Walkleys slammed as Palmer attacks finalist

THE Australian’s Chris Mitchell has criticised the news judgement of the Walkleys as MP Clive Palmer attacked finalist Hedley Thomas on Twitter.

THE AUSTRALIAN’S editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell has criticised the news judgement of the Walkley Board in three categories.

Mitchell said the judges got it wrong in the feature, scoop and indigenous affairs categories of The Walkley awards, which were held in Sydney last night.

He made the comments in response to a tweet from unhinged MP Clive Palmer this morning.

Palmer tweeted a picture of Mitchell walking his dog — a dog that had investigative journalist Hedley Thomas’ face on it.

The tweet read: “Hedley Thomas didn’t get a walkley but Chris Mitchell rewarded him with a walkie #walkleys #yesrupert.”

Hedley Thomas didn't get a walkley but Chris Mitchell rewarded him with a walkie #walkleys @australian #yesrupert pic.twitter.com/PrgCjzblh1

— Clive Palmer (@CliveFPalmer) December 4, 2014

Asked to respond to the provocative tweet, Mitchell said it was a “disgrace” that Thomas did not win a Walkley award for his investigation into Clive Palmer’s use of Chinese funds for his election campaign.

He was overlooked in the Scoop of the Year category, which went to the story of how Australia’s spy agencies monitored the Indonesian president’s mobile phone.

The Guardian and The ABC won that award based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden, a former US National Security Agency contractor.

Mitchell, Australia’s most experienced newspaper editor, said the judges showed poor news judgment in other categories as well.

“How could the only newspaper to properly cover indigenous affairs, The Australian, not be nominated in that category?” he said.

“And how could any human other than Trent Dalton win the Walkley for feature writing?”

The feature award was won by The Sydney Morning Herald’s Ruth Pollard who authored a one-sided feature of the Israel-Gaza conflict.