Why calling a 'lockout' a 'strike' is really bad journalism

And why the SMH should apologise

Part of the shock expressed on social media this week about the way in which the SMH covered the industrial action by NSW Rail was expressed as, this is the sort of behaviour we would expect from News Ltd.

I’ll say more about that aspect later, but first, let’s look at what happened.

Let there be no doubt. The SMH’s coverage was bad. They completely misrepresented what was a lockout of workers by the NSW Government as a strike by those workers, about as egregious a case of misreporting as you could imagine. It didn’t just misrepresent the facts; it implied the blame for the inconvenience lay with the unions and not the NSW Government.

Such an “error” is not just a failure of fact, it is deeply political, and I think it sheds a light on the presumptions that underpin the way news is written and presented. All of us, including journalists, bring certain beliefs to the table when we think about various topics, and they will find their way into our work. There is a huge journalism literature…