Hack to Reality

The Sydney Morning Herald have an interesting article today expanding on a recent Media Watch expose on property fantastist Cindy Martin.

Acts of outright fraud such as hers are rare - though growing, as the article points out - but one thing that puzzles me is the ease with which newspapers can get away with printing things that patently did not come out of a person's mouth. Last year, the Daily Telegraph was caught putting the words of the owner of an Oporto's chicken franchise into the mouth of Clover Moore. Just yesterday, the P&C Federation's David Giblin, categorically denied ever having told the Sydney Morning Herald that he believed `kids are indoctrinated by a multinational junk food company' when they are forced to sell their products at school fundraisers (see the article here).

If Dave Giblin's telling the truth, let's hope the Herald prints a retraction pronto. If he isn't, it casts a serious shadow over his own credibility (and frankly, stepping back and allowing schools to force schoolkids to become junior ambassadors for a reknown ambush marketer like Krispy Kreme Donuts is a bad position for the P&C Federation to take).