May 29. Day 149. Making waves

I think I might have a girl crush. To be clear it has nothing to do with the fact that George Clooney has bought the rights to his book Hack Attack and intends to turn it into a film (well it might have a bit to do with that but I shall pretend otherwise). No, I have a girl crush on Nick Davies for his candor and his courage. Any man who is prepared to take on the likes of the British tabloid press and Rupert Murdock and come out on top is a bit of a hero in my book.
But it's  not only that. What I loved about the British journalist's presentation at QUT Kelvin Grove tonight was his honesty, his humour and his belief in journalism and for the most part journalists.
My favourite moments from tonight's presentation were the following observations

•  He's  seen "stuff written on toilet walls" better than most material written by citizen journalists
• A tiny minority of "scumbag" journalists ruin it for the rest of us
• There was lots of "extracurricular bonking" going on in Fleet Street papers while they criticised others for having affairs
• The revelations of the inquiries into the British press mean that crime at the papers has dropped to about zero but for the most part it's same old, same old
• The newspapers that invade people's privacy the most have the strongest sales despite people saying they don't like privacy invaded
• Closing the News of the World was a selfish and ruthless action by Murdock
• Exposing the wrong doing of the British press made Davies feel "iffy" because it meant many hard working foot soldiers were blamed and punished because of the orders of the generals

But I was also impressed by his personal honesty. His drive to stop the abuse of power, to stop bullies and to stand up for the oppressed came from his own childhood in a home where there was too much violence by adults on children. Good for you Nick Davies. Good for you for taking one for team journalism. I can't wait to see what George Clooney does with your work (professionally of course).
And for now Hack Attack can sit on my bedside table alongside Game of Thrones. The level of ethical behaviour revealed in both is about the same.