A Good Story

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Back lanes of Darlington, Sydney.


Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this, that you are dreadfully like other people.
James Russell Lowell

Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.
James Russell Lowell


Sometimes I'm asked what was the best story I've ever done.

I tell them the following tale, not because it was the most dramatic or earth shattering of stories, but because it had such an immediate outcome; and because for once you could feel good about journalism. Most of the time we're just telling someone else's story for someone else's profit.

It was in the late 1980s when Terry Metherell was Education Minister in NSW and Nick Greiner was the Premier.

Metherell was a strange, puritanical beast, a vegetarian with an austere temperament. He had been tasked with reforming the NSW education system and was in constant conflict with the teacher's unions, daily pilloried by the press and a public who did not understand him. There were times when he just went too far, far too far.

This time he had announced that all the aids for disabled students would be sacked.

Alkthough journalists and photographers aren't normally allowed on school property without permission from the department, the principal of this particular school was so outraged he just told us to "come on out". Me and the photographer Bruce Miller, who was married to Lindsay Simpson at the time and in those days we were great mates, went out to the school on the north shore. I talked to the parents, I talked to the students, I talked to the teachers. We toured the classrooms. The kids were very sweet and excitable, but many of them were in wheelchairs or very disabled. One parent told me that she had no idea her child was disabled until she was born. They had done all the normal tests. While she was a perfectly intelligent little girl, she could only blink one eye and move one finger. The aids were essential to her well being, helping with basic things like going to the toilet, getting her into the chairs. As part of the article I told her story, which was very powerful. In the end we didn't need the teachers, who would have all faced the sack, to say anything, the stories of the parents were strong enough.

There was a giant fig tree which dominated the centre of the playground. Bruce organised all the students to sit in a circle beneath it, climbed up into the tree and shot downwards. Back in the office they tagged each kid with their disability and what needed to be done for them.

My opening line for the story was: "Their heads flop, they sometimes dribble and they often giggle."

The story went straight to the heart of every mother in town.

It was a simple story simply told with a great photograph to go with it and the impact was immediate. Talkback went ballistic. By 11am the Premier Nick Greiner was on the radio reversing the decision. We were heroes for a day.

It's the only story I can think of in more than 20 years of mainstream journalism where the impact has been so immediate, and the outcome so clearly for the good. Most of the time the outcome is muddy, the morality vague, or questionable. I wonder what I'm doing and why I'm doing it as I go through the daily routine. The great arc of our lives leaves us all unsettled, hoping to have done soon good, made some change for the better. The trail of words and mishaps was nothing to bear home. All hail to you, he said in the ether, and the darkness of our machinations, the callous manipulation of vulnerable people for news fodder, the baying of the pack, the immoral heartland in which we dwelt, all of it left a yearning for some greater good, a better life, a nobler cause.


THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-03-04-voa31.cfm

Record turnouts are expected in the U.S. presidential race as primary voters go to the polls in Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont. The latest public opinion polls show Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama locked in very close contests in the delegate-rich states of Texas and Ohio. On the Republican side, Senator John McCain could secure his party's nomination with victories Tuesday over former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. VOA Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington.

Senator Hillary Clinton is fighting to keep her dream alive of becoming the first woman elected president of the United States. Polls show the race for the Democratic nomination too close to call in Texas, and give her a slight lead in Ohio, where she will await the results Tuesday night. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had asserted that she needs to win both Texas and Ohio to keep her campaign going.

Hillary Clinton on Comedy Central's The Daily Show
Hillary Clinton on Comedy Central's The Daily Show
But speaking from Texas on Comedy Central's The Daily Show late Monday, Clinton indicated she may fight on even if she does not win both states.

"It is still a very close contest in terms of the popular vote and the number of delegates," she said.

Senator Barack Obama, who is vying to become the first African-American U.S. president, has more committed delegates than Senator Clinton and is coming off 11 straight victories in primaries and caucuses since Super Tuesday on February 5. His campaign would love to deliver Clinton a "knockout blow" by winning both Texas and Ohio.

"We have got to work in these last few hours. If you voted, then you have got to go find somebody who has not voted," he said. "If you already planned to caucus, you have got to round up five more friends to go to caucus with you."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/04/2179795.htm?section=australia

The New South Wales Governor has formally sacked Wollongong Council after a request from the State Government.

Governor Marie Bashir met Local Government Minister Paul Lynch this afternoon and she has now signed a proclamation dismissing Wollongong Council.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) recommended the council be sacked because of systemic corruption, which has been detailed in recent public hearings.

Mr Lynch says the Government moved today after receiving the commission's recommendation in writing.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23320226-5006009,00.html

CONVICTED conman Gerald Carroll was assaulted and jeered by victims he fleeced of more than $250,000 as his sins of the past returned to haunt him at the ICAC inquiry into Wollongong Council.
Paul Gray, who said his wife was conned out of $200,000 in 2001, punched Carroll as the doors closed on the lift.

Earlier two women, one of whom said she had been conned out of $135,000, pulled faces at Carroll while he was in the witness box denying his involvement in another scam that ripped $500,000 from prominent figures in the Wollongong Council bribes scandal.

When he finished his testimony Carroll refused to leave the hearing room because the women were waiting in the foyer.

One stuck her head in the hearing room and called: "They're not the only lives you've ruined."

Carroll's solicitor complained to security officers and the women were told to cease the harassment.

"He's an ICAC witness. You can't approach him on these premises,'' an officer said.



Myself and my brother, probably late 1950s.