Perth, WA

‘Witch hunt’: Former City of Perth chief executive slams sacking

The Age Holly Thompson, Indigo Lemay-Conway

23 Sept 2026 13:35 AEST Summary

Changed after publishing · 1 edit

23 Sept 2026 18:31 AEST the headline was changed: ‘Witch hunt’: Former City of Perth ~~council sacks~~ chief executive ~~after confidential meeting~~slams unexpected sacking

Outlets edit stories after they go out, usually without saying so. We keep what we saw the first time.

Show what we removed

From the report

City of Perth chief executive Michelle Reynolds has been formally sacked following a behind-closed-doors council meeting on Tuesday night.

Headline as published: ‘Witch hunt’: Former City of Perth chief executive slams unexpected sacking

This is a summary. The indicators are not. The scores were measured over this summary alone, which is less of the article than we would like and makes them less certain.

Indicators

Niral Score 4.1 mundaneloaded

None in this text. Words that carry a fact and quoted words are not counted.

chief2executive2

Sourcing 42 unattributednamed sources Mood 46.6 sorrowjoyful

6 read zero: sentiment, political diction, generational, gender, jingoistic, religious

Sentiment 0 hostilefavourable Political diction 0 left-codedright-coded Generational 0 harder on the oldharder on the young Gender 0 no gendered framingframing throughout Jingoistic 0 reports to a readerwrites from a camp Religious 0 not invokedovert

Measurements of how this article is written, not of whether it is correct. How each one is measured.

Measured on The Age’s report as filed, which is all we may publish of this one.

How outlets headlined it

Each outlet's own headline. ~~Struck through~~: the loaded words our version leaves out. Plainest first.

The West Australian City of Perth sacks chief executive Michelle Reynolds after secret council meeting amid governance crisis plain
The Age ‘Witch hunt’: Former City of Perth chief executive slams ~~unexpected~~ sacking 1 change

How this outlet filed it, and how we rewrote it

No other newsroom we read has filed on this event, so there is nothing to compare it with yet.

Also covered by The West Australian, WAtoday, The Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Times. We hold only their summary of it, not the report, so there is nothing of theirs to measure here.

Outlet	Niral Score
The Ageas they published this story	4.1

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The same event elsewhere

4 other outlets filed this story. The scoreboard above is what they did differently.

The West Australian City of Perth sacks chief executive Michelle Reynolds after secret council meeting amid governance crisis Niral 10.9 political 0 WAtoday ‘Witch hunt’: Former City of Perth chief executive slams sacking Niral 4.1 political 0 The Sydney Morning Herald ‘Witch hunt’: Former City of Perth chief executive slams sacking Niral 4.1 political 0 Brisbane Times ‘Witch hunt’: Former City of Perth chief executive slams sacking Niral 4.1 political 0