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Seven News story impacts reputation

Kerry Stokes is said to be furious that his quest to position Seven as Sydney's TV news leader has been undermined by David Campbell's outing.

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The fallout of the David Campbell outing by Seven News continues to take its toll on the network.

Journalism educators, and some journalists, say the ethical foundations of journalism have been severely breached by the story. More than 50 academics, representing almost every major journalism school in the country, have sent an open letter to Peter Meakin, reporter Adam Walters and to those who own Seven.

Seven Chairman Kerry Stokes is said to be furious that his quest to position Seven as Sydney’s TV news leader has been undermined by one story.

The Sun Herald notes NSW Labor staffers say Seven is getting little assistance at the moment in terms of requests for government responses to stories and interviews with ministers and the NSW Premier, certainly no added assistance.

The way News management is handled by networks often triggers an audience response. Last year Nine’s removal of Mark Ferguson in favour of Peter Overton was so poorly handled, the audience swung behind Seven News in Sydney. In 2007 Seven News in Melbourne saw a viewer backlash after it published medical records of AFL players, described by the AFL as “gutter journalism.”

So far the Campbell incident is yet to significantly impact on viewer figures, which for the last two weeks are as follows:

Sydney:
Mon 17 Nine: 401,000 / 399,000
Tue 18 Nine: 387,000 / 386,000
Wed 19 Seven: 403,000 / Nine: 361,000
Thu 20 (Campbell story): Seven: 403,000 / Nine: 335,000
Fri 21: Seven: 396,000 / Nine: 345,000
Mon 23: Nine: 458,000 / Seven: 419,000
Tue 24: Seven: 343,000 / Nine: 358,000
Wed 25: Seven: 464,000 / Nine: 382,000
Thu 26: Seven: 383,000 / Nine: 348,000
Fri 27: Nine: 368,000 / Seven: 342,000

Source: Sun Herald, Crikey

16 Responses

  1. Piety and Tabloid Journalism
    What disturbs me is the trend of Seven and its flagship shows such as Sunrise, led by David Koch to become the national arbiter of social behaviour.
    Cute and funky Sunrise- has become puritanical and pious – a step to the right perhaps?
    The Campbell outing was shameful.
    Where is the leadership from Kerry Stokes on this issue – not some anecdotal information that he is a little angry?

  2. Nine News in Melbourne have always been very good what they have done.On the rare occasion as well,a story channel 9 might have on Monday for example as a exclusive,that’s very newsworthy channel 7 will screen the same story on the following night or two days later it’s old news then.The most recent story was the North Melbourne chairman that died and the millions to be left to his wife,with two women coming forward.With one of them being seen by Channel 9 and the reporter trying to ask a few questions on that night

  4. I suspect that this incident won’t cause Seven “News” viewers to defect in large numbers, because most would either be in favour of, or apathetic towards the outing of a politician. However, publishing the medical records of AFL (or NRL) players is tantamount to blasphemy in the eyes of dyed-in-the-wool supporters, while substituting a popular newsreader/presenter is like pulling down the temple idol.

  6. im amazed that even on SOO night, seven news had one of its biggest margins of the week against nine news!
    i wouldnt think that the majority of the viewing public would even be aware of all this behind the scenes going on’s. i certainly wouldnt be if i hadnt seen this story, and im still gonna keep watching seven news regardless.

  8. I just completed a journalism degree last year, but was doubting if it was what i wanted to do, this story confirmed it for me. The media is a disgrace and i don’t want to be apart of that industry. Adam Walters should be sacked because his actions breached every ethical and moral code. He can’t be trusted ever again, something journalists really need to work hard to gain in the first place.

  9. Good – Kerry should be pi**ed – he’s pi**ed for business reasons, rather than moral ones, but at least it’s unlikely to happen again.

    All involved should be ashamed.

  10. I just can’t stand the rivalism between 7 & 9. They’re like 8 year old kids boasting how their news is better than the other’s.

    Examples:
    Nine: “9 was there first when news broke on [insert event], thank you Sydney for making 9 news number 1”

    Seven: “7 was there When news on [event] broke, that’s why seven news is Sydney’s most trusted news source”

    these ads are unaustralian (because australians don’t boast about their achievements), and they make me cringe everytime I see them.

    As soon as abc news 24 comes out I’ll be switching to them at 6pm.

  11. Everyday aussies (i’ll first apologise for this generalisation!) just don’t question the news they read, hear and see. Seven’s able to keep their numbers because we’ve been watching them for years, not because they are more ethical or that they are better journalists than those from other networks.

  12. I’m currently doing journalism at UTS. Had a big discussion about this in our lecture and about the David Campbell story in our tute. Without a doubt, the story was reported unethically and really questions Seven’s journalistic integrity. I’m sure academics across NSW all thought the same about this.

  13. The sad thing is most people don’t really care about journalistic integrity.

    If they did, you wouldn’t have 3 million viewers getting their “news” from TT and ACA each night.

  14. Serves Ch 7 right for airing the story.

    Hopefully this will become a benchmark on what not to do in terms of creating a story and of the standards of certain people eager to see their name in the news instead of actually reporting it.

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