Outrageously bad journalistic ethics

Forums › Off topic › Outrageously bad journalistic ethics

dejadeadnz

2394 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#198544 13-Jul-2016 11:00

I have no words....

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11673644

Please watch the embedded video (if you want to skip ahead to the relevant bit, skip ahead to when there is about 1 minute and 15 seconds remaining on the video). The background is that the cops have shot someone dead and there are allegations by the deceased's partner (who was on-site) that, if proven, would amount to a very excessive use of force by the police. I have no idea who is right.

A journalist asked the Assistant Commissioner "Do you back the police and the Armed Offenders Squad"? Frankly, this is an extraordinarily dumb and ambiguous question. It can mean "Do you support the police and AOS?" on a general level and "Do you consider the shooting justified?", which certainly is not for the police to decide. Regardless of what one thinks of the AC's answer (I think he was quite silly to fall for the bait and to comment on whether the shooting was justified), I don't think it's right for "journalists" to twist them. Look at what Stuff have done with his words:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/82044490/cordon-remains-at-site-of-police-fatal-shooting-in-hamilton

There is a sub-heading that says 'This was unavoidable'. Under that sub-heading, the Assistant Commission is quoted to have said: "'This [the shooting] unavoidable,' he said". Beyond the fact that the sentence makes no sense grammatically, it left out the very important word "appears" in the sentence and also eliminated the context later on where the AC stated that this investigation is at an early stage and that the police will need to get all the facts etc. In my view, the way the article was written gave a very strong impression that the AC expressed a concluded view that the shooting was justified when this clearly did not appear to be the AC's intent. In case anyone thinks Stuff got this quote from another media conference, the fact that they quoted the Assistant Commissioner's words about how the police responded according to their training etc earlier tells me that they were at the same one.

Bad form, Stuff. Bad form.

1 | 2

1286 posts

Uber Geek

#1590870 13-Jul-2016 11:08

Truely awful. But this is what you get when Stuff employees, who usually generate content by summarising Reddit threads, are asked to write a story.

MikeB4

18435 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#1590876 13-Jul-2016 11:18

I think one could count the number of competent journalists in NZ on one hand none of which would be found at the Herald or Stuff

BTR

1527 posts

Uber Geek

#1590882 13-Jul-2016 11:22

You can't expect much more from stuff or the NZ Herald. Both have become obsessed with reporting more and more US crimes which don't really interest me and probably most of NZ.

I would prefer more local based news, reporters should be out and about finding good news stories not just copy and pasting. More positive news would be nice as well instead or doom and gloom.

I assume they will just report on whatever gets the most clicks though

dejadeadnz

2394 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1590898 13-Jul-2016 11:33

MikeB4:

I think one could count the number of competent journalists in NZ on one hand none of which would be found at the Herald or Stuff

I am not a big fan of the Herald either but, generally speaking, their people are still multiple notches above Stuff's. There's in my view another very unfortunate facet to Stuff's poor ethics in this instance: more knowledgeable members of the audience/those who have worked in the criminal justice world would know that some police honchos are/were prone to making stupid, conclusory comments following controversial use of force incidents. I did some work in a case where a District Commander made early comments to a journalist (and those were 100% accurately reported) which were proven to be ill-advised. I have to say that when I first read the Stuff article I thought "Oh ****, not again. Learn to shut the hell up!" and it was only sheer curiosity and disbelief that the police would be so silly given the current climate over the US shootings etc that drove me to view the whole of the video embedded in the NZ Herald article.

IF (and this is purely postulated for the sake of the argument) somehow there were improprieties associated with the police's conduct in this raid, some officer who was on the scene and wishes to give his/her side of the story which suggests mistakes or misconduct, may well be reluctant to do so after reading the Stuff article. The potential damage of such poor ethics goes well beyond just the issue of accuracy per se, IMO.

andrew027

1286 posts

Uber Geek

#1590952 13-Jul-2016 13:11

BTR: You can't expect much more from stuff or the NZ Herald. Both have become obsessed with reporting more and more US crimes which don't really interest me and probably most of NZ.

I would prefer more local based news, reporters should be out and about finding good news stories not just copy and pasting. More positive news would be nice as well instead or doom and gloom.

I assume they will just report on whatever gets the most clicks though

Sorry, Stuff only carries new Zealand news they can copy and paste from an existing Sydney Morning Herald article.

KrazyKid

1238 posts

Uber Geek

#1590956 13-Jul-2016 13:19

I've pretty much given up on Stuff. I go back to the site for some unknown reason once every 3-4 weeks and each time the headlines/articles seem worse and the sensational news leaders are all shocking things that happened overseas.

I recommend the Radio NZ web page. Still quality news on that site.
I think the habit I had a year ago of checking Stuff daily will soon be a once a year habit.

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#1590973 13-Jul-2016 13:49

I didn't look at this one, but yesterday Stuff has a story taking the piss out of a woman throwing a javelin badly, with the caption that it was like a'wounded duck. It was pretty much a form of bullying IMO. Stuff seems to have become just a click bait website. NZ Herald is the same, infact they now almost have the same stories these days. Maybe they have already merged. Not great for democracy when this is our top media platform in New Zealand, apart of RNZ who doesn't get enough funding.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

dejadeadnz

2394 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1592054 13-Jul-2016 15:57

You can't make this stuff up.

Stuff has since updated this article (http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/81811587/Police-shoot-person-dead-during-Hamilton-search) but the Assistant Commissioner is still reported to have said:

"This [the shooting] was unavoidable," he said.

So Stuff obviously spotted the grammatical error but didn't bother with the fact that they are continuing to misrepresent what the man said. Are they seriously this dishonest?

dejadeadnz

2394 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1592096 13-Jul-2016 16:57

Further on the topic of disgraceful journalistic ethics by Stuff, on their home page (at the moment) the headline of 'Execution' Killer to Walk Free" links to the below article.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/82051177/highway-61-execution-killer-matthew-grant-gets-parole-after-15-years-jail

Now these people list his parole conditions at the end of his article, so he's not exactly "walk[ing] free", is he? And under the Parole Act, those sentenced to life imprisonment and paroled are subject to the recall procedure if they violate conditions of their parole. But don't let facts get in the way.

MikeB4

18435 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#1592102 13-Jul-2016 17:18

dejadeadnz:

Further on the topic of disgraceful journalistic ethics by Stuff, on their home page (at the moment) the headline of 'Execution' Killer to Walk Free" links to the below article.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/82051177/highway-61-execution-killer-matthew-grant-gets-parole-after-15-years-jail

Now these people list his parole conditions at the end of his article, so he's not exactly "walk[ing] free", is he? And under the Parole Act, those sentenced to life imprisonment and paroled are subject to the recall procedure if they violate conditions of their parole. But don't let facts get in the way.

Facts in a news article, now that's just crazy talk

gzt

17104 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1592236 13-Jul-2016 20:25

Are the AOS equiped with body cam or helmet cam during operations?

1eStar

1604 posts

Uber Geek

#1592262 13-Jul-2016 22:14

I think stuff and herald are equally bad. Both agents reported recently after a relation of mine tragically died. Stuff had a reasonable article, but herald decided to take a whole lot of personal quotes from Facebook posts and 'reported' them, which I thought was very tasteless given the circumstances.

Geektastic

17942 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1592263 13-Jul-2016 22:16

Who cares? I want to know what Hiddleswift did today and whether any Kardashians have new boyfriends.

andrew027

1286 posts

Uber Geek

#1592388 14-Jul-2016 11:22

I see this morning's DomPost's front page report on this incident is no better, stating "Shooting unavoidable, say Police".

Asmodeus

1015 posts

Uber Geek

#1594838 19-Jul-2016 08:33

I WILL NOT go to or read Stuff's junk anymore, they are just awful... Unfortunately the NZ Herald is circling the crapper in ever decreasing circles too. The quality of articles is in rapid decline and don't even get me started about whatever typewriter chimp they employ as their social media editor...

Newshub seems to be a bit better but hardly amazing. Any other good sources of NZ news out there that aren't riddled with Kardashian/Bachelor/Reddit copypastas/dismal crime/"this illusion iz is dividing the internetz" horse manure?

1 | 2