The West Australian has hit back at WA Opposition leader Mike Nahan’s accusation that the Seven West Media-owned newspaper attacked him in its reporting.
The row between the two began on Sunday when Nahan (pictured above) told journalists at a state conference for the Liberal Party that voters in WA’s Darling Range electorate weren’t reading The West Australian, listening to the TV, or listening to 6PR or ABC Radio Perth.
Nahan’s comments spurred The West Australian to say the WA Opposition leader would “be extinct long before” the newspaper, according to ABC News.
Furthermore, Channel Seven reported that The West Australian would no longer support the Nahan and has blacklisted his future press conferences for its journalists.
Nahan has since denied attacking any media outlet in his speech, telling ABC Radio Perth that The West Australian’s response was “grossly over the top”.
“The West Australian chose to take it as an attack on them and do what I can only describe as a very public hatchet job on me,” he said.
However, The West Australian’s editor, Brett McCarthy, rubbished Nahan’s “hatchet job” accusation.
“If anyone has done a hatchet job, he has, on both us as the media and himself,” McCarthy told ABC News.
“I was completely baffled by [Nahan’s speech], not just because he attacked the media, but because he was wrong. We are still very, very relevant to the people of Western Australia.”
