April 22, 2003
MEDIA WATCH is wrong, Media
MEDIA WATCH is wrong, Media Watch knows that it is wrong, and Media Watch's viewers know that Media Watch is wrong. Some comments from Media Watch's guestbook:
"Come on. Media Watch got it wrong. Why don't you just admit it? Seeing you trying to wriggle out of it now is not an edifying spectacle and is more than a little hypocitical for Australia's premier media 'policeman'.
"I saw the show on Monday night and I have no problem admitting that I didn't believe the Tele's story, either. David Marr's presentation left me in no doubt that Media Watch had exposed the purported origin of the flag at the Pentagon on Septmeber 11 2001 as a fabrication ... There is no doubt that virtually every other viewer of Media Watch would have thought the same as I did and was left convinced that the Tele had fabricated the whole story."
"If MW didn't know the flag was from the Pentagon when it ran the story, then MW was incompetent. If MW knew the flag was from the Pentagon, then MW wasn't telling the full truth."
"Anybody who saw the segment regarding the flag could only have come away with the impression that the entire flag episode was a myth conceived and propagated by the pro-US Murdoch media. I think an on-air apology is owed to the Daily Telegraph, although the chance of getting any apology, from somebody as smug as David Marr, is zero.”
“You guys are kidding, right? Do you really expect anyone who watched the show (or even read the transcript) to believe that the reference to the Daily Telegraph was only intended to cast doubt on the fact that the flag was pulled from under debris, rather that recovered from elsewhere in the Pentagon on 9/11/01? Apart from anything else, what an utterly trivial point that would be to make: who would care if that were the Daily Tele's crime?”
And Media Watch's response to all of this?
No one can vouch for The Tele's claim that the flag came from under the rubble of The Pentagon. Their story was incredible and untrue. Our criticism stands.
Media Watch's criticism stands on the blighted corner of Obfuscate Ave. and Hypocrisy St., with its dacks down and rum on its breath. People walking by avert their eyes in disgust. Pity Media Watch.
Posted by Tim Blair at April 22, 2003 12:52 AM