One has to be careful when pointing the finger at Geoffrey Edelsten. This slippery little man has been on journalists radars for many years since he first came to prominence with his medical centres and association with the Sydney Swans.
He was deregistered in New South Wales in 1988, and later in Victoria. In 1990, he was jailed for perverting the course of justice, so this is a man with a dodgy past. More recently, Geoffrey popped up again at the bottom of an article in TheAge* as the man behind Australia’s Worst Journalist.
When I first spotted this rather ugly web site in 2010, I can remember thinking, I wonder which journalist had pissed someone off that much, that they had created a ‘worst’ journalist awards and web site.
Sure, there are good and bad journo’s, you only have to watch the fabulous Media Watch on the ABC to see examples of good and bad journalistic behaviour, but no, this was different. A mate of mine recalls me saying at the time, I bet one of the journalist has written about someone, continues to write about someone, or in fact has it in for someone, and here is a way to get back at them.
It now looks like the journalist/s were writing about our Geoffrey. And this was a way Geoffrey could get back at the journalists publicly.
Australia’s Worst Journalist has now floundered. Winners were announced in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 but to date nothing in 2013. On the web site it states the awards closed 28/2/13, February 2013 and still no award winners. There are many errors on the web site along with bad links, or as AWJ put it.. Bad karma: we can’t find that page!
Is it any surprise that the author of the article we read in TheAge, Chris Vedelago appears at the top of the AWJ web site.
Chris Vedelago, embryonic Journalist (failed)
The Age, Fairfax Media (ASX: FXJ), Apr 29, 2013
Working for The Age must be so difficult and unrewarding these days that staff such as Chris Vedelago have to stoop to either plagiarising untruths, misinformation, and other erroneous ideas from Ben Butler or have become hell bent on furthering and adding to the January 2013 notion of a ‘butlerism’.
It links to a page that includes a rather vitriolic attack on poor ol’ Chris, comparing him to another Age journalist Ben Butler who won the award in 2009. It also includes a link to a Dr Edelsten email sent to Chris:
PDF: Email from Geoffrey Edelsten to Chris Vedelago
The author really does not like Chris. The article which interestingly does not have a named author details in point form the articles (so-called) inaccuracies.
I’m not going to try and detail each one of the 7 bullet points, but the author really does not like reading the truth about Geoffrey. He attacks Chris for calling Geoffrey a “disgraced former doctor”. Well, Geoffrey was deregistered as a doctor and did go to jail, so doesn’t that make him a “disgraced former doctor”, he’s still not a doctor as far as we can see?
I’ve got no idea who wrote the article but I wouldn’t mind a few bucks on who ghost-wrote it.
Its clear that Geoffrey has done good and bad. Trouble is, bad always outweighs the good. When I asked my partner what she thought of Geoffrey Edelsten she squirmed and screwed up her face, but went onto say she liked Brynne but felt sorry for her at the same time. This latest query over charity money is yet another chapter in the Geoffrey Edelsten saga, and where there is smoke there is fire.
So, good and bad, one does wonder what Geoffrey sees when he looks at himself in the mirror?
Sources
- wikipedia.org/Geoffrey_Edelsten
- geoffedelsten.com.au
- whoisgeoffedelsten.com.au
- australiasworstjournalist.com.au
- Union Fails to meet expectations
- Brynne And Geoffrey Edelsten Separated Earlier This Year
- * Tax man targets Edelsten – TheAge
- brynne.com.au
- abc.net.au/mediawatch
- Geoffrey Edelsten’s shock revelation: ‘I’m dying’
- More Articles by Chris Vedelago
- Geoffrey Edelsten branded a liar with a heart of gold after busy day in courts
- Charities left at the altar after Edelsten wedding
- Union fails to meet expectations
Cheers
MelBourne [KOZ]