Australian Women’s Weekly’s photo error labels innocent man as murder accused
An image of the photo in the March edition of AWW magazine which incorrectly labels Simon Webb as Michael O’Neill.
The Australian Women’s Weekly has admitted it has wrongly captioned a photograph of a Melbourne man labelling him as “the accused” in the murder of interior designer Stuart Rattle.
Editor-in-chief of Australia’s biggest paid for magazine Helen McCabe told Mumbrella that AWW – which has a circulation of more than 450,000 – made an error labelling a photo taken at a social event which featured Rattle with Melbourne architect Simon Webb.
The captioning on the image wrongly labels Webb “the accused” and incorrectly names him as Michael O’Neill, who was the partner of Rattle, and who now faces a murder charge over the death.
McCabe told Mumbrella: “The Weekly takes the matter very seriously and has had a full investigation into how the error occurred.
“I would like to add that through all our discussions Mr Webb has been most gracious and I am thankful for the manner in which he has handled the matter.”
McCabe did not elaborate on how the error occurred.
Attempts by Mumbrella to contact Webb were unsuccessful, however, associates of the businessman have said that he was deeply upset by the error. At this stage it is unclear whether he will he will take legal action.
Nic Christensen and Alex Hayes
A “full investigation” is a mighty fatuous deflection if I ever heard one.
The sub-editors didn’t do their jobs.
End of story.
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The investigative journalism at AWW seems unable to repeat the high set by the “investigation by the Australian Women’s Weekly” just a few weeks ago which uncovered Roxy Jacenko charging $200 for brand promotion on her daughter’s Instagram feed.
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The buck stops with Helen McCabe. Full stop.
When Helen was at The Sunday Telegraph I recall seeing her on Sunrise fiercly defending suggestive photos that she alleged were of Pauline Hanson. They weren’t of Pauline and Ms Hanson cried all the way to the bank after suing News.
I suggest that the “gracious” Mr Webb call Ms Hanson and ask for for a good lawyer so that he can sue Helen and Bauer.
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Sounds like another production error to me!
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Get out the cheque book Bauer. Your workers bees have just defamed an innocent man as a result of low professional standards………..or is it just your ‘couldn’t give a toss culture’.
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Funny how the subs always get blamed when something goes wrong, but never praised for all the good work they do – tidying up dreary copy, rewriting dross, pandering to massive egos etc, etc.
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The subbie may have made the error, but Helen McCabe is the Editor and should have picked up the error. Her bad, 100%.
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It’s just lazy journalism. They copied the picture from the Australian newspaper and put a different caption underneath it. If they bothered to read the Australian they would have seen it was not Michael I’m the picture.
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