Incidentally, earlier in the week Crickey linked to an article on ‘The Punch’ about this, entitled: Della’s sex shame: NSW Labor is now Melrose Place

To test the double-standard issue, here’s what I posted (below). To date, my comment remains unpublished, which helps answer the broader question: does News Corp have a double standard.

The answer appears to be yes.

I would like a series of in-depth investigative exposes on the extramarital affairs and expenses rorts of News Corp management and staff.

Not.

he resigned before the article hit the streets

That it was for *this* and not for *that*, meh.

can we just let both of them go from parliament? i.e. neal and him?

and wasn’t there a quote by Jefferson or someone? along the lines of holding a public office, you lead a public life? terrible paraphrasing on my part but you get the jist of it….

also loved the syd herald today, you could see this shallow attempt by them and several labor figures to try and put a spin on the story. too little, too late

With apologies to WS

James Luxton

I believe one report named JDB as the “outer”.

Bob Ellis: Shamefully specious mendacity.

Everyone else: It’s the people who vote for punk politicians who are to blame.

Agree tabloid News Corp are grubs.

Agree private life is.

And contrary the woman legally has the right to tell whoever she likes and in this age of thinly veiled privacy and community media the story is only an email or twitter or youtube away from a mass audience.

So News Corp have decided to harvest the coverage and break the standards of their own profession under pressure from new media? Perhaps this might preface even more privacy law reform?

It’s a sort of transmogrified web porn concept visited back onto newsprint. And notice the Sydney Daily Telegraph was literally a cartoon book in the main opinion page today.

As for the Herald revealing her identity, it ran on the tv news (abc too) last night so not sure who outed her first.

He’s a politician, ergo he is an accomplished and practising liar. Every time he denied he was plotting to challenge Rees he lied through his teeth.

Mark said: “now that della bosca has finally gone it’s time for the likes of les patterson to assume the honourable position”

What a good idea! NSW question time would be mandatory viewing and no doubt Sir Les would demand that it be broadcast.

Bonus - in NSW you get both!!

How pathetic we have all become, putty it would seem.
 — -
Oh come on. Should we be marching in the streets? Adultery happens between people from all walks of life and most of us are far too smart/cynical to expect our politicians to be moral exemplars. We want good ministerial performance, not puritans.

(Am I alone in finding the term ‘family values’ pretty offensive? Whose family? Whose values? Is it a suggestion that someone’s ‘family values’ are better - however defined - than someone else’s? Of course we know it’s a term used by hypocrites to appeal to some imaginary mass of moralising voters, but I’d rather have a serial adulterer delivering good government than a moral exemplar delivering incompetence.)

Apart from which, as John Newton said they’re all useless, a plague on both their houses. I’m certainly part of the very large group (which as Sean Carmody said consists of “just about everybody” in NSW) wanting to be rid of the lot of them.

Did he make any speeches about family values etc, or make attacks on others for their lack of morality? Usually this is a strong indication of something wrong…

I detect a certain empathy there.