Guess Who, Don't Sue

If ever there was a day where I was bellowing `My kingdom for a blog!' it was today. Oh, what a day it has been. And oh, how it started for those who tuned in to Nova 96.9's Merrick and Rosso this morning. Given that the mainstream media didn't cotton on to this story until late in the afternoon, I could have had a nice little blog scoop.

Our friends on the FM side of the dial often enjoy sensationalist ramblings with sex therapists, sex gurus, and frankly, anyone who has had sex, and this morning was no exception. The boys on Nova decided to chat to a `high class call girl', who gave us a long diatribe on her battle with drugs, her experiences with single motherhood, and eventually ... her high profile clients.

"Oh yeah," she said, (or words to that effect) "We may have defamation cases brought against us and, as I'm anonymous, I can say I've seen ****** ******."

And there, on that tantalising and very abrupt note, the interview ended.

****** ******, as the Sydney Morning Herald eventually got round to reporting, is a Labor MP of some high profile. At the risk of being sued for defamation, the Herald did not name said MP (and given the same risks, nor will I. No doubt one of the scandal sheets will eventually lose their resolve and blurt it out - and I note the Herald's playing it both ways by posting the audio, though I wasn't able to download it so I can't say whether they've bleeped out ****** ******'s name). However, it is interesting to note that thanks to new defamation laws, publications such as the SMH may no longer have to withhold such information on the basis of it frankly not being anyone's business, as they once did. Media Watch comprehensively covered the issue a while back - the transcript makes an intriguing read.