Tasmania's media demonstrated their incestuous nature and small town mentality last week over the news that Premier Jim Bacon had been diagnosed with a lung tumour.
Most of the State's newspapers and television stations were onto the story at various stages during the week and all agreed, at the highest levels of decision-making ranks, to manage the breaking of it.
This was the biggest political story Tasmania had seen in a long time, yet it was suppressed.
Once word got to the Premier that media knew of the battle he was facing, he personally contacted news outlets he knew were uncovering the story.
Calls to the editors of the ABC, commercial television, the Mercury and the Examiner last week pleaded for understanding and time to allow the Premier to make his own announcement on Monday morning.
Calls from the Premier's senior advisers and Deputy Premier Paul Lennon to some outlets were reportedly of a more badgering nature.
Boardroom meetings and management discussions led to the editors - eventually including The Advocate - discussing the issue with each other.
The editors caucused with phone calls and by Friday afternoon had all decided to hold the story to allow Mr Bacon time to break the news himself.
The decision appeared to come easily to the editors but it has left many of the state's reporters frustrated and angry.
It was a long time between Friday and Monday and the story was growing so thick on the grapevine that it was destined to break somewhere before the self-imposed deadline.
Mr Bacon and the rest of Australia woke up on Saturday morning to read the news of his need to stand down as Premier splashed on the front page of the Weekend Australian.
Apparently there was a call to the nation's national newspaper that resulted in the Premier's office hoping that it was "in" on the "deal".
But the Australian was the only news medium available in Tasmania that understood that its role as a reporter of news was its primary function.
The Australian broke a Tasmanian story from its Canberra bureau and left the local media scrambling and disorientated.
This episode has been the cause of considerable irritation in newsrooms around the state.
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Monday, February 23, 2004