The Australian commander in East Timor was being interviewed live from Dili by Jessica Rowe of the Today show.  From the newspaper article:

He was pressed by Today host Jessica Rowe about whether Dili was safe as the military claimed.  Pausing briefly, Brig Slater replied: "Jessica, I feel quite safe, yes, but not because I've got these armed soldiers behind me that were put there by your stage manager here to make it look good."

Jessica Rowe was quite speechless for a moment or three.  I'll try to find a recording of the interview (it was played on the radio a fair bit this morning).

Mahray

"You cannot hope to bribe or twist
Thank God the blessed journalist
But seeing what unbribed he'll do
Thank God there is no reason to."

You mean Jessica didn't have on her full body armor???

I applaud Brig Slater!

But it's nothing new, and just goes to show the lengths to which most (TV) News programs will go to to promote themselves.

EG. How often have you seen a reporter presenting news from in front of a courthouse/scene-of-crime/municiple office etc. and all they do is use the "on-site" location as a backdrop? There's the backdrop, the reporter speaks their news and nothing else happens.

How much does it cost to get that reporter and Outside-Broadcast facility to the site (often complete with catering facilities), set up the OB, check that the communucations are OK and all the rest, just so that a reporter can stand there and deliver a report that could have been done a lot more easily and cheaply from within the broadcasting studio, and without any real loss of impact?

I despair...

OK, if the scene is a long way away, and might last several days, it might be worth the expense. But so often, it's not....

Cheers,
Diolma

(Rant over - you can send the cameras to outside my house to film Diolma not doing anything at all..)

Quote - But it's nothing new, and just goes to show the lengths to which most (TV) News programs will go to to promote themselves.

Self-promotion isn't the problem; the problem is the promotion of agendas that may be at odds with the truth.

Jessica Rowe and crew went out to East Timor with a story to tell - rather than coming back with a story to tell.

sentence first, verdict afterwards - the Red Queen..;)

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19305001-2,00.html

the link to video is 2 paragraphs down.

Thanks Xenic.

Whenever the local paper can't find a good local murder or robbery to report they borrow one from another state. Do they ever report on how many million people in the same area didn't kill someone?

Don't you know it's a terrible world out there? So behave and follow orders! We'll keep you safe. Just give us enough money to do it with.

"Self-promotion isn't the problem; the problem is the promotion of agendas that may be at odds with the truth.Jessica Rowe and crew went out to East Timor with a story to tell - rather than coming back with a story to tell."

Yup - probably. But I bet it was done in the interest of getting a "story" to tell that would benefit the newsgroup that sent them out there in the 1st place. If that newsgroup has a political agenda, then it's probably because the newsgroup is aimed at a specific political group, and the advertisers that back them. And if the advertisers are satisfied, the the money keeps rolling in, and the profits grow, so the share-holders are satisfied as their stake increases in value.....

That's life sigh.

Never believe anything that's written in newspapers/shown on TV - it's all biased....except for the bits that aren't.

It's trying to tell those who "have an agenda" from those who don't that's the VERY difficult part.

Cheers,
Diolma

The only news stories I every fully believe are those starting with "THIS JUST IN..." Nobody has had a chance to put their spin on it.

That's absolutely phenomenal.  I just pushed that link along to my best friend who just got back from Iraq.  Got a good laugh out of that one.

As a law enforcement officer, I have seen the news get twisted plenty of times on events that I have been involved in and done the actual reports.  They have a way of telling the story, but taking the events and facts out of sequence to make it sound "juicy:...even on the "THIS JUST IN" stories. 

Hey Boomer, long time no see how's tricks?