New Seven boss Jeff Howard has a big job on his hands
The public desperately relies on strong newsrooms in these moments to sort the facts from the fictional bile on social media platforms.
The wheels have fallen off at Seven West Media.
As if the tawdry Spotlight affair wasn’t bad enough – and it was pretty bad – the network’s much-vaunted news and current affairs division bowled up an epic fail on the biggest news story of the year.
The mass casualty horror at Bondi Junction on Saturday was one of those occasions when newsrooms really show their stripes. When cool heads must shut out the white noise and make well-considered decisions as chaos is unfolding.
The public desperately relies on strong newsrooms in these moments to sort the facts from the fictional bile on social media. It’s why professional journalism is so important.
But Seven’s decision to name innocent 20-year-old Benjamin Cohen as the killer is reprehensible. All journalists make mistakes. We’re human.
But for a major media outlet to rely on a random social media post as a sufficiently reliable source on which to base its decision to air the most heinous of accusations?
It’s not journalism. It’s not even close.
It’s more important to be right than to be first, because getting it wrong can have such devastating consequences.
Unbelievably, just over two years ago, Seven made the same mistake when it identified the wrong man as the abductor of three-year-old WA girl Cleo Smith. To do it once is sloppy; to do it twice in two years suggests lessons haven’t been learned.
It’s unclear who was responsible for the decision to name Cohen as the killer, a full three hours before NSW Police revealed 40-year-old Joel Cauchi was the perpetrator.
But when a news outlet decides to name a killer before the police have confirmed their identity, it’s never a junior reporter’s call.
And therein lies the problem at Seven. There’s an absence of strong leadership.
Jeff Howard, who starts as Seven CEO on Friday, has a big job on his hands.
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