Latest news with #LintonBesser
ABC News
04-08-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Europe has fallen
VOICEOVER: It is anarchy in parts of Spain, France and the UK right now as migrant gangs from Northern Africa and the Middle East violently tried to take over and intimidate innocent people … - Sky News Australia, YouTube, 15 July 2025 Hullo, welcome to Media Watch, I'm Linton Besser. And tonight, we cross to a continent of white people under siege by black people and by brown people tearing at the very fabric of society with all manner of deadly weapons. EUROPE HAS FALLEN Anarchy in Europe as North African and Middle Eastern gangs senselessly terrorise innocent victims - Sky News Australia, YouTube, 15 July 2025 That's the headline on a Sky News report published to YouTube last month which sounded the alarm on a migrant crime wave engulfing Europe, including in Spain where: VOICEOVER: … a man with a baby was callously threatened by a knife wielding gang for simply walking down the street. - Sky News Australia, YouTube, 15 July 2025 In the Catalonian capital meanwhile, the horrors continued: VOICEOVER: … the cobblestone laneways are no longer filled with people enjoying their vacations, but with hundreds of Muslim men chanting. - Sky News Australia, YouTube, 15 July 2025 Better cancel your trip to France too, because over there it's even worse: VOICEOVER: France is also in a migration mess with violence running rampant in the streets, like at the Fête de la Musique last month, where hundreds of young people were stabbed with syringes … - Sky News Australia, YouTube, 15 July 2025 Hundreds stabbed with syringes? And Sky News selected a very authoritative expert to point out all the black people: VOICEOVER: Online commentators were in shock with the footage, with this person saying 'This is France?! This looks like Ghana, not France.' - Sky News Australia, YouTube, 15 July 2025 This exquisitely nuanced piece garnered almost 40,000 comments, many of which were just as erudite, linking the video's many crimes not just with our well-known Jewish overlords but also to the 'great replacement' theory which motivated the 2019 Christchurch massacre. Although, scattered through the vitriol, a handful of Sky's audience had a somewhat different analysis: the biggest race baiting video I've seen so far on these YouTube streets lol - Sky News Australia, YouTube comment, @RenzelYoung, 27 July 2025 Which was a bit like stepping back out of the looking glass because this video has to be one of the most appalling and incendiary things I've seen in journalism for a very long time which, it should also be said, was also wildly wrong from the very first frame. This is not police beating back a violent migrant gang, but police beating back a violent mob of far-right vigilantes. And this video of a man threatened by a knife was in fact filmed in 2023, with no evidence the group was a 'migrant gang'. Likewise this video, rather than a migrant 'take over' of Barcelona, it captures Ashura, an annual day of commemoration for the Islamic faith. And on it goes. The mass syringe attack was in fact a mass panic triggered by a social media hoax with not a single confirmed case, and many of the reports of syringe stabbings in several locations quickly attributed not to migrants but mosquitos. Oh, and this vision is not a migrant takeover either, as dramatic as it might look, but the aftermath of the UEFA Champions League final in which fans clashed with each other and with les flics. As for this appalling internet comment, was it taken from a witness at the scene or an expert in migrant crime? Don't be silly, it's just a mean, deliberately racist remark from some far-right American keyboard warrior. And is Spain, to take one of Sky News' case studies, actually grappling with a surge of migrant-driven crime? Not even close. Whatever angst migration might be causing in the country, Spain's Interior Minister explained last month that: "Crime is not on the rise, nor is it linked to migration," … Despite a 54% rise in foreign residents between 2011 and 2024, crime has dropped seven percentage points, with hate crimes down 13.8% last year and Spain among the world's 25 safest nations … (Spain's Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska) - Reuters, 17 July 2025 And who is the journalist behind this call to arms? Her name is Carla Efstratiou, who has a very busy social media feed full of charming observations such as when she took a stroll through a pro-Palestinian student protest: CARLA EFSTRATIOU: … I swear it smells here, there is a definite stench … I feel like I'm getting rabies just being here … - Go Woke Go Broke, TikTok, 6 May 2024 And why has she been given license to produce this delightful contribution to human advancement? Read the numbers, baby. 3.6 million views. Kerrr-ching. In fact, Carla's contribution to the Sky News catalogue has attracted oh, just a few eyeballs. 7.6 million to be precise, just for this little selection, uploaded in the past few months. But, late on Friday, after receiving our questions, Sky News deleted Carla's nine-minute 'Anarchy in Europe' magnum opus, posting not a 'correction' of course but a 'clarification'. Carla declined to offer us a comment and Sky News would not answer questions about whether its journalist had been provided any guidance, support or editorial direction in the preparation of her package. A spokesperson told us: Sky News Australia rejects the characterisation of the online video by Media Watch but acknowledges that several elements lacked appropriate editorial context. - Email, Sky News Australia Spokesperson, 1 August 2025 Because that's all that was missing, just the context. And what was the video's headline again? Ah yes, 'Europe Has Fallen'. No it hasn't, Carla and co. What has fallen however, what has plummeted through the floor in this piece of drivel, is any sense of responsibility and the public interest.
The Australian
30-07-2025
- Health
- The Australian
ABC refuses to update Gaza child photo story as other media backtrack
The ABC's Media Watch program has defended its analysis of the widely circulated image of an emaciated Palestinian boy, despite other news outlets in Australia and overseas admitting that their use of the shocking photo lacked 'context'. Last week, numerous mastheads including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Daily Express, Le Monde, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, as well as the ABC, published an image of 18-month-old Gazan boy Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, who suffers from severe malnutrition. On Monday night's Media Watch episode, presenter Linton Besser said the image of Muhammad had 'stopped the world'. 'There can be little cavilling however that children in Gaza are facing hunger – the disabled and vulnerable among them hardest hit,' Besser said. 'Powerful evidence emerging in the past week courtesy of Palestinian journalists. 'But it was the images of one child which stopped the world. 'These photographs of 18-month-old Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq whose emaciated body is being denied the baby formula it needs.' But several hours earlier, London-based independent journalist David Collier published a report on his own website in which he cited evidence that in May this year Muhammad had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy and other conditions. Despite being aware of Collier's report before Media Watch went to air, the program made no reference to it – instead observing that Muhammad's skeletal frame was 'powerful evidence' that children in Gaza are facing hunger. Collier told The Australian on Wednesday there was evidence that 'some people in some areas are going hungry' in Gaza. 'But it is the basic role of a journalist to verify and check the facts before he writes a story, so the question is, is the image an honest image or a dishonest one?' he said. Collier told The Australian he 'felt sick' when he first saw the photo of Muhammad but quickly grew suspicious about the way it was used to illustrate hunger problems in Gaza. He said Muhammad's mother appeared healthy, as did the boy's older brother who was seen in other photos. Collier subsequently obtained photos of Muhammad's medical history, which stated the boy had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and hypoxaemia (low oxygen in the blood), possibly linked to a suspected genetic disorder inherited in an 'autosomal recessive pattern'. Collier alleged Muhammad's suffering had been 'hijacked and weaponised', and took aim at global media outlets, 'almost all' of which he accused of 'functioning as Hamas's useful idiots, amplifying propaganda with no effort to verify the facts'. In the wake of Collier's revelations, The New York Times admitted an error in publishing the image of Muhammad which ran on the newspaper's front page next to the headline: 'Young, old and sick starve to death in Gaza'. In a post on X, The New York Times said it had added an editors' note to its story after learning 'after publication … that (Muhammad) also had pre-existing health problems'. 'We have since learned new information, including from the hospital that treated him and his medical records, and have updated our story to add context about his pre-existing health problems,' it said in its statement. 'This additional detail gives readers a greater understanding of his situation.' On Wednesday, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age also updated their online news reports featuring the picture of Muhammad to accurately 'reflect the new information which has come to light'. 'After initial publication of the article, it was later reported that Muhammad's doctor had confirmed he had pre-existing health problems, as well as severe malnutrition,' the update in Nine's online mastheads reads. But the ABC has made no concession that its news reports featuring the photo of Muhammad, and Media Watch's analysis of the image, lacked context. Instead, the online transcript of Monday night's Media Watch episode was amended on Wednesday night to only include reference to the clarification issued by The New York Times. The ABC made no mention of the fact that at the time Media Watch went to air at 9.15pm (AEST) on Monday, Besser and the show's producers were already aware of the claims made by Collier about Muhammad's medical history, but chose not to mention them. In response to questions from The Australian, Media Watch executive producer Mario Christodoulou said the program sought to verify the medical condition of Muhammad by showing the photograph of the toddler to a Sydney-based academic and asking her to provide a 'professional opinion'. 'Not being in a position to verify Collier's reporting, we contacted an authority on the subject of cerebral palsy, University of Sydney Professor Iona Novak, to garner as best an independent and professional opinion as possible in the time frame,' Christodoulou said. 'That opinion assured us that the 'photographs appear to show a child with physical signs consistent with malnutrition' as well as a potential 'neurological condition'. 'In light of this, we were very careful to make plain that it was 'the disabled and vulnerable … hardest hit', as we introduced the photograph of al-Matouq.' The Growth Agenda Experts explain why American Eagle's controversial ad campaign featuring the White Lotus star was no accident — and who it is really aimed at. Wealth The Australian is launching Wealth, a dedicated section to help more Australians make smarter money choices.
ABC News
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Media Watch: Monday 14/7/2025
Media Watch NEW EPISODE ABC NEWS Current Affairs Australian Watch Article share options Share this on Facebook Twitter Send this by Email Copy link WhatsApp Messenger It's the show everybody loves until they're on it. Media Watch returns with a new host. Sitting in the hot seat will be four-time Walkley award-winner Linton Besser, an investigative reporter and former foreign correspondent. New episodes available every Monday night. Add to your Watchlist so you don't miss an episode.
ABC News
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Media Watch: Monday 30/6/2025
Media Watch NEW EPISODE ABC NEWS Current Affairs Australian Watch Article share options Share this on Facebook Twitter Send this by Email Copy link WhatsApp Messenger It's the show everybody loves until they're on it. Media Watch returns with a new host. Sitting in the hot seat will be four-time Walkley award-winner Linton Besser, an investigative reporter and former foreign correspondent. New episodes available every Monday night. Add to your Watchlist so you don't miss an episode.
ABC News
30-06-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Lattouf wins
TAYLOR AIKEN: Walking from court, victorious. ANTOINETTE LATTOUF: I was punished for my political opinion. TAYLOR AIKEN: Antoinette Lattouf winning her public showdown with the public broadcaster. - 7 News, 25 June 2025 Hello, welcome to Media Watch, I'm Linton Besser. And the sorry tale of Antoinette Lattouf arrived at its entirely predictable yet still shocking conclusion last week with unequivocal findings the public broadcaster had capitulated to a pro-Israel lobbying campaign and unlawfully jettisoned an on-air presenter who had done nothing wrong: ANTOINETTE LATTOUF: … I shared a Human Rights Watch post because Human Rights Watch found that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war. Today the court has found that punishing someone for sharing facts about these war crimes is also illegal… -7.30, ABC, 25 June 2025 The findings of the Federal Court reverberated across the country splashed in the pages of newspapers from coast to coast: ABC blows $1m in losing Lattouf case - The Sydney Morning Herald, 26 June 2025 Lattouf's win is a loss for ABC and taxpayers - The Herald Sun, 26 June 2025 And prompting despair from rusted-on lovers of the ABC: CRAIG: … I love the ABC and I will defend the ABC to the nth degree, long may it reign. I think what happened to Lattouf and the action the ABC took was appalling. MICHELLE: … I actually have lost trust in the ABC … … and I'm really disappointed because, you know, I've listened to you guys for 45 years … - Melbourne Mornings with Rafael Epstein, ABC Radio Melbourne, 26 June 2025 SALLY SARA: … this is from Jackie in Brisbane. 'What is also concerning is that pro-Israel lobbyists have had access to the ear of ABC upper management, ordinary Australians can only make a complaint online'. - Radio National Breakfast, 26 June 2025 Much of what occurred in the lead-up to the ABC's 2023 sacking of fill-in radio presenter Antoinette Lattouf has already been established. The coordinated barrage from her first day in the chair of complaints from pro-Israel voices, the pressure from former ABC chair Ita Buttrose grasping for any means by which Lattouf could be dumped, and of course the final straw Lattouf's notorious social media post. The ABC itself had already reported allegations from Human Rights Watch that Israel was deliberately starving the people of Gaza but Lattouf doing so after a string of social media comments deeply critical of Israel's military campaign that remarkably had not been considered before she was hired, so spooked senior echelons of the organisation it set in train a sequence of events which the Federal Court summarised like this: The consternation of senior managers of the ABC turned into what can be described as a state of panic. - Justice Darryl Rangiah, Federal Court of Australia, Lattouf v Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Judgment, 25 June 2025 But what this judgment does do is hold accountable those inside the ABC who played a role in this sorry affair. At the very top of that list, the director of the division then responsible for ABC Local Radio Chris Oliver-Taylor, at whose feet Justice Darryl Rangiah laid primary blame for Lattouf's removal. While Oliver-Taylor had insisted he had valid reasons for terminating Lattouf's employment the judge found otherwise: … I reject Mr Oliver-Taylor's evidence that the reasons given by him for his decision to take Ms Lattouf off air were his actual reasons. - Justice Darryl Rangiah, Federal Court of Australia, Lattouf v Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Judgment, 25 June 2025 Oliver-Taylor told the court he believed Lattouf had been explicitly instructed to not post anything online concerning the war in Gaza. The judge again disagreed: I find that, contrary to his evidence, Mr Oliver-Taylor knew that Ms Lattouf had not been given any direction and had merely been given advice or requested not to post anything about the Israel/Gaza war … - Justice Darryl Rangiah, Federal Court of Australia, Lattouf v Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Judgment, 25 June 2025 In fact, the ham-fisted sacking of the radio presenter was spurred by news of an imminent article in The Australian about Lattouf's comments on the conflict and the dread of external criticism: … Mr Oliver-Taylor sought to mitigate the anticipated deluge of complaints and criticism of the ABC … … the decision was made to appease the pro-Israel lobbyists who would inevitably escalate their complaints about the ABC employing a presenter they perceived to have anti-Semitic and anti-Israel opinions … - Justice Darryl Rangiah, Federal Court of Australia, Lattouf v Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Judgment, 25 June 2025 Oliver-Taylor's haste demonstrating: … extraordinary sensitivity to the prospect of adverse comment by The Australian. - Justice Darryl Rangiah, Federal Court of Australia, Lattouf v Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Judgment, 25 June 2025 While the judge found Antoinette Lattouf an honest and generally reliable witness and he made similar findings about the most junior of the ABC's managers caught up in the affair, Elizabeth Green, he was less kind about the hierarchy of ABC executives above her, 'unimpressed with Chris Oliver-Taylor's evidence under cross examination' later describing it as 'implausible' and inconsistent with his own notes. 'Implausible' too, the evidence given both by a senior editorial policy advisor Simon Melkman and Ben Latimer, the then head of audio content whose evidence he also described as troubling. The judge also rejected the evidence of the acting head of the ABC's Capital City Networks Steve Ahern: The evidence of Mr Latimer, Mr Ahern and Mr Melkman under cross-examination left me with substantial doubts as to the reliability and credibility of their evidence on controversial matters. - Justice Darryl Rangiah, Federal Court of Australia, Lattouf v Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Judgment, 25 June 2025 The performance in court of the ABC's former chair Ita Buttrose did not escape mention either: Ms Buttrose's evidence in some of these passages is difficult to understand … … [and] seems quite unrealistic … Ms Buttrose's evidence under cross-examination was somewhat theatrical and difficult to follow at times. - Justice Darryl Rangiah, Federal Court of Australia, Lattouf v Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Judgment, 25 June 2025 Not a single criticism was made of then Managing Director David Anderson's reliability with the judge preferring his version of history over that of his former boss. While both Anderson and Buttrose were found to have piled pressure on Chris Oliver-Taylor by forwarding him a clutch of lobbyist complaints Anderson in particular played a 'material' role in the affair, not because he failed to intervene in Oliver-Taylor's rash move to sack Lattouf, but by planting in his subordinates mind his view that Lattouf was a potential risk to the organisation and: … conveying his opinion that Ms Lattouf held anti-Semitic views. Mr Anderson's opinion was then adopted by Mr Oliver-Taylor. - Justice Darryl Rangiah, Federal Court of Australia, Lattouf v Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Judgment, 25 June 2025 The Federal Court did not find the ABC had been in any way motivated by racism, rather it had terminated Lattouf's employment on the basis of merely holding a political opinion which happened to be on the side of the Palestinian people. I am satisfied Mr Oliver-Taylor attributed to Ms Lattouf the holding of a political opinion opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, which in his view, made her unsuitable to work as a presenter at the ABC. - Justice Darryl Rangiah, Federal Court of Australia, Lattouf v Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Judgment, 25 June 2025 While Lattouf's posting of the Human Rights Watch Report to her Instagram account did not ever breach ABC policies, it was, according to the court, ill-advised and inconsiderate to the organisation. And how much has this cost the ABC? And by that I mean how much has it cost you? The organisation's new managing director Hugh Marks revealed the mounting legal bill to ABC Melbourne's Raf Epstein: RAFAEL EPSTEIN: What is the total bill gonna be, do you think? Lawyers' costs, penalties, everything, what are we looking at? … HUGH MARKS: … it will be millions … RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Does that mean more than two? HUGH MARKS: Oh I would suspect so … … it sounds like there's still more work to do. - Melbourne Mornings with Rafael Epstein, ABC Radio Melbourne, 26 June 2025 And yet, it could have all been made to go away 12 months ago with Lattouf publicly offering to drop the case in return for an apology a few shifts on radio and a mere fraction of what the ABC would spend defending itself in court: JOSH BORNSTEIN: The amount of money spent on a case that could have settled for $85,000 is self-evidently ludicrous … … it has been in aid of nothing other than to discredit the ABC … - 10 News First, 25 June 2025 So why didn't the ABC settle the case earlier? Answer: it tried. But while both sides did agree a final figure, which rose to $150,000, the ABC would not adopt the apology Lattouf sought, which included an admission the broadcaster had unlawfully terminated her employment precisely the outcome the court has now delivered her. On Wednesday, Marks released a public statement apologising to Antoinette Lattouf and told the ABC's News Channel: HUGH MARKS: … I regret the way that it was handled and I regret the way that her employment at the ABC was handled. - ABC News, 25 June 2025 Hugh Marks says the ABC will soon promulgate new social media policies. But the judgment creates a difficult tension between the ABC's obligations to impartiality and its ability to constrain the political speech of its staff, as employment lawyer Michael Bradley told us: This is tricky territory for any employer, especially one like the ABC which has public trust obligations of impartiality. … the proper balance between respecting personal freedom while preserving an organisation's ability to fulfill its mission exists; but that requires far more intelligence and insight than the ABC has recently displayed. - Email, Michael Bradley, Marque Lawyers, 27 June 2025 There is no shortage of hard lessons in this scandal for the ABC and now that almost every key player has departed the organisation those lessons must fall to the new boss. Last week, Hugh Marks promised to act as a better firewall between the organisation and future lobbying campaigns: HUGH MARKS: Our obligation is to ensure we're not overly affected by external forces and that's partly and pretty much a big part of my role … - ABC News, 25 June 2025 There's no doubt in my mind that Hugh Marks will indeed be tested on this very pledge. You could set your clock to crises in this place as the ABC strives to achieve an almost impossible nirvana of objectivity and impartiality while still wading into some of society's most divisive issues. Last week, the ABC was resisting an overhaul of policy and procedure and I think it's right to do so because the Lattouf affair was not evidence of a lack of policy but evidence of a lack of backbone. For the better part of a decade the public broadcaster has been repeatedly buffeted off-course by members of its board going weak-kneed before the gripes of the persistent and the powerful even when those complaints have very little, if any merit. Surely … surely, that must end now.
