Outing: Tragedy or Farce, The News Story That Never Was, Outrage, October, 1991.

This was a controversy which was an interesting collision between reporting, advocacy and scandal.

On the order of my bosses at the Sydney Morning Herald I had to ring up well known Italian MP Franca Arena and ask her how she felt about her twin sons being gay; at which I got a very Italian mother howl of outrage, denial and distress; and just as bad, had to ring up the head of the Upper House of NSW, a very dignified and essentially asexual man, and ask him his response to the rumours.

It was a nasty job all round. The paper was desperate for a picture, so I was the one who, for instance, who had to go down to Darlinghurst in Central Sydney and "find" two posters outing various high profile figures, just happening to know exactly where they are from being told by the activists. While opinion journalism is now much more the norm, the opinion of the journalist oft now being regarded as a legitimate aspect of a "news" story, in those days the delineation between reportage and colluding with activists was much stronger. This was one of the worst example I ever encountered.

BACKGROUND