Monday's Daily Examiner carried an opinion piece ("Poker faced gambling") written by staffer Tim Howard about "the smell from a putrefying mix of self-righteousness and self-interest emanating from a loud group of people who turn out to be in a minority".
Howard was referring to "misinformation (being) spread by the club and gaming industry" in relation to proposed poker machine tax reforms.
Well, didn't that set the cat among the (stool) pigeons in the club industry. The usual suspects from local clubs hastily put pen to paper and wrote letters to the editor of the Examiner so Wednesday's paper carried letters from the general managers of Grafton District Services Club and Yamba Golf & Country Club and the CEO of Yamba Bowling and Recreation Club.
But, then to balance the books, yesterday's Examiner carried a letter to the editor penned by a colleague of Howard at the paper, Peter Smajstr, the paper's media sales manager.