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on 21-10-2014 03:07 PM
Yesterday, The Weekend Australian published a story written by media editor Sharri Markson suggesting that myself and New Matilda Contributing Editor Wendy Bacon engaged in email hacking in the story associated with University of Sydney Professor Barry Spurr, and his racist, misogynistic statements regarding Aboriginal people, people of colour generally, and women.
At the risk of pointing out the bleeding obvious, what is noticeably absent from Professor Spurr’s statements to The Australian is an apology, or even a modicum of contrition. Given the content of Professor Spurr’s correspondence over several years, I don’t imagine this comes as a surprise to many.
Instead, Professor Spurr has expressed outrage that his privacy has been breached, and that it has been done so illegally.
One more time, for the record. The information technology policy of the University of Sydney – of which all staff are explicitly warned – is that their university emails are not private. It is a public institution.
Generally speaking, New Matilda does not comment on issues related to sources and leaked documents. However, Ms Markson’s story – and the allegations leveled within it - are demonstrably false, and the public record requires correction.
The first error is a suggestion that Professor Spurr’s email account was ‘hacked’. This is false. It did not occur. Neither New Matilda nor the source in the story hacked Professor Spurr’s account.
The second error relates to a suggestion in Ms Markson’s article that the source was motivated by “payback” for Professor Spurr’s involvement in the National School Curriculum review. This is also false.
While the source was broadly aware of Professor Spurr’s involvement in the review, the source was unaware of the contents of Professor Spurr’s submissions. What motivated the source to come forward was two specific email exchanges.
One of those exchanges relates to Professor Spurr’s views about a matter of substantial public importance. At this stage, New Matilda has decided not to divulge the contents of this email. The comments, however, are extreme and reinforced the view of the source that Professor Spurr’s involvement in the National Curriculum Review was a matter of substantial public interest.
The second email, which also reinforced this view related to Professor Spurr’s comments in relation to the sexual assault of a woman.
Read more:
https://newmatilda.com/2014/10/19/professor-barry-spurr-smoking-gun-institutional-racism
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on 18-12-2014 12:17 PM
nero_wulf wrote:
Why is it different?
How did his PRIVATE emails get out to the left press?
From the story
"My lawyer informs me that accessing my email is 'a criminal offence' and the university's security service is currently looking into the matter," Professor Spurr told the website.
Hope the person who hacked and released PRIVATE emails is caught and charged
Sorry, but it is obvious the emails were leaked to the press by one of the recipients of them... no hacker to catch, no charges to be laid.
We do not need people like him holding positions in our Unverisities, nor having any influence in the national curriculum.
Professor Barry Spurr resigns from University of Sydney after email leaks
Professor Barry Spurr has resigned from the University of Sydney, two months after he was exposed for sending a series of inflammatory emails that included derogatory references to Aboriginals, Asians and women.
The university released a statement on Thursday morning saying the poetry professor had submitted his resignation, which had been accepted by the university.
"At Professor Spurr's request, the university will provide no further comment on this matter," the statement said.
Professor Spurr was suspended from the university in October, pending an investigation into his leaked emails,
which were published on the New Matilda website.
In the series of emails written to friends and colleagues spanning more than two years, Professor Spur referred to people as "abos", "bogans", "fatsoes", "Mussies" and "Chinky-Poos".
He called the late South African president Nelson Mandela a "darkie" and Archbishop Desmond Tutu a "witch doctor"; referred to Prime Minister Tony Abbott as an "Abo lover"; and described an Aboriginal family as a human "rubbish tip".
He also referred to University of Sydney chancellor Belinda Hutchinson as "an appalling minx".
Professor Spurr claimed the emails were written in jest as part of a "whimsical" game of linguistic one-upmanship.
At the time, Professor Spurr had been employed as a specialist consultant to make recommendations to the federal government's review of the national English curriculum.
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18-12-2014 12:18 PM - edited 18-12-2014 12:21 PM
@nero_wulf wrote:WHO HACKED HIS PRIVATE ACCOUNT?
Or is hacking someones private account OK with you
No one. (as mentioned earlier it wasn't his private email address either).
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18-12-2014 12:19 PM - edited 18-12-2014 12:20 PM
@icyfroth wrote:
@debra9275 wrote:Good becasue it does not say any computer was hacked, it's only your assumption then
So "unauthorised access" is OK by you is it?
Jumped the gun there.
I do hope the Govt has a re-look at his input into the National Curriculum.
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on 18-12-2014 01:34 PM
In the series of emails written to friends and colleagues spanning more than two years, Professor Spur referred to people as "abos", "bogans", "fatsoes", "Mussies" and "Chinky-Poos".
He called the late South African president Nelson Mandela a "darkie" and Archbishop Desmond Tutu a "witch doctor"; referred to Prime Minister Tony Abbott as an "Abo lover"; and described an Aboriginal family as a human "rubbish tip".
He also referred to University of Sydney chancellor Belinda Hutchinson as "an appalling minx".
Professor Spurr claimed the emails were written in jest as part of a "whimsical" game of linguistic one-upmanship.
Unless he was playing with himself alone he would have been the loser surely. If those examples are what he describes as linguistic one-upmanship it's a rather unimaginative linguistics game. It's an unbelievable excuse.
