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Last updated on March 6th, 2018 at 12:30 am
Media Watch, now hosted by Liz Jackson, began its year with a pointless and dated cautionary tale about something or other. Eric Campbell, an ABC journalist criticised in the piece, responds:
Congratulations to Liz for her clear diction and warm presentation of her first program. What a shame her story was utter bollocks.
Viewers might be interested to know that Media Watch’s original premise for the story was to show that the al-Qaeda tapes were faked, one of many false claims reported in a self-important but shoddily-researched hatchet job in the Columbia Journalism Review.
When Media Watch was finally forced to abandon that blind alley (how exactly could an American go into a Taliban-controlled village and hire Arab actors to fake a training video?) it pursued in vain other false assertions such as Jack not being a counter-terrorism adviser to the Northern Alliance. (He was).
That left MW with a lot of material gathered over several weeks but no real angle to hang it on, hence the confused and overly long ramble that was its first program.
But I am chastened by your report. In future I shall not break any world exclusive stories where the source:
a. did something bad several years earlier, or
b. might conceivably do something bad years later.I shall play it safe and just follow up inaccurate articles from the Columbia Journalism Review.
Meanwhile, at the same link, Media Watch viewers lash out:
“What a load of crap. That was without doubt the worst episode I’ve ever seen.”
“Thought the first program for the year was a load of old cobblers.”
“What an awful start to the year from what has been a very witty programme across its 15 years on television. Out for a duck it was.”
“A disappointing first epsiode. The piece on Leunig was sheer nonsense. So the man had a cartoon rejected – big deal. Most of his stuff is pretentious rubbish anyway. Should I write to Media Watch the next time my ‘letter to the editor’ isn’t published?”
- No surprises here. The only change in the (new) Media Watch is that the presenter now (presumably) wears knickers instead of jocks or boxers – or perhaps it’s the other way around. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if I’m wrong but my guess is that, in the months ahead, all we’ll see is – Fairfax good, Murdoch bad. With the occasional limp wrist slap for the ABC just to show that MW isn’t biased (snicker).Posted by Boss Hog on 03/09 at 02:36 PM • #
- Liz has not inspired confidence, previously, in her reporting for Four Corners. Maxine McKew would be a more honest choice, and I leave underwear out of the argument altogether!
Stephen Crittenden was wearing something on his sleeve this morning. In his daily chat with Age doyenne Michelle Grattan he was positively slavering at the thought that the .25% interest rate might be the beginning of the end for Howard! Does the ABC still wonder why we pick on them? This is supposedly a National Broadcaster committed to balanced reporting, and this guy has the high-profile breakfast spot.
Grattan, with more common sense, was having none of it.
- My opinion of Eric Campbell has just gone up immensely. Mee-ow!Posted by blandwagon on 03/09 at 08:30 PM • #
- Crittenden was bad. And next Monday Fran Kelly takes the spot. MY ABC? Gimme a refund.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 03/10 at 09:53 PM • #
