Monday 5 October 2009

Another letter to the Cairns Post, that never made it

  • Fri, 18 Sep 2009

    The Cairns Post

    Dear Editor,

    Last Sunday my friend read me out some of an article he was reading in the Sunday Mail, knowing it would interest me as I'm all for treasuring our heritage.

    It was about a collection of "our nations inanimate ghosts, an anthology of soulful objects" - old telephones, jugs etc, at Dajarra, south of Mt Isa. The author is later "at the bar of the dingily atmospheric pub".

    Then he told me who'd written this article, so fondly celebrating our history. Gavin King. Remember Gavin, who ridiculed those of us who tried to save the old Yacht Club building as "pathetic relics of yesteryear," who should "move with the times or move somewhere else?"

    So what's the story, Gav? Have you had an historical epiphany, or was someone maybe paying you to so virulently oppose saving a little of Cairns heritage?

    And isn't the mess that is where the old club stood just so picturesque? And how much has it been sold for?

    I've been told that The Cairns Post won't print anything relating to the old Yacht Club building - is this true, and if so, why not?

    Sincerely,
    Sharon Powell
    Manunda

I think Sharon is correct. They won't.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

King did state publicly that,in hindsight, he regretted that he did not support saving the Cairns Yacht Club.

That was after the damage was done of course...

I wonder what type of personality it takes to be so glib about an issue that meant so much too many people, considering he played a major role in shaping public opinion about the issue and vilifying those who wanted to save the place.

Then again when you see his last boring effort in the Sunday Mail, you obviously should not expect too much.

It's strange, because judging by the odd very good article he writes, he's obviously not devoid of talent.

Does he have a problem with women ? Or does he think writing old-fashioned, sexist stuff is somehow stirring up "debate" ?

You'd have to be a lot more original and witty to get away with that !

Zortan Deepstar said...

It's the Illuminati. They pay the Post to not publish anything about the yacht club building. Its part of the worldwide conspiracty to build temples on every forshore in every country. Take careful note of the number of floors in the proposed replacement building, and multiply it by the address, relate it to the Old Testament and the conspiracy is immediately clear.

Gavin King said...

A lawyer friend contacted me to point out some interesting facts about this post, and your site more broadly. I do hope this letter is published in full. You wouldn't want to live life as a hypocrite, would you?  There are a couple of good (and obvious) reasons why this letter wasn't printed.
First, I haven't worked at The Cairns Post for four months, so they're not likely to publish a letter referring to an ex-employee who now works for another newspaper. For the past four months. I would've thought that was obvious, but obviously not.
Second, it is defamatory. I'm not sure, if you realise that publishing material accusing someone of being corrupt and accepting bribes from a developer to write favourable material is defamatory. Being a professional media organisation, the Cairns Post does everything it can to prevent defamatory material being published. As lawyer Helen Dale at skepticlawyer.com.au writes: "Bloggers have to be damn careful when they make allegations which may injure someone’s reputation (particularly their professional reputation)." But you know that already, don't you? You know that everything you publish, yes, even a letter/comment from a reader, is defamatory. The liability for any defamation action lies with the publisher. If you know any good lawyers, maybe you should ask them, or better still, hire one - they'll tell you the letter is defamatory.
In the meantime, best of luck with your personal life.
Regards, Gavin King. 

Bonita M said...

I knew Gav was talking crap when he said something about having a "lawyer friend" Is there such a thing? And would this tabloid mullet have a friend anyway?
Perhaps Macca? They seem to have such good time together - laughing at each others jokes (John's hair is off limits) while huddled together in their AM846 'think tank'

Reece from the CBD said...

I laughed out loud reading Gavin King's veiled threats of invoking an action for defamation.

Can you imagine, Gavin King missed the salient second point about legal actions for defamation? The target actually needs to have a professional reputation that can be injured, and can prove a financial injury. Gavin King is a community laughingstock, a pimple on the arse of journalists everywhere. Him claiming an injury to his professional reputation after all the self-inflicted damage he's done gets my vote for "joke of the week".

Get stuffed, Gavin King. And take your buddy John Mackenzie with ya.

nocturnal congress said...

Is that right about "defamation"? You have to have a professional reputation and suffer loss of income from something, to have a case? I always wondered how the Courts decided. Well, that seems fair enuff. What about the law regarding slander?

Sharon Powell said...

My my, didn't my simple question get Gavins hackles up?

And as MY lawyer friend would like to point out to HIS lawyer friend, that's all it was - a simple question.

NOT, as he states, accusing him of "being corrupt and accepting bribes from a developer." His words - certainly not mine.

So take a Bex and have a lie down Gav before you give people the impression you "protesteth too much" SP

Julie Ann @ Redlynch said...

What a wanker King is.

I have to admit, I used to like his writings in the Post. I rekon he was often confused for being anti-women and all that but I simpy believe he was tring to be funny, even if he missed the point sometimes, even if it's not everyone's cup of tea, like the way Moore writes on here.

However, after seeing his spew on here tonight I've totally changed my opinion of this uptight arogant jerk.

Who does he think he is to talk to and about Sharon, a well-known (and liked) community participant. She made some very valid and timely points and all King can do - is NOT ANSWER the points - but bring up threats... like Blake and Byrne were famous for.

What a huge tosser.

Piss off King and I for one will never read your Sunday Mail crap ever again.

Jay J said...

Gavin King needs a big kick up and tharse to take his fat arse down to size.

I bet his ex(s) are pleased to see the end of him and his inflated ego. This is one guy that loves himself so much he doesn't need porn, just a big mirror and a radio tuned to 846am.

Wonder if he's killed his negelected dog yet buy abanoning it, like he's well-known for?

KitchenSlut said...

Gavin's work has improved since joining the Sunday Mail albeit still restrained by talent limitations as a writer, reliance on sterotypes especially re women, strained metaphors and attempted humour that just don't quite work or is tired and been done before.

On the point of dispute I personally didn't take Sharon's question seriously as a personal allegation but rather as a commentary that the Compost miserably failed any pretense of editorial separation from it's own commercial interests. My perception is that the worst of this during my time in Cairns happened while Gavin King was 'Chief of Staff' at the Compost.

My own personal experience of this was passing on analysis nd commentary to Gavin and the late business editor Greg Punshon on Tom Hedley which was more than ignored when the Compost continued to publish sycophantic hero comments on Hedley right up to and beyond his collapse. The ignored material formed a key component of stories by two of the most prominent financial journalists in The Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald not particularly kind to Tom!

Sadly Cairns has been let down by the Compost and its culture and Gavin King was part of that.

P.S. I'm curious about this comment Gavin: "You know that everything you publish, yes, even a letter/comment from a reader, is defamatory." I guess this is just another example of your limitations as a journalist and inability to clearly communicate or are you suggesting as written that Cairnsblog ONLY publishes defamatory material? Couldn't that be defamatory in itself also?

Unknown said...

Who's calling who a hypocrite, Gavin. After relentlessly campaigning against, and ridiculing those who wanted to save the Yacht Club, you then turn around and say, that maybe you were wrong about it after all.
You need lessons in ethics rather than legal advice.

Now show us you got some balls and get stuck into Kevin Byrne the same way you get stuck into Val Schier. How about some snide comments about Kev's wife's real estate dealings (something about operating without a license). I mean, she is a female, so she should be fair game for one of your boring columns.

I feel sorry for a real journalist like Terry Sweetman, who has to share the page with your juvenile dribbling.

Anonymous said...

Gavin needs to get a better lawyer - Defamation is defined as - Any intentional false communication, either written or spoken, that harms a person's reputation; decreases the respect, regard, or confidence in which a person is held; or induces disparaging, hostile, or disagreeable opinions or feelings against a person.

In order to defame someone's character they have to have a character in the first place, or a good reputation in the first place. If you call someone a bully and they are a bully that's not defamation. So in Gavin King's case it would be impossible to defame him!

Perhaps Gavin might like to reflect on some of the crap he wrote in his columns in the Compost. For example the article of 6 June 2008 where he wrote and I quote "Believe it or not I had stumbled across a secret meeting of none other than Premier Anna Bligh, Qantas boss Geoff Dixon, Mayor Val Schier and Leichhardt MP Jim Turnour". The article goes on to "quote" the conversation between these people that in fact never happened, that Gavin King didn't overhear and the content of which was outrageous. Never did he in that article or thereafter actually mention that none of the article was fact and the comments he purported were made by this people were fictious. In the article Gavin King says "This cabal of community and corporate leaders were discussing an evil plan to boost growth in southeast Queensland at the expense of the Far North."

Wasn't this an "intentional false communication"????? Isn't that defamation Gavin King.

Why don't you sick your fat head up your arse.

nocturnal congress said...

King was successful in ruining any period of "a fair go" that Val Schier, as the first ever female Mayor of Cairns, could have had. Every other elected official in this city has been given a period of grace, called "the honeymoon period" before attracting the critical attentions of the media.
Val Schier is unique in that the media did not allow her that period of grace. Frankly, I respect the woman for sticking in there, putting up with the most virulent "hate" campaign EVER seen in this city orchestrated by the local media. Hang in there Val.

Warren Retsch said...

Psst ... there was a rumour at the last federal erection that King posted several outbursts on immigration without revealing a personal motivation? The imcumbent it is rumoured wanted all gloves off but was dissuaded by more nuanced and moderatley ethical elements? What could it all mean?

nocturnal congress said...

Oh Christ I remember that halfwit MacKenzie bellowing away on his program about "the Muslims not fitting into the Australian culture."
If the xenophobe had got off his big fat white caucasian bum, driven up the Kuranda range to Mareeba, he would have found a Sunni Mosque and a Sunni community who have been well integrated and accepted in the Mareeba community for decades. And NO, don't be ignorant...they are NOT all of "Albanian" descent either.
John Howard's decree that migrants pass an English test either did not go down very well with the Italian/Yugoslav/Greek community here who quickly pointed out that their elderly folk who had been in Australia for yonks never learned to speak English well or write it.
In fact, Howard lost a few votes on that issue here in the local region.