He outlined that because I’m a woman, after the initial six months of sitting in a car, I would spend the next year covering “babies with leukaemia” stories, children with life-threatening illnesses and attending paediatric hospitals. Then, after I’d done this 18-month apprenticeship I might be able to do general reporting.

He said accuracy was highly important, and mentioned a story they’d run about a former Page-3 model who’d become a prostitute. The problem was, the prostitute only looked exactly like the Page 3 model, but she wasn’t. They never found out why she’d claimed to be who she wasn’t. The real Page 3 model had just announced her engagement. “NOTW ended up paying for her wedding AND a house,” he said.

Then he ran through a scenario of how to cover a scandal, asking: “If a male Minister is having an affair with a mistress, who do you contact first — the wife, the Minister or the mistress?”
I guessed the wife, but he said: “None. First you get photos of the bloke going to and from the mistress’s house. Everyone has patterns and does things on certain days.
“Then go to the wife with the evidence. There’s a 50/50 chance she’ll be upset. Don’t go to her before you’ve collected the evidence; she could still be friends with her husband and warn him that NOTW is on to him. Then he could move out to a flat and we’d have no story.
“If the wife won’t talk, go to her father. He’ll spill the beans. As a man, he’ll have a natural instinct to protect his daughter, and you’ll be able to tell if he always suspected his son-in-law was playing around.
“Don’t go to the kids if they’re teenagers or younger.”

Thus enlightened, we went for a walk through the newsroom and there were filing cabinets everywhere and thick folders filled with all the collected data stacked high on desks. They needed three types of proof for everything as defence for court cases. The thing that struck me was the journalists were mostly men who looked frazzled and hard-bitten. I realised it wasn’t my thing.

In comparison, later I walked through the Sun newsroom and it was neat, clear of clutter and very tidy. There was no need for the Sun to bug phones — I did some night shifts and the poor reporters had to listen to endless calls from drunken, heart-broken celebrities prattling on for hours (and ringing back several times each night) about their love lives. The reporters would listen, offering advice like a therapist, and hoping for a few snippets, but usually it was a long repetitive whinge.

The only scandal I encountered at UK publications was that some women’s magazines made up stories, accompanied by photos of backpackers. I only discovered this when I tried to contact the writer of a story that was about a “tragic” holiday trip that had me in stitches, as it was so melodramatic and I couldn’t believe it was true. It turned out the writer’s name was made up too, and it had been written in-house. I also had queries and tried to contact the writer of an advice column I had to sub for a TV magazine, which didn’t make much sense, but I never got through, as it had allegedly been written by a “psychic dog”.

Thanks!

Went to see A.A. Gill, restaurant, TV and travel critic, at the Digital Dinosaurs talk, Sydney Writers’ Festival. [Coincidentally, have been watching Civilisation, Lord Kenneth Clark’s 1969 series, which was produced by his dad, Michael Gill.]

Gill was in great form and very witty (which I haven’t included here, it was “in the moment/context” wit.) He wasn’t in a dandy-ish outfit, but smart casual (white shirt, brown jacket, jeans.)

He hates the fact the internet means people write nasty comments, anonymously.

“What’s most distressing on the internet is ‘tone’. It could have been a place where people were nice to each other. The internet is a rabid, furious place. I find that disturbing. It gives you the chance to be as vile as possible while standing at the bus stop. Especially in comments at the bottom of the articles.”

“The internet is not a great egalitarian expression of democracy. It’s about lots of money and is owned by a few big corporations. Without an editor, the most vicious voices are dominant. The most outrageous opinions are the most reported.

“A free press is the most precious thing you own. It still is what protects you and your ‘having a democracy’. A free capitalistic press is better than a government-owned press or a free internet that’s invigilated by noone.”

Re: bloggers. “They can’t write well. Their rubbishy attempts just make proper writers’ work look better. [His writing is behind The Times paywall.]

“As a critic, my opinion is worth more than your opinion.”

“I don’t blog my opinions for free. I read newspapers, they’re much easier. I never have to ring a bloke who arrives on a motorbike, smells like a rabbit hutch and says: ‘Turn it on and off.’ ”

Re: Twitter. “Why do you want to know what people, who you are never going to know, think? Being able to tweet is not going to make you a good writer.”

“My publisher said to sell books I have to tweet. I thought to sell books you had to write them! I don’t even have to tweet myself, the publisher can get someone else to tweet for me!”

Also, being dyslexic, Gill said he finds it impossible to use Google as he can’t spell. He also can’t key in passwords that include numbers or  strings of numbers accurately.

A fantastic discussion.

As a fangrrl, I took along my copy of The Ivy (1999) for signing. Caused a kerfuffle in the queue as the others mistakenly thought I had an A.A. Gill book with *his* recipes, but I said it was the Ivy’s, to calm the melee. However, the book does include his detailed comments on the recipes, and personal suggestions.

I like A.A. Gill’s writing (and have most of his books) except for the occasional name-calling that goes too far, which The Times defends, probably because it’s part of that private school bullying mentality and they view it as humorous. The Press Complaints Commission (UK) even rules against him, but Gill and the paper are unrepentant. I think he can still be funny without overstepping the mark (eg. the satirical stylings of Craig Brown).

If you haven’t read A.A. Gill, he’s like a camp version of Jeremy Clarkson, except better writing, more knowledgeable and different topics (food, art, culture, TV, travel).

Tips for budding journalists: “Read, read, read. Write, write, write.” Which shows nothing has changed in the past 25 years, as that was exactly the advice I got when starting out.

I did have a chuckle when the Editors said they saw their role as “encouraging writers to have courage” to do their best, etc. I phoned my Mum and told her and she burst out laughing, because when does any boss do this? I’ve worked in three states of Australia and in England and it’s usually a stick approach from managers, and rarely a carrot. There were comments about “lazy” journalists, too, which I felt were generally unfair. At some places I’ve worked, writers have been expected to churn out words like machines, often getting RSI, and not having enough research or thinking time. Research rarely throws up definite answers — it just steers writers in a direction and they still need time to think and make a leap of faith and hope their judgment is correct. That can’t happen quickly.

I enjoyed Rick Feneley’s speech best, who said journalists and editors are desperately needed to  carefully select, hunt down, commission and decipher news. ‘‘We need editors more than ever. Despite some doomsaying about newspapers, total media consumption is growing at a rapid rate,’’ Feneley said. ‘‘We need not only journalists and their editors to deliver the stories, but more importantly publishers who see the value in investing in stories that matter, that will be read.
‘‘If the last newspaper and magazine were published tomorrow [Tuesday], on Thursday you’d still be reading their wares – online, on a tablet, on your phone. The information business is more vital than ever.”

The best question was asked of Mr Feneley, it was something about Twitter, which he declined to answer, since he doesn’t use it, which completely affirmed his speech, and also caused a few breathless gasps.

I was surprised that during the 40-minute question time, quite a few students left early, unlike the IQ Debates (mostly over-60s attend those and they stay til the very end). I was thinking: poor younger people, having jobs to pay off their steep uni fees, plus study to fit in. When I got outside at 7.30pm, though, students were cursing that the nearby bar had already closed. Remedied by a trek to  Hermann’s, across City Road. Yes, nothing has really changed in 25 years …

Mark Dapin, Malcolm Knox, Caroline Overington

Panel: WHAT CAN JOURNALISM AND FICTION LEARN FROM EACH OTHER?

MALCOLM KNOX (SMH, author): Writing fiction helped me to write fast. I’d written 7-8 complete novels before I’d walked into a newsroom, none of them published. Writing a million words without being published is a form of madness.

I like chronology. How people got into a fix and how they get out of it.

Fiction writers often draw from real life.

CAROLINE OVERINGTON (The Australian, author): Said she wrote fiction to explore issues she wasn’t legally able to discuss in print, such as child murder. Once the parents have been named, the child can’t be mentioned again, as it identifies other children in the family. Overington rails against this, as there are many other victims in the family, or connected to the case, who need help (eg. an adult child, whose murdering parents were about to be released from prison, wanted to make a media case to keep the parents in prison. But couldn’t, as the media has to refrain from identifying the case.)

MARK DAPIN: (writes column for Good Weekend, features, author) I write my column to please the editor, and books to please myself.

For 3000-word features, I stick to a beginning, middle and end.

I tried scriptwriting and can do dialogue but I’m not interested in the technical aspects of writing: “he walked across the room”.

Often people think that my journalism is all made up and my fiction is based on fact. Not so.

David Marr, Paul Barry, Anna Broinowski, David Leser

Panel: Paul Barry (4 Corners, Media Watch), David Marr (SMH writer, 4 Corners, Media Watch), David Leser (Good Weekend profile writer, author). Topic: Truth is stranger than fiction.

DAVID MARR: “I love people who invent their life stories, they fascinate me. But if they put the same amount of energy into their real lives, instead of being constricted in a web of lies, they could really get somewhere.”

“Journalists hear a lot of fiction – the stories police tell. ‘I slipped on a banana skin and shot him twice, dead. It was a comic accident.’

“The most outrageous story I’ve heard was the AWB – and Australian company working with the Department of Foreign Affairs to defraud the UN of $3million. You couldn’t invent it.’’

“At the Liberal Party campaign launch, [the SMH] sent three writers to Brisbane – one to analyse their policies, another to examine the impact of the launch on the party’s fortunes, and me to roll about in the aisle laughing at all the dead people walking again with fresh blood pumping through their veins.”

“The best female journalist in Australia is Marian Wilkinson. [They wrote a book together, about Tampa/ children overboard]. There was great tension between us. She’s very alert to telling a story by analysis. I want to tell things through a story. Luckily, we were in different countries, so our tensions were resolved over email.”

“I don’t like having a narrative imposed. You have to be careful not to pluck a story shape off the shelf. It could distort things.”

When asked about whether his comedy stylings are fiction, Marr said: “There’s an element of truth.”

“I’ve been asked, ‘Why don’t you write a novel?” Because I’m got an explainer’s mind. I love explaining complex issues that are misunderstood and cause a public panic.

“I don’t conceive characters.

On the topic of courage, DM said: “I’m not brave – I live in a very safe, muffled world.”

PAUL BARRY: I spend two years writing a book. I have sleepless nights – I wonder, Is this person as awful as I think? I had a dream about Kerry Packer, where he behaved like the nicest person I’ve ever met and I woke up in a cold sweat.

DAVID MARR: “I worry, what if I’ve got it completely wrong? What if this is a major delusion of mine and I’ve just found the facts to match what I believe? This usually happens when I’ve had to step aside from the topic for a while, do more research, then I come back to it, and think; Can this possibly be true? There’s a possibility that you create a Frankenstein and it takes on a life of its own.

Eg. Rudd. I’d heard a lot about the utter confusion and chaos of Rudd’s office. I was kind of convinced, yet completely sceptical. Could this be true?

Then I met another witness and asked him and he said, “Believe every word of it.”

PAUL BARRY: You have to make judgments on who to believe.

What is truth? It’s what you can defend in court.

DAVID MARR: “You can be convinced you got the story right and then incontrovertible evidence or a witness comes along and you have to change all of it. It often happens! But the new story is always better.”

The writers said they often ran details past their main subjects, but might refrain if it would trigger an injunction.

PAUL BARRY: I can send someone material saying they’re a fraud, shonky and a paedophile and they’ll often agree, correct some facts and add a bit more.

DAVID MARR: There are never disadvantages to checking stuff.

I don’t like the manipulation of facts – I like to say: ‘I don’t know about this bit.’

PAUL BARRY: It would have been suicidal to make stuff up about Packer and Bond. There are some rich and powerful people I won’t write about because they’re so dangerous. I would fear ending up dead. Jim Byrnes, a developer – not worth it.

If I had of written about Kerry Packer’s black mistress, who ran brothels for him in Palm Beach (and committed suicide when he cut her off financially), when he was alive, that would have buried me.

DAVID LESER: profiled Gina Rinehart and Rose Porteous. “Gina spoke in a strange whisper, I could hardly hear her. Rose was the Philippino house maid who married Lang Hancock. Gina hired SAS men to accompany her kids to school. She drove a bulletproof Jaguar. Her lawyer on $1million a year was Michael Kroger (Liberal Party power broker). I couldn’t make these characters up.”

“There’s a difference between holding a spirited position and taking liberties. You have to be fair.

“But ultimately, the truth about someone [when doing profiles] is unknowable and forever mysterious. You can’t even know the truth about yourself, it changes very day.”

“I’m surprised at how often people’s friends will tell a lot of stuff that’s negative.”

Laurie Oakes, John Nichols, Malcolm Turnbull, Annabel Crabb, Quentin Dempster

MALCOLM TURNBULL: “Politics has always been vicious and nasty. From the latest tweet on Twitter to graffiti on a wall in Pompeii. You can’t complain. It goes with the territory.”

“The public are very discerning and don’t believe every caricature.

“Q and A is enormously important. There’s a decent chunk of time to be yourself, though it’s under adversarial conditions.”

Turnbull cited his legal experience as making him an expert on interrogation.

“They’re both friends of mine, but Laurie Oakes is a much better interrogator than Kerry O’Brien. Why? Laurie is much more forensic. He asks a question that demands a response, like a barrister.

“Kerry O’Brien reads a lot of opinions out, a statement for you to react to, then says: ‘What do you think?” I’ve usually looked at my watch and opened my iPad before he gets to the end of his long diatribe. He’s not actually asking anything, he just wants a reaction.”

There were several comments about Turnbull and Utegate and ‘checking sources”.

“When the Sunday Telegraph did a dirt file about my ‘colourful’ business career, they drew a graphic of a manila folder and called it a ‘Labor Party dirt file’. That’s where they got it from. They didn’t pretend it was part of their own Walkley-Award winning investigation.”

“There are more journalists than skeletons in my cupboard, and a few skeletons of journalists in there too.”

QUENTIN DEMPSTER: Raised the issues of the John Brogden drama (suicide attempt), outing of David Campbell, Paul Keating’s privacy requests for his adult children. He suggested a debate on privacy laws should be restarted.

ANNABEL CRABB: On hearsay: “People can have ancient baggage and the animosity colours what they hear.”

On the topic of 24/7 media cycle: “Politicians are more accessible and they’re expected to expand what they say to fill the gaps, like extended Pollyfilla. There’s no time to reflect and think about what they’re going to say next. Except for Malcolm [Turnbull], because he still catches public transport.”

LAURIE OAKES: “Viciousness is as old as politics. They said Abe Lincoln looked bad.

“Gough Whitlam kept saying about Bill McMahon that he took “a long time to discover women”, until Gough was told to stop.

“It has always been nasty.

“Most journalists get their information/leaks form other politicians. They blame the press for it, but they’re doing it to themselves.”

“Paul Keating has a point – his kids shouldn’t be pursued by the media. They’re innocent parties and should be protected.”

“There is now much more space to fill and politicians have less to say, because they’re always quoting focus groups.

“Tony Abbott said he wasn’t looking at any policies that went further than his lifetime – that’s not very statesmanlike.”

Turnbull quipped: “But he’s very fit.”

Peter FitzSimons, Alice Pung, Fenella Souter

If they get dull, PF pulls out the six-shooters and fires at their feet. (says something to stir them up).

“If they’re still dull, I’ll dance.”

METHODOLOGY

He has a team of researchers and pays them $50 an hour.

“I assemble about 50,000 pieces of research. It’s like a 1000-piece jigsaw. I pick up and piece and I know it goes somewhere over there.”

He does several interviews with his subjects. The first one from 9am to 5pm where he tapes the person’s life story.

Then he gets it transcribed and highlights the good bits and asks questions (often about 150 questions crop up).

Another five-hour session answering the questions, and transcribing and more questions pop up.

Interview other friends, and more questions come up.

Another three-hour session and another 40 questions come up.

“Then pull the guts out of the stuff. How do I choose? What will sell.”

When writing for the SMH, he says he has lots of ‘different oyster beds”. “After 10 articles on one topic, I’m exhausted. I write about travel, rugby, politics … by the time I’ve exhausted one area, ideas have grown in another and I’m ready to write about that topic again.”

“I love writing. I’m up at 4am. I love long plane trips – they’re great for writing.”

Chris Masters at Walkley conference.

Chris Masters – investigative journalist, Four Corners, ABC, author of Jonestown (about Alan Jones), Gold Walkley winner.

One of his most “perfect” stories, where everything worked pretty smoothly, was about the Rainbow Warrior bombing (which killed a man), and turned into a worldwide scoop on the French Government’s “state-sponsored terrorism”.

He had to fly to various countries and at one stage the French spies were so desperate to evade him that they sank their getaway yacht and got picked up by a submarine.

“For that story, one in 100, I was always in the right place at the right time.”

But for the other 99 stories, it’s “usually painful, every step of the way”.

“You’re extracting secrets – information that people are extremely resistant to give.

“[When you ring] they never say, ‘You beaut, I’ll put the kettle on.’ ”

“A lot of the battle is winning their trust. And you do that by being trustworthy. Eventually you’ll find some people who are eager to cooperate.”

THE IDEA, NOT THE ANGLE

“I hate editors asking, ‘What’s your angle?’ I don’t want to give an oblique account of a story. Balance is seen as a dirty word.

“The idea is what’s important. I like the ‘idea’ because it doesn’t exclude anything. And that leads to good narrative and will make you a good reporter. I love narrative, it’s more honest.

“If you have a command of narrative, you will love balance. Every story has lots of dead ends and twists and turns. Life is full of the challenges of integrating opposites – you love your kids, despite the fact they tell you lies. The world is full of that.”

An example of an idea that embraces contradictions, was “A Careful War” http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20100705/afghanistan/ for his two-part Four Corners programs on Afghanistan. “It’s an intellectually engaging and confronting idea because all wars are chaotic. Our soldiers were having to learn how to pat kids on the head while scoping out the bloke in the field with a hoe, which could be a machinegun.”

“I get my high out of that moment – ‘Here, I have a great story to tell you.’ When you’ve done the hard work and can’t wait to tell it. It keeps me going.”

“I hate the type of journalism that’s: “I know who Mr Big is.” That’s only good for gossip at the pub.

Journalism is about judgment. You have a bullshit detector. Constantly cultivate a talent for the truth. It’s not a mystical or magical. There are a number of top reporters who got it right. Edward Murrow (US reporter, 1908-1965) – he applied good judgment and good narrative.”

METHODOLOGY

“You need a methodology so you have control over the evidence. You assemble the evidence and form the narrative.

“My system looks like a mess but there’s method in the madness.

“I make my notes, then type them up, which focuses my mind on what is useful.

“Ninety per cent of the material gathered is wasted, so working in a team is best. Everyone attends meetings, types up the notes, shares them with the team and then pick out the best quotes.

PLANNING AN AFGHANISTAN STORY

“Turning up in Afghanistan is very ropey. It’s a complex story to tell for various reasons. There’s the prospect of being executed or taken as a hostage and the [Australian] government being held to ransom. You can’t turn up in a village and ask what they think, you won’t get the truth.”

To get a couple of viewpoints, Masters embedded a team with the ADF and had a second team roaming around outside.

“We’re in a democracy, so we’re all responsible in a way for being in the war. We should do our best to understand what our government’s doing.”

DON’T GO FOR THE GLAMOROUS TOPICS

“Good journalists put their hands up for everything. You have to challenge yourself, test yourself, back yourself. To make something interesting important is easy, it’s done all the time.

The craft is to make what is important interesting. What’s important is often not interesting. It’s about public education. ‘Command of the narrative’ is what you use to make it interesting.”

He gave an example of his story, Gambling the Farm, transcript here.

“I had to find a microcosm, a community on a climate fault line, easily affected by drought.”

When he finally found a suitable area,he turned up with a crew and it rained for the first time in a decade! “What did we do? We didn’t pack up and go. You can’t just leave because the facts don’t fit in with your preconceptions of who is the villain and who is the hero. I adjusted the story to ‘survival in this critical area’.

WHAT COMES FIRST – WORDS OR PICTURES?

“I’m often asked, particularly in this era of multimedia, what comes first? The words? Or the pictures? Do you grab people with the power of an image of sheep with a beautiful sunset?

“Neither. It’s the idea that comes first.

“Look for something within the maze of information that shows the bigger picture.’’

MORALITY
“There’s no job that doesn’t have moral pain. Don’t think you’ll escape it by going into PR — think of James Hardie. Every job has moral pain.”

DEATH KNOCKS

He said that while it’s easy to “feel like a vulture” doing death knocks, “as often as not, people are welcoming”. “Some don’t want a death to be ignored and mean nothing.”

DECENCY – TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS

When Masters was doing the Afghanistan story, two of the soldiers in the team he was with were killed. “We put our cameras down. We didn’t want to exploit it. We didn’t overplay it. We weren’t being clever or cunning or smart. It was just the right thing to do. The story isn’t always the most important thing.”

DANGER

“I don’t think of myself as a brave person. I accept there are risks, but it’s a vocation for me, not just a job.

“I don’t want to overstate the danger. The truth is a battleground, but I take calculated risks. I don’t do demonstrations of courage.

“There have been lots of times I’ve been in fear for my personal safety and lots of nasty things have happened to me, but nothing compared to mates in Indonesia and Columbia.

“Most threats are bluffs. The only Australian journalist to be murdered was Juanita Nielsen (a publisher, opposed a development in Kings Cross, went missing 1975).

“The worst thing is legal action. “The courts are demoralising and draining – years of expensive litigation are a pain. It’s death by a thousand courts.”