Bob Jones
Competition in all things is wonderful, producing as it does, a superior outcome.
That said, when it comes to our newspapers there’s no doubt the NZ Herald is generally superior to Wellington’s Post (formerly the Dominion-Post) owned by Stuff.
But last weekend Stuff had a major triumph over its rival when it ran a lengthy expose of a young Auckland woman, Corallee Collins-Annan, a world-class fantasist, currently in America.
I say that as only a fortnight before, the Herald’s Anna Leask had fallen prey to Collins-Annan’s fairy-tale world when she ran a 3-page feature, buying in 100% to Collins-Annan’s bullshit, in a biographic piece entitled “From Mob Terror To High Flyer”.
I’d wager plenty that following the Herald’s article about this woman’s “amazing achievements” it was inundated with calls from her victims. And when the Herald, drowning in facial egg, opted to stay silent, one more of the complainants then rang the Post.
I feel sorry for Anna Leask. Probably right now she wouldn’t believe you if you told her this year is 2023. But she’s not at fault as that’s the thing about such fantasists, specifically their plausibility. No-one was hurt by this amusing episode, indeed that it happened was probably a good thing in exposing this woman to potential future victims.
Assuming I was right and the Herald was deluged with calls but chose to remain silent, not only was that dishonest but they missed the opportunity to run the revelation story with a heading “We Were Duped” and they would have earned readers admiration for admitting this.
Just like the Radio NZ current embarrassment, there’s no need to over-react. Their incident was freakish and so too with Anna Leask, who should continue trusting people she interviews.
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