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PRIZE WON
Paul McGeough has been named Australian journalist of the year:
The judges said they had made no informed assessment of McGeough’s report on allegations that Iraq’s interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, had executed six suspected insurgents in a prison in Baghdad which had still been neither conclusively confirmed nor disproved.
Congratulations!
UPDATE. In other prize-giving news, Michael Duffy reports:
On February 16, 2004 ABC TV’s Four Corners aired a program about the Tasmanian timber industry. It is possibly the most biased Australian television program ever put to air. Called Lords of the Forest, its faults included a map that dramatically under-represented the amount of forest preserved in Tasmania, unsubstantiated allegations of criminal activity, the smearing of pro-logging speakers who appeared on the program, and emotive language. This included the following phrases: mushroom clouds, scorched-earth policy, an aggressive forest policy, a voracious appetite for timber, overwhelming devastation, absolute assault on the landscape and the senses, and corruption and cronyism …
Lords of the Forest was one of a group of three programs from Four Corners that won the prestigious 2004 Australian Government Peter Hunt Eureka Prize of $10,000 for outstanding science communication. Following the damning findings of the two independent review organisations, last month TCA asked the Australian Museum, which administers the prizes, to have the decision reconsidered. The judges met and decided not to withdraw the prize …
Jayson Blair wasn’t eligible?
I love how the standard has been defined down to “neither conclusively confirmed nor disproved.”
A wild, but not completely impossible story, which turns out to have a vast number of logical discrepancies in it and few if any convincing supporting details. I remember when such a story didn’t need to be “neither conclusively confirmed nor disproved” before an editor would decide that it wasn’t good enough yet for publication. But that was before bloggers ruined journalism, I guess.
At its core, journalism is supposed to be the objective collection of news and the equally objective dissemination, regardless of who might benefit or be harmed. State the facts in as evenhanded a manner as possible and allow the reader to decide the ramifications. Awards for journalism should be granted with those core values at focus.
Unfortunately Paul McGeough is a biased journalist who writes entirely slanted articles and columns. Which is just fine with the judges.
The award is a mockery.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 03 18 at 12:20 PM • permalink"Australian Journalist of the Year,” soon to be known as the Dan Rather Excellence in Journalism Award.
Posted by Mystery Meat on 2005 03 18 at 12:30 PM • permalinkShameless propaganda wins you not only notoriety, but prizes as well!
Woohoo!
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 03 18 at 12:33 PM • permalinkPaul McGeough can also start clearing a spot on his shelf for the prestigious Golden Plastic Turkey Award which is being presented to him for excellence in Fake But Accurate news reporting. The GPTA panel consisting of myself and a six-pack of Shiner Bock also chose to make no informed assessment of McGeough’s report that Iyad Allawi executed insurgents mainly because we’ve been busy surfing for internet porn.
Kudos to Mr. McGeough.
Posted by Randal Robinson on 2005 03 18 at 12:39 PM • permalinkMr. McGeough stuffed the ballot box! I swear I saw him do it! So, can you prove that this didn’t happen?
Posted by Richard_of_Oz on 2005 03 18 at 01:56 PM • permalinkI’ve heard rumors that Paul McGeough is trapping platypuses, stuffing them, and selling them to North Korea as novelty ping pong paddles. No one, least of all myself, has made an informed assessment of these rumors, but they haven’t been conclusively confirmed or disproved. I’ll take my award money in small bills please (no offense, mates, but make that U.S. dollars).
Kids, the reason why Mr. Magoo won this award is just a few posts below on Tim’s blog. Some selections?
(Emphases are mine.)A diplomat looking at the Middle East today might observe that democracy’s glass is partly full or, perhaps, partly empty. The level does seem to have moved. The debate is: by how much and who is responsible? Regardless, talk of an Arabian spring is premature. ...
More than seven weeks after 8 million Iraqis courageously stared down the bombers and gunmen to vote in their first free elections in half a century, they still didn’t have a proper government as their new National Assembly was scheduled to convene in Baghdad yesterday. ...
Others want some of what the Iraqis are having, but only time will tell if it is a step towards their future or their past. ...
Iraq without Saddam has yet to show that it might avoid ethnic and religious strife and descent into full-blown civil war. ...
See the genius? He can convincingly argue both sides of an issue at once! (Arguing NEITHER side apparently is a concept lost on McGeough and his awards committee.)
Is the best Australian journalism can come up with? Apart from McGeough, the other finalists were someone exposing a literary fraud, and someone who took down the details of Ross Cameron’s political suicide note. Talk about slim pickings.
Buth then again, maybe this IS the best Australian journalism had to offer . . . .
McGeough has made at least 21 predictions of civil war in Iraq in the pages of the SMH.
His story on Allawi shooting the six prisoners (or was it seven) on an unknown date had more holes in it than Giuliana Sgrena’s car would’ve had if she wasn’t a lying commie.
At least Malcolm Knox’s exposing of literary fraud showed some research, intelligence and factual accuracy. McGeough’s opinionated waffling masquerading as credible news reports don’t fool anyone who bothers to think about what they read.
Exposed! This is McGeogh’s major source in Iraq!
http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com/mss_history.html
Read it and weep with laughter!
Watching journalists give each other awards is like watching Idi Amin give himself another medal.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 03 18 at 10:26 PM • permalinkI think this shows yet again how little meaning most awards have. It’s no worse than the Oscars for its unintentional satire, and it’s not just left-wing occupations which are affected. My employer introduced awards for oustanding employee contributions a few years ago, nominated by their colleagues. Since then winners have included a personnel manager who won an award for attending meetings, a car park attendant who found a parking spot, and a notoriously incompetent manager who won an award for successfully supervising an allegedly complex maintenance operation (the said manager was on leave at the time of the operation).
Posted by Jim Geones on 2005 03 18 at 11:05 PM • permalinkTime to run that story about Margo Kingston and the Dobermans, Tim. Demonstrable facts just don’t get you anywhere nowadays.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2005 03 18 at 11:54 PM • permalinkWhat’s wrong with popping a few insurgents. It’s war, and Allawi has a tough job if he’s to assert authority and stop all the terrorists in Iraq. A reputation as a hard man is the only thing these people will understand.
I don’t know why everyone’s so keen to say it didn’t happen. Wimping out again to the soft-dick liberals I suppose. Why don’t people show pride anymore in exercising a man’s right – duty – to smite the foe.
I read Duffy’s piece, but there’s a couple of points I don’t understand
“Timber Communities Australia (TCA) is a volunteer organisation with a professional secretariat funded by the industry�.
Doesn’t this make it just another professional lobby group? Surely if it was “communities� they’d be able to resource their own group, and then the ABC and Museum would take more notice of what they have to say.
I don’t have time for liars of any kind. Not the green scum, but not the greedy corps either.
“In December, Gunns Limited, the big Tasmanian timber company, launched a writ against 20 environmental activists and organisations - an action widely supported by the 10,000 people who live off timber, and their families and their union�.
I’d like to know where Duffy got his data on the “wide� support from 10,000 workers and their families. The TCA doesn’t count, and Trade Unions are just like the Mafia (in some countries they are the Mafia). Did Duffy get on the telephone for a day, or visit a logging front?
Tim’s blog is great, but this story leaves me cold.
If the green scum are a problem, then SET FREE THE BULLDOZERS. That way the community can solve it for themselves.
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"The Whopper”? Or, “The J.P.Goebbles Award”?