Right-wing attacks on the ABC continue. This time Gerard Henderson's tilt at Media Watch & Professor Chapman backfires spectacularly

Weighed under by budget cuts and loss of an international platform the Australian Broadcasting Commission, everybody's Aunty, must wonder when Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's flying monkeys will cease their attacks on its integrity.

Fortunately some of those who become collateral damage in the war on public broadcasting bite back publicly, as did Simon Fenton Chapman AO BA(Hons) (UNSW), PhD (USyd), FASSA, HonFFPH (UK).

Professor Chapman in Crikey on 23 February 2015:

Over the weekend and this morning, The Australian's Gerard Henderson and Simon King spent a lot of ink explaining to readers that I have "as much authority to discuss health affairs as I [Henderson] do. Namely, Zip."

Their readers needed to be told this because last week Media Watch tipped a very rancorous bucket over The Australian's reportage of a "study" from Victoria by acoustic engineer Steven Cooper that involved just three households of altogether six long-time complainants about the local wind farm. There was no control group. Here and here are critiques of the many manifest inadequacies of his report.

I was one of four people quoted by Media Watch in the program, and this got our Gerard very excited. He wrote to the program:

"Media Watch's decision to associate Professor Chapman with the words 'expert' and 'scientific' gave a clear impression that he is qualified to assess scientific research. However, Paul Barry neglected to advise Media Watch viewers that Simon Chapman had no scientific or engineering or medical qualifications. He has a BA (Hons) from the University of New South Wales and a Ph.D. from Sydney University. Dr Chapman's Ph.D. is in Sociology. In other words, Simon Chapman has no qualifications to assess the research of the acoustic engineer Steven Cooper … Media Watch misled its viewers last Monday by implying that Professor Simon Chapman is an 'expert' who is 'scientifically' qualified to assess the heath effect on humans of wind farms. The fact is that Simon Chapman has no formal qualifications in science or medicine or engineering."

This morning Simon King went one better with his discovery that ""He does not have a PhD in Medicine". In fact, I do have a PhD in medicine. Here's a list of 14 of us who graduated in 1986 with … wait for it … a "PhD in medicine", as King could have read if he'd checked my CV (line 1, page 3) or asked me.

I did my PhD in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine (that M word again). The duffers on the Order of Australia committee also seem to know that I contribute to health and medical research. My citation reads "for distinguished service to medical research as an academic and author".

King and Henderson appear to know nothing about the nature of contemporary expertise and how nearly all complex problems in health and medicine today involve researchers from different disciplines working together. In my school in the faculty of medicine there are staff who are biostatisticians, historians, psychologists, ethicists, economists, epidemiologists, and social scientists. Only some — probably a minority — have undergraduate degrees in medicine. Henderson's primitive understanding of expertise begins and ends with the possession of an undergraduate degree…..

Steven Cooper, whose CV has no mention of any PhD or undergraduate degree in medicine, until recently referred to himself as "Dr Cooper" on his home page. I look forward to The Australian covering this…..

Read the rest of the article here.

Editor made use of internet sources, but he forgot to thank them

The front page of today's Daily Examiner carries a report written by its editor, Peter Chapman, about the disqualification of a jockey whose urine sample tested positive to a banned substance.

Racing NSW stewards disqualified the hoop for 12 months on the basis of an analyst's finding of an opioid in a sample taken from the jockey after he completed trackwork in July.

According to Chapman, "the test revealed traces of the prohibited drug, Buprenorphine, in his system".

No, Peter, stewards did not reveal to the public just what the jock's sample contained.

Chapman proceeded to provide readers with the duck's guts about Buprenorphine.

Although it made for interesting reading, Chapman didn't say that the information provided about the substance was lifted from any one of a number of sources on the internet. And, of course, he didn't acknowledge the source/s.

Even more interesting, was what Chapman (with all his editing skills) elected to leave out about the substance's adverse effects.

In addition to the effects stated, the source/s Chapman 'borrowed' from also stated that the substance had the potential to affect a chap's love making.

Thanks, Peter, for sparing the readers those details!

Read Chapman's piece in The Daily Examiner's here.

Free to a good home. One red-neck editor

If anyone in the Clarence Valley was surprised at either the increasingly strident editorials coming from the pen of new The Daily Examiner editor, Peter Chapman, his tabloid-style of journalism or the fact that he attacked one letter to the editor writer (critical of his fear mongering) by name in an editorial - be surprised no more.

It seems that the ABC's Media Watch 1999 archives may give a measure of the man that APN News & Media Ltd has foisted on our unsuspecting valley communities.

Richard Ackland: The flack asking the questions was the public relations manager of the Canberra Raiders, Peter Chapman.
Chapman and Pearson nutted out the questions and answers in advance of it being recorded, and released it to the over-excited news services.
No journalist got within cooee of a question.
But that wasn't the only deception.
Much of the video "press release" centred on the leak, and who had leaked:
Chapman: "Who had a copy of that statement?
Pearson: "Ah two people initially had a copy of that statement. "(Channel 10 News, 4/8/99)
Richard Ackland: Well, that was three.... And there was more probing:
Chapman: "Have you asked who released it?
Pearson: "Um, I've queried and I can only put two and two together."(Channel 10 News, 4/8/99)
Richard Ackland: I hope he got four. Then there was the immortal:
"How do you feel about the leaking of this confidential document?"(Channel 10 News, 4/8/99)
Richard Ackland: We know of at least two sources, and neither is the NRL's lawyer. One was Kennedy's manager, John Fordham.
But the other was much closer to home.
Peter Chapman was the confidential Raiders' source who had selectively leaked to the 'Canberra Times'.
The same Peter Chapman who asked all those "wide-eyed" questions which suggested the leak was a terrible betrayal.
It's all smoke and mirrors in the fabulous world of public relations.
Until next week, goodnight.

APN's current share price listed on its website last night was:
Australia 3.28 (0.01% change)
New Zealand 3.90 (0.00% change)

Some in the Valley are betting that, with editors like this, APN Australia is about to take a bath.

Daily Examiner editor leaves the building: don't slam the door on the way out

When Peter Chapman took over as The Daily Examiner editor little was known of him locally in the Clarence Valley except that he hailed from other climes in recent years, was a former television sports commentator and had been rapped over the knuckles by an ABC TV Media Watch program in the 1990s.

I think I can safely say that a number of residents looked forward to having a new editorial voice at the helm of their only local daily newspaper on the grounds that a change was as good as a holiday.

So at first some Daily Examiner readers were puzzled by the odd discordant notes hit by Chapman in his early articles and comments.

Puzzlement quickly turned to something close to outrage in certain quarters, as those odd notes turned into frequent reports and opinion pieces which attempted to either demonise and marginalise segments of the Valley community or blatantly bag various small towns, villages and community facilities.
While an increasing number of so called news reports, whose raison être seems to have been advertising goods or services, tried the patience of many.

What wasn't widely known at the time was the fact that Chapman was using an APN News and Media running sheet benignly called Readers First. [APN version Ewart version Press Council version]

This publishing philosophy calls on editors and journalists to report news which is more responsive to and reflective of the needs and interests of a newspaper's readership, to make advertising an important part of the editorial/news team and have journalists give a less detached account of events or embed themselves in their stories.

However, in Chapman's rather clumsy hands this meant that The Daily Examiner abandoned editorials, began to pander to perceived community bias and prejudice, published blatant advertorials and allowed hearsay or downright gossip to form the basis of a significant part of the news in some issues (with a tinge of racial profiling or chauvinism often thrown in for good measure).

The Clarence Valley reacted in various ways - by simply shrugging shoulders as they turned the page, challenging the editor in the letters column, phoning him directly to refute some of his more outrageous assertions, complaining to senior management, contacting watchdogs, stopping any engagement with the newspaper or laughing outright at claims that newspaper circulation was rising rapidly rather than merely marking time as it has done since the turn of the century.

It was noticeable that some of the goodwill garnered by the 150 year-old newspaper was being needlessly dissipated under the Chapman editorship, but a few locals still tried to support this North Coast icon with news tips even when personal irritation levels were high and rising higher.

After less than fifteen months as editor Peter Chapman officially left The Daily Examiner this week as far as I can tell.
He is heading back to Queensland to take up the position of editor at yet another APN masthead, the Fraser Coast Chronicle.

Comic relief ... it's just not cricket

More about that "No penis, no microphone" business

ABC TV's Media Watch has hit The Daily Examiner commentator Peter Chapman, the bloke who started the business, for six.

Media Watch didn't buy Chapman's assurances that he's not a male chauvinist ["...as one of the first sports editors in Channel Ten to employ female sports journalists, I can't be labelled a male chauvinist (The Daily Examiner, 7th April, 2009)"]

Media Watch: The horror! Peter Chapman is a sports buff from way back - with views to match.

According to him, this female person didn't have a clue what she was talking about.

Instead she...

...tried to bluff her way through by explaining how we need more swing bowlers and the difference a hard and soft ball can make to scoring rates.

— The Daily Examiner, 7th April, 2009

She has a name, Peter. It's Natalie Germanos, and she's been calling cricket for the South African Broadcasting Corp since 2005.

She's a former player, and coach.

Here she is, bluffing away about swing bowling:

Natalie Germanos: What you've seen in this game that Wayne Parnell, a decent amount of swing and Dale Steyn as well, he hasn't got much swing over the summer, especially here in South Africa, but moved that white ball around quite a bit and was very effective.

— Fox Sports 2, Aus vs RSA ODI, 5th April, 2009

Funnily enough, right after the game, Allan Border seemed to think South Africa's swing bowling was quite important too.

...the way they struck with the new hard ball early, they swung the ball at good pace and our top order crumbled...

— Fox Sports 2 web video, 5th April, 2009

We got a long response from Peter Chapman, who now argues that it's Natalie Germanos's commentary he took issue with, not her gender...

I have no concerns should a female commentator arrive who can deliver the goods, I welcome her.

— Email from Peter Chapman (Editor, The Daily Examiner) to Media Watch, 9th April, 2009

Read Peter Chapman's response to Media Watch’s questions.

That's not quite what you wrote, Peter:

I don't mind female sports journos doing interviews and giving us the colour reports, but for blow-by-blow, it has to be a male.

— The Daily Examiner, 7th April, 2009

Mind you, Peter assures us:

...as one of the first sports editors in Channel Ten to employ female sports journalists, I can't be labelled a male chauvinist.

— The Daily Examiner, 7th April, 2009

Oh, I think you can, Peter...

What gripe does the Daily Examiner have with PNG?

After Wednesday night's State of Origin the Examiner's editor, Peter Chapman, called for all NRL video referees "to be taken to the docks for a one way trip to Papua New Guinea".

Many people will agree with Chapman that the video referee in Wednesday night's NRL State of Origin went way too far when deciding 'No Try' after Blue's Jarryd Haynes had flirted with the touch line.

However, sending all the video refs to PNG is stretching things a bit too far. What on earth have PNGers done that caused Chapman to decide they should have to host the refs?

Chapman admitted that he "bunkered down at home for the match complete with freshly-ordered pizza and a cold drink by (his) side".

Perhaps, Chapman had one cold drink too many. Then again, perhaps the pizza was off.

At what point does a regional newspaper die, fade away or simply get killed off by its inept editor?

The Daily Examiner out of Grafton on the NSW North Coast has been around a long time. Since 1859 in fact.

It has had its ups and downs, but is still strongly supported and rather affectionately known as The Egg Timer - because local wags are convinced that you can always read it cover-to-cover in under three minutes.

If one local is any indication, that affection has begun to slip since Peter Chapman became this newspaper's editor.
With what could only be described as indignation, Tuesday's opinion page was pushed under my nose that day and, one of the many inconsistencies of the 'new' editor pointed out to me.

I have to say that I see the point.

The Daily Examiner had previously begun a juvenile, weekly name and shame file for DOI drivers convicted by the court.
Convictions, names, street addresses, and up until now professions or job descriptions if available, were published with gay abandon.
It seems that the editor subscribes to the notion that convicted persons should be punished twice - once by the court and once by his good self. All in the name of a supposed push to curb local drink driving.

So it was rather surprising to see the editor on that particular opinion page both defend his DOI file and at the same time encourage people to go forth and gamble at the Pacific Hotel in Yamba and "cheer on the long shots. Two hours of free booze is just as good as backing the winner yourself." [The Daily Examiner,Grafton,Tuesday October 21 2008,p.8]

Yes, there it was, the editor encouraging a booze up.

I wasn't surprised when my friend's observations ended with words to the effect that Chapman had been doing the rounds of the Clarence Valley in a meet and greet exercise obviously looking for positive strokes like 'you're wonderful, Peter', but that she was damned if she was going to go up and give him what he wanted.

This little incident occurred in the same week Chapman was being taken to task in the letters column for his 'advertorials', a recent downer on a Lower Clarence festival and for proclaiming the death of a village which knew itself to be alive and kicking.

But then, since Chapman arrived on the scene, proclaiming a death ahead of time is not unknown in The Daily Examiner.

Personally I'm looking forward to hearing the hiss of collectively indrawn breath when it is realised that, in defending yet another of his recent by-line pieces yesterday, Chapman incorrectly cited Clarence Valley Council rules and regulations regarding domestic animals as a justification for his little spit.

Did the editor's dog eat his homework?

How does one account for the Comment in today's Daily Examiner by its editor Peter Chapman?

In a piece titled Banks law unto themselves Chapman has simply reproduced, word-for-word, a media statement released by Senator Steve Fielding.

Okay, let's give Chapman some credit. He acknowledged it was Fielding's work and to make things easier for his readers he turned one paragraph that consisted of two sentences into two one-sentence paragraphs.

Perhaps the editor's dog ate his homework and when it came time to hand up his copy for today's paper he had nothing.

Let's hope other journos at The Daily Examiner don't follow Chapman's lead and simply rehash media statements.

Oh, by the way, Fielding's media statement can be read here.

Peter Chapman's stint as editor of The Queensland Times is catching up with him

Peter Chapman first swam into public view as a Channel 10 sports editor, commentator and presenter in the late 1980s.

He left after ten years to work for Canberra Raiders NRL Club and the New Zealand Breakers basketball team.

He re-entered journalism in 2006 and stayed with APN News and Media for ten and a half years as editor first of The Daily Examiner, then the Fraser Coast Chronicle and finally The Queensland Times.

He quietly slipped out of journalism again in November 2016 when he went to work for Leda Holdings, a property development and investment company, as its Marketing and Media Manager. Presumably the new owner of APN's regional newspapers, News Corp, or Peter himself thought they would not be a good match.

Unfortunately for Peter his abrasive style as an editor meant that his journalistic 'sins' rarely go unnoticed and, on 28 May 2018 ABC TV "Media Watch" program finally featured his time covering Ipswich politics in Queensland. With the program's presenter discussing the latest revelations of corruption in Queensland, and how a huge local story mysteriously went missing in the media.

As the Clarence Valley, home to The Daily Examiner, was never enamoured with his divisive, sometimes biased reporting, locals were quick to point out that "Media Watch" was doing a third segment on Peter.

Who could forget the first two, Peter as the the leaker in 1999 or as the sporting chauvanist in 2009? 

These are some of the program snapshots that were sent to me with the comment - "It was classic Chapman"!

How a journalist working with him at the time assesed the situation.

On Wednesday 2 May 2018 the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) charged Ipswich Mayor Antoniolli, former mayor Paul Pisasale, two council CEOs and eight other council staff with sixty-six charges of corruption.

Peter Chapman is probably still wiping the egg off his face.

Clarence Valley whodunnit

Snapshot from Media Watch

Courtesy of Clarrie Rivers

Ever since ABC TV Media Watch featured The Daily Examiner editor Peter Chapman's ill-fated foray into gender politics, some Clarence Valley residents have been wondering who sent off that copy of Chapman's "Comment" article.

One person caused a smile by suggesting that it would be impossible to tell whodunnit due to the number of those already annoyed with Chapman and that "the perp could've come from a cast of thousands".

While on the subject of The Daily Examiner, this was sent to me yesterday as an example of advertising thinly disguised as news. Something which appears to be cropping up too frequently under Chapman's editorship.

Click to enlarge image

Yaegl Yarning Circle on Birrinba (Clarence River) foreshore at Maclean

The Daily Examiner, 29 May 2019

The Daily Examiner, 29 May 2019, p.5:

A location in Maclean once synonymous with exclusion of indigenous people from the town’s business district has been turned into a symbol of inclusion.

The site of the Yarning Circle, in MacNaughton Place, was chosen because it once marked the “demarcation line” that blocked the Yaegl people’s access to the centre of Maclean.

A director of the Yaegl Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation, Dianne Chapman, said the line was not something lost in the past.

“The significance of the site is that a lot of our elders who have passed on would fish there,” Ms Chapman said.

“They would come across from Ulugundahi (Island). Because of that demarcation line they would have to wait there until they got permission.

“Back in the old days there used to be ‘dog tags’ they called them. They were cards that enabled certain people, under the Aboriginal Protection Act, to go to places.

“Not everyone, just certain people that they could give permission to do that.”

Ms Chapman said her grandfather had been one of the people who the authorities at the time entrusted with one of those cards.

“It wasn’t that far away,” she said. “There’s a lot for the wider community to realise what happened to Aboriginal people.”

Ms Chapman said the yarning circle would give the local community a chance to catch up on the region’s local heritage going back tens of thousands of years.

“It’s sad a lot of the local community know more about Scottish people here than they do about Aboriginal people,” she said.

She said the yarning circle was somewhere Aboriginal people could meet to talk and reminisce and share culture based on the spoken word.

“We are a culture based on language and face-to-face contact,” she said. “This is how we connect to each other and our land. It’s who we are.”

So this is what passes for NSW regional news these days?

Snapshot from The Daily Examiner, Grafton NSW

It wasn't that many days past since The Daily Examiner editor Peter Chapman was sounding off about ABC North Coast Radio's limited news coverage.
In fact I commented upon his views in this recent post Chapman uses Chaser blunder to hit back at Media Watch.

Well, Mr. Chapman continues to exceed himself, with blatant advertisement masquerading as reporting turning up in the newspaper under his stewardship yet again on 11 June 2009 at page 6 of a 32 page issue.

So enchanted is the editor with this no-brainer form of faux news that the article is also on the newspapers website, where one can happily learn that the principal dealer is committed to taking Clarence Valley Auto well into the future and that he will look after the local community and offer the best possible deals I can on Ford and Hyundai, as well as the best service.

One cannot help wondering if all these not so stealthy advertisements are paid for or if they are freebies for friends.

What they are definitely not is news reporting.

APN's Peter Chapman turns even nastier than usual on the Fraser Coast

Excerpt from the Fraser Coast Chronicle on 13 April 2012:

Which...

...high-profile candidate is so worried about Election Gossip that he has been digging for some dirt of his own?

This man has even gone so far as to make calls to certain people in Grafton, New South Wales, in a desperate attempt to find anything at all he thinks he could use as a shield.

If this candidate believes he can spare himself the scrutiny of the Chronicle, he had better think again.

Stay tuned...

...the Stealth Reporter hears all...

It doesn’t take a genius to see the visage of Fraser Coast Chronicle Editor, Peter Chapman, behind this ‘column’ which appears dedicated to anonymous and scurrilous gossip concerning mayoral and councillor candidates in the Fraser Coast Regional Council Election called for 28 April 2012.

The Clarence Valley would not tolerate the ugly side of Mr. Chapman’s editorship of Grafton’s The Daily Examiner and told him so early and often. He left the Valley after less than fifteen months at the newspaper and went north into Queensland – sped on his way by widespread community dislike of his divisive journalistic personality.

I suspect that the Fraser Coast is now paying the price for not following the Valley’s example.

* Graphic from The Fraser Coast Chronicle

Greatest problem! Crisis! It's extravagation time at Tabloid City

Image from The Daily Examiner on 12 June 2009, page 14 and pointer on the front page

There is a reason why newspaper journalists were just two places off the bottom of the Roy Morgan June 2009 poll, which rated public perception of the ethics and honesty of Australia's main professional groups.

Here is a perfect example of modern gutter journalism - The Daily Examiner indulging in a little Ngaru Village bashing (calling it the shame of Yamba) and in the process telling us that no-one wanted to talk to the newspaper even though it was going though politically correct channels.

According to the editor's Comment article; an urban residential area, with no more than fifteen unit clusters/houses (about twelve occupied) and a handful of kids, is apparently causing the greatest problem facing the Clarence Valley community today.
In fact it's a crisis!

In increasingly breathless purple prose the editor expects that any car he travels to the village in will likely be pelted with stones and abuse will be hurled.

Yes, I can really see his point.
Disregard the fact that many of the Yaegl traditional owners live quietly in the wider 6,500-strong Yamba community and, that there are around 50,000 people living across the Clarence Valley on any given day which means that the combined weight of the dominant groups outnumber these original Australian families.
Forget that it is the personal experience of many Yamba residents that when travelling into Ngaru Village they are only met with a quiet and dignified politeness.
Completely ignore those indigenous families where a parent works full-time and the children go to school regularly.
A few kids in one area are allegedly busy turning our cherished, otherwise major problem-free, whitebread way of life to dust if the hyperventilating editor is to be believed.

The day Peter Chapman published this tripe I happened to pass a Yamba home mourning the recent loss of a young indigenous person to suicide - but blinked editors don't even think about the sort of conditions which cause this all too frequent tragedy, do they?

Oh, but I am remiss! I am forgetting to mention that the very next day after his Comment went to print the editor offered to 'help' Ngaru Village.
How did he do that? Why by splashing out on the entire front page of The Daily Examiner's Saturday issue with this supposed offer, in which his opening paragraph stated that the Yamba aboriginal community...is collapsing.

Then on Page Four filling the personally-penned article with hearsay, outright gossip and ill-formed opinion.

As well as admitting that he had sent an apparently uninvited photographer into the village at 6.15am the previous day (when the Yamba air temperature was 7 degrees Celsius according to BoM and sensible folk were still inside eating breakfast in front of a heater) to take surreptitious photographs of one of the three dwellings that had already been scheduled for demolition years ago and what appears to be one occupied house.

Which seems to encompass the entire range of spurious help the editor offered.

Peter Chapman is indeed the ugly face of Australian journalism.

Update:

A letter to the editor (very similar to this post) was sent to The Daily Examiner, which published same on 16 June 2009, along with a lengthy Editor's Comment attached.

The comment was a laugh and a half as it stated in part; you are so far wide of the mark you couldn't find your way back with a guide dog, a compass and a map.

The editor rather strangely went on to say that this [my] attitude of indifference was what has caused all the problems at Ngaru Village.

However, what produced the greatest laughter was Peter Chapman's assertion that when publishing the letter in question he was not deleting any of your diatribe.

Poor man just can't help himself, as this was yet another extravagation - he had indeed deliberately deleted eleven words in the middle of a sentence; the Yamba air temperature was 7 degrees Celsius according to BoM and.

Apparently the rest of the Clarence Valley was not supposed to know that he sent the photographer out in cold weather!

Just as that Saturday's frontpage story and Page Four article have not been posted on The Daily Examiner website to date.

It didn't take long for advertorials to rear their ugly heads in The Daily Examiner again

A local resident complained to me about what he described as a return to "the Chapman ways" with The Daily Examiner indulging select businesses with free advertorials.

Chapman being an editor who briefly graced Grafton with his presence and left once he realised that the social temperature was dropping in his vicinity.

There are no two ways about this print and online article in The Daily Examiner on 31 December 2013 - it is an advertorial pure and simple masquerading as local news on Page Three:

Just as the online real estate advertisement in the same issue also attempted to pass itself off as news.

Not that there are likely to be too many letters to the editor or online comments on the subject which see the light of day, as APN News & Media has recently issued a blanket warning that any criticisms of its journalistic efforts must be written in the mildest of terms or they won't be published or posted.

Apparently, when faced with paying for a print newspaper containing faux news APN would like its readers to be "positive". Oh dear........

Brave young Maree Jay takes on the ugly face of Australian journalism at The Daily Examiner

Hot on the heels of The Daily Examiner office at Yamba being broken into and what sounds like an amount of petty cash stolen, that newspaper attempted to run a crime wave scare concerning people of aboriginal appearance and allegedly low police numbers [The Daily Examiner, 11 June 2009].

Something that Grafton Police Chief Inspector Darren Spooner flatly denied as he happens to live in Yamba [The Daily Examiner, 13 June 2009,p5].

By 12 June 2009 this inchoate media beatup had quickly morphed into a generalised attack on the indigenous community of Yamba.

Now 22 year-old Maree Jay of Grafton has taken the newspaper's boastfully unrepentant editor to task for his judgmental, one-eyed, hearsay-ridden view of the Yaegl community.

Once again, Peter Chapman has added an editor's comment which reflects his inability to recognise his own journalistic shortcomings.

Ngaru Village

THIS is a formal complaint written to the people involved in the production and publishing of the story 'Yamba's Mission' (DEX, June 13).
This article is an example of social segregation and disinclusion. These are two words identified by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commissioner 2003 as contributors to a) the history of oppression of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait lslander people and b) the continuation of such abuse.
By publishing this story you are actively continuing that cycle. The 'Yamba community' is spoken to as if they are white, and the 'Aboriginal people'are not spoken to, they are spoken about.
It is 2009, I am 22 years old and the printing of this story made me feel sick in the bottom of my stomach.
I wonder how a story with the same stereotyping, ignorance, opportunism and the lack of factual research seen in stories published when my grandmother was 22 years old can be so destructively distributed throughout our community.
Did you ask anyone in the Aboriginal community anything about their life? No. You snuck in at 6.15 in the morning to rely on photos that give an out-of-context, sensationalised impression.
lf you were a Koori person, would you want to go into town with this story in the press?
Maree Jay,
GRAFTON.

EDITOR'S COMMENT; The response from Maree Jay reflects indignation that someone would dare criticise Yamba's Ngaru Village.
Like us, you know that our story is based on fact, not on rumours.
Key details of what is happening at the village have been known to this paper for many months.
Rather than attack us, the question I put back to you is: As a concerned 22-year-old what have you done in the past few years to assist Ngaru Village and to help improve the living standards of the children who call the village home?
It would have been easy for this paper to have ignored Ngaru Village. We knew we would generate howls of protests like yours.
I don't apologise for taking the stance we have, in fact l would have been embarrassed if we
hadn't.

As the editor has not yet made one constructive suggestion or concrete offer of help, it is the height of hypocrisy on his part to suggest that another should be doing so.

Peter Chapman may not be embarrassed, but I wouldn't mind betting that there are a few reputable journalists who would be embarrassed by his amateurish existence.

WIN TV breached by ACMA for immunisation story

ACMA media release 41/2013 – 7 June

WIN Television NSW Pty Ltd (WIN TV) breached two provisions of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice in a news report on WIN News Illawarra about measles vaccination that misled its audience.

The report was broadcast on 16 August 2012 and concerned an outbreak of measles in south-western Sydney.

Included in the story was the following unqualified statement made by a non-expert: ‘All vaccinations, in the medical literature, have been linked with the possibility of causing autism...’

The Australian Communications and Media Authority found that by broadcasting that statement and by conveying a higher level of controversy and uncertainty about immunisation than was justified by the facts, WIN TV had failed to broadcast factual material accurately.

 ‘The story would have misled an ordinary viewer about the level of risk of vaccinating children,’ said ACMA Chairman, Chris Chapman.

The ACMA also found that WIN TV did not make reasonable efforts to correct the significant error of fact.

‘While the ACMA has no power to direct the making of an on-air corrective statement, given the circumstances of this case and the important public health issues involved, the ACMA recommended to WIN TV that it make an on-air statement concerning the ACMA’s findings,’ added Mr Chapman.

The licensee has, however, declined to take this opportunity to clarify on air this important public health issue, one which no doubt remains of ongoing concern to its audience and the wider Australian public.  The licensee offered to provide a link on its website to the ACMA’s finding.

A link to investigation report 2883 can be found here.

For more information please contact: Emma Rossi, Media Manager, (02) 9334 7719 and 0434 652 063 or media@acma.gov.au.

Like a bad smell on the bottom of your shoe some editors continue to reek long after

When Peter Chapman resigned as editor of The Daily Examiner at Grafton on the NSW North Coast to move to a similar position with the Frazer Coast Chronicle in Queensland, the Clarence Valley almost seemed to echo with a collective sigh of relief.

Still, when one leaves a job after less than fifteen months, with more than a few locals giving you a here's-your-hat-what's-your-hurry send-off, it would appear that there is an intermittent urge to revisit - like an itch you just can't satisfactorily scratch.

Therefore every so often, rather like that sudden bad smell on the bottom of your shoe, the former editor unexpectedly turns up on a page in The Daily Examiner.

This time in a letter to the editor on 16 January 2010, bemoaning the fact that his favourite small time developers did not have costs awarded to them in the NSW Land & Environment Court and using his letter to lobby against the re-election of five Clarence Valley shire councillors.

Chapman's huge ego knows no bounds.

Perhaps he should return to complaining about local government in the new home town, his weight, past hangovers, the price of a good steak, or upsetting the locals as he has been doing in the Fraser Coast Chronicle since at least 12 September 2009 and cease taking defensive pot shots elsewhere because he can't make a editorial sow's ear into a silk purse no matter how hard he might try.

Northern New South Wales first quarter 2009 newspaper readership and circulation figures

Roy Morgan Report, June 2009: North Coast Newspapers.

Table showing Readership April 2007 to March 2009 (1st column) and Circulation January to March 2009 (2nd column)

Northern New South Wales
Tweed Daily News, M-F	11,000	4,593
Tweed Daily News, Sat	10,000	5,182
Lismore/Northern Rivers – The Northern Star, M-F	37,000	14,903
Lismore/Northern Rivers – The Northern Star, Sat	56,000	23,164
Grafton/Clarence Valley – The Daily Examiner, M-F	16,000	5,596
Grafton/Clarence Valley – The Daily Examiner, Sat	15,000	6,397
The Coffs Coast Advocate, Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri	10,000*	3,293†
The Coffs Coast Advocate, Wed/Sat	45,000*	31,194#

Source:
Readership – Morgan Mar 09; M-F av. and Sat; APN total distribution area *Average readership
Circulation – ABC Jan to Mar 09; M-Sat av. and Sat †Publisher's claim #CAB Oct 08 to Mar 09

Now The Daily Examiner editor, Peter Chapman, is very fond of bragging that 'his' newspaper was the fastest growing daily newspaper in regional Australia in the first quarter of 2009.

However, if one compares circulation figures (average net paid sales/net circulation) for the first two quarters 2008 with the first quarter 2009, then it works out that each week The Daily Examiner managed to sell 76 extra newspapers, as 2009 Saturday circulation figures have actually fallen.

Compared with The Daily Examiner circulation figures for the last two quarters of 2004 these current figures are even less impressive, in view of the painfully slow circulation growth up to and including January-March 2009.

If one compares The Northern Star across those same quarters in 2008 and 2009 then a different story unfolds. It has shown circulation growth both Monday-Friday and Saturday and, therefore sells an extra 1,341 newspapers each week.

One has to suspect that Mr. Chapman in relying on percentages is hoping that no-one will enquire into what hard numbers his bragging might actually represent.

UPDATE:

More rubbery figures? The only conclusion I can draw from these latest numbers (which appear to indicate that quarter to quarter The Daily Examiner circulation varies markedly) is that this newspaper has more casual readers than it has devoted followers.

APN released these figures later this morning.
The publishing group sees these figures as showing a year-on-year 5% circulation increase for The Daily Examiner and a 1% increase for The Northern Star.

Table showing Readership April 2007 to March 2009 (1st column) and Circulation April to June 2009 (2nd column)

Northern New South Wales
Tweed Daily News, M-Sat	11,000	4,773
Tweed Daily News, Sat	10,000	5,222
Lismore/Northern Rivers – The Northern Star, M-Sat	40,000	15,141
Lismore/Northern Rivers – The Northern Star, Sat	56,000	22,997
Grafton/Clarence Valley – The Daily Examiner, M-Sat	16,000	5,811
Grafton/Clarence Valley – The Daily Examiner, Sat	15,000	6,483
The Coffs Coast Advocate, Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri	10,000*	3,293†
The Coffs Coast Advocate, Wed/Sat	45,000*	31,194#

Source:
Readership – Morgan March 2009; M-Sat av. and Sat readership; APN total distribution area *Average readership
Circulation – ABC April to June 2009; M-Sat av. and Sat †Publisher’s claim #CAB October 2008 to March 2009

Chapman uses Chaser blunder to hit back at Media Watch

Image from The Daily Examiner

In this clumsy attempt to hit back at ABC TV Media Watch (for this item and probably this earlier item) under the guise of commenting on The Chaser's War on Everything's lapse in good taste, I particularly enjoyed Peter Chapman's silly jibes about ABC employees:

where many journalists go to retire

they prance around with an air of superiority and arrogance watching the clock tick from 9am to 5pm

They live in a world of their own where they believe their snobbish upperclass views are indeed the only views that have any merit

While his dig at ABC radio news coverage on the NSW North Coast begs the question as to why The Daily Examiner editor, who is notorious locally for his advertorials and product placement in supposed news articles, dares to point to journalistic failings in others.

One almost feels like echoing the comment of his young daughter; Zip it, Dad. [The Daily Examiner,"Slants on Life",6 June 2009]

Though comments on the ABC Media Watch website go further:

Bred and born in the Clarence :
18 Apr 2009 2:36:13pm
I've lost count of the number of people I have spoken to who no longer buy the Daily Examiner due to its degrading gutter journalism. Reports continually try to divide our wonderful coastal community on a variety of issues.
Perhaps the community should call for a "vote of no confidence".

clarence valley gal :
15 Apr 2009 9:44:15pm
Thank you for drawing attention to the pathetic attitude of the editor of the local paper [ Daily Examiner]. We have to suffer through his boorish comments on a regular basis.

Jen :
14 Apr 2009 6:53:26am
Well done Media Watch. This newspaper editor writes rubbish on a regular basis and it's good to see him called on this. Unfortunately he also writes articles with serious bias and disses local towns such as Yamba and South Grafton. The former apparently on the grounds that all its shops were not open on New Year's Day for the benefit of his relatives. In addition - one of his very early stories on the Clarence Valley almost lost it the services of Rex Airlines.