On the front page of the Brisbane, Australia Sunday Mail of October 10, 2010 a story headlined “Nuttall’s prison anguish on eve of trial: God help me” appeared.

Former Queensland government minister Gordon Nuttall is a convicted felon serving seven years in jail, with parole available after two-and-a-half years after being found guilty of 36 counts of receiving secret commissions totalling $360,000 between 2002 and 2005 from two businessmen, Ken Talbot and Harold Shand.

The Sunday Mail item begins:

“Jailed former state government minister Gordon Nuttall has turned to God as he battles his demons in prison.

On the eve of his new corruption trial, letters penned by Nuttall refer heavily to his “growing faith” and reveal the torment of going from the cabinet table to a jail cell.

“While I have been in here my faith, rather than diminish, has grown immensely,” he writes. Other letters quote Bible passages, and each week he spends an hour with the prison chaplain for prayer sessions.”

Is it unethical pre-trial publicity?

Is it newsworthy?

What are its implications?

What does it reveal about Nuttall himself?

Mr. Nuttall is facing another trial. The article seems an attempt to influence the public favourably. It would be better to recount the court’s proceedings after the trial.

Many prisoners ‘find’ religion. If Nuttall, a Christian, had embraced Allah, become a Jew, adopted atheism or departed from his original religious background in other ways that would have been newsworthy. Why was the story found newsworthy and why was it considered so newsworthy that it was the most prominent front page item?

The story recounts Nuttall’s good deed. He wrote to a shop which donated a set of lawn bowls to the prison. The entire article seems an attempt to work up sympathy for Nuttall. He is no Gandhi or Mandela imprisoned by an oppressive authority denying freedom. He is a former government official imprisoned for corruption.

His faith that he had prior to his conviction did not prevent the corrupt acts.

Why was the item printed?

David...it's called 'political advantage'.... or...'Damage your opponents directly or indirectly.. as much as you can'

AGIR... your response to david f makes no sense at all.

Who is getting an 'advantage'?

The junk journalism is just that, an attempt to drum up sales by tapping into a well known, and largely loathed, public figure of ridicule.

It's funny how the immensely rich dead miner seems to have escaped any criticism, since he was central to Nuttalls crimes, so it seems.

That would be a better story.

I doubt very much whether Nutfall's faith will gain him many favours. Many believers in Christ suffer severely around the globe for their faith. If he was trying to win the favour of judges he would be better off displaying the arrogance of those with secular faith rather than the humility of those who come to Christ.

runner... you are so programmed.

Nuttall is not 'suffering for his faith' at all.

He is serving time for his crimes.

What is 'secular faith' when it is at home?

And since you seem to believe that xtians are blemish free, how come those goons in Broken Rites are suggesting MacKillop is adopted as the patron saint of sexabused victims of the priesthood?

Or are all those Vatican soldiers really 'secular' (whatever that means)?

TBC

Reading your response shows who is programmed. I never indicated Nuttall was suffering for his faith. I pointed out that it is unlikely to win him any favours with the judges here.

runner... "Many believers in Christ suffer severely around the globe for their faith.", which rather implies that you believe Nuttall has joined the ranks of these persecuted souls.

david f, "Why was the item printed?"

No plot, just a tabloid filling its columns, a waste of trees.

Now more than ever,but no new invention,the print media wants to sell papers.
Once it wanted to report even uncover crimes and frauds.
It every day prints far worse than this, not to bring help to Nutal.
Be honest is this any different than hundreds of such storys about people in trouble.
Nutal roasts in a hell of his own making, he is one of millions who find a straw to cling to when in trouble.
Maybe this thread comes from a fear he will get away with his crimes, if he does it Will be favoritism in the courts not newspaper headlines.
Looking for balance, honest reporting, even truth from our dieing print media is wasteful, as it moves into its next form it has forgotten its reason to exist was once not to sell advertising space and papers only.

Dear Belly,

The media has since its beginning existed to sell papers and advertising. Modern media burst on the scene in the fifteenth century in Europe with the arrival of the printing press. The Reformation was sparked by media sensationalism. There had been critics of the Catholic church before Luther, but with the arrival of the printing press his graphic writing supplied the scandal material of the day. Since much of the populace was illiterate cartoons of the pope with horns and similar material titillated the readership.

The good old days when the press was free from commercial considerations and served mainly to provide information and expose wrongdoing exists only in the imagination.

Hey runner the 15 th of may next year will sort these unbelievers out.

sorry 579 I have no idea what you are talking about. My only desire for the unbelievers is to be saved from there sin. I wish judgement on no one.

There is nothing less than the most extreme hypocrisy inherent in Nuttall's condemnation.

For as long as we have a regime of donations from big business to political parties - that is: a chronic and glaringly obvious favour-buying paradigm that biases government decisions towards the wishes of the big end of town... then it is just superhypocritical to clobber and ruin any individual who uses his/her position for personal monetary advantage.

Ah Ludwig, you miss the point.

Nuttall's mistake was getting caught, and exposing the true purpose of the big business & politics nexus, which is seriously close to 'organised crime'.

He let the cat-out-of-the-bag it seems, when he was apprehended and found guilty.

Terry Lewis and his chums in the Qld police force called their little earner 'the joke'.

And how right they were!

The joke, as your comments highlight, is on us, the mug-punters who diligently believe in 'democracy' and shuffle faithfully to the election booth, like the good gormless law abiding drones we are.

Maybe he should have just offered to 'pay it back' like all the other politicians do when they get caught fingering the till, here and everywhere else?

The sad thing about Nuttall is that he suffered under the Joh era, and was forced from his job, and a major court case ensued, where his innocence was clearly established.

One brush with serious court activity should have been enough, one would have thought

All the details can be found in a slim volume by Mark Lynch, secretary of the old Australian Bank Employees Union, entitled 'Against All Odds: A Working Class Victory'.

Worth a read if you can get a copy.

<< The joke ... is on us, the mug-punters who diligently believe in 'democracy' and shuffle faithfully to the election booth, like the good gormless law abiding drones we are. >>

Well, I'm not sure about all of us being faithful gormless voters. We don't have a lot of choice, do we?? There is a whole lot of disillusionment out there.

But yes Blue Cross, you are essentially correct.

And ain't that the pits!

What a crying shame it is that the Nuttall case hasn't highlighted the desperate need for reform to the despicable regime of political donations, that so profoundly CORRUPTS our supposed democratic system!

We do agree on donations.

That NSW ex left wing power broker that Adams interviewed also raises another aspect of corruption, that of the small number of people engaged in all political parties, but particularly the ALP, and the involvement of trades unions in the ALP.

I left the ALP years ago, once I had finally persuaded myself that to remain was to be part of the problem of 'corruption'.

There is absolutely no one within the ALP, or the unions, ready, willing, able, to reform our political system, starting within their own corrupt internal machinery.

As for 'choice'...we do all have a choice, but most prefer not to take it up.... hence the increasingly disillusioned voting public.

I see no reason why we should fund political parties for their votes either.

If they had to rely on membership fees, with no public funding, and no donations, then they might have to start responding to peoples needs.

And they should be taxed too, so their books are open.

I would hope we do not stray too far from reality here.
Yes media has always been about profit, and self interest.
In Adelaide, years ago, history tells us of the father of our once Australian, now American media power house, had prime ministers call him Sir, hat in hand.
Nutal by the way, is not about fund raising he was found guilty of excepting a bribe,do not confuse the issue.
It was unions, remember that, who formed the ALP not in secret,not an evil act.
A far different world existed then.
As big business funded conservatives, in the name of self interest, workers funded Labor for the same reason.
It is true, shamefully, that NSW Labor made funding a dirty word self interest a filthy one.
Some within that lost mob want now to look to be interested in workers rights, any true look at the current state vs federal OHXS thing would come down on the side that will not win,NSW it is however a constructed effort from a self interested tribe that has been at best indifferent to workers for 4 years.
TBC just a reminder, the thugs and mugs, those who so dreadfully blacken the name of unionism, are reliving the 1970,s trashing bosses offices putting the black sock over their heads and ,well breathing the death rattle, this country will be better for it.
That southern cross belongs in better hands.

Oh Belly.. I know you belong to Australia's Worst Union, but I do agree that the 'run through' merchants from the esteemed Can't F..k Much Else Up crew should have been sacked, drummed out of the trades union movement and expelled from the ALP.

This was also the mob that voted for Howard in Tasmania wasn't it?

The 1880s was different, and the trades unions were a welcome relief from the Bunyip Aristocracy of shopkeeps and land-theft merchants.

But their conservatism has also withheld opportunity here, and supported crass stupidity, be that in NSW, Qld or anywhere else.

If I were a unionist still, I'd cast my union free of the clutches of the ALP immediately, and organise the union to badger and harangue the worthless slobs in Canberra and the state/territory capitals.

There remains a solid role for trades unions, but they have yet to work out what it is.

It is not a stepping stone to red/green leather, and then total silence as the super mounts and the work remains untouched.

Why did the Sunday Mail print the item about Nuttall?

Because that's what a free country allows. They did it because they can. And they have every right to print the item.