Apologies are funny things. Sometimes you get them. Sometimes you have to threaten legal action for them. And sometimes you really deserve them from Sydney Morning Herald editor Bevan Shields, but just like when the NSW government shut down Sydney’s train network, he can’t seem to find the right words.
Last week, Australian actor Rebel Wilson announced on Instagram that she was in a same-sex relationship with fashion designer Ramona Agruma. Great, good for them. Except that it was soon revealed that it wasn’t Wilson’s choice to publicly come out.
Network 10 journalist Kate Doak pointed out on Twitter that the fine people at Nine had all but forced Wilson to come out, by giving her a “respectful” two days to comment on her new relationship.
In an article that has since been taken down and replaced with a mea culpa by the same journalist, Nine’s “Private Sydney” columnist Andrew Hornery wrote that it was “with an abundance of caution and respect that this media outlet emailed Rebel Wilson’s representatives on Thursday morning, giving her two days to comment on her new relationship with LA leisurewear designer Ramona Agruma, before publishing a single word”.
He then went on to bemoan the fact that Wilson hadn’t responded to his threat questions, and instead had “gazumped” his story, deciding that she’d rather out herself than have it occur on page 36 of tomorrow’s fish-and-chips wrapping.
Unsurprisingly, people were pretty critical of the paper’s conduct — and not just in Australia. The news went viral worldwide, with plenty of people pretty disgusted with Nine’s conduct.
Thankfully, it didn’t take long for SMH editor Bevan Shields to issue an apolo– wait, no, sorry: an excuse.
Shields published a short note defending the paper’s position in the “interest of transparency”:
The Herald’s view on the issue, it turns out, is that it did nothing wrong.
The paper would have asked the same questions had Wilson’s new partner been a man, Shields wrote, and “to say that the Herald ‘outed’ Wilson is wrong”.
It’s a strange assertion, given the fact that the SMH‘s intention of outing Wilson was literally in the first line of the article. Hornery opens with: “In a perfect world, ‘outing’ same-sex relationships should be a redundant concept in 2022. Love is love, right? As Rebel Wilson knows, we do not live in a perfect world.” He then goes on to describe how the paper outed her.
“I had made no decision about whether or what to publish,” Shields goes on to state in his non-apology. “And the Herald’s decision about what to do would have been informed by any response Wilson supplied.”
Not even a full 24 hours after Shield’s non-apology, the original article reporting Wilson’s same-sex relationship was removed and replaced with a link to an article by Hornery, titled: “I made mistakes over Rebel Wilson, and will learn from them“. The columnist stops short of actually saying sorry, but admits to making mistakes in his approach with Wilson and says he regrets “that Rebel has found this hard”.
Shields is yet to make an apology, although he did tweet the article saying, “The Herald made mistakes over Rebel Wilson, and will learn from them.”
At the time of the first note defending the original article, Twitter gave Shields a well-deserved piling on, pointing out the myriad issues in his statement.
The dark history that LGBTIQA+ activist Sally Rugg is referring to is how, as Rugg points out in another tweet, in 1978 the SMH published the names, addresses and jobs of the people arrested in the first Mardi Gras in Darlinghurst.
The SMH apologised for this in 2016, but it looks like Shields may not know his paper’s history all that well.
Of course, there are other ways you can get apologies on Twitter other than by deserving them, and if Wilson is interested, she should hit up former MP for Bowman Andrew Laming, a virtuoso at getting incredibly heartfelt apologies from people on Twitter, for tips.
Laming’s most recent apology came from Lisa Wilkinson, host of Channel Ten’s The Project — and it follows the format of those who came before her (Elizabeth Barr, Derryn Hinch, Georgia Dent, Murray Watt, and William Bowe, to name a few).
The great thing about these apologies is that every time they appear we get a refresher of what it is that the former Liberal politician was accused of. So here’s today’s refresher:
In 2019, 29-year-old Crystal White made a formal complaint to Queensland Police after Laming took a photo of her filling a bar fridge at a landscaping company.
White alleges that she was in a compromising position — bending over, with her underwear exposed. Laming denied it. To be clear, he denied there was anything compromising about the photo; he did not deny taking it in the first place, because that’s not creepy at all.
Laming was cleared of any wrongdoing by Queensland Police and the former politician proceeded to take legal action against half of Australian Twitter.
This article was updated at 2:00pm AEST to include Hornery’s article where he admits that he and the Herald mishandled steps in their approach to the story.
The SMH always has been a dirt rag.
It remains a dirt rag.
The only reason Australia takes this abysmal dirt rag seriously is this: the alternative is Murdoch trash.
But it seems like they’re both on a quest for rock bottom, and Shields is clearly the man to take it there.
It’s time to revise all of our ‘news’ subscriptions and rid ourselves of SMH, Murdoch and other trash still on our lists. Personally, I would describe Shields as a ‘male’ rather than a ‘man’.
Over the last number of years there has been a steady decline in SMH/Age newspapers.
They seem to have shifted slightly to the Right in their Political coverage.
Not as far as the Murdoch Media, but perhaps more Right of Centre, than Centrist.
Andrew Hornery actually just published an apology, which gives a little more context. I mean, it’s all detestably grubby celebrity gossip but it seems Wilson wasn’t exactly being discreet about the relationship, attending events with her and teasing that she was in a new relationship all over social media. Also this is 2022, not exactly a terrible time to be a rich gay celebrity in Hollywood, so I think it’s misleading to compare this to SMH’s dangerous publishing of the names and employers of gay activists in the 1970s. Wilson has made a lot of money from her celebrity, and is adept at exploiting the rumor mill, so I’m not exactly shedding tears here. It is possible it was planned all along.
All these celebrities and attention seekers and their spruikers are sickening.
Look, I agree. SMH’s obsession with Sydney’s mediocre attention-seeking set is gross. But I don’t think Crikey needs to jump to Wilson’s defense, or at least it should note that the real crime here is that SMH is such a crappy paper in general. Celebrities like Wilson don’t need special consideration because they are barely hiding a gay relationship and someone wrote about it. I mean for crying out loud, she went to a pride event with her new girlfriend and posted about in Instagram before SMH got involved. I am gay and I grew up in a time where outing had real consequences. The only consequences for Wilson are that she will get more credibility with Hollywood casting agents.
What about her family? Did you consider them at all?
Perhaps, Rebel didn’t think that in 2022, the sex of her partner was newsworthy?
Exactly. Saying she was “outed” assumes she was previously “in” the closet. That does not appear to be the case, in fact quite the contrary. Has Rebel Wilson actually complained about being “outed”?
Rebel Wilson is news. The fact that she has a new romantic interest is news. Not very important news, but news enough for a column like Hornery’s. There’s nothing to suggest that he was intending to “out” her. He was just reporting a minor bit of celebrity news.
An announcement on Instagram is not a public announcement? Really?
Will she sue. A very mediocre talent who is over exposed.
Ad hominem isn’t a good way to make an argument. Overexposed? It’s the SMH doing the “overexposing” isn’t it? Isn’t that the problem? I’m not a fan of Rebel Wilson’s work but I don’t like the way celebrities are treated by the media. There are important things happening in the world going unreported. These “journalists” should go back to school and learn the craft of journalism.
“The paper gave her two days to comment on her new same-sex relationship”
You’ve got two days to reveal the name of your cat, if you don’t we will publicly reveal it.
Only quality journalism.
Right up there in ‘need to know’
With the many ‘adventures/trials& tribulations’ of most Hollow-wood-types eg Depp etc etc Care factor zero.