The Media Show | 20 September

This is the Media Show with joanouting, Hello and welcome to the Media Show. I'm Color Bond filling in for Jack harton this week Big Show Ahead. As the ABC's reputation is in tatters after bombshell allegations it doctored footage to make it look like war crimes were committed in Afghanistan, and the outgoing nine CEO finally speaks after his shock resignation. Now we saw this week the second dice with death

But do you expect to hear anything from the Trump campaign about toning down the rhetoric, toning down the violence, or would that be atypical of the former president.

Well, Alex remember back to the assassination attempt on President Trump's life, and how you know, there was talk of a new tone, and then the Republican Convention was, by Trumpian standards, muted, and it did seem like he was just trying to take it down a few nches. But then by the end of his convention speech, you know, we were kind of back to where we started.

I mean, they're effectively victim blaming. He came within four hundred meters of a lunaty hidden in the bushes with an assault rifle, and it's apparently his job to calm things down. Here are a few more examples of the media shifting the blame to Trump for someone apparently wanting to shoot him.

Donald Trump is blaming Democrats for inflaming political rhetoric, but the former president's own words seem to be increasing the threat of political violence in Springfield, Ohio. That's where a false and ugly accusation against Haitians, thousands of whom our legal permanent residents, is impacting everyday life as a.

Parent assassination attempt comes amid increasingly fierce rhetoric on the campaign trail itself. Mister Trump is running made jd Vance continue to make baseless claims about Haitian immigrants in Ohio.

You can't say that threat's bomb threats on Springfield, Ohio schools and hospitals have nothing to do with Trump and the Trump campaign. You can't say Trump has no responsibility for an attack on Paul Pelosi, no responsibility for Jan six, no responsibility for threats against election workers, no responsibility for threats against doctor Fauci and health administrators. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. So the calls to tone down are good, but they need to come from inside the house.

I mean, for heaven's sake, and the post mortem continued in print, with the leftist media rubbishing the idea that inflammatory rhetoric against Trump might incite someone to want to kill him. NBC online quote, Trump dispenses with unity and blames Democrats after apparent second assassination attempt. The Washington Post quote, Trump, without evidence blames rhetoric of Biden Harris for possible assassination attempt. MSNBC online quote the problems with Trump blaming Dems for

You know, journalists should, you know, really try to achieve objectivity and by that he said, I mean they should cover the object. Well, the object in this case is Donald Trump, his demagoguery, his danger to our country and the world, and stick with it. You know, they were merciless about what they saw as President Biden's problems in the debate.

They never learn, But I think the point is that they don't want to learn, because it's deliberate. They would rather see Trump dead than in office again, so why would they turn down the retric Joining me on the show this week is The Australian's media writers Sophie Ellsworth and writer and broadcaster Kel Richards. Kel. You know, it's just so egregious the examples from the American media. I

Ninety percent of the American media have decided on their candidate they want elected to the White House, and everything, every single journalistic value has been thrown out the window in order to pursue their campaign to get Krmala Harrison too the White House. The things we we're hearing more bizarre. On Wolf Blitzer's program on SO, a woman wanted to blame Trump for the attack on Nancy Pelosi's husban. Now,

Oh? Well, I think they can see the evidence, Kelbert. The point, Sophie is that they're just deliberately ignoring the evidence in front of them to achieve an ends. And surely, when you're reporting on something like this, you know, we are talking about twice in just over two months that someone has attempted to or appeared to attempt to kill

Well, Caleb, I think these journalists, suppose the journalists need to be careful and cautious in the language they use. Some of those clips that you have shown there to the viewers appear to be more along the opinion articles than straight news reports, and they need to work out are they giving a straight news report or are they trying to give a straight news report but really making an opinion article. And this is where I think the public loses trust in the media because it's badged up

And it all contributes to the polarization of America. And it is the polarization of America that has led to things like this. I mean, if you are at a point where you genuinely think that a democratically chosen candidate, Trump was chosen democratically by the members of the Republican Party to be their candidate. If you think a democratically chosen candidate running in a democratic election is somehow a threat to democracy, then you may have a small problem.

We asked ten if it was guilty of exploiting the Tyrrell story for ratings that had ignored the question, with the State Ambulance Service confirming that one of the emergency callouts reported as a drug overdose was actually for a patient who had swallowed a coin, and finally another one bites the dust.

O Weells Sneezeby after three billion dollar share slide.

All worthy stories, but they reserve their coverage of the US for the opportunity to chard Trapp for talking about dogs and cats being eaten in Ohio, and completely ignored that someone was stationed with an assault rifle at his golf course that very day.

So, in summary, Donald Trump's dramatic claim they're eating.

The dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the.

Cats appears to be a cocktail of hearsay, scuttlebutt, and Race's resentment over Haitian migrants, all aided and abtted by Trump's running mate jd Vance, who, when confronted on NBC over the debunk claims, simply double down.

I hear you saying that they're baseless, but I'm not repeating them because I invented them.

Out of thin air.

I'm repeating them because my constituents are saying these things are happening.

So it's left the town of Springfield dealing with the ugly fallout, which includes bomb threats, two hospitals put into lockdown, on local schools evacuated, the real world consequences of fake news amplified on the world stage.

I mean, that's just extraordinary, Gell. You know, the top one of the top media programs in the country goes to air on the day that someone has attempted to kill the president, and there is not a single mention of the biggest story in the world.

Putting it into context before this year, there was an attempted assassination on Ronald Reagan in nineteen eighty one. Then there was our forty.

Three year gap, and then two and two months.

Now, after a forty three year gap, you think they think, oh, this is a big story, but I've got to cover this.

I suspect the.

Problem is, and we have to be sympathetic. They clearly need more staff. They've only got about fifteen minutes, so they clearly need more people working on the program.

Don't give them ideas, gel they're already spending enough of our money. We'll take a quick break when we're back the ABC again in more hot water allegations adopted footage of alleged war crimes don't go away. Now, this has to be one of the worst cases of fabricating a story that I have ever seen in my career. No doubt you heard this week about former commando Heston Russell and how the ABC falsified footage to make it look like war crimes had been committed in Afghanistan, and this

We don't have the vision that comes immediately before this, but this Australian soldier is firing towards what appear to be unarmed.

Civilians in residential compounds.

And here's mister Russell explaining the footage after.

The warning shot.

This insurgent has run into a compound and the drone has witnessed him bend over and.

Pick up something.

He's picked up something that looks like a weapon.

And you'll hear me telling my soldier shoot him, shoot him.

We listen closely, you'll hear that.

Then you'll see that's the footage of my guy shooting at him in the compound.

There's any one problem though, The footage the ABC has shown has six gunshots at the beginning instead of one warning shot.

The version of events told by the ABC's Mark Willison, which starts with six rounds of firing then a single warning shot becomes six.

For me, it appears some of they've literally added extra gunshots. I mean that is fake news, plain and simple. It is a fabricated story, a docted piece of footage to make it look like Australian soldiers were unduly firing at unarmed Afghan civilians. The ABC has denied that mister Willisey or anyone else involved in the editorial side of things,

The ABC needs to sit down, go through due process. Breached out to Kim Williams, the head, the new chair of the ABC, and asked to meet with him and go through this because it is a shocking scandal and they can't weasele their way out of it now.

The least he is owed is a response. He already successfully sued the ABC for defamation after reports by mister Willisey on four Corners implied he was involved in war crimes. He was awarded four hundred thousand dollars in damages plus legal costs, and those reports stemmed from a US marine telling mister Willasey that he had heard, not seen, the execution of a prisoner in Afghanistan. The marine even told mister Willasey that his memory was hazy, and yet the

Well, no answers to as to what has happened, Caleb, And it was quite curious that Justin Stevens, the ABC News director, decided to pull me up on my language when I described it as doctoring the audio. I don't know how else you could describe it. There's a difference there between six shots and one shot. And it's pretty clear somewhere in the food chain at the ABC when this broadcast went to air, there was a problem with it.

I just can't understand kel how something like this could happen one shot being turned into six without someone somewhere in the ABC making it happen. It just seems very strange.

Well, for years I worked at the ABC in Television Current Affairs as a senior reporter. I've sat in editing suites. I have done this, I've made these stories editors. The people who did the technical stuff don't do it on their own. They sit beside a reporter or beside a producer who directs what they are doing. So, I, like you, I don't understand how a producer or a reporter sitting beside the editor saying on that helmet cam footage is only one shot, add five shots more. They can't be

Now.

I know I've been there, I've sat in the editing suites, I've done that. I cannot see. I cannot understand how that's a mistake or an error. There has to be some sort of conscious, intentional decision by someone at some point to say, yes, let's dub in five more shots exactly.

And of course, as I said before, the ABC denis that mister Willisy or anyone involved in the editorial team had any knowledge. But we want to know who did, who made it happen, and if so, how did it happen. Well, I did say earlier that if the story changes and you've already recorded your show, well tough luck. You have to come back in and record. And so that's what I've done, even though I'm in a different city and clearly in a different suit. I hope our friends at Media Watch take notes.

Now.

Late this afternoon, after we had already recorded the Media show, the ABC's managing director David Anderson issued a written statement in which he admitted that the ABC was worn two years ago about the doctor footage we just discussed, but somehow that never made its way to the news department. Mister Anderson said that a letter had been sent to the ABC's lead department in November twenty twenty two, quote raising concerns about the audio editing, but it was never