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1 What they said. 2 The issue at a glance. 3 Background. 4 Internet information links. 5 and 6 Arguments for / against. 7 Further implications on this issue. 8 Newspaper items used in the compilation of the outline.
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1997: Princess Diana and the press?




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Privacy and the media: should Wayne Carey's personal life be treated as a public matter?

What they said ...
'The matters leading to the statement I am about to make are of a personal nature and I will not discuss them'
Wayne Carey announcing his resignation

'It's an issue everyone in Australia has an interest in'
Wayne Carey's manager, Ricky Nixon

On Wednesday March 13, 2002, Kangaroo's chairman, Allen Aylett, announced that the club had regretfully accepted the resignation of its captain Wayne Carey.  In the press the following day it was revealed that Carey had been forced to resign from the Club because he had been conducting an affair with the wife of his vice captain and friend, Anthony Stevens.
Stevens had learnt of the affair at a birthday party for the wife of another team member held on the night of Sunday March 10.  Stevens and another team member then indicated to the club's administration that they were not prepared to continue playing alongside Carey.  The rest of the team joined them in this position and thus left Carey with no option other than to resign.  AFL rules mean Carey will not be able to be taken up by another club this season.
The amount of media coverage Carey's affair has received and the nature of some of that coverage raise questions about the extent to which the private lives of public figures are or should be respected.

Background
Wayne Carey had played 244 games for North Melbourne.  He had received four best and fairest awards, had been the club's captain for the last nine years and was seven times an All-Australian.
Carey is reputed to be the most highly paid player in the League.  It is claimed that Carey and the Kangaroos had just agreed to a new three year multimillion dollar contract that was to have been lodged with the AFL (Australian Football League) at the end of the week in which he resigned from the club.  Carey's nickname among Kangaroo supporters was 'the King'.
Despite being highly regarded for his football skills and being the object of adulation for thousands of Kangaroo fans, Wayne Carey has a mixed reputation.  
In the Herald Sun's footy fans survey, Wayne Carey has for the last three years been voted the most disliked player.  It has been suggested that this is in part because an indecent assault charge brought against Carey in 1995 after he had grabbed the breasts of a young woman passer-by on a city street.  Carey pleaded guilty and made an apology in the court.  He was not convicted.
Wayne Carey married his wife Sally a little over a year ago.  They had both grown up in Wagga Wagga and had met there when Sally McMahon was 17 and Wayne 20.  They had been together for ten years.

Internet information
The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (Australia) has reproduced in full the Journalists' Code of Ethics. The code can be found at http://www.alliance.org.au/hot/ethicscode.htm
All members of the Australian Journalists' Association are meant to abide by this code.
The code makes reference to 'respect for the truth and the public's right to information'. However, point 11 refers to the need to 'Respect private grief and personal privacy' and the need to disclose 'all essential facts'.  It is clearly a matter for debate whether the details of Wayne Carey's affair are 'essential' facts.  There are those who would argue they are not.

The full text of the chairman of the Kangaroo's, Allen Aylett's, announcement of Wayne Carey's resignation on March 13 can be found on the club's web site.  The address is http://kangaroosfc.com.au/default.asp?pg=home&spg=display&articleid=24463

A piece titled 'The King is back in town' was published on February 17, 2002.  It deals with Wayne Carey's return to fitness after an injury-marred 2001 and praises the quality of his performance in pre-season matches.   The article indicates the high esteem in which Kangaroo supporters held Wayne Carey.  
The article can be found at http://kangaroosfc.com.au/default.asp?pg=home&spg=display&articleid=19288

A similar piece praising Carey's fitness and pivotal role in the Kangaroo side was published in the AFL Record on February 15, 2002.  It is titled 'Carey tuned up and raring to go' and has been   saved on the Kangaroos web site.  It can be found at http://kangaroosfc.com.au/default.asp?pg=home&spg=display&articleid=19037

On March 14, 2002, the ABC Radio National program AM reported Wayne Carey's resignation.  The item was titled 'Wayne Carey quits' and can be found at http://www.abc.net.au/am/s504045.htm

Arguments in favour of Wayne Carey's personal life being treated as a public matter
1.  Wayne Carey's personal conduct ended his football career at the Kangaroos
It is claimed that it is not possible to make a neat distinction between Wayne Carey's private and public life.  According to this line of argument Wayne Carey blurred the distinction between his public and his private life when he had an affair with the wife of his vice captain's wife.  By having an affair with a team mate's wife Wayne Carey made impossible an effective working relationship between himself and other team members.  
His affair thus had a major effect on his public life.  Without the affair, Carey would not have been compelled by his other team members to resign from the team.  The Age editorial published on March 15 made this point.  The editorial states, '[Carey's] personal indiscretions have directly effected the club that employed him and made him a hero to many.  Football is a team game and he is guilty of an assault on team harmony.'
A similar point was made by Nick Richardson in an article published in The Herald Sun on March 15, 2002.  Mr Richardson writes, 'The team's decision reflects how badly they feel let down ... This is about those men who used to be [Wayne Carey's] team mates ... They do not feel they can play football with Carey again.'
Carey himself partly acknowledged the public nature of his actions, when announcing his retirement he apologised to 'all my team mates and all the Kangaroos supporters'.  

2.  Wayne Carey's fame as a footballer blurs the distinction between his public and his private life
According to this line of argument, because Wayne Carey is a famous man there will automatically be interest among the Australian public in his private life.  Thus, it is claimed, the media has covered his marriage a year ago to Sally McMahon and the assault charge that was brought against him in 1995.  Neither of these things, especially Carey's marriage, would have been considered very newsworthy in themselves, but because they involved a famous person the media assumed they would be of interest to readers and audiences.
Wayne Carey, himself, acknowledged the inevitable media interest aroused by his infidelity.  With regard to the media scrutiny his actions had received, Carey stated, 'If Wayne Carey wasn't Wayne Carey this wouldn't be happening.'
Similarly, before Sally Carey released a public statement requesting that her privacy be respected, her spokesperson stated, 'They [presumably, Wayne and Sally Carey] understand the media's got a role to play and they understand it's an issue everyone in Australia has an interest in.'

3.  Wayne Carey has profited financially from his fame
It has further been suggested that in profiting so spectacularly from his high public profile, Wayne Carey effectively forfeited the right to privacy in his personal life - he became public property.  This is not a reference to Carey's million dollar football contracts that presumably were based primarily on his football ability rather than his fame.  What is being referred to here is Carey's sponsorship deals which relied directly on his highly well known image.
Wayne Carey lead Nike's move into AFL with the Roo Boy commercials and has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars since signing in 1993.  He is said to earn $500,000 a year through endorsements on top of his nearly $1 million playing salary.
High payments for fame appear to carry with them the recognition that fame can easily turn to notoriety and most of the endorsement contracts Carey has signed have a disrepute clause which enables the sponsor to end their association with Carey if his private conduct should attract unfavourable attention.
It was reported on March 15, 2002, that one of Carey's principal sponsors, Nike, was about to end its contract with him using a morality clause.

4.  Wayne Carey's role model status attracts attention to all aspects of his life
It has been suggested that the extreme admiration directed toward sporting heroes encourages people to have elevated expectations about all aspects of their hero's life.  These high expectations mean that should the sporting hero behave badly off-field his behaviour will attract both media attention and popular criticism.
This point has been demonstrated in a number of the letters to the editor published in The Herald Sun on March 16, 2002.  One letter written by Sam Kelleher, states, 'I am nine and have loved you all my life.  You were the greatest.  I used to love going to the games and just focus on you and count your possies.  
But now all that's changed.  Even I know better than what you did.'
Nick Rihardson made a similar point in an article published in the Herald Sun on March 15, 2002.  Richardson states, 'Today hundreds of kids with the number 18 on the back of their blue and white jumpers will wonder why the star they watched soar to such great heights has now fallen so low ... Few things are more important than preserving the trust between us and our heroes.'

5.  Wayne Carey behaved in a scandalous manner off field despite being aware of the level of media scrutiny he attracted
It has been suggested that not only was Wayne Carey's conduct immoral it was also stupid.  It has been claimed that the circumstances in he and Kelli Stevens committed their act of adultery made their discovery almost inevitable.  It has further been suggested that having an affair with the wife of his vice captain made it even more likely that once his affair was known it would attract media attention.
Besides this, however, it has been suggested that Carey, in particular, should have been aware of the sort of media scrutiny that misbehaviour on his part could attract.  In 1995 he was charged with having sexually assaulted a young woman by grabbing her breasts and making rude remarks to her.  This scandal attracted much media attention at the time.  

Arguments against Wayne Carey's personal life being treated as a public matter
1.  The reason why Wayne Carey left the Kangaroos was a private matter and was not a concern of the media's or the general public
On March 13, 2002, North Melbourne's president, Dr Allen Aylett, issued a press release that announced, 'We need to make you aware from the outset, that the club will not comment on personal issues relating to individuals.  I ask you to respect this position.
Sadly the club accepts Wayne Carey's decision to cease his playing days with the Kangaroos.'  
Clearly, so far as the Kangaroos were concerned, what was important was that Wayne Carey had resigned from the club.  The 'personal issues relating to individuals' which had led to this resignation, were not, so far as the club was concerned, a matter for public discussion.  The club also asked the media 'to respect this position.' - a request that the media ignored.
When making a similar statement on March 14, 2002, Wayne Carey also indicated that he wished to keep his personal life private.  Mr Carey stated, 'The matters leading to the statement I am about to make are of a personal nature and I will not discuss them.'
Further, the Australian Journalists' Association's Code of Ethics requires journalists to respect an individual's right to privacy.  Point 11 of the code requires journalists to 'Respect private grief and personal privacy'.
All these statements and requests rely on a distinction between the public's right to information and an individual's right to privacy.  
Generally it is argued that the public has a right to know only what is in the public interest, that is, matters which legitimately affect the public.  It is normally considered that an individual's private life has no bearing on the well being of the general public and therefore, the privacy of the individual should be protected from unnecessary media scrutiny.

2.  Wayne Carey is famous as a footballer; his private life is not relevant to this.
It is argued that the source of Wayne Carey's fame was his on-field performance as a footballer and not his private sexual conduct.
According to this line of argument, if a man were famous as a morals crusader then the fact that he had been unfaithful to his wife might be legitimately of public interest because it would demonstrate to the public that the man's previous public pronouncements may have been unreliable.
However, Wayne Carey did not achieve public prominence as a marriage guidance counsellor or a champion of public morality.  He was famous as a highly skilled footballer.  Critics of the media's treatment of his private life, argue that Wayne Carey's sexual conduct has no bearing on his performance on the football field and therefore is of no legitimate interest to the media.
Kaye Nielson made a related point in a letter published in The Herald Sun on March 16.  Ms Nielson states, 'How absurd to believe that because someone has been elevated to "hero" status in the sports arena, they will conduct themselves accordingly elsewhere.'  Ms Nielson's remark suggests that there is no connection between Carey's performance as a footballer and his off-field conduct.  
Ken Milhinch voiced a similar sentiment in a letter published in The Herald Sun on March 15, 2002.  Mr Milhinch states, 'Despite the holier-than-thou nonsense penned by journalists ... Wayne Carey will always be the greatest footballer ever to have graced the field.'

3.  Other people, apart from Wayne Carey, have suffered from the media attention his affair has attracted
It has been argued that making Wayne Carey's private life public has injured not only Carey but also his wife, her family and the husband and family of Anthony Stevens.   It has been claimed that a distressing time in the family lives of these people has been made worse by the media attention they have attracted.  
Sally Carey's public statement on the matter was essentially a plea that the media leave her alone.  Mrs Carey wrote, 'This is an incredible personal and upsetting set of circumstances.  All I want to say is that this has been an extremely difficult and stressful time ... Wayne and I have been together 10 years.  When we've had time to absorb everything, I will sit down with my husband and discuss the future of our marriage.  All I ask is that we now be given some privacy and space to do this.'
The Herald Sun gave this media statement front-page treatment and the headline 'Sally Carey tells: I'll talk to Wayne'  
It has been reported that when Sally Carey returned to her parents' home in Wagga Wagga they were beset by the media.  It is claimed 'With the family bunkered down inside their home, media interest intensified with crews waiting outside anxious to bring any developments to the nation.
A representative from 60 Minutes slipped a note under the door.'
Critics of the media's treatment of Wayne Carey's resignation and the reason for it have argued that such treatment does not respect the feelings of those involved and especially those who might be regarded as the innocent victims of the affair.  
With regard to those such as Sally Carey who have not sought the public spotlight it has been noted that Sally Carey met Wayne Carey when she was 17 and he was 20 and that at the time they began their ten year relationship Wayne Carey was not the public figure he is today.  Mrs Carey, then, did not willing enter into a relationship knowing that her future husband's high media profile would leave the couple open to the high level of media attention they now attract.  
It is also worth noting that neither Sally Carey nor Anthony Stevens had any choice in the matter of their partner's infidelity and yet they are receiving a similar level of media attention as the couple who had a choice in the matter and whose behaviour indicates they were willing to risk public exposure and scandal..

4.  The media has used Wayne Carey's private life for entertainment purposes
It has been suggested that whole and half page accounts of the manner in which Wayne Carey and Kelli Stevens were allegedly caught out in their affair have been highly exploitative.
Currently there are a number of conflicting accounts as to just what happened and where.  There are also discrepancies in accounts as to who was supposed to have discovered the couple and the reaction of Anthony Stevens and others when they were discovered.  It would appear that few if any of the accounts come from the principals involved and that most are second-hand accounts presented in an attempt to feed the public's curiosity for intimate details.  What most accounts appear to have in common an attempt to maximise salaciousness and the apparent violence that accompanied the discovery.  As The Age editorial of March 15, 2002, stated, 'It is the stuff of soap opera.  There is an affair; a confrontation; recriminations and regrets.'  
It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the trauma in these people's private lives is being served to the public as entertainment.  As The Age editorial of March 17, 2002, stated, 'King Carey is finding that he is still in the entertainment business, stuck in a role he would never have chosen'.

5.  There are other far more newsworthy events that the media should be focusing on
It has been suggested that the media's focus on the events surrounding Wayne Carey's resignation from the North Melbourne Football Club in the days after it occurred meant that many more significant matters were ignored.
According top this line of argument, the primary purpose of the news media is to inform the public about matters of national and international significance.  This view suggests that what is significant is determined by the consequences events have for individuals and by the number of individuals effected by these events.  It is claimed that one person's private life is thus rarely if ever an appropriate subject for news coverage.  It is further claimed that by concentrating on Wayne Carey's infidelity, the media has failed to cover events of genuine importance.
Vivienne Horwood made this point in a letter published in The Age on March 15, 2002.  Mr Horwood stated, 'I woke yesterday to a barrage of reports on the radio about Wayne Carey's personal life, and the "devastating effect" it has had on the team, the supporters and so forth.  In the train different newspapers were saturated with such headlines as "sad day", "weeping fans" ... I fail to see why this should be the focus of the community when there are people starving, dying and being severely mistreated in our own backyard.'

Further implications
Interestingly, few media outlets have even attempted to justify the extent of their coverage of Wayne Carey's infidelity.  The Age in its editorial of March 17, 2002, stated, 'In reality, the public's right to know does not extend very far.  If a politician or a footballer breaks the law, then that is a matter of public record, but, as a general rule, their private lives is nobody's business but their own, unless extraordinary circumstances make it so.'  However, the editorial does not indicate clearly whether or not it believes that Carey's private life should have been made public.  It appears to be arguing from both sides of the fence.
For most publications the issue of a public figures right to privacy was not even considered.  The Herald Sun blithely published Sally Carey's request for privacy under the front-page banner headline, 'Sally Carey tells: I'll talk to Wayne'.  The same paper also published pages of issues giving readers' responses to Carey's infidelity.  The Herald Sun went through the motions of extending sympathy to 'Sad Sally', however that sympathy did not extend to withdrawing the media spotlight from the affair.
Given Carey's fame and the fact that his infidelity effectively forced his resignation from the Roos it was always inevitable that the reason for his resignation would become public.  What may have been less obvious was that the papers and talk back radio would give the affair such detailed and ongoing coverage and that readers would respond to it with such apparent interest.  
It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Australian public retains a keen interest in gossip about the sex lives of others and that there are sections of the media that will service that interest.  It would also appear that we nurture the unrealistic expectation that our on-field heroes will be off-field saints.
It is interesting that the Wayne Carey scandal was played out at the same time as Senator Heffernan was making scandalous allegations against Chief Justice Kirby and using Parliamentary privilege to protect himself from legal action.  
Many commentators noted the dreadful intrusion into Kirby's private life.  One article even dealt specifically with the pain the allegations and attendant publicity had caused Kirby's elderly father.  No such comments were made about the Careys and others involved in the matter.  Perhaps this is because in the Kirby case, Senator Heffernan could be cast as the scandal-mongering villain of the piece, whereas in the Carey affair it became apparent after a few days that the media itself was keeping the affair before the public eye.

Sources
The Age
14/3/02   page 1     news item by Jake Niall, 'I'm sorry: Carey quits over affair with teammate's wife'
15/3/02  page 14    editorial, 'When a captain is out of bounds'
17/3/02   page 1     news item by Paul Heinrichs, 'Holed up and downcast'
17/3/02   page 8     news item by liz Hannan, 'A strange turn: the celebration that shattered'
17/3/02   page 18   editorial, 'Public judgements, private indescretions'
17/3/02   page 19   comment by Kate Fitzpatrick, 'How far must an idol fall?'

The Australian
16/3/02   page 16   cartoon by Nicholson
28/3/02   page 11   comment by Peter Brent, 'Listen, sport, it's only human'

The Herald Sun
14/3/02   page 1     news item by mark Robinson, 'Carey gone'
14/3/02   page 5     news item by Russell Gould and Shaun Phillips, 'Fans weep over fallen hero'
14/3/02   page 5     comment by Mike Sheahan, 'Blow-up to beat them all'
15/3/02   page 1     news item by Mark Robinson, 'Carey tells: my shame'
15/3/02   page 3     news item by Nick Papps, 'Wife in clinic with stress'
15/3/02   page 5     news item by Michael Gleeson, 'A party to end all parties'
15/3/02   page 7     news item by Shaun Phillips, 'Nike may boot Carey'
15/3/03   page 18   3 letters headed, 'Roos will lose by letting Carey depart'
15/3/02   page 19   cartoon by Knight
15/3/02   page 20   editorial, 'Fallen idol'
15/3/02   page 21   comment by Nick Richardson, 'Trust gets the boot'
16/3/02   page 1     news item by Mark Robinson, Mark Stevens and Rick Wallace, 'Sally Carey tells: I'll talk to Wayne'
16/3/02   page 4     comments, 'What should Sally Carey do?'17/3/02   page 4     comment by Toby Green, 'If you cheat, someone pays'
16/3/02   page 5     news item by Mark Stevens, 'First step to saving marriage'
16/3/03   page 6     33 letters headed, 'Sex, morals and footy'
17/3/02   page 5     news item, 'Brother's public plea'
18/3/02   page 1     news item by Shaun Phillips, 'Sad sally's big freeze'