Political corruption, accountability and the media: A study of motives and justifications Part II by Stephen John Tanner B.A., M.A. Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Tasmania June 1999 ~'t­ ~ TAtJrJER Pl. b 1'1~'1 \ro{Z.. Chapter 7 The Metherell Affair and the media: establishing 'interest' Introduction Having discussed the attempts by the Government to explain and justify the Metherell appointment and the effort& of the Opposition and non­ aligned Independents to question or even discredit these explanations, the thesis now turns to the media's coverage of this issue. As the discussion in chapter three showed, the media plays an important informational role. That is, it operates as a multi-directional conduit. The importance of this function is reinforced by the discussion in chapters four to six. The justifications offered by Greiner, Moore, Metherell, Hazzard and Humphry would have been to no avail if ultimately those arguments were not conveyed to the public in a form which accurately portrayed the essence of their respective positions. Likewise with the Opposition, the non-aligned Independents, and the other groups which were directly affected by the appointment. Given the political stakes involved, each was entitled to have their views reported by the media. From a public perspective, the media provided a conduit back- giving MPs an insight into community responses to the appointment and their role therein. The complexity of this issue, the time span involved, and the fact that information was released in a piecemeal fashion during the early stages, suggest that the task of the media organisations in covering the Metherell affair potentially would be a difficult one. Whilst media organisations were helped by the fact that the issue was presented to them, rather than being one which they had to uncover through their own investigative resources, they were required to: (1) interpret the information; and (2) 206 identify those individuals and groups with a genuine stake in this issue. Whilst that stake did not vary throughout the crisis, it was clear that the on-going relevance of stakeholders on a day by day basis varied. For example, it was clear from the discussion in chapters four to six that Greiner, Tim Moore and Metherell were the key players and thus likely to be the focus of on-going media attention. Hazzard and Humphry were of lesser importance. Of the other stakeholders, it is clear that the Opposition and the non-aligned Independents were the most important, given the p~ssible political outcomes and their involvement therein. However their direct involvement was likely to be influenced by events. Whilst they played an important role in stage one (covered by chapter four) and the third stage (dealt with in chapter six), they were peripheral to the inquiry process itself which comprised the second stage (discussed in chapter five). The purpose of this chapter is twofold. The first objective is to chart media interest in the Metherell affair. In part this objective is inspired by a claim from Commissioner Temby in his first report where he suggested that the media's interest in the Metherell affair was a response to "almost immediate and distinctly savage" public reaction.! Two measures are used to establish 'interest': (1) articles published and; (2) square centimetres allocated to coverage of the issue. The chapter begins with a simple breakdown of total articles published by each of the four newspapers over the survey period. Initially the figures are presented on a monthly basis. The chapter then seeks to contextualise those figures by considering them in terms of potential and actual publication days. Finally, the chapter charts media interest over the survey period using both articles per day and square centimetres per day as the key variables. The information is presented in monthly and daily terms for a number of reasons. The first is to reflect the structure of the chronology developed in chapter four and utilised in chapters five and six. The second is for I ICAC, First Report, 4. 207 convenience. Whilst the chronology, and much of the data presented in this chapter, highlight the fact that this issue developed on a daily basis - often with dramatic changes in coverage from publication period to publication period- the presentation of this information within monthly time frames provides manageable and logical demarcation points throughout the survey period, particularly with respect to the use of charts which were designed to map either key events, the variation in media coverage of this issue over time, and the relationship between the two. The second objective is to use the chronology developed in chapter four to explore the link between media interest as established by the measures identified above and the key events which make up the Metherell affair. Whilst particular emphasis was placed on events which were not in the media's capacity to directly influence, such as the scheduling of ICAC and Supreme Court hearing days, parliamentary debates and meetings between the major players who were seeking a resolution to the crisis, it also seeks to establish whether there is a correlation between statements by politicians2, both those directly implicated by the Metherell appointment and others who were drawn into it by virtue of their relationship with the key witnesses or were seeking to benefit from it for political reasons on the one hand, and media coverage of the affair on the other. In particular the chapter seeks to relate 'interest' to specific episodes in this incident to show that the Metherell affair was not media driven but rather was event driven. The chapter starts from the premise that on the basis of Masterton's criteria of newsworthiness discussed in chapter 3, all four newspapers are likely to be 'interested' in the Metherell affair. On the basis of the discussion in chapters four to six, a number of reasons for this interest could be identified. First, interest could be based on the public figures who 2 These statements can include media releases, press conferences and comments made by telephone or in passing. 208 were involved. This included the Premier, whose involvement would dearly have met Masterton's sixth criterion of newsworthiness (prominence). Likewise, the involvement of Moore as a senior cabinet minister and Metherell as a former minister turned renegade MP would have satisfied this criterion. The nature of the allegations, the ICAC finding against Greiner and Moore, their subsequent resignations as Premier and Minister respectively under threat from the Independents that they would support a no-confidence motion leading to a change of government, and the outcome of the Supreme Court challenge which ultimately cleared Greiner and Moore of corruption all satisfied the first criterion (consequence). The way in which the whole issue was played out, involving as it did both party politics and law, could be said to satisfy Masterton's third criterion (conflict). The second criterion (proximity) is likewise satisfied. NSW is Australia's most populous state and thus is demographically significant. At the time of the Metherell affair the Government of NSW was also the focus of national interest because the Greiner Government was considered to be reformist, not only in an ethical sense (important though that is to this thesis), but also in a financial sense. Hence the proximity criterion is satisfied in this sense too. Considering the numbers During the period selected for this study the four newspapers published 940 articles. This includes news and comment pieces, editorials and cartoons. The breakdown of articles is presented in Table 7.1 overleaf. The individual column totals and the overall number of articles suggest strong media interest in this issue. Whilst the AFR published fewer articles in all categories than the other newspapers, its interest in the Metherell affair is nonetheless significant. In fact a number of possible explanations can be offered for this. First, the smaller number of articles published in the AFR reflects its different role. The AFR is essentially a finance newspaper which covers politics it adjudges to be of interest to 209 business. Again, its interest in the Metherell affair - the origins of which were political rather than economic, despite the dollar value of the job at stake3 may be indicative of Greiner's standing as a financial manager rather than any other consideration. Furthermore, the Australian and AFR are both national dailies and hence could be expected to devote less space to coverage of the Metherell affair than the two NSW state-based papers- the SMH and the DTM. The fact that the Australian published almost as many articles as the DTM is indicative, firstly, of its focus on politics- and, secondly, on Greiner's standing as a national political figure. Table 7.1: Breakdown of articles by category .............................................N'~;;;·& ................. £;m~·;i~~~ ................ ca;:t;:;;;~;····· ............... ;y~-i"~I" .......... opinion (stand alone) articles ..sMii .................... ..............................329· ...............................17· ...............................2if 374 "fiThi'""""'"'"'"" .............................. 213' ...............................16' ...............................27' 256 .............................. 22'1' ...............................12' .............................. "15" ...........................