![\"Margo-Dean\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Margo-Dean.jpg?resize=800%2C400\")
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Dean Sewell and Margo Kingston at #BentleyBlockade<\/p>\n
(At the time of the interview on April 30 the #BentleyBlockade was the subject of shouting matches in NSW Parliament as the Labor Opposition Party belatedly tackled new Premier Mike Baird over his plans to unleash riot police on thousands of peaceful farmers and townies. Senior police had confirmed that a riot squad deployment of up to 700 fully kitted out storm-troopers would arrive soon. Social and local print media was roaring with anger at this affront to democracy, food and water security.)<\/p>\n
Underneath a small marquee in the heart of the Bentley anti-coal seam gas protest camp I\u2019m sipping lime cordial with renegade journalist Margo Kingston. It\u2019s a dry camp, but the 500-odd people currently in residence on this cool, late April evening have no problem enjoying themselves – to go by the hum of conversation and the hubbub of drums, guitars and didgeridoo emanating from the nearby fires.<\/p>\n
Margo is highly animated, cackling and thumping the table for emphasis as she regales us with her adventures in journalism \u2013 and her plans for the future.<\/p>\n
Seated next to her is Dean Sewell, now a freelance photographer of no small renown <\/a>and Margo\u2019s offsider during her most famous exploit, her coverage of Pauline Hanson on the campaign trail in 1998 for ex-employer the Sydney Morning Herald<\/i>.<\/p>\n Dean is frequently Margo\u2019s foil as she reminisces about the extraordinary intensity of that mission. The Hanson saga, and her ensuing book Off The Rails<\/a> spelt the beginning of the end of Margo\u2019s career as a mainstream journalist which\u00a0finally burnt out after a series of spectacular forays into difficult truths. She\u00a0had already run a notorious path through the displeasure of editors and powerful people alike and blazed a pioneering trail through the future of journalism with her prescient (and doomed) online forum Webdiary, first for the SMH<\/a> then as an independent site<\/a>\u00a0and after her 2004 book Not Happy, John! Defending our democracy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Margo\u2019s Twitter-based new baby, the \u2018citizen journalism\u2019 site No Fibs, heralded her return to public life after a prolonged \u2018retirement\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I\u2019m doing with No Fibs is really no different than what I was doing with Webdiary,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m very keen on citizen journalism, very keen on getting people\u2019s ideas into the site, very keen on debates.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve said many times I feel the future of journalism is a collaboration between the professional and the citizen journalist \u2013 and if we don\u2019t collaborate our profession could be lost.\u201d<\/p>\n Margo\u2019s had rock-star treatment in the camp \u2013 she\u2019s been provided with a nicely appointed tent and beautiful meals as befits a bona fide guerrilla-journalist paragon whose narrative is grounded in the coal face of democracy and whose brutal honesty is a driving compulsion. She\u2019s quite flabbergasted with her reception, being used to campaigning rough in the thick of the action.<\/p>\n This camp sits in a humble cow paddock some 15kms from Lismore, precariously balanced between the unfriendly territory of Richmond Valley County Council, whose pro-gas Mayor has failed to evict it, and the home turf of Lismore, whose extremely vocal residents are overwhelmingly opposed to having an industrial gas field in their back yard.<\/p>\n Margo thrives on this charged atmosphere.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really pleased to be reporting in this green shoot space now that the media system is fucked worldwide.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s closed and it\u2019s insular. People just argue stupid points and nothing ever changes. Australian media is locked into the establishment way of looking at and reporting politics, that closed world of the Canberra belt where anything else is like, \u2018Well a focus group will sort that out for us\u2019, or \u2018What\u2019s that poll say?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cBut #leardblockade<\/a> and #BentleyBlockade<\/a> and #Pilliga<\/a> is people on the ground saying, \u2018Y\u2019know, we\u2019re gonna try doing something else. They\u2019re real stories, actual real stories, and I\u2019ve got the field to myself because the mainstream media won\u2019t walk into camp.<\/p>\n \u201cMy point of view always has been since Hanson and all through Webdiary that it\u2019s best if you say what you believe. And you\u2019ll be judged on your accuracy and your this and that, but it feels more honest.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel that this whole idea of journalistic objectivity is completely bullshit in the modern world, because politics and business and sport and entertainment \u2013 they\u2019re staged events. We\u2019re not standing back reporting what they do, they\u2019re producing an event for us. It\u2019s bullshit.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very well aware that I\u2019m walking a tightrope, and I\u2019ve walked a tightrope my entire career because I only write about what I\u2019m passionate about and what I\u2019m outraged about. I actually can\u2019t just tap it out, can I Dean?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always pushed the envelope and I feel this is a natural progression for me. Now that I look back, I thought when I retired hurt \u2013 I had a nervous breakdown, a financial breakdown, a physical breakdown – that I was gone. It took me two and a half years to get off the floor. I never thought I\u2019d come back, so for me to come back and to be so excited by journalism again after being so burnt out by it, I feel like I\u2019ve been given another go.<\/p>\n \u201cI have these terrible arguments with my sister (veteran journalist and editor Gay Alcorn) \u2013 she says \u2018You\u2019ve completely crossed the line, you can\u2019t be doing this\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI say \u2018Well if I don\u2019t do it no-one does it and this doesn\u2019t get out – this world, this movement, this energy\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI think people would say that I have taken a radical position, but the thing that thrilled me was that when the Daily Telegraph<\/i> (reported) that I was arrested<\/a> they put \u201cradical journalist arrested\u201d\u2026 both their articles called me a journalist.\u201d (Police claim intimidation via Twitter by anti-mining protesters, including former Sydney Morning Herald journalist Margo Kingston<\/a>.)<\/p>\n \u201cThey didn\u2019t say \u2018a former journalist who\u2019s gone right off the rails\u2019.\u201d (See Getting #leardblockade arrested, WTF is journalism and who\u2019s the extremist: @margokingston1 interview with @dailytelegraph<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Formerly a practising solicitor, and having worked for the Sydney Morning Herald<\/i>, The Age<\/i>, the Canberra Times<\/i> and Jana Wendt at A Current Affair<\/em>, Margo is well aware that being embedded in protest camps violates just about every tenet of modern journalism. But it\u2019s a deliberate act about which she has formulated a few tenets of her own.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really difficult because I come from a tradition where, y\u2019know, (journalists) have all got their own sources and they know things they can\u2019t say \u2013 I couldn\u2019t stand that stuff. I\u2019m like Dean, I go in, I want to get the story out. So then you\u2019re embedded and there you are, you\u2019re witnessing their training and their tactics and what they\u2019re gonna do, but I can\u2019t report any of that.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I report the details of their training, that\u2019s evidence for a conspiracy, If I report that they\u2019re planning to wake up at three the next morning and do something, well I can\u2019t. You have to be trusted to be able to get inside something like this.<\/p>\n \u201cNow potentially that\u2019s terribly compromising, so you have to make a judgement. If something goes wrong on the action, my policy is I report that something went wrong. At ActUp 2 at #leardblockade <\/a>they had this beautiful structure outside the gate and tripods and everything and they forgot that there was a side gate and the police went in through there \u2026 (laughs)<\/p>\n \u201cIf I was \u2018in there\u2019 I\u2019d pretend nothing happened, but I Tweeted \u201coutfoxed \u2013 go to Plan B\u201d.<\/p>\n Margo reports via Twitter, a domain she refers to as a \u2018public diary\u2019, where she maintains that her feeds are augmenting a new kind of journalism.<\/p>\n \u201cI read an article which said that Twitter has become the birth of news. That\u2019s where it hits. All these different people asking these different questions. All the journalists are on Twitter now and they\u2019re all watching people who they feel they need to watch. I\u2019d hate to be a mainstream journalist now, you have to do that as well as everything else like write five pieces a day, do some video \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cI went to Canberra for Cathy McGowan\u2019s maiden speech and watched journalists watching a press conference on TV. One dictated grabs at another typing – they\u2019re all trying to press the button first. It\u2019s just a nightmare.<\/p>\n \u201cMainstream media flicks from one thing to another – who knows what happened last year or yesterday? But (the people on) Twitter do.\u00a0They say, \u2018What about who said that there\u2019 and publish the link, so Twitter is building its own story and the good journos will take that and go with it. You\u2019ve actually got an incredible resource with Twitter.\u201d<\/p>\n Margo became a convert to Twitter in late 2012 and has deferred her nearly-completed nursing degree.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a huge decision to defer because all my friends except one said, \u2018Oh my god Margo, move on. Journalism is something that you have an interesting relationship with, but inevitably it means you go off the rails and that\u2019s the end of it.’<\/p>\n \u201cIn my opinion no-one knows how Twitter works. You find your spot. There\u2019s a million different worlds in Twitter. So my spot is Australian politics. That\u2019s my milieu.<\/p>\n \u201cI got a head start when I got into it. A lot of people followed me early, they said things like \u2018Oh I thought you were dead\u2019, y\u2019know, \u2018You\u2019re back!\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cJust being a Twitter-based journalist I was creating \u2013 and I hate using these words – I was becoming quite powerful in my own small way. I don\u2019t wanna tell people what I had for breakfast. I run a pretty hardcore political tweet thing and I think I\u2019m ahead of the curve.<\/p>\n \u201cFor example imagine how thrilled I was when The Guardian<\/i> ran my #leardblockade portraits<\/a>, then published my pic for their piece on war veteran Bill Ryan<\/a> where he told his story about why he got arrested at #leardblockade.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Tele ran pictures by me too, and were shocked because they had this conspiracy theory that The Guardian was paying me at #leardblockade.<\/p>\n \u201cI said no, I\u2019m doing this as a service for the mainstream media. They can pick up my pictures and rely on that I\u2019ve given them accurate figures of arrests and accurate accounts. Y\u2019know, take it and run with it, it\u2019s yours.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Tele reporter asked, \u2018Who are you working for Margo?\u2019 I said \u2018I\u2019m working for my site\u2019. He said \u2018Are you a member of any of these (environment) organisations?\u2019 \u2018No.\u2019<\/p>\n He said \u2018You believe that climate change is real and that coal mine shouldn\u2019t happen, don\u2019t you?\u2019 I said \u2018Yes I do believe that\u2019, and he goes, \u2018Well how can you say you\u2019re a journalist?\u2019 I said, \u2018I\u2019ve told readers what I believe, what\u2019s wrong with that?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe I\u2019m wrong, but I feel they can\u2019t touch me. I work for no-one but myself. I haven\u2019t got bosses coming down on me and every time the Tele targets me it increases my profile. So I feel they\u2019re in a no win – but maybe I\u2019m just being silly.\u201d<\/p>\n This kind of exposure to the news, in becoming the news, has come with its own problems and credibility issues.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very knotty area, I\u2019m not saying I\u2019m completely confident. Several times I\u2019ve had images of things I\u2019ve done at the blockade come to mind and gone \u2018Oh I shouldn\u2019t have done that\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are really curly ones, but my point of view is that it’s far better to make those compromises and get that story told which otherwise wouldn\u2019t have been told. Tim Blair (Daily Telegraph<\/i> blogger) would say, \u2018Well you\u2019re not getting both sides of the story are you?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I\u2019m not. I am reporting this<\/span> side of the story. There are many people reporting that<\/span> side of the story, and there are many journos in the middle and long may they reign. Both sides will speak to them. I don\u2019t know if they would speak to me, I\u2019ve never asked. And maybe I should but I felt it\u2019s a good role for me to say, \u2018I\u2019ll tell you what\u2019s happening on the ground and you do what you like with it. That\u2019s my job, that\u2019s what I do, I\u2019m there. You\u2019re somewhere else, you do your job.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Margo attributes the nature of her new vocation to the evolution of reporting in the volatile social media era.<\/p>\n \u201cBasically I\u2019m one of the players in the radicalisation of Twitter, and more and more people want to be a bit more radical so I think I\u2019ve found a bit of a niche there.<\/p>\n \u201cBasically No Fibs is a site of radical action. There\u2019s a lot of angst around Australia and No Fibs is reporting that.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there was frustration last year with both the performance of the Labor government and the media\u2019s role in the failure to scrutinise the opposition. You had a Murdoch press that made it impossible and you had the worst ever campaign by a Labor leader. Yet the Libs did not win in a landslide. So you\u2019ve got this unease and I think people like me have helped convert that negativity of Twitter into \u2013 \u2018Well, what you gonna do about it guys?’<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the election Abbott was so bad so early that people really wanted to do something. #MarchinMarch was a big breakthrough because everyone, including me, completely wrote it off as a sort of virtual reality type thing \u2013 yet people turned up.<\/p>\n \u201cNo Fibs did the best coverage of #MarchinMarch<\/a>, with people on the ground live tweeting into our hashtag and then, even up to two weeks later we had people writing in and saying \u2018Would you mind if I told my story?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cLike the campaigns on the ground for Lock the Gate<\/a>, people just went off and did their own thing where they live but it came together and it was so exciting and so empowering. A lot of Tweeps went off at the mainstream media about their (lack of) reporting. I thought the MSM were dealt a devastating blow with the lack of #MarchinMarch reporting. Embarrassing. It showed why the Press Gallery is out of touch.<\/p>\n \u201cThe role of the Press Gallery is to bring the people\u2019s concerns to the powerful and hold the powerful to account on behalf of the people. It\u2019s really simple. If you don\u2019t have a clue what the people\u2019s concerns are or couldn\u2019t give a shit because it hasn\u2019t been proved by some focus group which gives you dot points, it\u2019s awful.<\/p>\n \u201cI just think if they don\u2019t report things like #MarchinMarch they\u2019re out of the game, because this is where the game is now.\u201d<\/p>\n Margo\u2019s passionate belief in this new form of journalistic shorthand, where brevity and immediacy are the parameters, has been confirmed in the field.<\/p>\n