THE MEDIA RELEASE THAT FLOPPED

On 12 November 2011, Meryl Dorey issued the media release (reproduced below) to every news
outlet in Australia and filed complaints with the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), the
Australian Press Council (APC), the ABC’s Media Watch.

Before I reproduce it, please note that it is entirely untrue, and a good journalist working at a good
newspaper has been untruthfully defamed. Some of the more obvious lies and cockups are:

1. The release refers to the “West Australian” newspaper as part of the Murdoch News
Limited empire. It is not. (This cockup was corrected later.)

2. There was and still is an investigation. The WA Consumer Protection Bureau has written
to me asking for information on the allegations contained in the original complaint.

3. The investigation was a result of a complaint made by a member of the public 5 days
before the article. It was not “engendered by the (“West Australian”) article.”

4. The complaint was not filed by the journalist, Cathy O’Leary; as I said, it was filed by a
member of the public.

5. There was no breach of the AJA Code of Ethics. Dorey and her “ABC journalist” got it
completely wrong.

Readers should note that not one of the media outlets used the story. It was binned.

Not one of the media authorities complained to proceed to conduct an investigation. As one
investigator told me, “we don’t take any notice of this nutter.”

So there; once again Meryl Dorey has demonstrated her unerring ability to get everything wrong,
and make shit up.

Ken McLeod

22 December 2011