Today Nova Peris has had excruciatingly personal correspondence splashed across the media. The NT News claims the Labor Senator used taxpayer funds to help her carry out an extra-marital affair with Olympic medalist Ato Boldon in 2010. To help tell the story, the News Corp-owned scat sheet thought it necessary to publish deeply personal and sexual messages between the alleged lovebirds.
This is not surprising from a tabloid that relies on salacious journalism to sell its papers (think quality yarns such as “Why I stuck a cracker up my clacker”, “Best man left bleeding after being hit in head by flying dildo” and “Catnappers shaved my pussy”). But details of Peris’ personal emails have also been picked up by Fairfax — with both The Age and Sydney Morning Herald featuring this as their top story online this morning:
The story leads with Peris’ alleged unfavourable opinion of fellow Olympian Cathy Freeman, and also includes sexually explicit quotes from the original NT News story.
If Peris did indeed use public funds for personal gain, voters deserve to know about it. But the finer details of her alleged sex life add absolutely nothing to the story. To their credit, the ABC and Guardian Australia have carried the story without the sexual details.
Yes, Nova Peris is an elected representative. No, her personal opinions on Freeman, or the details of her private life, are not in the public interest. It’s the kind of grubby journalism you’d expect from the tabloids. It’s a sad day for journalism when Fairfax follows suit.
23 thoughts on “Crikey says: Senator’s sex life not in the public interest”
David Hand
October 29, 2014 at 5:57 pmShock!!
Crikey is huffing and puffing in support of a victim of gossip sourced from hacking private files!!
Lucky she’s not the daughter of the prime minister.
Yclept
October 29, 2014 at 6:00 pmDavid, your unrequited love for Tony is showing again.
The issue is that we don’t need to know about the details of her sex life. If she has done something criminal regarding funding that is in the public interest.
Norman Hanscombe
October 29, 2014 at 6:01 pmGratton, the media “didn’t tell us that Bob Menzies was having an affair with the wife of the newspaper because as was explained in the original book’s preface it did NOT happen. At the time [as were C.P.A. Officials] I was initially surprised by the verdict. Party members had been burying copies so they couldn’t be seized by authorities and had to dry them out after digging them up. Had Fairfax taken Hardy to Court for libel instead of criminal libel Hardy was clearly on his own admission in the book’s preface, guilty.
Unfortunately the awareness of most posters on the current issue lack the perceptiveness of even those 1940 era Communists, and this shows through in their interpretations of the article’s relevance to current events.
Norman Hanscombe
October 29, 2014 at 6:08 pmDavid, you have to realise the Yclepts of the world place anything which doesn’t support belief in their Sacred Cows into the Let’s Not Talk About It Basket.
When will it ever change? Probably not even by The Twelfth of Never.
Kevin_T
October 29, 2014 at 6:09 pmApples and oranges, David Hand.
If you want to compare apples and apples in these two cases, Crikey’s support of the revelation of any corruption on Nova Peris’s part, and the revelation of any corruption in the awarding of a scholarship to the Prime Minister’s daughter, are entirely consistent.
I believe that if Ms Abbott’s personal private emails were released, not having any connection to corruption, that Crikey would run a similar editorial.
Norman Hanscombe
October 29, 2014 at 6:27 pmKevinT, you may know the difference between “apples and pears”, which isn’t too demanding a task, but you’ve failed to notice that Crikey and its faithful acolytes on this issue have NOT demonstrated ANY evidence of corruption re Abbott’s daughter having received the scholarship on any grounds other than merit and the terms of that scholarship. With the hordes of Abbott Haters available to research the matter, you have noticed I trust that so far all they’ve established is that they’re keen to attack him through ANY method including attacking his daughter.
David Hand
October 29, 2014 at 6:45 pmY
I don’t believe my alleged love for Tony Abbott is unrequited.
Yclept
October 29, 2014 at 7:18 pmSo sweet, David that your hero loves you back. But as usual you deflect from the real issue. What’s new, aye?
Yclept
October 29, 2014 at 7:19 pmNorman, you seem to running wildly off topic again old boy. Time for your medication.
drsmithy
October 29, 2014 at 9:26 pmCrikey is huffing and puffing in support of a victim of gossip sourced from hacking private files!!
Lucky she’s not the daughter of the prime minister.
Perhaps if salacious and irrelevant details of who Frances Abbot was having sex with while studying were published, you might have a point.