James Massola is an Australian journalist and author, currently the National Affairs Editor for

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

and

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

Early life

Massola grew up in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

and graduated from

Xavier College Xavier College is a Roman Catholic, day and boarding school predominantly for boys, founded in 1872 by the Society of Jesus, with its main campus located in Kew, an eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Classes started in 1878. Th ...

, and then

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...

with a master's degree in International Relations. His great uncle is

Aldo Massola Aldo Massola (9 September 1910 – 6 July 1975) was an Italian people, Italian-Australians, Australian anthropologist, a curator at the National Museum of Victoria in Melbourne from 1954 to 1964, who overcame scandal in his personal life to a ...

, the anthropologist, author and museum curator.

Career

He moved to

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

in 2007 and worked in the

Canberra Press Gallery The Canberra Press Gallery, officially called the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery, is the name given to the approximately 180 journalists and their support staff, including producers, editors and camera crews, who report the workings of the A ...

for 10 years, mostly for

Fairfax Media Fairfax Media was a media company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by John Fairfax as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased ''The Sydney Morning Herald' ...

. He began working for ''

'' and the ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

'' in January 2014. In October 2017, he announced via Twitter that he was leaving the job of chief political correspondent and in 2018 took up the job of south-east Asia correspondent for the newspapers. In November 2018,

Allen and Unwin George Allen & Unwin was a British publishing company formed in 1911 when Sir Stanley Unwin purchased a controlling interest in George Allen & Co. It went on to become one of the leading publishers of the twentieth century and to establish an ...

published his first book, ''The Great Cave Rescue'', about the rescue of the Wild Boars football team from the

Tham Luang Tham Luang Nang Non ( th, ถ้ำหลวงนางนอน, lit=Great Cave of the Sleeping Lady, ) is a karstic cave system in the Tham Luang–Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park, near the village of Pong Pha, in northern Thailand. It lies be ...

cave in Thailand in July 2018. The book was published by

Duckworth Books Duckworth Books, originally Gerald Duckworth and Company, founded in 1898 by Gerald Duckworth, is a British publisher.2010 federal election, ABC managing director Mark Scott cited a posting by

Greg Jericho Greg Jericho, also known as Grog's Gamut, is an Australian civil servant, blogger, and journalist. He came to prominence during the Australian federal election in 2010 when Australian Broadcasting Corporation director Mark Scott referenced his ...

in a speech on the topic of the media coverage of the election. Jericho's opinion was that coverage of the election had been driven by polls rather than policy, and that the public interest was suffering as a result. At the same time, Jericho attended and live-blogged the "''media140''" conference, which was also attended News Limited journalist James Massola. During the conference, Massola and Jericho were seated at the same table, although Jericho states that the two did not speak on the day. On 27 September, Massola wrote an article in ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

'' entitled "''Controversial political blogger unmasked as a federal public servant''". In it, Massola revealed Jericho's real name and that he was an employee of the Australian Public Service, justifying the outing on the grounds that "The prolific blogger shows a strong preference for the ALP, despite the Public Service code of conduct stating that "the APS is apolitical"". In a follow-up article on 28 September, Massola expanded further on his reasons for naming Jericho, claiming that "the fact he had a partisan point of view, worked in the public service and wrote about his department was a matter of public interest" and "Jericho's decision to 'live blog' the Media 140 conference (was it a sick day, a day in lieu, annual leave, did he clear it with his supervisor?) made my mind up." Massola's article attracted a mixed response, some critical and some supportive. Bernard Keane wrote in ''

Crikey Crikey is an Australian electronic magazine comprising a website and email newsletter available to subscribers. Crikey was described by the former Federal Opposition Leader Mark Latham as the "most popular website in Parliament House" in ''The ...

'' that rather than discuss the content of Jericho's blog, Massola had just launched "a malicious, hypocritical ad hominem attack on him" and pointed out the hypocrisy of The Australian running anonymous opinion columns itself. ABC journalist Jonathon Green opined that "Jericho made the fatal mistake of making them angry, of impugning the conduct of Australian journalism during an election campaign in which the media slowly became a significant part of the story; not so much for what it did but for the debate it let rot and degenerate. Outing him is payback", while journalist Tim Dunlop argued that "It is not their 'The Australiansrole to deprive someone of their privacy when they are engaged in a legal activity". James Paterson wrote that Massola's article was "a legitimate story in the public interest".

Awards

Massola was a finalist in the

Walkley Walkley is a suburb of Sheffield, England, west of Burngreave, south of Hillsborough and north-east of Crookes. The area consists mainly of Victorian stone-fronted terraced housing and has a relatively high student population. It also has a ...

awards for journalism for reporting with

Peter Hartcher Peter Hartcher is an Australian journalist and the Political and International Editor of the ''Sydney Morning Herald''. He is also a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based foreign policy think tank. Career In 1981, while a stude ...

a detailed leak from former Australian Prime Minister

Tony Abbott Anthony John Abbott (; born 4 November 1957) is a former Australian politician who served as the 28th prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Abbott was born in Londo ...

's cabinet. In 2016 he was a finalist in the Quills for the

David Feeney David Ian Feeney (born 5 March 1970) is a former Australian politician. He was the Labor member for the division of Batman in the House of Representatives from 7 September 2013 to 1 February 2018. Before that, he was a member of the Australian ...

residence scandal and in 2017 he was part of the team that won the Grant Hattam Quill award for investigative journalism into the

Sam Dastyari Sam Dastyari ( fa, سام دستیاری; born Sahand Dastyari, ; born 28 July 1983) is a former Australian politician, who from 2013 to 2018 represented New South Wales in the Australian Senate as a member of the Australian Labor Party. Dastyar ...

Chinese influence story, involving

Huang Xiangmo Huang Xiangmo () is a Chinese billionaire real estate developer. He was a permanent resident and political donor in Australia, but was later barred entry into the country on national security grounds. Additionally, then Australian Prime Minister ...

. In 2019 he was named "outstanding foreign correspondent" in the Kennedy Awards Kennedys 2019 https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-morning-herald-snares-five-kennedy-awards-as-abc-takes-out-top-prize-20190810-p52frv.html

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Massola, James Australian people of Italian descent Australian journalists Living people Monash University alumni Year of birth missing (living people)