bob brown responds to paul sheehan in spades, page-6

Good old Miracle water Paul drop kick sheehan.

Do you remember this..

First screened 4 April 2005 Presented by Liz Jackson
Regular viewers of our program know the media is often reluctant to admit or correct mistakes.

So what are the chances of the Sydney Morning Herald using its own pages to run a vigorous criticism of one of its high profile columnists?

Paul Sheehan is the columnist in question. Three years ago he wrote this cover story for the Herald and Age magazine - the Good Weekend.


Miracle water?

Can something as simple as this mineral-rich water really combat arthritis, fatigue and osteoporosis… and help you live longer?

By Paul Sheehan

— The Age/SMH's Good Weekend, 6/4/02

The article had enormous impact.

As A Current Affair reported, hundreds queued to buy the bottled miracles.


… a newspaper article detailing it’s remarkable properties has now left the distributors struggling to keep up with demand.

All this fuss started with a feature article in the weekend Sydney Morning Herald – a story about water with magic properties that can cure all manner of ills.

— A Current Affair, CH 9, 9/4/02

In the resulting frenzy Media Watch criticised Paul Sheehan for promoting this unproven snake oil with pseudo-science provided by the water's inventor, Dr Russell Beckett.

But a unpublished article by Ben Hills takes the story further.

According to Hills his story reveals that Sheehan didn't check Beckett's claims rigorously enough -


Beckett’s qualifications were not what he said; there had been no clinical trials and the research he said the CSIRO had done had not been done.

On top of that the double blind trials Sheehan said Beckett would conduct have not been conducted and the doctor who was supposed to be running the trials told me Beckett’s water claims are 'garbage' …

— Ben Hills, Journalist

Journalist Ben Hills is on contract to the Sydney Morning Herald, and has worked for Fairfax on and off for 40 years.

But he's having trouble getting this story in the paper.

He says he expected it to appear in the Saturday paper two weeks ago. It didn't.

Herald editor Robert Whitehead says that the paper is proposing some changes to Hills original story.


The edits include questions about legal points, facts and fairness... I will consider it for publication when the normal copy editing process has concluded.

— Robert Whitehead, Editor, Sydney Morning Herald

According to Hills the 'normal copy editing process' has already taken 6 weeks and what particularly galls him is that while his article languishes in the system Paul Sheehan was given the opportunity to get in first and publish what's called 'a spoiler'.


The mystery flows on as the answers dry up

Paul Sheehan

After a flood of publicity Unique Water's creator has gone silent - and missing…

— Sydney Morning Herald, 14/3/05

Sheehan covers some of the same ground as Hills's article does - that Russell Beckett has left the country without ever doing his promised scientific testing of Unique Water, and has since been marketing it in North America.

But Sheehan's article also grabbed the opportunity to downplay his own role in the miracle water beat up.

He shifts responsibility for breaking the story to a colleague and there's no mention that his Good Weekend article is being used right now, to promote Beckett's water overseas.

Instead Sheehan heads out on a different tack


Robyn Marie Beckett died at the age of 42. It may have been suicide, or misadventure, or foul play…

This enigma would have gone unremarked beyond the coronial inquest in 1991 were it not for another mystery unfolding more recently over the behaviour of Beckett's husband, Dr Russell Beckett…

— Sydney Morning Herald, 14/3/05

Sheehan gives the impression that the man he formerly promoted as a scientific pioneer may well be a murderer.

Even more bizarre is that Sheehan admits he knew about the coronial case when he did his original feature.

Though it apparently wasn't worth mentioning when he was promoting Beckett's water.

Sheehan denies that his story was a spoiler. He says it's part of a long planned series, though he concedes it came after Hills tried to interview him.


I’ve complained to the Editor in Chief about an abusive phone call from Ben Hills…

— Paul Sheehan, Journalist

Paul Sheehan has now taken leave from his job at the Herald.

Meanwhile Hills' article is being edited, checked and legalled.

Ben Hills is concerned that the process is really about gutting his article.


They want me to remove some of the criticism and give Sheehan credit for his recent attacks on Beckett.

It looks to me like the article is dying the death of a thousand cuts.

— Ben Hills, Journalist

It's all causing quite a kafuffle at the Herald, with allegations of workplace harassment, corporate interference and, worst of all, leaking.

After Media Watch contacted the paper, editor Whitehead circulated a stern memo to all Herald staff:


For obvious commercial reasons it is grossly inappropriate for anyone at the Herald to formally or informally tell outsiders what colleagues are working on.

Anyone breaching this confidentiality faces summary dismissal.

— Robert Whitehead, Editor, Sydney Morning Herald

Talk about bullying hypocrisy.

A media organisation that depends on sources inside corporations and governments, threatening to sack its employees unless they shut up.

Robert Whitehead tells us that he expects Ben Hills article will eventually appear.


The Herald has never been reluctant to publish criticism of itself and it will not be reluctant in this instance.

— Robert Whitehead, Editor, Sydney Morning Herald

Let's wait and see.

If the editorial checking of Sheehan's original article had been as rigorous as the process imposed on Hill, this whole sorry saga might never have happened.

http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s1335453.htm