Packer unleashes his media dogs on the Governor General. 

February 24, 2002 Martin Lehman  

Media tycoon and Australia's richest man, Kerry Packer, last week gave the signal to his minions to bring down Australia's head of state, the Governor General, Dr. Peter Hollingworth.

In an unprecedented attack on the highest office bearer in the land and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, the Packer-owned Channel 9 began the blitz on its Sunday program last week. Weeks of digging the dirt on the Governor General brought forth a number of allegations that in his previous position of Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, Dr Hollingworth had made errors of judgement in dealing with allegations of child abuse and paedophilia by Anglican priests in his diocese. A number of witnesses were trooped out, all accusing the Governor General of insensitively dealing with abuses by priests and officials. None of the allegations directly accused Dr. Hollingworth of any abuses. None of the allegations referred to his conduct as Governor General.

There was no rebuttal or balanced reporting.

Channel 9 repeated the same allegations on Sunday night's 60 Minutes program.

The public have been sickened over the years by stories of paedophilia and child abuse by priests and cover-ups by church authorities. The explosive allegations tapped into this pent-up resentment and unleashed a wave of hysteria. The allegations were uncritically picked up by the rest of the media, including the talk-back shock jocks. Australia's other media baron, Rupert Murdoch quickly joined in. His flagship, the Australian, ran headline stories and features all week roundly condemning the Governor General.

Dr Hollingwoth attempted to rebut the allegations on the ABC program Australian Story. In my mind he successfully rebutted all the allegations. However, he made a serious error of judgement in down-playing the seriousness of an affair that took place in the 1950's between a young priest and a 15-year old girl.  Of the hour-long program this segment was the only aspect focused on by the media reptiles.

The Governor General may be guilty of hubris and sanctimony. But so far there have been no charges laid against him. One of the allegations, if true, could be the serious crime of attempting to pervert the course of justice. But it should be tested in a court of law, not in a trial by media.

At a very minimum, our head of state is entitled to an impeachment process before he is kicked out of office. It is not up to Kerry Packer or Rupert Murdoch or the talk-back kings.

In the general hysteria created by this unsavoury saga, the talk is that our next Governor General must be a woman to be more politically correct. Maybe we should take this idea to its logical conclusion and appoint a black, disabled, Vietnamese lesbian as our next Governor General.