There’s something sick in the upper echelons of the Sydney media. Proof? Check out the coverage of the death of radio shock jock Stan Zemanek. His passing was the No. 1 story on the commercial television networks and it made the front pages of newspapers as well.

When 2UE colleague Mike Carlton hilariously remarked that he only attended the funeral to make sure Zemanek was dead, he was blasted by The Daily Telegraph with the front-page headline: “DESPICABLE”.

Please note that the Daily Tele never took to Zemanek with front-page fury when he vented his spleen on Aborigines, Asians, Muslims, gays (“bloody poofters”) and “aca-bloody-demics”.

That’s because the knuckle-draggers in Sydney’s media are essentially bullies. They prefer to take on the voiceless and the defenceless while brown-nosing their way around the so-called big end of town.

They have almost beatified Zemanek since his death – one Foxtel channel is now running an hour-long tribute. Yet during his media career, Zemanek did nothing more than pollute the city’s social discourse with prejudice and ignorance while playing a cameo role in the “dumbing down” of Sydney commercial radio.

Phillip Adams gave the most accurate verdict on Zemanek in his column in The Australian on 22 March, 1997, after receiving a turd anonymously through the post. Without accusing the toxic loudmouth of sending the bizarre missive bundled in Glad-wrap, Adams wrote:

I recently suggested that his (Zemanek’s) brain bore an eerie similarity to a Surprise pea. Prior to immersion. That was clearly a vulgar and uncouth thing to say and I’m now ready to apologise. Abjectly. To Surprise peas everywhere.

What kind of standards, ethics, values and benchmarks are being set in broadcasting, and the media generally, when Sydney’s media chiefs go around hailing buffoons like Zemanek as shining examples of the profession? He wasn’t.

And it is an insult to the radio, television and media game to suggest otherwise.