drive.
During the week Fawcett snaffled a “spotter’s fee” from Channel Seven’s Today Tonight for facilitating an interview with ex-army officer Jack Johnson who claims he took the Hanson pictures in 1975.
Fawcett, who was the subject of an unusually sympathetic Australian Story on ABC TV last year, is a repeat offender.
Ten years ago he persuaded Fairfax’s Sun-Herald that he had obtained photographs of NSW police trainee Kim Hollingsworth dressed in a s-xy police uniform doing a strip.
Then editor Alan Revell and deputy editor Peter Lynch, both asylum seekers from Fleet Street, went into org-smic overdrive at the prospect of publishing the photographs of Hollingsworth who was waging a high-profile court battle to rescue her police career after being outed as a former prost-tute and stripper.
Despite clear warnings from news room staffers, including senior reporter Candace Sutton, that the Hollingsworth pictures were “suspect”, they appeared in the first edition of The Sun-Herald.
Hollingsworth saw the paper, phoned Revell and threatened to sue on the grounds that the pictures were not of her. Revell relented and pulled the photographs from all later editions.
This widely known story should have made Fawcett persona non grata. Instead, his career has prospered in line with the guttering down of the Sydney media.
Last month former Test cricketer Shane Warne filed a complaint with Victorian police against Fawcett alleging that he and his family were being harassed. Police confirmed a complaint had been lodged while Fawcett, who has been involved in costly legal wrangles with Nicole Kidman, denied the cricketer’s claims.
Meanwhile, Sunday Telegraph executives have instructed staff not to discuss the Hanson photo scandal. If they are asked by colleagues from other sections of the metropolitan media, they are to reply that the pictures are genuine.
This is a threadbare and pathetic effort to save the controversial editorship of Breen. To have accepted the word of Fawcett is not a good look even at News Ltd.
Oh dear !. The plot thickens.
Editors of both Fairfax and News Ltd titles have colluded in ‘dumbing own’ by associating themselves with the likes of Fawcett ,a newcomer to a game of celebrity cat and mouse and in turn, have encouraged dozens of kids to believe a fortune can be made as a ‘papaarzzo’, when the opposite is true.
They have marginalised old hands at photography and those who actually know the in and outs of a big city , working for years at the game , making a meagre living , and used the emergence of Fawcett and his comrades ( who have zilch interest in the subject-it’s just big game fishing) to beat down prices for freelancers-now everyone is a paparazzo !
Berniedee:
the fascinating thing in this dopey Hanson saga is really how newspapers and TV shows are being exposed as presenters of fantasy and I think that’s why people are taking an interest.
But again-will the editor of the Sunday Telegraph resign as he claimed he would ? Not likely .
He’s more likely to get a pat on the back from higher up, just as UK Sun editor Rebeccah Wade did with the sordid attempt to pay Alfie in the UK for a tale of illicit child sex-she was praised for boosting sales by bosses and then went back to the daily task of seeking out more titilation afor a public who can get enough.
Crikey’s outrage at the Hanson photos just goes to show how much public interest there is in the photos and the querying of their authenticity. You can’t define public interest as what YOU think the public should be interested in. I started off thinking this story was a yawn but the areas it diverted too are fascinating. Crikey seems quite fascinated, too. I believe the photos are genuine, more genuine than Hanson’s moral umbrage at their publication when she knows the issue is ticking over her vote-meter nicely , thank you very much.
RE: Alex Mitchell writes…….crap!
Oh Alex, what a rant. You really must try to get over happenings (or your version of them) from more than 10 years ago. After all, your glory days of investigative journalism are seemingly over, along with your journalist’s skills obviously left behind at your old masthead. You claim to know a great deal about confidential matters you are not party to, sitting in simple judgment from the sidelines on matters you have not bothered to check. Why didn’t you call me Alex? Am I so low rent you couldn’t have at least picked up a phone to check your facts with me. Not that I would probably have told you anything, as your long held angst is clearly evident in your unsolicited copy. But you should have called me before launching into overdrive. I am not speaking about this matter publicly because to do so would be to pre-empt the final outcome. My role in this affair has already been misreported by your former colleague Holly Byrnes; former gossip-monger now turned, News Limited media-writer. What a piece of work she is, also lacking the necessary skills to use a phone. You both should catch up and compare your hate manifestos. Get a life mate. You have previously referred to celebrity journalists as the worst practitioners of your craft and you clearly don’t like what is happening in the “guttering down of the Sydney media.” Why don’t you move to Melbourne where the rarified air is more to your liking? The media landscape is changing almost daily and you fail to recognise who is actually responsible, suggesting I should be persona non-grata. Since I left the Sun-Herald and took my career in the direction of celebrity journalism, I have consistently been attacked by many of my former colleagues at the Sun-Herald, despite the excellent work I did whilst there. Let me see, when you left the Sun-Herald in May 2007, you rightly reflected on a fabulous 21-year career, see (SMH 13 May 2007), whereby you flouted the laws of the day..tbc…
….by hiding or withholding documents sought by authorities, writing only of your great career success but never of your great career mistakes. That you choose to highlight another colleagues apparent mistakes (Yes Alex, that’s right, as I have also earned my place in this profession) rather than my thousand’s of news breaking pictures and stories, covering everything from celebrity to crime is, by its omission a glaring contradiction that does you no service. Every one of my commissioning editors or picture editors has consistently supported me and published my work through thick and thin and has rarely been disappointed or let down. I suspect they will continue to do so, despite your vile diatribe. Next time, Alex you want to write an un-solicited piece of ‘journalism’ let your fingers do the walking and let’s get talking! I am happy to debate the “guttering down of the Sydney media” even discussing your latest downpour. Good to see you have not lost the fire in your belly. Good wishes.
Wow Jamie you say a lot without actually saying anything. Were you or were you not the guy who brokered the photos? If so, did you then and do you still believe the photos to be authentic?