OK at the CEO conference thing at the Gold Coast the HUN reported this:
In emphasising the problem, he raised unconfirmed rumours about AFL footballers not just using drugs, but dealing them. "I can confirm that I spoke to the CEOs about the types of rumours that are out there and do damage to the industry, no matter how accurate," Pert said yesterday. "But there was absolutely no specific reference to any player or any club."
This is where she is getting her "scoop" from. There is no inside knowledge or discussions with Pert or references to Collingwood players. He was simply raising the point that there are various rumours out there about palyers using & dealing drugs etc - many that are posted here on BF, by the way - and whether true or not they are bad for the image of the game. Which is spot on.
There is nothing more Pert needs to say. The "knowledge" that Caro is referring to is the rumours that we have all heard anyway, she just writes it in a manner that makes it sound like Pert has specifically expressed factual information about players using & dealing to her or her "sources" with the inference its Collingwood players. When you re-read her statement, it like most of her articles of late, actually says nothing that was not already well known & publicly stated a week earlier.
Caro is having the last laugh on everyone who is joining the dots & screaming conspiracy. Its getting embarressing.
I don't expect the club to say anything regarding this and why would they. Something like this " Gary Pert would like to deny that rumours stemming form a poorly reported article by Caroline Wilson that Gary Pert has knowledge of drug dealing are untrue. His information was in fact from rumours. So the rumour coming from the rumours are untrue, however we can not confirm whether the original rumours are in fact untrue as they are just rumours & we don't know, but it sounds bad so we thought we would raise the issue."
Cue Jerry Springer style cut away editorial:
The bottom line is the reporting or raising of rumours in a public arena such as news papers (Caro) or press conferences (Perty) is counter productive and essentially defamatory where names are used. Unfortunately rumours reported in reputable publications (loose term for the Age & Hun) are taken by the general public to be 90% true when most of the time its 90% incorrect. To report on rumours feeds rumours and makes them bigger and in this case creates whole new rumours created by us.
I see what Perty was trying to do, addressing the public perception issue, but he has done more harm than good and probably got a bit big for his own boots & role - leave it to Andy D Perty. I think they have seen the error in their ways & shutting up shop so not to feed the people who want to throw petrol on the fire and create further perception problems - exactly what they were trying to hose down in the first place. Acknowledging the rumours out there (and there is a lot) has given them all credence.
