60 Minutes ‘sincerely apologises for our serious mistakes’; review author Stone says sacking producer ‘unfair’
Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes last night again apologised for its role in a “child recovery operation” which saw crew of the current affairs program facing charges of kidnapping in Lebanon.
The segment, which aired at the end of last night’s program, saw host Michael Usher explain to viewers that: “Two months ago we set out on a story in Lebanon which ended up with our 60 Minutes crew and others being jailed in Beirut.
“Ever since we’ve been asking ourselves how things could have gone so wrong and tonight we face up to the errors we made – we sincerely apologise for our serious mistakes.”
Usher also interviewed Gerald Stone, the founding producer of 60 Minutes, who led a review into the Lebanon kidnapping incident, which on Friday revealed major flaws in the story approval process that led to its 60 Minutes’ crew pursuing involvement in the story.
Why wasn’t the person at Nine who signed off on the amount being transferred to the solider sacked? Was there no risk assessment done, no legal team involved in this decision? It seems off that only the producer has taken the fall for this.
Surely the batting order for getting boned would be the Executive Producer before the Producer. What goes?
I find it hard to believe that senior staff were ‘not aware’, given that the Executive Producer role was in a ‘care-taker’ mode around the period of the story development. From the Researcher who lined up the story to the Chief of Staff, Producer, Supervising Producer, two Exec Producers, Production Manager, Accountant, Head of Department… all heads in the sand? Nobody signed the cheques? or approved them? It’s almost impossible to get stationery ordered without a line of paperwork… C’mon Mr Marks, do you think we were born yesterday?
All this waffle about the 60 Minutes team getting too close to the story and not assessing the risks properly.
Come on! 60 Minutes wasn’t just covering an international child recovery operation. They paid for a kidnapping. That’s not a misadventure it’s a crime.