So much revolting coverage and response to the allegations that players from the Sydney Swans men’s AFL team sexually assaulted a woman while she was working. This is just one example.
Sexual assault is not a “twist”, it’s a crime. That’s a thing someone has to explain now, apparently.
The “exotic dancers” quote does not come from any sources quoted in the article. The headline is quoting the journalists who wrote the article.
This is the only time the words appear in the article:
There is no way to know for sure, but I’m guessing this headline was written by AI and superficially checked by a human, which is common in most newsrooms in 2026. It’s far too simplistic to say AI is only regurgitating old headline formats, but it’s definitely a factor. My catalogue of shitful headlines that goes back to 2015 says journalism needs to move away from historic practices, not replicate them.
I usually remove the names of journalists from FixedIt posts because most headlines are not written by the journalist who wrote the article. The journalist often won’t even see the headline before it’s published.
In this case though, I am going to talk about the lead reporter, Damon Johnston, Melbourne Bureau Chief at The Australian. He was the editor of the Herald Sun when they launched the Take A Stand campaign in 2013.
Ellen Whinnett was the deputy editor and the driving force behind Take A Stand but Damon Johnston was there with her and it wouldn’t have been as powerful as it was without him.
During the campaign, Herald Sun produced massive coverage of family violence as a social and structural issue.
Their reporting made a genuine difference to public understanding of domestic violence and they led the way for other journalists and publications to do the same.
they asked men, not women, to do the work and take the backlash.
Police commissioner Ken Lay, Victorian Premier Denis Napthine, Lord Mayor Robert Doyle (awkward) and AFL chief Andrew Demetriou were the faces of the campaign. All those men have since moved on but at the time they were some of the most powerful men in Victoria and getting them actively involved was no small achievement.
You can draw a straight line from that campaign through to the coverage Rose Batty was given in her advocacy to the 2015 Royal Commission into Family Violence.
Damon can’t claim he doesn’t know any better nor is he a hapless baby journo at the mercy of senior editors who would ignore his protests.
this becomes symbolic of a much wider issue out there, you know, the disempowerment of women, the victimisation of them, and the murder of them… it was important that the Herald Sun shows some community leadership, some editorial leadership on this issue”
– Damon Johnson, 2014
- Source: Morgan, J., & Simons, M. (2018). Changing Media Coverage of Violence Against Women: The role of individual cases and individual journalists. Journalism Practice, 12(9), 1165–1182. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2017.1366866
This is not ignorance. It’s not a mistake. It’s not a misunderstanding.
It’s a choice.
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Helplines
1800 RESPECT
Sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling and support.
24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Ph: 1800 737 732
www.1800respect.org.au
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