ABC complaint
Media - - Posted on June, 6 at 12:26 am by Ken L
I’ve posted before about the complaint I made to the ABC regarding its claim that Kevin Rudd had offered to help Hillary Clinton with her election campaign.
I’ve finally had a reply - some eight weeks after the story was published. Here it is:
Dear Mr Lovell
Thank you for your email. I apologise for the delay in responding.
The ABC can assure you that it did not fabricate Mr Rudd’s offer of assistance to Senator Clinton, which was widely reported across a range of media outlets.
Mr Rudd and Senator Clinton had just emerged from a meeting where they had discussed her election campaign, when he made the following offer; “Let us know if we can help with anything.” The ABC report incorrectly concluded that he had offered to help with her campaign, a conclusion also reached by other journalists observing the exchange.
Some time after Mr Rudd’s offer of assistance had been widely reported, Mr Rudd’s office issued a clarification to travelling reporters that the offer of assistance had related to a climate change event being organised by her husband, former US president Bill Clinton. The original reports published by the ABC should have been amended to include this clarification, or a further story published to explain the development.
Your complaint has prompted us to do so and an Editor’s Note has now been added to the original story to explain the changes made:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/01/2204181.htmThank you for allowing the ABC the opportunity to respond to your concerns.
Yours sincerely
Kieran Doyle
Audience and Consumer Affairs
In other words a reporter overheard something, leapt to a wrong conclusion without bothering to seek confirmation, and it took them eight weeks to admit it and do something about it. Not impressed, ABC. How many other stories that appear as fact are based on a snippet of overheard conversation misinterpreted by a journalist with an over-active imagination?
The complacent assumption that the only thing they did wrong was not correcting the story earlier shows how low journalistic standards have sunk. Why should travelling prime ministers or anyone else for that matter have to ‘issue clarifications’ when a reporter wrongly interprets something? The damage has been done by then. Surely the onus is on reporters to do some fact-checking before they rush into print? Well, apparently not, acccording to Our ABC; they seem to think it’s perfectly acceptable to print something as fact when it’s sheer supposition, and to justify it using that hoary old excuse “but all the other kids thought that’s what he meant too”.
And of course there is nothing in the email to explain where the bit in the story came from that Rudd ‘told her he understands how tough it is’. Was that also a reference to the ordeal of running a ‘climate change event’ (whatever that is) or did the journalist in fact take two quite separate bits of an overheard conversation and string them together in a piece of creative writing?
Anyway I suppose we should be grateful that justice was finally done, even if it was far too late in the day to reverse the damage done by the error, and I look forward confidently to A Currency Lad posting as prominent an explanation of the misreporting as he did of the original story.
Posted in Media |
June 6th, 2008 at 3:17 am
Good on you for querying the report Ken. Glad you got a response. Finally.
At least you can get a hold of the ABC by email…I tried to contact some channels a year or so ago & you had to write…no email contact available. Just like so much corporate media…the letter gets lost as much as the CEO rakes in the bucks, stuffs up the company at the last moment, screws your SUPER, can’t be contacted & then disappears down the rabbit hole. Only to re-emerge as CEO of an overseas corporation gratis of some government via PRIVATISATION. And they all do the HAPPY DANCE together on their yachts.
“Please HOLD whilst we endeavour to answer your query. Press BLAAH or BLAAAH if you BLAAH. An overseas android will answer your call soon…whilst waiting please enjoy the repetitious & annoying MUZAK that is meant to melt your brain so you forget who you are, why you phoned & just hang up…HAVE A GOOD WORK DAY”
(This message comes courtesy of Bush, Clinton, Blair, Howard & Sarkosy Incorporated)
WELCOME TO THE MACHINE
June 6th, 2008 at 9:09 am
I think news organisations need to be more proactive in this area. This is especially the case with more and more breathless tittilating gossip passing as news in this rush to publish environment.
Your post encourages me to be more proactive when this comes up.
June 6th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Great work Ken, just shows how pathetic the ABC has become since the constant attacks by Alston.
Sure there were and are some left leaning staff, just as there are right leaning ones. However the truth seeking ABC no longer exists.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I think the bigger issue here is that, whilst the performance of the ABC has been extremely disappointing, that of the rest of the MSM was equally so.
Yes, the ABC should be held to a high standard, if only because it is funded from the public purse, but, in the end, I just find this to be yet another example of the appalling standards set by the Australian MSM in general.
Shame on the Fourthe Estate.
June 6th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
I am not that sure it’s the fourth estate,but something more tedious like self-image. A couple of stories re Combet,has left me quite bemused by him.Today he is telling Australian Defence Industries,if they dont improve the big stick of buying American almost exclusively will apply! Horse and cart stuff most of the time idiot!? And in all the time of Defense purchases,Australia was never completely ripped off,incl. the usual thirty year rule of secrecy!? Combet turned into a boring shit prettily quickly,whilst I suppose we have to await the next get into the fuel tanks to smell Morgellons symptoms!? Or,we blame you for your squinting,after all we didn’t ask you to look for a silver lining,at the end of the edge of contrails as we call them.!? The U.S.A the good guy, gotta away with it in other ways.Like Houston,and give the media a bigger V.I.P. plane,so they can report every utterance of the non-crawly up the arse of who-ever is the Prez,and the requirement to never look at the collateral damage. “It cannot be saluted away.Sir!” Enough sayed,he was really only trying to reduce crowding for those who wear ties all day in public.Unless they are the Women crowded in Politicians, going overseas,to make say says for all of us.After all, breast feeding in public- above the oceans still requires the usual dexterity!?There were a few porcelain and Percy type statements emanating out of the Current Affairs crockpot under the bed in the mornings on A.M.,but as Aunty has her only quantities as well as that quality,well ,being polite is a sign that , some matters cannot be discussed.Honestly,I am just resonating with jealousy,because I cannot prove,I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between being powerful,and,not feeling that and requiring some compulsive relief,by indirectly pointing out something about myself.And then there was Chewing gum Ferguson,who sounded more like he replaced who he replaced in the Liberals for guttural sounds,like the previous that are dog-like,without even a Chinese Earthquake interrupting his aspartame chewing.Now Ferguson is real clever,lets not forget that.Say it sticking the gum on your screen!?
June 10th, 2008 at 12:08 am
Maybe the real problem is that you expect the truth from the media. Once you realise that all the media is bullshit you won’t get so dissappointed when you cacth them out.