Choppergate: News director resigns and Nine fires three journalists for faking live crosses
Eva Milic crosses to Melissa Mallet - dismissed
Eva Milic crosses to Cameron Price - dismissed
News director Lee Anderson - resigned
Three journalists involved in faking a live cross to the Nine News chopper have tonight been fired, and the network’s Queensland news director Lee Anderson has resigned.
Melissa Mallet, who took part in Saturday’s faked cross, and Cameron Price who was in the helicopter when it was repeated on Sunday, have both been dismissed.
Aaron Wakeley - dismissed
You’ve accidentally spelt it Aaaron instead of Aaron: http://twitter.com/#!/Aaron_Wakeley
Ta, spellchecker – if we’ve learned anything these last 72 hours, it’s the importance of accuracy…
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Blimey.
Did you break the original story Tim? And, if so, are these Mumbrella’s first scalps?
Hi Jeff,
We may have been first to post the original story. I suspect I wasn’t the only journalist chasing it at the time.
Scalps is a bit triumphalist. I’ve never met Lee Anderson, but tonight I’ve been watching the behind the scenes live streams he did with NineMSN which are up on YouTube. Strikes me he’s a serious news guy, who did great things during the floods. He’s taken responsibility, but I’m not sure that necessarily makes it his fault.
Not a good way for anybody to end a career.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Not sure how I feel about the sackings. Seems harsh, yet they must be seen to take decisive action. Maybe a suspension would have been more appropriate? Could it lead to an unfair dismissal action?
“We rightly demand accountability and high standards of others, and we must meet those expectations ourselves”
Except when it comes to ACA it seems :p
A bit harsh – surely an apology, some humble pie, and a commitment not to re-offend would have been sufficient?
According to Hugh Riminton (@hughriminton) Lee Anderson was away on leave during the entire chopper debacle and quit in disagreement with the sackings.
Yikes! It’s not like they tapped someone’s phone…
Punishment was harsh, but now that the bar has been set it will be interesting to see what other little ‘fibs’ are now revealed on rival networks.
This is hardly an isolated incident, and if getting the sack for lying to your audience is the new benchmark, then there are a couple of news programs that might not have enough staff left to make it to air…
There should be some nervous journos and news directors out there in TV land tonight!
What’s the big deal? It was dumb, but honestly, who cares?!
I too don’t understand why no one kicks and screams when ACA go to air every night with complete rubbish yet a cheap shot in a helicopter and everyone chucks their toys out the pram!
well, melissa was in the 9 chopper….IF you are in Sydney, or the Gold Coast, then the 9 studios ARE near Beerwah, as stated in the lower graphic in picture, and the chopper might have taken the shots half an hour earlier…hmmmm, I’m sure all the networks tell fibs. Or do you believe everything you see on TV?
Although he took responsibility for the whole thing, Lee was on leave the entire time and probably had no idea about what went on until he got back. He resigned in protest of the 2 young reporters and producer getting the sack. Good on him I say – morals like that will take him far wherever he ends up after this.
Dear me, look at the several comments calling it ‘harsh’ to sack a journo for faking news. That shows just how de-sensitized to this kind of fraud people have become. Of course it’s common, of course the perpetrators only get sacked on the rare occasions when they’re publicly outed, but don’t imagine that makes it acceptable.
Does seem harsh – who really cares as long as the facts of the story are there. I hardly think the other stations would be much better. Wonder if channel 7 would be so decisive in sacking their staff if the shoe was on the other foot (which I am sure it has been before).
It seems wrong to me that the most junior people in the chain copped it. And the News Director wasn’t fired because it was his fault, rather he seemed to think it was outrageous too and resigned in protest. Seems like the usual scapegoating…
Astounding that there are people thinking that it’s harsh for reporters to be fired for faking the news. I have to agree with Hugh Riminton’s comment on the subject –
“No reporter should knowingly tell a lie. Simple. Calvert was right #ch9choppergate”.
I guess if you pay people peanuts for long enough, you end up with young stupid monkeys that will ultimately turn around and bit the network in the bum. Cutting corners is not acceptable, lying to viewers is not acceptable, participating in a lie by sitting in a chopper that you’ve been told to sit in – is not acceptable. Then again, it’s a pretty stupid policy to have so many needless live crosses too! Why would you want to be in a chopper above Beerwah at night, when there was no searching happening below you anyway? Stupid decisions all round, caused by a stupid policy. Above all though, you just don’t lie to viewers, it stinks. Lee is a great loss to the network, but I wouldn’t give the other three another job – having and demonstrating ethics is crucial to the role of a fair media in a democracy – how do you recover from being a big liar?!
Surely the reporters didn’t make the editorial decisions to handle the story, or the chopper use or non use, the way it was done.
They, presumably, were doing what they were directed to do.
Nine’s management should rethink their decisions over the reporters.
The buck stops with the editorial decision maker on the day, or days, and yes, they probably should get some penance. But not sacking.
Other comments are right. All the networks’ news and current affairs programs are guilty of these sort of things at some time or other in various ways.
It doesn’t make it acceptable but sadly it is symptomatic of the increasing laziness evident in various forms of journalism these days.
Jack Dalton
How unfortunate it is to see qualified journalists compromising the quality of news, particularly with the sensitive nature of the Daniel Morcombe news story. They should be sacked, there job is to present facts in a accurate manner.
Gees I hope this accountability spreads to other media such as 2UE with the Parrot’s record!
Shame on chanel 7…..rather than their qualified university journalists…..working on stories….it seems they pay them and others in their employment good wages top
SPY ON THEIR RIVAL TELEVISION STATION CHANNEL 9…..WHAT ARE THEY AFRAID OF….’LOOSING THE RATINGS’…..I was quite disgusted to watch the Live Cross on saturdays news from channel 7 as they continuously probed Daniel Morcombe’s father for more, and more…..channel 7s journalist obviously didn’t know when to stop…..I felt very uncomfortable watching it and thought to myself ” FOR GODS SAKE….THATS ENOUGH QUESTIONING….LEAVE HIM BE”…..THAT SORT OF INSENSITIVITY SHOULD WARRANT A SACKING……SHAME ON CHANNEL 7……….CHANNEL 9s …HELICOPTERS WOULD HAVE BEEN THERE ….BOTH ON SATURDAY AND SUNDAY AS THE VISION…..SHOWED THE SEARCHING BEING CONDUCTED BELOW……..CHANNEL 9 OBVIOUSLY WANTED TO RE-CREATE TO ITS VIEWERS A BROADER STORY OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING DURING THAT DAY FROM THE CHOPPER AND USED SOME INITIATIVE TO RE-CREATE THE SCENE AND THE INTENSITY OF IT FROM THE CHOPPER…….I DO NOT SEE IT AS DECEIVING THEIR VIEWERS AT ALL…..BUT RECREATING THE SCENE ‘THAT DAY”…….AFTER ALL THEY SAID THEY WERE…….NEAR BEERWAH……NOT AT BEERWAH….
I CONGRATULATE CHANNEL 9 FOR BRINGING TO US SUCH A SENSITIVE STORY…..WHICH WAS DELIVERED WITH COMPASSION AND SENSITIVITY BY NEWSREADER…..EVA MILIC…..I WILL BE WATCHING CHANNEL 9 MORE NOW THAN BEFORE
Easy on the caps lock key there big fella
@ “Michael”
Wow… setting up a remote webcam, and pointing it at a helicopter pad is so expensive and staff intensive.
Sarcasm, if you couldn’t tell.
It would either be monitored by the staff that already watch all the other feeds that they do (that is why they are there and are paid to do), or it’s ran through a program set up to alert at major movement within view.
Neither are that difficult, expensive, or taking away from other duties of the employees…
And trust me; every network, amateur and their dog are doing exactly the same as each other.
It definitely doesn’t come at a good time for Nine, especially considering their new slogan of being the ‘news to trust’. Although I don’t understand why Channel Nine would even risk crossing over to a stationary chopper instead of actually having it where it was stating to be. In the air. And particularly around such a high profile news case as Daniel Morcombe. It just presents viewers with doubt regarding Nine’s authenticity. Even if the weather had been bad enough to prevent flight, wouldn’t stating that be better than trying to deceive the public?
Geez, what an overreaction. They weren’t fudging the facts, just lying about where they were. Does it really matter? (Sometimes I work in a cafe and pretend I’m at my desk if anyone calls me…)