Vexnews
 | The neutrality of this article is disputed. |
VEXNEWS is a popular[1] independent Australian electronic magazine comprising an open access website. It was founded by Andrew Landeryou, a journalist and businessman who had previously written a blog called The Other Cheek.
Landeryou's blog has been archived by the National Library of Australia [2] [1] In addition, VEXNEWS is featured as part of Google News service. [2]
VEXNEWS was described in the Daily Telegraph newspaper as the "nation's second most patriotic website." [3] It was also described in the Adelaide Advertiser as a "racy political website." [4]
VEXNEWS and Landeryou's blog predecessor has regularly pre-empted mainstream media on a wide variety of stories, sometimes prompting front page news, as it did when it revealed AFL footballer Brendan Fevola's attack on a Melbourne journalist [3]. Landeryou also broke a major story drawing on Liberal party sources when he revealed that the authors of an anti-Ted Baillieu website were employees of Baillieu's own party [4].
Other front-page stories prompted by Landeryou's investigative reporting include a Fairfax story about Australian politicians sanitising their Wikipedia articles [5] and a story about a Christian Family First candidate who had exposed himself in photographs. Landeryou declared him 'Australia's smallest loser', an epithet repeated by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann when he covered the story for US cable news[5].
Criticism by politicians
The website is featured in Google news and it is often compared with Crikey, a similarly irreverent and occasionally controversial publication. Victorian Liberal MP Bruce Atkinson told the Legislative Council that one of his opponents was inaccurate that
I suggest that maybe she has been reading crikey.com or vexnews.com or some other source that clearly is the work of someone who has no idea of some of the circumstances, the policy positions and certainly the debating of key issues within the Liberal Party.[6]
Another Liberal politician Inga Peulich claimed VEXNEWS was not an accurate source of political news and claimed it is a "Labor mate's website -- Vexnews, The Other Cheek or whatever it is called." [7]
A conservative front-bencher Nick Wakeling was also unhappy about VEXNEWS and claimed that it was linked to prominent senior ALP official Stephen Newnham:
One Labor figure quoted in the media stated that this sort of behaviour by Labor's dirt unit was 'just treating voters with contempt' and that Labor's member for Kororoit 'has got to carry that baggage for a long time'. Labor's tactics were faithfully reported and magnified by Stephen Newnham's favoured conduit, Andrew Landeryou, whose various websites specialise in personal attacks on those least able to defend themselves.
A Greens party MP also referred to VEXNEWS' publisher as being very well informed on political matters:
Greg Barber As we move into this stage I want to talk a bit about the approach of the Greens and where we have got to at this point. I have already canvassed the nuclear policies of the Labor and Liberal parties extensively in the second-reading debate, so I will not do that again. I note that there was a contribution to this debate overnight by a Mr Landeryou. He is obviously well informed about matters that move through this chamber.
Hon. T. C. Theophanous -- Do you read it?
Mr BARBER -- People email it to me, but since Parliament is not yet on the internet -- and the Greens think it should be -- he must have been informed by a witness. I note that in the past the Hansard was only an unofficial newspaper report of the Parliament and over time evolved into becoming the official record. Maybe 100 years from now the Hansard will be called the Landeryou; I do not know.
VEXNEWS has also been accused of being associated with a New South Wales Liberal Right faction by a Liberal MLC Marie Ficarra.[6]
See also
References
- ^ "Fevola 'harassed reporter at Brownlow'". Ninemsn. 9 October 2009. Retrieved 24 February 2010.
- ^ Landeryou, Andrew (15 November 2006). "EXCLUSIVE: The OC Blog of Freedom Granted Everlasting Life By National Library". The Other Cheek. Retrieved 26 February 2010.
- ^ "Fevola 'harassed reporter at Brownlow'". Ninemsn. 9 October 2009. Retrieved 24 February 2010.
- ^ Campbell, James (11 May 2008). "Traitors sacked over Baillieu mud". Sunday Herald Sun. Retrieved 24 February 2010.
- ^ Moses, Asher (25 July 2008). "Politicians' Wiki entries altered". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 24 February 2010.
- ^ Salusinszky, Imre (22 August 2009). "Factional divides grow into obscene texts". The Australian. p. 4.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help)