Graphic scenes
It was a big day to be in North Sydney yesterday, with activity deluxe at Nine. In the afternoon, Victorian Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell had dragged the publisher for an image of her used in the 9News Melbourne coverage of the Allan government’s decision to continue allowing duck hunting in the state, rejecting the recommendation of a parliamentary inquiry.
Purcell noticed two details in the image — she was depicted wearing a crop top, exposing a bare midriff, and appeared to have been, in her words, “given a boob job”.
She had been photoshopped, and inaccurately — Purcell has tattoos on her stomach, as she mentioned.
Speaking to Media Briefs, Purcell said: “If it was Jacinta Allan in a crop top, I’m sure [Nine] would have picked up on it. It’s this ongoing perception and sexualisation of me, even if it was an innocent mistake, which I’m not sure I believe.”
Purcell said a number of graphic designers had contacted her office, claiming that in their experience “this is not something that happens”.
Director of 9News Melbourne Hugh Nailon released a statement apologising to Purcell on Tuesday morning, blaming the edit on “automation by Photoshop” during resizing that “was not consistent with the original”.
Adobe, the developers of Photoshop, released a statement questioning Nine’s claims that its automation and content-aware fill tools were responsible for the edit, stating that the use of generative-AI features would have required “human intervention and approval”.
Basil’s brush with a hot mic
Former Seven football commentator and Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas was caught with a hot mic this week as he announced his intention to seek Liberal preselection for the state seat of Churchlands at the 2025 election.
The former footballer was clipped up in a viral moment appearing to refer to the Australian Open women’s final that night as a “reserves game”. Zempilas, however, insisted that the full context of the conversation exonerated him.
The full clip, which Zempilas showed to social media, showed a conversation between him and Nine journalist Michael Genovese, who was set to host the news that night in competition with his wife, Seven’s Jerrie Demasi.
“It’s like a derby,” Zempilas said in response to the match-up.
“The tennis is on tonight, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, the female final,” Genovese replied.
“Oh, it’s a reserve game then.”
The West Australian, owned by Seven West Media (for whom Zempilas still occasionally fills in as a sports presenter on 7News), published an article on Sunday — “online storm erupts after fake news” read the headline.
6 News, which shared the viral clip of Zempilas, maintains it did not selectively edit the clip, stating it used a stream from a partner organisation in Western Australia that went live at an unfortunate time. 10 News Perth, which had a reporter at the conference and had its own camera, also posted a similarly clipped video of the remarks to social media.
Fact-check fiasco
Fact-checking at the ABC has struggled this week, perhaps lost in the mountain of activity between a new chair announcement, ongoing legal battles and growing discontent among diverse editorial staff.
One article, reporting on Israeli troops raiding the Ibn Sina Hospital in the West Bank town of Jenin, initially referred to the “Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry” before social media users pointed out the error. Similar wording was also used on British outlet ITV. The error has since been rectified.
Hamas has exercised de facto control of the Gaza Strip since 2007. This is separate from the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank where the raid occurred and where the town of Jenin is located.
The ABC’s broadcast overnight also saw another mistake in identification, which would likely have been picked up by most cricket-loving viewers. Former cricketer Imran Khan was sentenced overnight to 10 years in prison for leaking state secrets, just days ahead of his political party being shut out of Pakistan’s upcoming general election. The ABC’s ticker read: “Fmr Indian PM Imran Khan gets 10 year jail sentence”.
India notably is a different country to Pakistan, where Khan was in fact captain of the national cricket team for a decade before entering politics and becoming prime minister from 2018 to 2022. If Khan was Indian, they perhaps might have won more than one Test series away from home during the 1970s and ’80s.
Moves
- Guardian Australia political editor Katharine Murphy will move into Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s office, having worked in the Canberra press gallery since 1996.
- Narelda Jacobs has begun hosting a new afternoon bulletin for Network 10, airing on weekdays at 3.30pm.
- Nine federal politics reporter Fiona Willan has started as a senior reporter at Sky News Australia.
“Basil Faulty”?
Both Channel 9 and Basil Zempilas were caught out, and quite possibly made bigger fools of themselves by trying to squirm out of the furor that followed.
I don’t see what Basil did wrong. He said nothing offensive about the women’s final, quite the opposite, and then tried to set the record straight when he was misrepresented.
I get lots of people don’t like his politics (I certainly don’t), so let’s criticise him on policy not fake “gotcha” clips
Off Topic.
By the way – where’s Maeve ?
I really miss her articles.
Again :- This latest Channel 9 ‘make-up’ melt-down? I’m surprised it wasn’t ‘down to Joe the Cameraman’?
And when it comes to the government’s loaded propaganda re ‘Gaza’ – the ABC seems to be failing over itself to do that bidding?
Yes, it seems as if the West’s propaganda on this issue is working well, with even the ABC buying into it.
Been doing that with China for decades.
I must be lost. It seems that the full Basil clip transcribed above seems to corroborate the initial reading, that he referred to the womens’ final as a reserves match.
Not sure what you watched/read, but the full context makes it clear that reading the news is effectively the “reserves match” because everyone will be watching the womens final instead
You can say a lot about Baz but he is an experienced sports commentator and just wouldn’t be bagging out a womens tennis final like Channel 6 etc. tried to spin
I read the transcription in this article which is why I sought clarification.
”
“It’s like a derby,” Zempilas said in response to the match-up.
“The tennis is on tonight, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, the female final,” Genovese replied.
“Oh, it’s a reserve game then.”
”
still not sure what in there gives you any other impression but go off. Why are your jets so hot?
Not sure how my jets are hot for trying to clarify the facts (I won’t be voting for Baz FWIW), but to spell it out in full:
Basil established that the channel 9 chap he was talking to was reading the news, but that the Ch 9 chap’s wife was also going to be reading the news on 7 at the same time. Baz make the crack that the two married news readers up against each other would be “like a derby” (eg West Coast vs Fremantle). But to make a dig at the Ch 9 guy he pointed out that the tennis final was on, so that, rather than it being a derby, the competiton between the two newsreaders would be “more like a reserves match” (ie because no one would be watching them because we would all be watching the tennis.)
Link to full video below:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-27/basil-zempilas-defends-himself-after-post-on-x/103397282
You need to also consider this part:
It’s clear to me that the ‘it’ referred to twice in banquo’s quoted passage above refers to the news. “It’s like a derby” refers to the fact that Genovese was competing with his wife on a different network. Because the womens’ final was also on, the news was relegated to the ‘reserve game.’ If the women’s final was a reserve game, what ‘game’ could it possibly be ‘reserve’ to in that conversation? Nobody mentioned the mens’ final.