Possibly the most pleasing thing at last night's gala dinner was the fact Rupert Murdoch has abandoned that dark hair dye and returned his locks to a respectable grey.
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| Rupert today ! |
The occasion was the News Awards at the Museum of Contemporary Art and a swag of Murdoch children attended : James Prudence, Elisabeth, and Lachlan. Missing was wife Wendi and his 2 youngest daughters.
Son-in -law Mathew Freud ( married to Elisabeth) was also spotted.
Rupert's all time favourite publication The Australian received a Newspaper of The Year award presented by the great man himself.
News chairman John Hartigan presented his Chairman's Award to the editor of Adelaide's The Advertiser, Mel Mansell, while journalist Anthony Klan won the major prize for his investigation and features on the "waste and mismanagement in the $16.2 billion schools stimulus package".
The Oz says today :" While the BER story was largely ignored by other media outlets, The Australian published more than 200 articles about the program, shifting public opinion and forcing the federal government to launch a $14 million inquiry into the scheme by businessman Brad Orgill."
That inquiry found the whole thing was a major beat-up- possibly a complete waste of the $14M cost but hey-it nearly help deliver the reins of government into the hands of the Coalition and Tony Abbott, something the News Corp media would have desired.
Associate editor Cameron Stewart received the award for the Scoop of the Year for his " expose of counter-terrorism raids by Victorian and Australian Federal Police in Melbourne last year on"
A scoop indeed !
Especially when the tale of the raids was published in The Australian several hours before they actually took place.
Following a Victorian Office of Police Integrity investigation, a Federal Policeman was charged with misconduct in public office , unauthorised disclosure of information and attempting to mislead the Director of the Office of Police Integrity. Maybe Rupert will pay his legal bill.
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| Rupert last year ! |
"quality journalism doesn't just happen".
"It takes a company committed to bringing the public the stories that no one else will do - and the talented men and women like you who are willing to do them."
"In contrast to the doom-and-gloomers who are always telling us that our industry is dying, we believe the public is hungry for high-quality news and opinion."
Let's hope this purveyor of quality journalism doesn't come across the website of his top tabloid the Daily Telegraph with it's headline today :
Drunken Cop : jailed 17 years !
That's a pretty stiff sentence for being in the grip of the grape, even for a walloper. The sentence the hapless policeman received was in fact, 17 months.
