Bear with me here, because frankly I’m still trying to make sense of all this myself. Over the past 30 minutes or so, Australian social media was sent into a violent conniption over reports stemming from a Sky News presenter that Victoria’s Chief Medical Officer Brett Sutton had abruptly quit his post in the middle of the state’s worsening pandemic. The only thing about that is, it wasn’t true.
The whole hullabaloo erupted after Sky News host Kieran Gilbert reported on-air that Sutton had stood down from his post, citing the fact that Sutton had not been seen alongside Premier Dan Andrews at the daily press conferences since the start of the week.
That rumour was then hastily amplified to Twitter, where Sky News Canberra Bureau Chief Thomas O’Brien presented it as almost certain fact, in a tweet that has since been deleted.
That sent various Australian media types into overdrive, with some initially choosing to relay the report-of-a-report as fact (or, at the very least, near fact) in a string of tweets most of which have also since been deleted.
https://twitter.com/TrudyMcIntosh/status/1290890861853564929
If stories that Brett Sutton has stepped down during this crisis are true that is Trumpian.
— Derryn Hinch (@HumanHeadline) August 5, 2020
BREAKING: Reports Victoria’s CHO Brett Sutton has quit/sacked/stood down. Victoria really is a mess.
— Julian Abbott 💉💉💉💉 (@JulianBAbbott) August 5, 2020
If the rumours about @VictorianCHO Brett Sutton standing down are true. There’s going to be a lot of disappointed punters who looked forward to his soothing explanations, and lets not forget about the fan pages and erotic Twitter fiction. I hope it’s not true.
— Melissa Meehan 🐯😷 (@melissameehanau) August 5, 2020
On a timeline of literal seconds, well before any confirmation of this could’ve possibly been achieved, certain news outlets – the Daily Mail, to be exact – chose to rush to print under the assumption that this was true, running the below headline on pure speculation, hope, and not much else.
At that point, the first seeds of doubt as to the veracity of the original report began to sprout.
Reports emerging from both the Victorian Premier’s office and the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services either flat-out denied any knowledge of Sutton’s supposed resignation, or declined to directly comment on it at the time.
The Vic Premier’s office says it has no confirmation on the reports Brett Sutton has quit DHHS.@10NewsFirstMelb #springst
— Simon Love (@SimoLove) August 5, 2020
Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services says it is not able to immediately comment on reports from Sky News that chief health officer Brett Sutton is standing down
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) August 5, 2020
Mere minutes thereafter, that line of communication shifted again. This time to the Premier’s Office outright asserting the report was flat-out wrong, with Sutton himself reportedly confirming it to Government officials.
Premier @DanielAndrewsMP office saying reports Brett Sutton has resigned are wrong. @abcmelbourne
— Richard Willingham (@rwillingham) August 5, 2020
Premier @DanielAndrewsMP office now saying that @VictorianCHO Brett Sutton has NOT quit and the reports are untrue. @10NewsFirstMelb #springst
— Simon Love (@SimoLove) August 5, 2020
Premier @DanielAndrewsMP‘s office says reports @VictorianCHO Brett Sutton has resigned are false. Prof Sutton has confirmed to to the government the rumours are not true #springst
— Sumeyya Ilanbey (@sumeyyailanbey) August 5, 2020
At this point, certain media outlets – again, we’re talking about the Daily Mail here – rushed to correct their previous reporting now that it was, well, a big fucken lie.
Mental note: When caught out telling a lie in the future, simply refer to it as “confusion reigning.”
Sutton’s absence was then explained, after someone actually talked to him directly, to be merely the result of a short period of extremely well-earned leave, which is set to continue until Friday.
.@VictorianCHO has been contacted and is sticking around. Currently on leave #springst
— Kieran Rooney (@KieranJRooney) August 5, 2020
Sky News, the perpetrator of the original – and false, we stress – report, made an abrupt about face at this point. The cable news channel went back on their initial reports and corrected themselves after the facts of the non-story became clear.
Okay, Sky News have just walked back their Sutton quit story after getting a text direct from the Premier’s office saying Sutton has confirmed he hasn’t quit. The issue now becomes Sky News. Sigh.
— Stephen Mayne (@MayneReport) August 5, 2020
Somewhere in amongst this absolute mess, Sutton himself appears to have cottoned on to the entire situation, and snuck onto Twitter to very cheekily provide his own proof of life via, of all things, a Nickelback joke.
Putting a full-stop on this entire saga, the Daily Mail then made one final update to their headline, adding in a tiny bit of extra information that changes nothing about their assertions, and finally putting the missing second quotation mark around the bafflingly capitalised ‘QUIT’ which had frankly been irking me since the moment it went live.
They used to say that a week is a long time in politics. But bloody hell, 15 minutes nowadays might as well be forever.
