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Editorial on the line

"It was the biggest response I have ever had to a story in nearly 30 years of television," says Tracey Grimshaw.

tgacaA week after her hard-hitting, commercial free interview on A Current Affair, there is still analysis of Tracey Grimshaw’s ‘Matthew Johns’ story.

According to The Age, she spoke to ACA producer Grant Williams last Tuesday, following the Four Corners story.

The pair identified Johns as “the key remaining interview” and chased him. Once it was clear he was not going to front, Grimshaw recalls, “I was saying, ‘Look I just think he’s got to talk, I don’t think he can hide from this, he’s got to face this.’ And Grant said, ‘Do you want to say that on air?’ And I thought, ‘Yes, I do.”‘

Grimshaw would like to dispel suggestions that approval was sought. “I think as a matter of courtesy David Gyngell is entitled to know if we are going to make a stand like that, particularly if it’s about someone who works at the network.”

Once it was clear Johns would be available, Grimshaw received short notice that she was to be on a 1pm flight from her Melbourne base to Sydney where, at 4pm, she would be conducting an interview with Johns for that night’s program. She says it was not until about 3.45, when she went into the boardroom in which the interview was conducted, that she learned Johns’ wife Trish would be present.

Grimshaw gave 20 interviews that day, after the phone began to ring at 5:30 am.

“It was the biggest response I have ever had to a story in nearly 30 years of television … I thought there would be enormous interest in the rugby league states but I was amazed at the level of interest in Melbourne.”

Not all the interviewers were complimentary.

“I know some people thought my questions were too tough and I shouldn’t have asked some of the things I did, and I’ll cop that criticism, ” she says.

Meanwhile News Ltd sports journo Rebecca Wilson, who has been very outspoken about the story, notes that Johns and Grimshaw are both managed by John Fordham, so no one expected Grimshaw to be quite so hard-hitting, honest and revealing.

Unless there are other NRL players about to come forward and identify their role in this sordid affair, it’s now time for this story to lay low. The point of the Four Corners story was to expose a culture. That has more than succeeded.

Source:  The Age, news.com.au

5 Responses

  1. Funny you mention Rebecca Wilson, as I think more rugby league fans have taken issue with her disgusting behaviour surrounding this and other rugby league “scandals”, including hanging up on Meshel Laurie on radio last week when she dared to disagree with Wilson on the Johns issue, than they have with Tracey..

  2. Thanks Tex you basically left me with no more to say as you summed it up exactly how myself and everyone i have talked to saw it.
    A typical channel nine “fluff “piece…….only difference is we refer to him as K-Dudd.

  3. didn’t phil gould say that johns and his wife were at nine all day waiting for the interview and that both had been physically sick with nerves because of it?

    anyway its not going to change anything at all it will still remain the culture.

  4. “… no one expected Grimshaw to be quite so hard-hitting, honest and revealing.”

    They must’ve shown the wrong interview in Qld, then – the one I saw was full of softball questions aimed at leading Johns towards a display of quiet contrition to his family and fans, without admitting any more than the absolute minimum of responsibility for his alleged actions. Even Red Kerry interviewing K-Rudd right after the election was harder-hitting than Tracey’s effort.

    I did appreciate the little bits of snark back in the studio, but even then thought “well, why didn’t you say that in the interview?”

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