THE couple who refused to sell copies of a Sydney metro have been visited by one of its editors keen to make amends.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Wallabadah General Store owners Glen and Kim Sheluchin took a stand on Monday, stripping The Daily Telegraph from their shelves and refusing to sell copies in protest saying they were fed up with its “blatant” and “long-standing” political bias.
On day one of the election campaign the paper led with a front page photo of Prime Minster Kevin Rudd and an editorial headlined “Kick this mob out”.
In the days since The Northern Daily Leader reported on their tale of outrage, they’ve been inundated by nationwide calls and messages of support from people applauding their stance.
Mr Sheluchin said it was evident the article had hit a nerve.
“We had one man call up from Heyfield [in Victoria] and I thought, ‘how the hell did you get hold of that’?” he said.
That’s when he was told the article had gone viral.
Appearing on Facebook and Twitter, the story has garnered an impressive online following, and one it seems, the paper couldn’t ignore.
Just before lunchtime yesterday a man in a suit showed up to the store unannounced and proceeded to order a coffee.
“We had no idea. He just fronted up while we were serving,” Mr Sheluchin said.
“He said, ‘I’d like a flat white coffee and my name’s Tim, I’m from the Tele,” Mr Shelcuhin said.
“I was thinking, ‘here we go, we’re going to get cut off from the paper’.”
But it turned out the man was Tim Blair, the paper’s opinions editor, who had flown in from Sydney earlier that morning to “mend some bridges” and bag a story.
“Looking back now I noticed he looked at the papers to see if the Tele was on the shelf,” Mr Sheluchin chuckled.
“In fairness to him, he was quite diplomatic.
“He wanted to hear my side of the story and why we did what we did.
“I told him ‘I think you’ve overstepped the mark’ and he took that on board.”
After chatting for a while and taking some stills, Mr Blair told the Sheluchins they would appear in the middle of a two-page spread with Mr Rudd on one side and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on the other.
Mrs Sheluchin was apprehensive about the article.
“We’ll see what comes out of tomorrow’s paper,” she said yesterday afternoon.
“I told him ‘you better behave yourself because you’ll know where they’ll end up’.
“If it’s nasty and no good, it’ll be in the bin.”