When wearing a microphone, the first thing people in TV are told is “consider it’s live and you are always on air.” Seven host Chris Reason spent the weekend pondering the wisdom of that old TV admonition.

During the Seven coverage of the Corby verdict on Friday, he was heard within Seven’s newsroom to be complaining about audio and cutting corners. It apparently didn’t come from an internal feed set but from the off air. His complaints went to air, briefly.

But Seven says it was directed at Nine which was responsible for the pool camera on the judge and couldn’t get the audio right. That left Seven trying to get the sound from another source.

Nine’s complete botching of the verdict with no audio and confused translation went to air, two and a half minutes after Seven put the verdict accurately to air from its translator and studio hosting.