From the mining-tits-for-clicks dept: Morality police storm BeachGrit!

Lewd! Ambush! Surf star disgusted!

Two afternoons ago, the morality police, in the form of a gossip writer for a major Australian daily newspaper, came banging on the door of your old pal DR.

The day before, I’d written what could loosely be called a “story”, an interview with Gold Coast surfer Ellie-Jean Coffey who’d just told her one million followers she was “single as fuck” after a recent breakup. 

Mining tits for clicks, as they say.

I texted EJ and asked if she would agree to let me mine her breakup etc.

“Hello darling. 100% agree call me now.”

I called, bad line, turned to text. 

A little banter etc, asked about the joys and challenges of a three-way relationship, she wrote, ‘What’s that haha” and “Nah I’m too jealous haha.”

Asked for a photo, she sent it. 

Sent story, she wrote: “Love it.”

The gossip writer emailed:

1) What was the purpose of the article?
2) Why did you think it was appropriate to ask a 24-year-old about her sexual preferences? Especially in the age of the Me Too movement when reporters are constantly being shut down for asking sexist questions?
3) Do you moderate the comments section on the website?

I replied, one, mining for clicks, like you.

Two, Because she’s a brave revolutionary who isn’t afraid of subverting the strict morality imposed on public figures.

And,

Three, Does a Persian cat like to loll in the sun?, a line I think I stole from Longtom.

I heard about the story, headlined Lewd ‘ambush’ leaves surfer gritting teeth when EJ called to apologise and to tell me her words were twisted etc.

“Coffey said she was disgusted by the questions and that she was ambushed by the interview…’I was getting on a bus, I had a really busy day, the bus was crowded and I got ambushed…I got a phone call and boom.'” 

Earlier today, a couple of helpful BeachGrit readers forwarded a screen shot.

What thrills most is the writer, a country kid whose talents were forged in the fires of the Gold Coast Bulletin where she broke stories like the ‘The man who supplies luxury toilets to the stars’, wrote breathless recaps of Bachelor in Paradise and whose current paper has been ordered to pay out almost three million bucks for defaming Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush, may not be the shocked matron she portrays.

On her Twitter feed, which you can examine here, there is a reference to men “fingering other men’s buttholes” and another instance where she announces, “Why does it matter who we f*ck?”

Hypocrisy is the grease that keeps society functioning in an agreeable way, as they say.