Media Watch’s beef with The Oz leads to dodgy claims about our cattle-trade exclusives

Oh dear, Aunty hits The Australianwith the wooden spoon again. Paul Barry on Media Watch, Monday:

And now to our national broadsheet, The Australian, which loves an exclusive and delights in telling us how many it has bagged by filling its front pages with little red stamps.

Media Watch says we’ve been claiming exclusives originally broken by a cattle trade website, Beef Central, on July 15 last year:

Rumours have been rife across the red meat industry over the past week or so that Bindaree Beef’s $140 million investment deal with China’s Delisi Group has fallen over.

“Rumours rife”? Well, Barry does seem to think gossip passes as news … Barry on Twitter, Monday:

No idea if this is true … claim that Trump impeachment process has begun

The Australian’s Sue Neales doesn’t deal in rumours. She actually confirmed the Bindaree deal fell through, June 20 last year:

Australia’s fourth largest beef processor, the Bindaree Beef Group, confirmed yesterday that it had failed to settle the sale of 45 per cent of the Inverell-based family cattle …

Beef Central also says we snatched its yarn about Gina Rinehart sending live exports to China. May 5:

Mining magnate and rapidly-expanding beef producer Gina Rinehart appears to be on the brink of launching an ambitious plan designed to ultimately export up to 800,000 head of Australian live cattle to China each year.

But Neales broke quite a few new details of the deal Beef Central didn’t have, like where the cattle actually went. The Australian, May 8:

It would see cattle shipped from the three northern Aust­ralian ports of Broome, Darwin and Townsville to Zhejiang’s ­island port of Zhou Shan, south of Shanghai …

And that Rinehart had a new partner in her China play. The Australian continued:

Her latest deal, with China’s New Hope Group, to be set out in a memorandum to be signed next Sunday, will aid the Chinese company’s ambitions to invest $1bn of its own cash pile by 2020.

The Australian’s editor John Lehmann’s response to Media Watch, Monday:

The stories all include news-breaking facts obtained from exclusive interviews and reporting. The Australian is proud to strongly promote the original work of our journalists and makes no apology for doing so.

Interestingly, Media Watch didn’t cover Fairfax’s recent troubles with the word “exclusive” on Monday. The Sydney Morning Herald, May 16:

Federal funding for some of Sydney ’s most prestigious private schools … will soar over the next decade under the Turnbull government’s “Gonski 2.0” changes, while others will have their funding slashed.

The Australian, May 10:

Malcolm Turnbull has staunchly defended his $18.6 billion education boost … amid concerns the plan benefits some of the ­nation’s wealthiest private schools while hurting some Catholic institutions.

You’d think Paul would check these things. He does get paid a lot of money for his 15 minutes a week on-air. Paul Barry on Media Watch, November 25, 2013:

My salary is coming up on the screen. If you’re shocked just avert your eyes. (The figure “ $191,259” appears onscreen)