The media, as an industry, is one utterly obsessed with itself. The only industry that can rival it on those terms is literature, but few others keep so close an eye and so sharp a tongue on their own internal operations and machinations. Not knowing this is probably the biggest naiveté of the anonymous student journalist at the heart of the Farrago–Herald Sun hullabaloo that’s been playing out—quite viciously—this week.

She’s been named elsewhere, and derided for the weak points in her argument and the undergraduate-levels of outrage and pique in her piece, as well as her asymmetrical haircut and use of the word ‘heteronormative’. It’s attacking the player, not the ball, and the level of spite has surprised me. Surprised me precisely because it seems to demonstrate exactly what the young woman’s critics are saying in their attacks: that the news industry is tough and rough and she shouldn’t have expected anything else.