[1] Massola grew up in Melbourne, Victoria and graduated from Xavier College, and then Monash University with a master's degree in International Relations.
[7] In a follow-up article on 28 September, Massola expanded further on his reasons for naming Jericho, claiming that "the fact he had a partisan point of view, worked in the public service and wrote about his department was a matter of public interest" and "Jericho's decision to 'live blog' the Media 140 conference (was it a sick day, a day in lieu, annual leave, did he clear it with his supervisor?)
[8][9] Bernard Keane wrote in Crikey that rather than discuss the content of Jericho's blog, Massola had just launched "a malicious, hypocritical ad hominem attack on him" and pointed out the hypocrisy of The Australian running anonymous opinion columns itself.
[10] ABC journalist Jonathon Green opined that "Jericho made the fatal mistake of making them angry, of impugning the conduct of Australian journalism during an election campaign in which the media slowly became a significant part of the story; not so much for what it did but for the debate it let rot and degenerate.
[8] Massola was a finalist in the Walkley awards for journalism[13] for reporting with Peter Hartcher a detailed leak from former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's cabinet.