An Apology from the Sydney Morning Herald

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On Saturday 8 October 2016 the Sydney Morning Herald published an article by Elizabeth Farrelly, “When the Anglican Church can’t follow it’s own code” which took my writing contrary to it’s context so as to present me as putting church politics over and above the proper handling of child sexual abuse in the church.

herald_apology_cropFarrelly took a quote she was given out of context, appears not to have read any of my relevant work (or if she did, clearly did not read it in any detail) and made no effort to contact me and clarify my position.

I am pleased to report that today the Herald published an apology on page 2 of its print edition.

The article headed “When the church can’t follow its own code” (October 8) dealt in part with disputes within the Newcastle Anglican diocese involving its bishop Greg Thompson. The article referred to blogs on this subject by the Sydney rector David Ould and said that Mr Ould attributed what he described as “widespread dismay with Thompson’s actions” to the bishop’s response to the sexual abuse issue in the Newcastle diocese.  While, as the article made clear, Mr Ould has frequently been critical of Bishop Thompson in his blogs, the Herald acknowledges that he has on many occasions commended Bishop Thompson’s strong action on the child abuse issue and apologises to Mr Ould for suggesting otherwise.

I am grateful to the Herald for their willingness to hear my complaint, their acknowledgement of the error in Farrelly’s piece and their apology.

I wrote to Elizabeth Farrelly twice last week but she has chosen not to acknowledge my correspondence.

 

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  1. Matt Patchon

    An apology not tucked away on page 32 in pt 6 font, but on page 2…that’s a well positioned apology!

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