This takes the prize for the worst media release I’ve seen for a long time.
The headline is unbelievably: “Councils oppose corruption”. Wow! Do they really?
It’s from the Local Government Association of South Australia. It would be more newsworthy, of course, if they supported corruption.
The introduction is nonsenical:
SA’s Local Government Association has expressed confidence in SA’s Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) but has asked the State Government for its views.
I think it’s about whether there should be an independent crime commission in South Australia.
It ends with:
“We have neither supported nor opposed an ICAC for South Australia. Ultimately that is not a decision for us – it’s one for State Government.”
So why did they bother to issue a media release at all? They’re against corruption, the support the current mechanisms and don’t have a view on forming an independent commission!
Reminds me of an item that Stuart Littlemore quoted on Media Watch in late 1990 from a country newspaper. It referred to the meeting of a council in a country town and the headline was; “Mayor Says Saddam Should Get Out of Kuwait.”
Littlemore commented that this was from the “We Warn The Tsar” school of journalism.