Did the AFR scoop the Telegraph on Barnaby Joyce's affair?

Sharri Markson was in her element this week, appearing on TV to talk about her Daily Telegraph scoop on Barnaby Joyce’s infidelity and the baby he is expecting with a former staffer. Markson did call the deputy prime minister the “deputy premier” but we’ll let that pass.

It was what the Tele’s national political editor said about some journalists who argued the story was not in the public interest that left us scratching our heads: “It’s journos who missed the story, who didn’t have the story, who didn’t publish, who are the ones now using it as an excuse, saying it’s not in the public interest,” she said. Well yes, Sharri. That’s, you know, their point.

It turns out there was at least one journalist in the mainstream media who reported the infidelity of the leader of the Nationals last year after all. While Markson in October alluded to a “deeply personal crisis” in Joyce’s life and issues that “affected his marriage of 24 years”, it was a Fairfax journo who nailed the word “infidelity” to Joyce.

In an online report on 19 December the Australian Financial Review’s chief political correspondent, Phillip Coorey, said a cabinet reshuffle by Malcolm Turnbull had left the Nationals in turmoil after Joyce dumped two of his ministers.


Source: theguardian