After the Rush decision, one truth remains: the Tele deserved to lose

The Daily Telegraph's recklessness in reporting on Geoffrey Rush has caused incalculable harm.

Whatever was the truth regarding Geoffrey Rush's behaviour towards Eryn Jean Norvill, and whether his victory — now upheld by the full court of the Federal Court on appeal — accords with that truth, one thing has throughout this awful saga been true: The Daily Telegraph deserved to lose.

Rush had won his defamation case handsomely; the damages award of $2.9 million is an Australian record. The Telegraph appealed, and lost every single appeal point in a unanimous judgment.

When the appeal was first launched, all of the excitement was about its unusual claim that the trial judge, Justice Michael Wigney, had held an "apprehended bias" against the Telegraph, tainting his conduct of the trial and ultimate verdict. At the appeal hearing, it was dropped altogether, a non-starter.