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Elon Musk took to his own social media platform to express his wrath over with David Swan’s tech predictions for 2025.

I was at the centre of an Elon storm – and survived

Waking up to hundreds of notifications on X is generally not a good sign. This time, it was nuclear – and it came from the world’s richest man.

  • David Swan

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An apparent death threat mailed to Michael Bachelard after he wrote about how the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church covered up child sexual abuse. The note had the name of a victim-survivor on it. We’ve obscured it for legal reasons.

A decapitated doll and a prayer for my death: The many, many threats of the Exclusive Brethren

A parcel mailed to me at The Age office contained a small, blonde female doll, its head had been ripped from its shoulders. It wasn’t the only threat the members of the Exclusive Brethren had made against me.

  • Michael Bachelard
Nick Mongta’s parents, Walter and Tania, after their son’s death in 2015.

I’ve covered many tragic funerals. These are the details I always jot down

Hours after someone dies in dramatic or horrific fashion, journalists appear on a doorstep, hoping we’ll be allowed inside to ask a shocked and grieving person to talk about their dead relative.

  • Konrad Marshall
Dora Mendoza, grandmother of shooting victim Amerie Jo Garza, wipes tears from her eyes at a memorial site at Robb Elementary School.

I’ve covered many US mass shootings since 2022. There’s one thing I’ll never understand

I still often think about the parents who had to identify the bodies of their dead children, or an 11-year-old who covered herself with her dead friend’s blood to evade a shooter.

  • Farrah Tomazin
Greg Baum, pictured in 2005, has been a sports writer for more than four decades.

I watched sport from the best seats for 45 years. But it wasn’t always fun and games

Sports reporting does take you to the damnedest places. As you might imagine, nearly all the most improbable places where a reporter might find themselves are in Asia.

  • Greg Baum
I was about to get married. Then a distraught source rang with bad news.

I was about to get married. Then my phone exploded with calls from one person

He called four times in four minutes. It must be important, I thought – but I’d sworn to myself I wouldn’t answer my phone. Not today, of all days.

  • Nick McKenzie
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The Good Weekend cover that featured George Calombaris.

We gave a celeb a ‘halo’ on this magazine cover. Then came the social media pile-on

As journalists, we dish it out and we take it. We can’t – and shouldn’t – complain. But I’d be lying if I said this story didn’t shake me.

  • Katrina Strickland
Michael Bachelard, left, eats watermelon off a dagger with Iraq’s Golden Division soldiers in their Mosul barracks on June 29, 2017.

A war raged outside and IS militants lurked in the darkness. Then our fellow Aussies turned on us

Heavy artillery was firing when two nervous American soldiers came to the tent with bad news. It’s a war zone story I’ve always itched to tell, and still infuriates me six years on.

  • Michael Bachelard
George Halvagis at the Fawkner Cemetery grave where Mersina was murdered.

I’ve written more than 5 million words on crime. But one story taught me good can trump evil

The case against Peter Dupas was strong, but not strong enough for charges to be laid – then one of the fresh investigators made a phone call more in hope than expectation.

  • John Silvester
A small detail in my story about a murdered woman still haunts me.

Why one small detail in my story about a murdered woman still haunts me

Some of the hardest things I’ve done as a reporter have involved conversations with mothers. But there was one mum I let down.

  • Melissa Fyfe

Original URL: https://www.smh.com.au/topic/behind-the-headlines-6ge6