Reporting lounge room chatter is okay

Reporting private dinner table chatter might be a no-go for journalists with ethics but perhaps reporting lounge room chatter is okay. The Oz this morning picks up my grievous error of suggesting that its editor was being fingered as the source of a report based on what the PM said at the Kirribilli dinner table when he was among the guests. The paper's Cut and Paste section this morning points out that the political writer who broke the story, Matthew Franklin, made it clear on October 25 that Kevin Rudd was entertaining guests in the loungeroom at Kirribilli House with the PM still clad in the suit he had worn to a business dinner in the city. I am delighted to help clear up this vital detail and would be only too willing to print Chris Mitchell's explanation of who he told what about what he heard from the comfort of his armchair.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I know this is not really a story of great consequence but it is nevertheless delightful to see journalists having to squirm about the ethics of their profession.
14 November 2008 at 23:44
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