The Awful Truth: My adventures with Australia's most notorious tabloid

by Adrian Tame

Before Fake News, there was the real Fake News. There was Truth . 

Hailed as ‘a fearless exposer of folly, vice and crime’ when it first hit the streets in the 1890s, Truth was later condemned by a High Court Judge as ‘a wretched little paper, reeking of filth, injurious to the health of house servants and young girls’. Much later it earned the nickname ‘The Old Whore of La Trobe Street’. Truth was called many things but it was never boring.

Adrian Tame knows that better than anyone as he worked for Truth for more than a decade as a reporter and news editor. In the years it was owned by the Murdoch family he worked alongside young Rupert as he cut his teeth on the shock horror scandals that graced the pages of Truth when it was selling a whopping 400,000 copies a week.

Funny, often outrageous and always thoroughly entertaining, The Awful Truth is a rollercoaster ride through an colourful era of newspapers and larger-than-life reporters that we will never see the like of again.  

319 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 5, 2020

About the author

Adrian Tame was born in 1944, and spent 25 years in journalism. After resigning as news editor of Truth in 1986, he spent eight years, six of them as a director, with IPR, Australia's largest public relations company. Adrian is the author of the bestselling The Matriarch: The Kathy Pettingill Story (1996).

Reviews

[Petra X]

I've got the book but never seen the tabloid. I'm wondering if it is more salacious exposés of the stars private lives and what they really look like - ten years older, twenty pounds heavier and with bags under their eyes - a la National Enquirer. Or if it is going to be more of the late lamented I like, late unlamented criminal hacker dirty toilet paper Rag of Rags, the News of the World with its set ups to catch famous people and royals trying to scam money out of people and being otherwise abusive? Or perhaps like the World Wide News.

The World Wide News, the epitome of fake news (except it wasn't really 'news') was written by a team of journalists who also contributed to the Star, the Globe and the National Enquirer. On Wednesdays, (see I Watched a Wild Hog Eat My Baby: A Colorful History of Tabloids and Their Cultural Impact) when all the tabloids had gone to print, they'd go out for a drink and make up outrageous stories, like 20lb alien baby born to a housewife in Ohio. So I'm wondering what the Truth, the awful Truth was really about?

[Norrie Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

A young man arrives from England and immediately goes to work with a bunch of hard drinking, hard swearing journalists who make no bones about their dislike for poms. Nevertheless, by lunchtime on the first day he has managed to sink below their low standards and become something of an office hero. So begins thirteen years of Truth telling for Adrian Tame.
It is easy to like Adrian and his writing. We hear in equal measure his triumphs and his failures – both journalistically and otherwise. He was at the helm of many big stories from those decades - including unmasking Petrov, the Tasman Bridge disaster, agent orange; and Maralinga atomic testing. We are invited to cringe at some of his methods as well as cower at his many faux pas - especially with Hells Angels.
Most of us may not lament Truth too much, but Adrian’s book provides a veneer of respectability. A very entertaining book documenting the rise and demise of an Aussie icon.
Read the full review at:
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[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm never sure what to 'say about a book like this except to say I enjoyed it, Newspaper insider stories, particularly papers like Truth can be harshly regarded by the sensible members of society so what I think is very funny can be regarded as appalling behavior by others. But it is written in an entertaining manner and I enjoyed it and it it took me back to my cadet journalist days. One thing that I am agreement with the author s that you can turn university graduates into journos and I don't believe that the current crop of young journos could find a story it it bit them on the nose. To sum up: Entertaining reading of a bygone era.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a funny and nostalgic romp through a bygone era of journalism with outrageous stories and larger than life characters. Very entertaining and somewhat thought-provoking.

[Erin Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved loved loved it. Should be required reading for anyone interested in Australian media. I promise - the prologue makes up for some of the more unsavoury chapters!

[Meanderer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved this book. It felt like spending a night with a close friend and being privileged to hear these stories, a mix of hilarity and more thoughtful observations. I know of the publication in question and so it was particularly meaningful for me.

[Laraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a wild ride and very funny at times. Tame revels in the salaciousness of the newspaper and the ‘untamed’ nature of its journalists with their disparagement for the niceties of polite society and doing things by the book. My main criticism is the fact that he tries to justify the nature of his work: that it was one of the few papers that were gung-ho and not afraid to reveal the truth. I wasn’t convinced. One wonders at the wreckage of people’s lives when these guys waded in, looking for a story, any story.