It hasn’t been a good week for Sky News Australia, which has had to admit reporting information based on fake X accounts. Not once but twice.
It started with Sky After Dark’s Rita Panahi telling viewers that two farmers who appeared in a Kamala Harris campaign commercial were actors and longtime Democratic party donors.
“This pair of farmers, shown in the ad, appear to in fact be two actors, Robert Lange and Kristina Chadwick, and they have an extensive history of donating to the Democrats and leftist causes dating back to at least 2016,” she said.
Only they weren’t. They were farmers and they were not Democratic donors.
The information was based on a viral post by an X account named “Bad Hombre”, laughingly referred to by Panahi’s guest as an investigative journalist.
According to US-based investigative journalist Jason Wilson for Crikey, Sky News took the video down and posted a correction on 1 October.
“During a discussion about a Kamala Harris campaign video on the program on 26 September, the people featured in the campaign ad were described as actors with a history of donating to the Democrats,” it said. “In light of additional information which we have been made aware of, we correct the record that the people involved are not actors and do not appear to be Democrat donors.”
Then Sky News once again reached for a social media post on X to make a point.
When Nine Radio’s shock jock Ben Fordham criticised the ABC managing director, David Anderson, for paying his respects to “elders past and present” on the ABC News channel, Sky News digital jumped on the story.
Try and make sense of this word salad !
— Ben Fordham Live (@BenFordhamLive) October 2, 2024
The ABC has tied itself in knots while reacting to a racism review.
LISTEN to the awkward audio of boss David Anderson being interviewed.
🎧https://t.co/zP3PPZaoGA🎧 pic.twitter.com/ONPMZf2PL9
“It took a minute and a half of acknowledgments and box-ticking before we could get to the actual interview,” Fordham said on 2GB.
“Before they could talk like normal human beings do, they had to jump through various hoops, so this is all part of the problem at the ABC.”
Sky reported Fordham’s comments online, adding a purported tweet from the “mining billionaire Twiggy Forrest”.
And what did “Mr Forrest” have to say on the matter? “Mark my words. Soon the ABC will be broadcasting an Islamic prayer in addition to a welcome to country before each news bulletin.”
After inquiries by the Sydney Morning Herald, the tweet was removed from the Sky news story and an apology to Forrest was posted.
“Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed a response to Andrew Forrest, which was in fact made by a false Twitter account purporting to be him. The reference has been removed and Sky News apologises to Mr Forrest for the error.”
Back to Afghanistan
Next Tuesday viewers of Dateline on SBS will be able to watch what happened when the first Australian journalists visited Sola, outside Tarin Kot, where an imam and his son were killed by the SAS during a 2012 raid.
It’s the second of a two-part investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, produced by Colin Cosier.
The SBS chief international correspondent, Ben Lewis, told Weekly Beast the episode showed the challenges of working in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. “Viewers will get to hear from witnesses and see the village of Darwan for the first time outside of short video snippets shown in court,” Lewis said.
“It was an incredibly difficult shoot in what were often hostile environments. In many of the places we went to, the last Australians there had been soldiers.”
Cosier and Lewis were accompanied by Dr Michelle Dimasi, an anthropologist who has researched war crimes in Afghanistan.
Keyboard warrior
Christopher Dore disappeared for a mere 16 months after losing his job as editor-in-chief of the Australian for alleged drunken behaviour in November 2022.
The former Murdoch man returned to the spotlight in March this year as a columnist for Kerry Stokes’ new publication the Nightly.
By June he had been promoted to head the Stokes newspaper empire in Western Australia.
Now the editor-in-chief of West Australian Newspapers and the Nightly, Dore has also become a first-time parent with his partner, the journalist Jenna Clarke. He is also still filing an opinion column for the Nightly so he has a lot on his plate.
Which is why we were surprised to discover he has time not only to read, but to answer, almost every comment that readers post on his Nightly column. This week Dore wrote about the prime minister, describing Anthony Albanese as “average, uninspiring, unimaginative and underwhelming” and there were a lot of responses, some positive and some negative.
When Michael said “Pity Albo fails to read this”, CD was quick to reply: “I’m sure Albo reads The Nightly.”
When Gillian said: “I just know I would not like the snob who wrote this. Arrogant, misinformed article,” CD answered: “Snob! Im sure we would get along fine Gillian.”
When Jackson said: “What right-wing, MAGA supporting lunatic wrote this? Real flat-earth vibes,” CD said: “You’re giving Bot vibes Jackson.”
When Graeme commented: “In my humble opinion a clearly sarcastic, biased diatribe by a writer who moves way off the balance expected from our journalists,” CD replied: “It’s an opinion. We all get one.”
Dore even offered up details of his personal life, telling a reader he had gone to Christies Beach high school when he was accused of writing “half a page of elitist private school diatribe”.
And of course there was praise for Margaret, who told Dore his article was “truly inciteful and true” and “Albanese is pathetically weak and obviously incapable”.
“Nice one Margaret,” CD said.
Headfirst into the campaign
In Queensland the LNP’s health spokesperson, Ros Bates, came to the rescue after our own reporter on the campaign trail, Andrew Messenger, hit his head on an awning at the scene of an announcement and got a nasty cut.
The candidate also happens to be a registered nurse, so she jumped in and briefly helped clean some of the blood off the wound.
Nurses from the GP clinic in Emu Park in central Queensland where the event was taking place glued it up and administered a tetanus shot.
Weekly Beast is pleased to report that both the head knock and the jab did not hurt as much as the embarrassment.
Flying low
What would journalism be without the stream of ludicrous news stories from the Daily Mail?
We bring you last Friday’s beauty about Nine reporter and former 4BC host Neil Breen, headlined: “Forgetting something? Channel Nine reporter suffers unfortunate wardrobe gaffe live on air.”
“Breen had forgotten to zip up the fly of his black pants as he questioned [Valentino] Kovacic at the front of a petrol station,” the Daily Mail reported.
“The presenter seemed unaware of the wardrobe malfunction as he questioned Kovacic.”
Accompanying the story were three photographs and a video.
To back up its theme the report harked back to another “embarrassing gaffe” on Nine’s A Current Affair.
“Earlier this year, host Ally Langdon wished viewers a ‘great weekend’ despite it being midweek.
“‘And that’s our program. I’m Ally Langdon. Thanks for your company, have a great weekend,’ she said, before correcting the word to ‘evening’.”
Tony’s breakfast exit
Tony Armstrong was farewelled on ABC News Breakfast on Friday by his friend, the athlete and former Australian of the year Dylan Alcott. Joining Armstrong on set, Alcott said his mate had been oddly keen for him to see a deck he had built at his house.
“And I get there and he had built an accessible ramp so I can get around,” Alcott said. “And he said, ‘Anyone would do that.’ And I said, ‘You’re the first friend in my life who put a ramp in their house so I could get in.’
Last day blues! Sad to see you go @Tonaaayy_ pic.twitter.com/51dnnDBdTA
— Stephanie Ferrier (@FerrierSteph) October 3, 2024
“And people know him as this funny, charming, great, you know, incredible at his job, but he’s a beautiful person and, yeah, I’m very lucky to have him as a friend.”
When it was his turn to speak Armstrong said he was “just an instrument” and a team of people put the breakfast show together.
“We’re just the lucky presenters who get to go out there and, I guess, present all of the hard work,” he said. “It takes a village.”
The former AFL footballer revealed just how green he was when he began as an ABC sports presenter three years ago. “When you’re on the sports desk, you actually have to write your own stories and edit your own footage, and I can’t read or write or edit, so that’s a big issue,” he said.
