Telegraph ‘misleading and unfair’ in coverage of Bill Shorten’s union commission evidence, rules press watchdog
The Daily Telegraph misled its readers with coverage of the Dyson Heydon commission into union corruption by wrongly using a large image of Bill Shorten in a way that gave the impression the Labor leader had been condemned rather than exonerated by the report, the press watchdog has ruled.
The article – which the Australian Press Council ruled breached its guidelines on accuracy and fairness – was published on the Sydney newspaper’s Saturday Extra section on January 2.
The double page report was illustrated with large images of Heydon and Shorten.
According to today’s APC ruling: “Below this were two quotes, apparently of findings, which were ‘He was almost always unbelievable. He conveyed an impression of being a phony’; and ‘The advantage of blaming a dead man … dead men tell no tales’.”
However, these were not findings from the report and did not refer to Shorten, who had given evidence to the commission in connection with his previous role as national secretary of the Australian Workers Union.
Although Shorten did not complain to the APC about the article, it chose to investigate the Telegraph’s coverage. According to the watchdog: “It said it would be clear to anyone who read the story that the quotes featured in the article were not referring to Mr Shorten and the article itself identified the other men to which each of the quotes referred and included smaller images of them which were not located near Mr Shorten’s image.”
But the APC ruled: “The Council considers that the publication failed to take reasonable steps to ensure the article was not misleading or unfair. Mr Shorten was exonerated by the Royal Commission. The Council considers that the presentation of the article including the sub-headline, the large image of the Royal Commissioner and the screen shot of Mr Shorten giving evidence set out opposite each other, the presentation of the quotes in large font without an indication of who they referred to all combined to convey a misleading and unfair impression that the quoted adverse findings referred to Mr Shorten.”
A summary of the ruling appears on page 35 of today’s Tele.
So typical of this particular rag. They have a political agenda and make everything fit with that at their convenience regardless of the truth of the matter
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While Australians are busy working, playing, following footy and trying to lead peaceful and happy lives our democracy is being eroding by the planned and systematic control of our media by the LNP the IPA and Murdoch in reverse order. The judicial wing of the government is being overtaken by the political government as Brandis now controls if a Minister with a problem or issue can take it to the Solicitor General. Abbott blurred the lines when he slept at the AFP instead of the lodge. The Australian government is owned by Murdoch and huge business with most profits going overseas.. The LNP is dividing the poor and creating division, perpetuating the hopelessness of an increasing number of Australians. It is almost too late to reverse this.
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THANK you John Dyson Heydon and the Liberal Party for showing that Bill Shorten was beyond criticism, and for helping to re-unite the Australian Labor Party so that it came close to taking government after its devastating loss less than three years ago.
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About time some scrutiny of our newspapers and the tricks they get up to. Considering the limited ownership of papers, its long overdue and I hope to see more of these enquiries. Thanks to Austrslian Press Council and Mumbrella.
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