ENOUGH OF THIS WRETCHED STORY

NO, NO, NO, and again I say NO. A report in last Saturday's Herald Sunhas
it that former Geelong star Gary Ablett's agent is out and about hawking
his client's story.

That story is, and I quote the report by Mark Dunn, "on the Alisha Horan
overdose drama and life after football. A source close to the normally
media-shy and elusive Ablett said offers for the story had reached more
than $100,000. The bidding war [is] claimed to be between TV programs and
magazines ..."

A quick recap. Alisha Horan was the 20-year-old woman who collapsed in
Ablett's luxury Melbourne hotel room in February last year and subsequently
died in hospital. Tests afterward appeared to establish that she had taken
ecstasy tablets, while traces of heroin were also found in her bloodstream.

During the inquest, earlier this month, it was established that Horan, who
worked as a barmaid, had known Ablett for some time. A statement tendered
to the court, by businessman Alan Gerrand, asserted that "she was obviously
infatuated with him ... she was obviously enjoying being with her football
heroes".

When the time came for Ablett to testify, though, little of substance
emerged. Any questions that touched on his own alleged drug-taking were
repeatedly objected to by his counsel, Phil Dunn, QC. That, of course, was
Ablett's perfect legal right.

It is, though, worth noting Australian Associated Press's report that
during the inquest at Melbourne Coroner's Court, "Detective Senior
Constable Tom Nairn criticised Mr Ablett, along with alleged drug dealer Mr
Clayton Brown and his girlfriend, for not co-operating with the inquest.
Constable Nairn said Ms Horan had overcome any inhibitions she had about
taking drugs because she was infatuated with Mr Ablett."

Constable Nairn was quoted as saying: "The matter would certainly be
clearer if the three persons with an intimate knowledge of Alisha's
movements and actions on the night of the 16th of February ... were
prepared to detail their knowledge of her drug taking that night."

So there we have it. A young woman died. When the time came for the law to
investigate exactly what happened, the shutters came down. But if the
report in the Herald Sun is correct - and there were quotes from media
executives confirming that the agent had been touting the story - then the
shutters will come up again if the price is right.

Sure, if the wretched sale of Ablett's story actually goes through, the
claim will be that they were paying for Ablett's perspective on all of his
life and not just last year's tragic episode, but that is a nonsense and we
all know it.

At this moment the rest of Ablett's life stands as a molehill next to the
mountain of interest there is in the events of last February, and it will
be sophistry to claim anything else.

I do not intend to turn this into a long and windy diatribe about
chequebook journalism. Most of that surely goes without saying, although I
acknowledge that in the odd case such as Stuart Diver, the money he gained
from selling his story was surely a down payment on rebuilding his life
after the catastrophe at Thredbo.

I also note a lot of "celebrities" making tens of thousands of dollars by
flogging off photos of their wedding etc. Those kind of things are usually
mere flim-flam, and in the wider scheme of things seem essentially
harmless. This ain't.

Surely there is a line in the sand over which no media organisation should
step in its pursuit of a story, whatever interest there might be in it.
Surely, surely, this one, if it is true, is well over the other side of the
line.

If a sale is made for Ablett's side of the story, it is a disgrace. That
disgrace is his, and whichever media organisation has its name on the cheque.