Thursday, August 25, 2011

Choppergate scandal: Nine News apology - via Mumbrella. Nine sacks Brisbane journalists after faking live reports from a helicopter above the Daniel Morcombe crime scene in Beerwah when they were near the Brisbane TV station.

Nine News in hot water over fake live crosses




Watch Video:  http://www.news.com.au

Faked .. Melissa Mallet reporting from Mt Coot-tha 'near Beerwah' and Cameron Price doing a 'live cross' from the station's helipad.  
Source: The Courier-Mail

A CHANNEL Nine director of news has resigned and three other staff have been fired after it was revealed weekend news bulletins claiming to cross to reporters in a helicopter hovering over the Daniel Morcombe search site were faked.

Murdered .. Daniel Morcombe.  

Source: The Daily Telegraph
 
THREE journalists have been sacked by the Nine network after they were caught out pretending to be broadcasting live from a helicopter above the Daniel Morcombe crime scene in Beerwah when they were near the Brisbane TV station.

On Saturday and Sunday night two different reporters broadcast live crosses claiming to be “near Beerwah” when in one instance they were sitting on the helipad and the other just hovering near the Mount Coot-tha studios.

The reporters who have been dismissed are Cameron Price and Melissa Mallet, and the news producer was Aaron Wakely.

The Brisbane news director Lee Anderson, a 25-year veteran of Nine, has resigned over the scandal too, after an internal investigation found the Brisbane bulletin had twice misrepresented their location and misled viewers.

“This morning I tender my resignation as Director of News accepting full responsibility for the events of the last few days,” Anderson said. “I have served this network to the best of my ability for almost 25 years. It has been a privilege and I wish the team all the very best.”

In a statement, the managing director of Nine Jeffrey Browne said the serious breach of trust with viewers demanded staff be dismissed.

“Our position is unequivocal,” Mr Browne said. “We rightly demand accountability and high standards of others, and we must meet those expectations ourselves. Over the weekend, we did not. Our clear determination is to ensure that sort of conduct is never repeated, and we have drawn a very clear line in the sand by removing the staff involved in that breach of trust with our viewers.”

Nine has taken the dramatic action to save its reputation which was tarnished by the discovery of the deception.

Newsroom procedures and lines of communication have been reviewed and all news staff would receive further training on their editorial, legal and code obligations, Nine said.

A full internal investigation of the incidents was ordered by Mr Browne, and conducted by Nine Queensland managing director, Kylie Blucher and Nine’s director of news and current affairs, Mark Calvert.

“This has obviously been a very difficult process, but our primary consideration was always Nine News’ commitment to accuracy,” they said in a joint statement. “This is critical not only to our charter, but to maintaining the trust we have developed with our audience over a very long period.

"While Mr. Anderson’s resignation was accepted, and his decision was the right one in the circumstances, they acknowledged his long and distinguished service with Nine.”

Source:  http://www.theaustralian.com.au

THE director of news at Channel 9 in Brisbane has resigned and two journalists and a producer have been sacked in the wake of the Choppergate scandal.

Nine News Brisbane's director of news Lee Anderson resigned after working for the network for almost 25 years.

Senior management from Nine News also made the decision to sack the producer and two journalists at the centre of the scandal.

Producer Aaron Wakeley and journalists Melissa Mallet and Cameron Price were all sacked by Nine Network managing director Kylie Blucher and head of news Mark Calvert this afternoon.

In the statement Nine said: "Newsroom procedures and lines of communication have been reviewed, resulting in immediate changes to QTQ's news gathering guidelines. All News staff will receive further training on their editorial, legal and code obligations."

The statement said that in a letter today Anderson said: "This morning I tender my resignation as director of news, accepting full responsibility for the events of the last few days. I have served this network to the best of my ability for almost 25 years. It has been a privilege and I wish the team all the very best."

The network said: "This has obviously been a very difficult process, but our primary consideration was always Nine News' commitment to accuracy. This is critical not only to our charter, but to maintaining the trust we have developed with our audience over a very long period."

While Anderson's resignation was accepted, Nine acknowledged his long and distinguished service.

Former Nine senior journalist Hugh Riminton tweeted that Anderson had been away at the time of the scandal, and had resigned in protest at the sacking of his colleagues.

Earlier today it was reported Channel 9 bosses in Sydney were unimpressed over the embarrassing fake news cross farce.

The television industry was abuzz with speculation during the fallout to Nine's fake news bulletin crosses to the Daniel Morcombe search site.

If you have come in late, journos Cameron Price and Melissa Mallet claimed to be near Beerwah in the Nine chopper, but were actually still in Brisbane.

In Price's case ... still on the helipad, rotor blades whirring, as rival Seven News watched on in disbelief.

Choppergate was the most-read story on websites around the country yesterday, proving a PR disaster for Nine which promises to be "first with the news" - not fake with the news.

The station wasn't talking about it publicly yesterday but did make a grovelling apology on its news bulletin last night.

But the matter did not rest there, culminating in this afternoon's terminations.

Meanwhile, parallels that can be drawn between this incident and ABC satire Frontline are endless, particularly a scene where camera operator Stu (Pip Mushin) takes issue with reporter Martin Di Stasio (Tiriel Mora) over his piece-to-camera about a siege.

Stu: What are you doing, mate?

Martin Di Stasio: Crouching.

Stu: What for?

Marty: 'Cause it makes it look like I'm in danger.

Stu: Mate, the gunman's 5km away.

Marty: Shut up. It's dark, who's gonna bloody know?