scoop becomes a spoof - Media Watch
Over the next 24 hours the doubts grew stronger.
The Sydney Morning Herald —like 3AW owned by Fairfax Media pulled this story off its website.
And The Australian suggested that Omar may have been bogus .
But Elliott came on air again midweek to tell listeners his interview with the Islamic State commander was the real thing. TOM ELLIOTT: We believe that that was genuine. Perhaps we’ll never know 100 per cent.
— 3AW, Drive with Tom Elliot, 13th August, 2014
Well, don’t turn off Tom, because we’ve cracked who he is.
And we started with one leading Australian reporter covering the conflict in Syrian and Iraq who told Media Watch.
I can say with a high degree of certainty that he’s been had ... I’ve sent it to four people who know this scene very well and they all say it’s a crude fake, it’s not even a good one.
— Australian reporter in Iraq, Statement to Media Watch, 14th August,
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s4069665.htm
How can a media radio show have such poor policy or structures that it is so easily duped ? The wish to have a scoop might explain it but surely the egg on the face afterwards if a fake should ensure caution .