Network Ten’s political correspondent, Paul
Bongiorno, writes:


I don’t know who fed you your report last
Friday that Ten was not covering APEC with the Prime Minister – I suspect a
malicious competitor who was counting on you not watching Ten news but happy to
bag it anyway.

Ten was in Pakistan and the Howard trip was reported on in
every bulletin while he was there. A Ten camera operator was part of the pool
and shot half of the pics seen on all networks. And we were in Afghanistan as
well. A Ten camera operator joined the pool and flew in and out with the other
media. Those pictures also appeared in all Ten News bulletins which you apparently missed.

Maybe you operate on the principle, “If I don’t see
it, it doesn’t exist.”

Hugo Kelly responds:

We’re glad
to correct the record. The decision by Ten to skip on sending a correspondent
for the PM’s entire trip, does however underline our premise; that the media is
struggling with the cost of following John Howard’s punishing international
schedule – and this is leading to less scrutiny of the PM. To get an idea of
Paul Bongiorno’s energy and vigour while on the road, check out this
entertaining account of the PM’s trip by Nine’s Tim Lester.