THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - PROCEDURES UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

By Graham Potter | Sunday, October 14, 2012

The proliferation of internet based news outlets has forever changed the way news is reported. Newspapers, for the most part, are seriously ailing with massive staff redundancies being the order of the day as management try to keep their ailing business’s from going onto life-support.

While this ‘new world’ order has huge benefits to offer … instant delivery to a world-wide audience, it does have a negative side in that many websites do not to abide by any established code of ethics which protects innocent parties from libel.

In fact, it can be argued that some thrive on rumour and innuendo … in other words, on bringing a primarily negative angle to their story which, in racing’s case, serves only to deride the industry.

Not that anybody in racing, or anywhere else for the matter, should be immune from criticism and certainly there is plenty of constructive criticism that can be offered to an industry that is currently travelling about as well as newspapers are travelling, but there is a responsible road that should be followed when tackling that cause.

In fact, the more responsible the method, the more it will be taken seriously and therefore the more effective it will be.

But that option is seemingly turned down flat by ‘serial predators’ who continually attack the racing industry from a distance.

The recent furore over a leading trainer’s ‘rumoured’ positive swab is a case in point.

By any reasonable standards certain outlets jumped the gun on the subject. Some would say they smelt blood and were licking their lips at the prospect of a kill … whatever their reasons, they went flying in and presented a subject without being fully aware of the facts involved or securing any direct quotes from the parties concerned.

They were simply fuelling the rumours and then, when things didn’t turn out the way they anticipated (when it was ruled the trainer has no case to answer), it was somebody else’s fault they had got it wrong! More pointing of fingers as they seemingly wanted to accept no responsibility for their part in arguably tarnishing a reputation.

Even in a world of dropping standards that is simply shoddy journalism, and hopefully it will be roundly recognized as such.

Free speech is a wonderful thing but, as they say, it is not free if someone, in this case the target of those ‘reports’, is made to pay for it.

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Racing Queensland stewards do not get off scott-free on this one either.

With rumours circulating before the publication of those stories mentioned above, stewards should have moved to set the record straight by providing the facts and therefore head off those reports before they got to print instead of hiding behind a veil of silence.

How difficult would it have been to say they had found a possible irregularity in a swab but were still awaiting the result of a second sample, that nobody had been charged yet and no charge was currently pending.

The racing public is stuck in the middle of all this. They can easily see through the myth of the so-called ‘transparency’… a word that is bandied around by authorities as if they actually know the meaning of the word. The public deserve better treatment than this.

As it is the swift, blunt manner of the end response by stewards in this matter and a their subsequent notice informing a trainer that, ‘he should re-visit his husbandry practices and endeavour to ensure an occurrence of the same or a similar nature was avoided in the future’ will only prompt more questions. They should know better. Vagueness seldom settles any issue!

The bottom line is that there is a lesson in this episode for both news outlets and stewards. Hopefully they will learn from it and handle things better in the future.

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