Its attacks on him were unwarranted and brutal even by tabloid standards. 

Mr Storrar sent the federal election into a spin with a question on Q&A about tax cuts for low income workers that Liberal Party Assistant Treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer struggled to answer.

It brought into national focus a weakness in the Liberal campaign, that the party’s agenda this election does not obviously do much for low-income earners. 

The Herald Sun’s political allegiances are obvious, and its Sydney counterpart, The Daily Telegraph has long campaigned for the Coalition whether by framing Treasurer Scott Morrison as Superman after the budget, or urging the country to “kick this mob out” at the last election.

Despite such messages, the papers claim to stand up for their readers and have their interests at heart. They pretend that campaigning for parties so overtly somehow doesn’t contradict this. The lynching of Mr Storrar exposed the true allegiances of the Herald Sun. 

It’s not to the readers. If it was, then it wouldn’t have splashed the face of a low-income earner like Mr Storrar on the front page and called him a villain. 

Some of its readers may have a few important things in common with him. First, they may also have serious questions for the Coalition like Mr Storrar’s. They may also be low-income earners. Some of them may also have been convicted of crimes.

This doesn’t diminish their right to ask questions in a public forum, whether it be in a Q&A audience, or in the letters pages of newspapers. To the Herald Sun, the need to protect the political fortunes of its preferred party is more important. 

- Doug Dingwall