Slap happy Overington

Posted by Tim Lambert on November 25, 2007
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Caroline Overington has topped her previous effort with this:

Top journalist Caroline Overington has denied hitting George Newhouse, the Labor candidate for the Sydney seat of Wentworth – but he insists he was slapped, and it hurt. …

A Labor campaigner, who witnessed the alleged slap, said Overington had her children with her.

“She came over and slapped him on the right side of the face as he was on the phone. It was really strong. It forced his head back. She then walked past him to vote.”

And:

It was parental concern that inspired the exchange. A witness said Overington was upset that her children had read reports about an earlier email exchange between the two, which has been described as flirtatious. Mr Newhouse had replied that his children had been forced to read about their father, too.

Newhouse sources said the human rights lawyer had a host of witnesses for his account and had not decided whether to pursue assault charges, but he wanted to put the incident behind him as soon as possible.

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Comments

  1. #1 Jc
    November 25, 2007

    thanks for the attribution, tim. Always here to lend you a helping hand. You know that.

  2. #2 Boris
    November 25, 2007

    Trying to steal Zarquon’s complaint, Jc?

  3. #3 Steve
    November 26, 2007

    Tim, I’ve been a supportive reader of your blog for years, but this kind of post is pathetic.

    This is bottom trawling tabloid blogging.

    I can’t say i have a very high opinion of Caroline Overington, because I don’t know her beyond her writing. Seems like she did some great journalism on AWB, but has been caught out on her involvement in Wentworth.

    But I could guess that she is under a fair bit of stress at the moment since the media watch story, and is probably losing it a bit with her colleague Matt Price being sick and then dying on Saturday.

    She is a non-story in the grand scheme of things, and i’m saddened that a supposedly science-oriented blog is focussing on this kind of stuff, given the circumstances.

    She should have known better of course as someone in the public sphere, but i can understand her being offended if someone writes in a public record sexually derogatory commentary about her, even if in jest – she has a family. So I think your other post on her is bottom-feeding as well.

    Lift your game, how about a bit more science and a bit less Famous magazine?.

  4. #4 stewart
    November 26, 2007

    To paraphrase:
    Tim, just because it’s your blog, you seem to think you can post what you want, and not what I want. Stop it, it’s like Brad DeLong writing about food in places I don’t go to.
    re Overington. She may well be stressed or whatever. In that case, as a professional, she has a professional obligation to step down until she can resume her duties in recording the news, not being part of the news. If I were her employer, I’d put her on leave. Examining the reports of her behaviour, I’d wonder about a bipolar issue. I note that she’s upset, not about what she did, but that others commented on what she did.