Pay The Bully?Townsville paper hits peak nasty as Rupert Murdoch demands bail-out

​A young woman killed in a car crash is above all a tragedy for her, her family and her friends. But when the crash is allegedly caused by a vigilante chasing a car thief, it becomes front-page news for the tabloids. For days on end.

This is what happened in Townsville on February 5th, as a 22-year old woman was riding her motorbike and was hit by the vigilante’s car. Not only did The Townsville Bulletin splash the story over the one quarter of the front-page usually reserved for actual news, but the newspaper continued to milk it for all it was worth, feeding the oft-repeated narrative that Queensland politicians are “soft on crime”.

Last year, four Indigenous youths lost their lives in a stolen car being driven at excessive…