(Image: Zennie/Private Media) Crikey has always been in the business of tip-offs, from salacious snippets to serious snipes. Ever since the publication’s founder Stephen Mayne started Crikey out of his shed more than two decades ago, we’ve been a home to important leaks, whether from a serving politician or something overheard down the pub by one of our readers. I’ve long been of the view that the role of Tips and Murmurs editor, which I took up mid-2020, might just be the best gig at Crikey.
It is a place for small things that point to bigger things, from covering the figures and motivations behind the scenes of big stories or political moves, to providing a corrective to lazy political rhetoric, illustrating hypocrisy or falsehoods from the people who control the conversation in Australia, or just good old fashioned gossip. The column format allows me access to the planet-sized knowledge of not only my wonderful colleagues but also our readership. This allows Tips at its best to be a concentrated version of my favourite parts of Crikey — our willingness to point out what others won’t, our long memories, and our preference for acerbic humour over solemn earnestness.
Which one of you drongos tried to send Scott Morrison a bag of weed? Read More As Cam Wilson wrote when detailing our decision to ban AI slop , “From our inception, we have been so very Crikey . There are a lot of things that make up Crikey ness, but central is its humanness.” A key part of that hum.