I've read/listened to/seen all the news reports and read/listened to/seen all the press conferences this week and there's one question I just can't get away from...why are anywhere between some and most people (including here on PRE) treating this story about Newman or "the players" asking Wallace to step down as something that simply happened and that's the end of it?
Nearly 24 hours on since Craig Hutchison first "broke" the story on The Footy Show people have been ringing up talkback radio and posting on PRE etc. left, right and centre about whether Newy did the right thing or should be removed as captain, whether Wallace should have stood down or been sacked, whether the players are a disgrace or not, who "the leak" is and so on and so forth and yet only a small minority seem to have questioned the legitimacy/accuracy of Craig Hutchison's story and his sources (and it's not as if the past week alone hasn't given people plenty of reason to do so).
Correct me if I'm wrong but two people or groups incorrectly reported that Wallace had been sacked on Tuesday - Mark Robinson/The Herald Sun and Craig Hutchison. Hutchison can back away from it as much as he wants but he rang up SEN clear as day and stated that Terry Wallace had been sacked and that the press conference Richmond had called was going to announce that he'd been sacked. Ok so he might have added an "I believe" or two in there but if he's gonna say that means he didn't get it wrong then he's just splitting hairs...surely he only "believes" that Newman asked Wallace to step down. There were only three people in that room - Chris Newman, Jake King (I've gotta admit I'm kinda with others in that I'm not sure why) and Terry Wallace so unless he heard it directly from one of them (and I'm pretty sure even he admits that he didn't) then how could Craig Hutchison possibly know?
Journalists and newspapers are renowned for being reluctant to admit they got something wrong and using smoke and mirrors to cover up or distract people from the fact that they did. What was Mark Robinson and the Herald Sun's response to the story about Wallace being sacked? Remove the story from the website (predictably with no apology or even acknowledgement that the story had been there) and then crucify us all over again the next day by going even harder at us, banging on about the "debacle at Richmond" and blaming us for the whole thing by saying RFC themselves are a circus and incompetent.
This time yesterday almost everyone agreed that the main circus this week wasn't at Richmond...I'm amazed so many people are now ripping into the Club and people at the Club just based on something Craig Hutchison said on The Footy Show.
P.S. It's worth noting that Greg Denham, one journo who doesn't give the whole profession a bad name and the one who broke the story on SEN that Craig Hutchison was wrong and that Wallace wouldn't be sacked before Hutchison rang up again and confirmed that he was wrong and that Wallace wouldn't be sacked (thanks for that), said today that he believes at no stage did Newman or any of the players ask Wallace to stand down.
