Australian media passes its big test

Some of the individual performances from anchors and journos were astoundingly good. I’m thinking Chris Reason and Melissa Doyle, the guys at the ABC and for online, Bridie Jabour of the Guardian. The black mark on a media organisation is the Daily Telegraph’s 2pm edition for printing unsubstantiated and, as it turns out, false, claims. Poor journalism. But as a general rule, I think our media can be very proud.

I thought everyone did an amazing job bar the Daily Telegraphs covers which were ridiculously opportunistic. Channel 7 and the ABC had great and measured coverage.

Its disappointing how Mumbrella hassled Pedestrian for using a stock Lindt photo but have gone relatively much easier on Newscorp’s for their violence / hatred / racism inciting.

But I suppose they’re paying your bills now huh? Sad the days of indie Mumbrella are clearly over.

The Daily Telegraph’s 2pm edition was a disgrace. Their editor in chief standing by the headline and unfounded is even more disgraceful.

Those covering the event live did very well: Emdur, Gillies, Doyle, Reason, Fernandez, Bouda, displayed remarkable composure and presence of mind.

I thought it was appalling that the media took orders from police and kept key information from the public (where’s freedom of the press and exercising good judgement?). Of course, lack of info increases dramatic effect, spreads hysteria and raises fear and panic – ie terror! Had we had details like identity, criminal record, ridiculous demands, we wld have realised very early that this was not an organised terror attack but a solitary whacko grievance – but hey, who needs rights to info, it will only make it harder to increase military spending and surveillance state, strip civil rights… I don’t recall a single media station asking WHY? What could be the motive? What are Aus forces doing overseas? Are we dropping bombs, are we killing, are we terrorising? THESE are KEY to good journalism!

Wheres the transparency, who’s accountable back to the asylum grant, bail, 40 sexual offenses, burning murder of ex wife, other heinous crimes, shutting city, raid? Who was shot by who? The perp or friendly fire? Police KNEW this guy?!? Why did they allow speculation to cloud their activities? Whose interest is that were gripped in fear, distorting the threat? Someone dropped the ball, who?

It’s true, on the whole, it was a proud day to be a journalist and an Australian resident. There will always be a few exceptions to the rule in any country (journos and racist idiots) but we should be hugely proud of our police, media and citizens.

Certainly refreshing that people thought twice about inferences and cliches, not that the Daily Telegraph was fazed. Very sad the standard of coverage and copy in smh.com.au, which is both patchy and barely literate (including the key early coverage today).
Most positive was not so much the media but the citizens, who behaved wonderfully well. Also the police, who appear to have acted with great conviction and care.

I must say this is a ridiculous article if you are taking The Daily Telegraph into account. Their reporting was disgusting

Guardian was outstanding, collating and triaging information with aplomb.

ABC got a bit lost at points, but did a sterling job. They were pipped only Seven who had a slightly better flow..

Other channels did OK, but were playing catch-up it seemed.

The Telegraph specifically and the whole of News in general can burn in the darkest pits of hell for eternity.
If there was a prize for vilest, most cynical demonstration of all that is wrong with the Murdoch press, yesterday’s bilge would win it.

Eugene – sometimes it’s better to remain silent and for people who know you to think you’re an idiot, than to open your trap on the internet and remove all doubt for the world at large.

I was deeply disappointed by the headlines for the Daily Telegraph and the News Corp headlines and articles in general.

The Daily Telegraph’s 2pm edition was an utter disgrace. The fact that they are still standing behind it is even worse. What utter lies and what absolutely crap journalism…it speaks to the utter lack of respect that the Telegraph has for truth in media.

Nine ran footage form nine eleven.

The Daily Telegraph, as usual was the black mark on the reporting of the event. Their wild, unsubstantiated inflammatory accusations and assumption, which ultimately turned out to be wrong, was appalling. Not to mention the opposite of what dignified media and government agencies asked for on a measured and considered response. Then again, who expected anything more from this tabloid?

Didn’t watch ABC?

Even when the rest are doing their jobs well that’s like choosing to tune into watch the Commonwealth Games Record when you could be watching the same event at the Olympics.

@Eugene Jones

It was very possible that inside the cafe a television was turned on and the gunman following the coverage. We know he had full access to social media.

To have every media outlet write him off as “a solitary whacko grievance” would be to undermine his perceived position that may of been counter intuitive to the negotiators. We don’t know. Do you?

There is a fine line between everyone being a voyeur of horrible crime and physically jeopardising a current operation with lives at risk.

It’s a big call – if you were a news editor would you have gone live with every detail against the wishes of police?

Sky news was repeatedly stating his demands in the evening, even saying that it was doing so despite police asking them not to. I think thats incredibly opportunistic and irresponsible.

Other organisations seemed to do a whole lot better. The idea of the public needing to know what was going on minute by minute highlights the absolute narcism of our society where we somehow think we are entitled to that.

Clearly giving details was putting those hostages at greater risk. Why would organisations chance inflaming the situation………. let me ponder that for a minute.

And as for Rupert Murdoch himself – words fail me.

I think it depends on your outlook as the whether the Australian media did a good job.

If you are of the view that its ok to publish or broadcast unchecked and unsubstantiated rumor and then retract as necessary or when called upon, then pretty much all outlets did this. If you think it’s ok to broadcast live images of the outside of the cafe showing the position of police etc in relation to the building, knowing the gunman would be watching your images, then again they were all very good at this.

I however think they did an appalling job. They hyped the situation without concern for the consequences, they followed each other like sheep as they usually do, they disseminated false information that could easily have made the situation worse and had no regard for the safety of the police or the hostages, they only had regard for getting the best pictures and the exclusive.

I remember back a few years to the Christchurch earthquake and CH7 broadcasting live uncut pictures from a cameraman outside a collapsed building. People were asking for help to get out of the building, people were emerging covered in blood seeking assistance etc, but what did the cameraman do? Instead of putting his camera down and helping these people, he completely abandoned his moral compass and kept filming, and the news chiefs at CH7 completely abandoned their moral compass and continued broadcasting the images, even when some of the injured had to push the cameraman out of the way so they could get passed him to safety.

(Mumbrella notes that Bendyboy may be misremembering this – it would have been unlikely for Ch 7 to get a cameraman to NZ while there were still people trapped. More likely it was a feed from a local NZ broadcaster)

Such is the rolling 24/7 news machine. It’s the perfect vehicle for spreading dissinformation and it thrives on pictures, any pictures they can find, and grab or interview with anyone with an agenda, and it’s used. Once you are caught up in that machine, you lose all sense of reality and critical thinking.

The Aussie coverage was hopeless. They have avoided criticising the obvious at all costs. The police botched it. One can of tear gas could have probably ended it with no fatalities. It went on forever too. It was embarrassing and the pandering by the media, or worse, the undue praise of Australian police and their negotiators was even worse.

No doubt Emdur did a fantastic job but as for the shameful comments of Koch, the Telegraph and other various comments that sought to incite panic and hatred, it was a horrid performance. Unfortunately I think Larrys good work was over shadowed by the hyper sensationalism of the morons in australian media. Compare todays headlines with Port Arthur for context. Utterly ridiculous. Let me ask this, if an Irish Catholic Man loses his shit somewhere will we assume an IRA threat or are we all just being opportunistic??? Australias Media is a national embarrassment.

“Our lives will go on as normal despite this unimaginable event”. Anyone see a problem with that line from a speech?
When things have calmed down the political speech writers really have to get together and think about what words they should use in times like this. We expect the media to hype things – and my God did they ever – but the politicians should know better.
Anyone in communications knows individual words have their own power – beyond the total effect of being strung together as a sentence. It’s counter productive to use hysterical vocab when trying to reassure the public.

The Daily Telegraph broke a number of guidelines and stepped over the line. In fact, a number of my social and news feeds have many people from many walks of life reporting the DT’s poor frontpage journalism to the Australian Press Council. Poor reporting aside, I think we will see this day as the day Australians forgot politics and readership buying and remembered Mateship. #illridewithyou

How could you not mention that Daily Telegraph 2pm edition cover?

Agree with Mart.

Kylie Gillies on The Morning Show sounds like she is practically inviting viewers to “come on down and see it for yourselves, folks!”.

Stop blowing smoke up every major media organisation’s arse, Tim Burrowes, and see it for what it is: a virtual glorification of terrorism via sensationalist-driven news corporations.

+1 AdGrunt.

The Daily Telegraph ‘death cult’ stuff was disgraceful.

I still think the watermarks all over the footage was both tacky and tasteless. – yes, you might have better footage than someone else but having it obscured by large watermarks is cringeworthy – particularly when the footage will be viewed all over the world and just continues the whole ‘TV news wars’ that never seem to end

Murdoch is an embarrassment, I feel for those working under his direction (“whatever it takes”)

His flippant and self absorbed twitter comments this morning after the horrific events disgust me and should all those who work for him and have a conscience.

Tim – how can you not comment on and criticise – the inaccurate use of the word “terrorist” on just about every front page you list? Not to mention sheik. And a few other inflammatory words. He was not a terrorist. He was not a sheik. He was a mentally ill man.
If he had stuck up a nativity scene in the window – would we have had the same words used?
Sorry to say it – but it looks like too much of the media reporting on this were more excited than shocked, hoping for rather than dreading the possibility of, the back story they were touting – for cheap thrills and catchy headlines and scoops. (Murdoch’s tweet says it all)

Ten were broadcasting that they were contacting hostages via mobile and then they proceeded to broadcast the gunman’s demands as relayed by the hostages.

Hugely irresponsible and playing straight into the gunman’s hands.

I thought that was disgusting.

Blairman. The police played it by the book, not your movie collection.

Remarkably, you make Eugene look intelligent.

How ironic it is, that right on the eve of Australia’s 3rd and final draconian change to legislature regarding civil liberties, that this happens. The under-represented Australian public protesting the mandatory data and phone records of ALL Australians, will now be expected to be more compliant in the face of this event, which will be sold as ‘proof’ that we need to be ‘protected’ from such events, by handing over our privacy rights to a clearly compromised and outright fascist police state.

Many Australians will continue in their mindlessness, unaware of their prompted reactions as they briefly stir from the football or TV. A growing number of Australians will however awaken to the fact that this is quite possibly another false flag operation on our soil. The new legislature that mandates Telco’s spying on every single one of us, MUST be passed – political careers depend on this. In doing so, Australia, member of the creepy 5-eyes nations, will open the door to surveillance throughout the 4 other nations, through legal back doors.

The Australian media is world famous as being far from free. We are told the opposite, yet the fact remains, we should not be applauding any Australian mainstream media at any point. It should be shamed by us as a collective who demand information, not propoganda and disinformation intended to shape a naive public opinion. Independent media is key. Starting points: zerohedge and drudgereport.

Media restraint was needed and most did a fine and admirable job.

Freedom of the press is vital, but the hostage situation places this news in a unique frame, where the experts are without doubt, the police and the rescue people; cooperation and restraint are essential and a chain of command is essential to a successful outcome.

I am very proud of the people who had the task of controlling this horror.

I tip my hat to Seven, they were the stand out for live reporting. They had a distinct advantage in terms of their proximity to the event, but certainly they had superior knowledge of what was actually happening at the site. My go-to network for news (ABC 24) performed poorly. They were significantly behind seven on timing and detail. They seemed more focused on what effect the incident was having in Lakemba and within the broader Sydney Muslim community, than in reporting the actual event.

Is it me or is today’s information coming out really slowly?

There is no risk to life today, but the government seems to be in the same “no operational info” mode as yesterday. And the media seems slow to get the full story out.

I get the media cooperating yesterday, but today they should be delivering what exactly happened.

@Eugene: get a grip.

I agree that Ten has paired back their news team severely, but given that lean-ness, their coverage was excellent.

Studio 10 stayed live from when it broke publicly just before 10am through to The Project. Ita Buttrose, Joe Hildebrand, Sarah Harris and Kristina Keneally were a great panel and their collective media and political experience gave their discussions some weight and credibility.

I already thought the Daily Telegraph was up there as one of the worst papers in the country, that thought was confirmed with the afternoon addition’s headline yesterday despite the authorities constant urging to avoid speculation until the situation was resolved and the facts could come out.
Irresponsible and inflammatory in the extreme, at least they managed to impress the only (no longer) Australian that counts..

AUST gets wake-call with Sydney terror. Only Daily Telegraph caught the bloody outcome at 2.00 am. Congrats.
– Rupert Murdoch, Twitter
7:19 AM – 16 Dec 14

I don’t know which one is worse.

Good article, but what about the tele’s 2pm edition? It was a joke, and completely without basis. What else could you expect from such a reputable publication.

Tim, did you actually read the Telegraph yesterday?
Have you checked Twitter today and seen the outpouring of criticism for the way the Tele and News Corp overall handled the situation?
It was a disgrace in every respect, with no respect for the people involved in the situation.
It was not good journalism and should not be credited as such.

Nic Etcchells did a great job when Channel 7 crossed to him in Melbourne as soo as the Sydney studio was evacuated. Facing a camera, and basically adlibbing from interstate, he held it all together extremely well while resources were put in place.

We are all armchair voyeurs and whilst we should never be privy to police exchanges, the media on the whole did a fine job, I watched all channels and thought Seven had the advantage of being across the road. Our local Perth anchor Susannah Carr was as usual exemplary, a difficult night for all especially the hostages and their kin.

Overall the media (mostly) passed the test. Sort of. Only if you ignore the Telegraph’a 2pm edition. Justify it with ‘what the readers expect’ but that’s a poor excuse for such inflammatory, wildly inaccurate reporting.

This article is a joke, almost as bad (and pointless) as the 24 x 7 coverage

Once it was established that the gunman was mentally unwell, why did we (or anyone outside family and friends) need second by second coverage ? Was this a big news event because of Hadley’s relationship with one of the hostages , or because it happened so close to the CH7 studio ?

In one pointless act of over achievement, the ABC had full coverage on ABC 1 (so I guess Tone & co can cancel the ABC News 24 Channel ?) They were still showing footage on Tuesday morning where a witness was describing the flag as an ISI or IS flag.

What NEWS were we getting from any of this full on coverage ?

I think it’s overstating it to say Australian media passed its “big test”. Crikey has made some excellent points about the less impressive aspects of the coverage that deserve a read.

Having said that, Mel Doyle was a class act. She showed up a number of the less experienced broadcasters. I thought Ash on Sky also did a great job.

Ray Hadley was compelling listening. I never thought I’d say that.

The Guardian also excellent, per usual.

@adgrunt, i was a former correspondent for the worlds leading newsagency for 12 yrs, worked for ap, reuters, ny times, la times and herald tribune 8 yrs of which in four war zones, specialising in conflicts… So keep ur stupidity and ignorance quaranteened please.
Im talking about journalism, and its a tough call but moralising is for other professionals, ours is to inform with accuracy and precision untainted truth because the authorities can and do make mistakes even with the best intentions. Without transparency, scrutiny snd accountability we are just trusting without evidence…

What I find fascinating is how many of us think we’re experts. We’re all journalists, so our reporting would have been better; we’re all cops, so we would have ended the siege earlier; we’re all ‘terrorism’ experts, so we know what this guy’s motive was; we’re all politicians, so we know how to run Australia (or maybe the world); we’re all judges, so we know what should have happened to the terrible person who committed these atrocities. Why do we need to find people to blame / point the finger at how things were reported / how the siege was ended? I wonder if all those highly trained professionals (journalists, police, army etc) can tell each of us how to do our jobs. But I forgot, everyone is an expert at everything. Maybe everyone should just take a breath and consider all factors before spitting venom. And let’s remember that two innocent people died and others were injured, physically and mentally. Let’s support them and as Aussies all band together.

Eugene, stop blowing your well-worn trumpet.

It makes you sound like a pompous idiot, rather than just the village idiot. The world was a different place in the Balkans in the 90s and 00s. News was barely real-time and you’re telling me you live-broadcast operationally sensitive information? No, I didn’t think so. Because it was almost impossible to and if you’d succeeded then you’d be in clink.

The problem with social media is that shit can leak and the unintentional light on your life in an irrelevant arena can be unwelcome.

(edited by Mumbrella)

Back up @Geofrey 3.53. The timing of this is interesting. And that links with Eugene Jones. This guy had form, and plenty of it. No need for hours of speculation on who he was and his background. There is a lot more depth to this incident than the saturated coverage would indicate. But the real story, requiring the real and courageous journalism, will be nothing more than a small footnote.

Eugene Jones, I’m sorry but your a prat! The media did the right thing in respecting the rights of the police and the most part resisted any form of conjecture when there was very little, if any information given out. As for black marks….well the tele and ruperts tweet are dead giveaways but there was also a runaway train wreck on tens early evening coverage last night. While the other networks whether by choice or just not having the interviews were staying with the facts, the 10 journo was excitedly giving all the details from the hostage interview live onair….I’m sure the police were not impressed with that!

@martin english. Could not agree more………………as John Birmingham said “a never ending shitshow of rolling coverage”. And enough said of DT……..but there are not surprises there, pitched at the brainless/braindead/brainwashed.

While supporting the gist of what Mr Jones says, I must say the Murdoch stable, as usual, let us all down. I saw that 2pm Tele front page and thought ”Oh no!” tuned out after that and didn’t follow the story except for updates until I heard the 3am ABC radio bulletin about the shootout – without knowing the awful toll. There are times when as a retired journalist I am embarrassed by my old profession. Yesterday didn’t do much for me.

Mumbrella, I’m certainly not mistaken in my comment about the NZ earthquake. I have been working in live TV for 30 years and I have worked on news for every network in Sydney in that time. It was Sunrise (of course). Ch7 picked up the feed from a NZ cameraman that was feeding his camera output straight into the SNG truck out into space. It was a completely unedited camera feed with the occasional whip pan and refocus etc. Some of the injured openly abused him as they walked past to safety. Some of them were in a bad way (bloody etc) and clearly did not want their image displayed.

A similar thing (also on Sunrise) happened when there was the fatal nursing home fire a few years back. They had the camera person shooting the residents and patients who had been taken out onto the nature strip in front of the home. These people were mostly bed bound and were unable to escape the camera even if they wanted to. It may have been perfectly legal to video those people but it was certainly highly unethical. As I said , the moral compass goes out the window when working on these events (I know, I have done my share of rolling news coverage).

@adgrunt, curb ur hatred. I disagree with this article. And i disagree with u. I have some experience, but i was not there. I believe it was lousy journalism and i did not feel i was given proper information, which is the essence of news. This is all propaganda and morbid entertainment for profit and interest. The fact is none of us know what happenned, however while others are extending accolades or expressing nationalistic pride, i still just want to know the truth, what happenned, why, who and what it all means! Right now i know hardly jack and i have to wait for the authorities to decide what story i should believe…

Not often I disagree with you Tim but I think you’re a bit off the mark with this. Some of the coverage we saw yesterday was the kind inflammatory, sensationalist, non-journalism whose only job it is to stir up trouble and stimulate sales. Crikey’s POV is much Oder to the truth:

http://www.crikey.com.au/2014/.....edibility/

And fyi, 90’s and 00’s was real-time for news agencies as its a 24hr international cycle. The wire service invented breaking news, bulletins and alerts, so do ur research. U r right about one thing, there are always efforts to censor, and the Western media is no exception. Only in some countries the spooks r not as effective or efficient and u get to see flashes of real journalism. It is raw and eye-opening and sobering. But if u prefer photoshop hollywood news, stick to ur guns, im sure its all we will be getting with all the subjegated plebes begging for more control, regulation and need-to-know tele-dinner information.

#boycottmurdoch

The Guardian was impressive in its coverage. News24 was, as usual, patchy. The presenters are probably under strain because of internal ABC problems. Their producers don’t seem to have mastered multi-screen effects – words often don’t complement images. As for Murdoch’s garbage trucks…a disgrace.

I watched channel 7 night of and morning after. I didn’t watch anything else because channel 7’s coverage gave me everything I needed objectively. Nice work 7!

Tim Burrows, you can’t be serious in ‘applauding’ the media’s handling of the siege. Let’s take a look at what the perpetrator was hoping to achieve – he wanted coverage. Global. Coverage. And he certainly got it, didn’t he? So now his equally deranged contemporaries will see and hear that the media reported Sydney’s panic and fear. ‘we got to them’, they;ll say. ‘They fear us’. And regardless of this point, there was absolutely no need for the coverage to continue well into the following day. This was an exercise in pointless and unnecessary fear mongering by a desperate media. And don’t get me started on the printing of images of hostages – clearly in a highly distressed state – being removed from the area. How incredibly insensitive. The media should hang their collective heads in shame.

And another thing – if I hear that tacky little bromide ‘Australia lost its innocence’ one more time, I may actually scream. This line is trotted out every time there’s some sort of emergency. For goodness sake, if you can’t say anything worthwhile, don’t bother.

Seems a bit pointless to me- wall to wall coverage of what, basically, is nothing.

“its 9am , and we know nothing about what is going on inside”.
“its 10am , and we know nothing about what is going on inside”.
“its 11am , and we know nothing about what is going on inside”.
“its 12am , and we know nothing about what is going on inside”.
“its 1pm , and we know nothing about what is going on inside”.
“its 2pm , and we know nothing about what is going on inside”.
“its 3pm , and we know nothing about what is going on inside”.
“its 4pm , and we know nothing about what is going on inside”.

ect ect ect- a quick “hostages have left” 10 second breaking news bulletin when something ACTUALLY HAPPENS would probably be enough.

And watching channel 7 when ABC Is available is like choosing to eat macdonalds in a food court. Why subject yourself to that crap?

As a media buyer, i vow to never ever recommend any news corp masthead to a client.

Disgraceful

I love how the media is going around telling everyone what a great job the media did.

Best coverage in terms of up to date information was on Sky News in my opinion.

Tim, I know they might not be every one’s pick on a day like that but credit to MMM who went nationally with wall to wall coverage and were brilliant. credit where it’s due. Rich

“AdGrunt” are you serious? And your ad hominem attacks make you look even more like a troll. The Aussie media coverage was hopeless – get over it. The various Islamic State references they made were hilarious too considering that IS is Sunni-based and Iranians are Shiite (not to be confused with shite). And the Australian media held back on reporting a lot of info – this is Obama regime stuff. The Australian media is always too close to police.

@Mumma (comment’s 62 & 63)

A football website reports on football

A travel website reports on travel

A media, marketing, advertising website reports on………………..

Go back to your corner and pipe down please.

Mr Brand’s take on the affair and the media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ8ZYAvWTxo

One more link to share, which is a plugin for Chrome and results in blocking all Newscorp content (apparently). This is doing the rounds on social networks. Rupert Murdoch is certainly trending globally as a result of his tweet. No idea if this will be downloaded in droves or not..?

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bye-rupert/ehdikikkfbfjjemfadgggcohkjoggoof

I installed last night.

Tim if you honestly believe this then you have become part of the problem with Australia’s media. This is not the UK where tabloid sensationalism reigns. Mumbrella could once be relied upon for an independent critique of the situation but your assessment here is very disappointing. I hope you are just having an off day?

You have to be kidding me? Channel 9’s coverage for a start was full of conjecture and story telling seemingly designed to scare the viewer as much as possible. In fact all the news reports I saw in Australia seemed to be assuming a worst case, the war has begun scenario. This article is so far off the mark i thought it was satire at first.

Why the radio silence from Team Mumbrella in the face of criticism from the community regarding their “passed the test” grade on Australian media?