Crime fiction's a bit like love, really.
Bit of intrigue, a lot of fantasy and a great deal of regret.
The Hot Looks for Summer
The hot looks for summer.
Left. The hair suit Dan Singal and George Gorrow enjoyed the fashion show.
In fact, Dan's sewed her suit that if you shaved him, you might have enough for a hair suit.
The latest hot look from Subi.
Welcome to Media Watch, I'm Jonathan Holmes.
On Wednesday night, Channel 10's Scott McKinnon reported on the gender problems of South African athlete, Custer Semenya.
A man, I don't know what to say. It's pretty good to win a gold medal and bring it home.
Preliminary results have revealed a testosterone level three times that of a normal female.
But Scott got into some gender confusion of his own.
But as far as Winnie Nelson is concerned, there is no doubt.
We are here to tell the whole world how proud we are.
Winnie Nelson? Scott, that's Winnie Marikazela Mandela.
She used to be married to South Africa's patriarch, Nelson Mandela.
Or maybe you're confusing her with Willie Nelson. He's an American singer.
Or Lord Nelson, the victor of the Battle of Trafalgar.
Or even Winnie the Pooh, a bear of very little brain. Who knows?
Oh well, we all make mistakes.
But this is not a mistake.
This is all too deliberate ratings-chasing by 7 the Sunrise last Monday morning.
Tomorrow, 16 years on from the murder of little Jamie Bolger, are his killers now living in Australia?
We'll separate fact from fiction.
That was at a quarter past six. An hour later, David Kosh chimed in.
Tomorrow, 16 years on from the murder of little Jamie Bolger, are his killers now living in Australia?
We will separate fact from pure fiction.
And right through the show, 7 was running promos for that night's episode of City Homicide.
This is not Liverpool in 1993.
It's here, now.
From the first moment, you'll be captured.
Watch the family.
How many are involved?
They will kill me.
You are in for a classic.
This sidekick!
This new City Homicide tonight.
Amazing coincidence, isn't it?
A City Homicide story that explicitly references the abduction and murder of little James Bolger by two 10-year-old kids in Liverpool, England, 16 years ago.
This is not Liverpool in 1993. It is Melbourne, here and now.
James Bolger's mother was reportedly appalled that images of her son were used to advertise an Australian TV drama.
But Sunrise was every bit as shameless.
At the climax of the City Homicide episode on Monday night, Mel and Koshy popped up again.
Tomorrow, 16 years on from the murder of little Jamie Bolger, are his killers now living in Australia?
We'll separate fact from fiction Tuesday on Sunrise.
Koshy and Doyle teased their ability to tell fact from fiction twice more the next morning.
But when the item finally arrived after all this hype, what did we get?
18 minutes to 8.
Well, whatever happened to the killers of British toddler Jamie Bolger?
Last night's episode of City Homicide brought up memories of that case.
Indeed it did. Seven made very sure of that.
Koshy reminded us that two 10-year-olds were convicted of little James's murder in 1993 and that...
They were released in 2001 and now live under protected identities.
Now, every now and then emails go around the net saying that Jamie's killers have been relocated to Australia.
Well, we spoke to the Immigration Department and here's what they told us.
The Australian Government has not been approached to resettle either of the individuals concerned.
A spokesman says British authorities have assured them that is not under consideration.
So there you go. Jamie's killers are now free, not in Australia.
And that was it. Lasted a minute and seven seconds.
The rumour that Bolger's killers had been relocated to Australia was quashed by the Howard Government three years ago.
But according to Sunrise executive producer Adam Boland, it lives on on the internet.
This viral email about the killers arrives in our soapbox almost weekly.
We'd been intending to get it dismissed officially for some time.
Well, fair enough to scotch the rumour.
But for two days, Sunrise remorselessly asked this question as if it might be true.
Are his killers now living in Australia?
We'll separate fact from fiction.
Using a gruesome murder case for cross-promotion.
There's only one word for that performance, Melancholshe. Yuck.
And here's another exercise in promotion disguised as journalism.
Special feature.
Battling obesity.
That four-page feature in Sydney's Sun Herald two weekends ago contained eight stories by named journalists.
None dealt with low-carb diets or the merits of yoga.
Six of them dealt with a specific kind of weight loss surgery known as gastric banding.
Last year, about 14,000 Australians had laparoscopic surgery.
Squeeze. A gastric band.
Surgery saved my life, says radio host.
Personal trainer fighting fit after gastric banding operation.
Only a tiny number of readers would have noticed this little par in the bottom left-hand corner of page two.
This feature was independently commissioned but made possible through the financial support of Allegan.
And who or what is Allegan?
Well, it's the company that manufactures this.
The LapBand Adjustable Gastric Banding System is a tool to help you achieve sustained weight loss.
And that dominates the gastric banding market in Australia.
But that video is on an American website.
In Australia, any advertising of LapBand direct to consumers would be ringed around with restrictions and cautions.
Much better to pay for the Sun Herald's journalists to promote gastric banding surgery to readers.
It's what Fairfax Media calls a strategic feature.
It even has a strategic features division with its own sales development manager.
His email to a prospective client has found its way to MediaWatch.
My team never create advertorials.
Our readers are too switched on and don't favour this style of reports.
They feel that they are being dictated when a report is presented in this format.
The execrable English continues in this PowerPoint presentation on
Special Reports 2009.
Advantages of Special Reports.
Relevant and credible editorial environment written and endorsed by Fairfax journalists.
And paid for by Fairfax client.
Though naturally, the Fairfax Media editor has complete control over the editorial.
Normally, the sales manager explains to his potential client special features have 60% editorial, 40% advertising.
In regards to rate, you're looking at around 60k plus GST for the four pages based on a 60-40 or 70-30 split.
But the Special Report on obesity doesn't have any ads at all.
Allegan wouldn't tell us whether it still paid $60,000 but the company certainly gave a lot of help to the relevant and credible Sunherald editorial team.
For example, where did the paper find that personal trainer?
Four years ago and 56kg heavier, Andy Spalding never dreamed life could be this good.
Well, go to Allegan's gastric banding surgery website and what do we find?
Andrew, gastric banding surgery success. Andrew Spalding, 29, Melbourne.
We understand both the other success stories featured in the report.
Positive Change, Dave Wright.
And?
Drastic Action, Donna Morgan.
Were supplied to the Sunherald by Allegan's PR company, as were the names of some of the doctors quoted.
Nowhere in the feature are the risks that a company gastric banding surgery mentioned.
Though they're listed by law on Allegan's American website.
You should know that death is one of the risks.
Not to mention...
Ulceration.
Gastritis.
Heartburn.
Gas bloat.
And so on for page after page.
Well, no doubt your surgeon will warn you all about that if you ever get that far.
But as sales manager John Gavin assured his potential client in a Fairfax special feature...
Under no circumstances is there negative editorial written about client or the general market that they are involved in.
In the light of those emails, it's baffling that this morning MediaWatch received this response from the Sunherald's chief honcho, Lloyd Wish-Wilson.
The battling obesity supplement should have been labelled special advertising feature. It was an error.
Well, Mr. Wish-Wilson, looks like you should have a chat to the strategic features division, which reckoned that they...
Never create advertorials.
There seems to be a fundamental policy confusion, to put it mildly.
Now, this is what the Tweed Daily News clearly reckoned was a great front page yarn.
Nude man river hunt.
Censored.
The paper censored the man's genitals. It didn't blur his face as we've done.
In the community on the Queensland-New South Wales border, he was on the front page for all to recognise.
And on page two was this thrilling personal account by reporter Christy Martin.
My encounter with a naked man walking. You get to see a lot of unusual things working as a journalist.
Christy and her equally bold photographer, Crystal Spencer, had gone to the Tweed Riverbank...
After hearing the police were searching for a body.
An accompanying news report explained that police were alerted by three men in a houseboat.
After seeing the naked man on the edge of the water near Stott's Island, the concerned group assumed he was dead.
But as Christy and Crystal discovered, he was very much alive.
We were confronted with a shocking sight.
A naked man was trudging out of the trees near the riverbank and heading straight toward us.
Pausing only long enough for Crystal to take a photograph, she started the car and we took off in a hurry.
Christy ended her breathless account with...
The man was taken into custody.
She and Crystal raced back to their wretched little rag, whose editor, Brad Ricks, thought fit to slap the photograph on the front page.
Yet in the main news story, which carries no byline, the Daily News plainly says that the man wasn't taken into custody but...
To the Tweed Hospital by ambulance, where he would undergo a mental health assessment.
In fact, the man suffers from a serious mental illness.
It seems he'd gone swimming and forgot where he'd put his clothes.
His father, Robert, has told Media Watch that his son was approaching the two reporters...
To get help. It upset him at the time that they'd just drove off.
But when his son saw the story and the photograph in the Tweed Daily News next morning, he became a lot more upset.
He feels he is an object of ridicule and became more and more agitated over the weekend.
He then took flight on Monday morning with no money or shoes.
I and my family and friends searched and searched for him everywhere we could, night and day.
This could have had the outcome portrayed in the headline. That is, a dead body.
The young man was eventually located four days later. He's been in hospital since. His father continues...
I am appalled at the conduct of the Tweed Daily News.
Why my son walking naked in an out-of-the-way area of bush warrants the front two pages of the newspaper escapes me?
What public interest is served by this article?
The Media Alliance Code of Ethics says...
Never exploit a person's vulnerability or ignorance of media practice.
We asked the Tweed Daily News if that wasn't exactly what they'd done. We received no response.
Just time to admire the work of Nine News' New South Wales political reporter Kevin Wilde.
On Wednesday he was ahead of the pack on the big breaking story.
I've been told by Senior Cabinet Minister that the deal has been done and we will have a new Premier as early as Monday or possibly Tuesday.
But the next morning's Daily Telegraph featured a defiant Nathan Rees.
I won't go quietly.
And it now looks as if he'll be around for a while longer.
But Kevin Wilde was unapologetic. At least I think he was.
Well, Peter, I'm no sucker. My sources are impeachable.
And I've no doubt Nathan Rees will be trying to impeach them any day now.
That's it from us. Till next week, goodnight.