It’s awkward being a Media Watch host if you end up criticising colleagues in your personal constructing, however someone’s gotta do it….
That was the case for Paul Barry grilled by investigative journalist Mark Willacy some years in the past in a rest room at ABC’s Ultimo HQ.
In 2021, Media Watch known as out a narrative by Willacy which alleged Australian troopers executed an unarmed prisoner in Afghanistan.
The allegation was primarily based on a single supply, a US Marine who mentioned he’d heard a “pop” on his helicopter radio, which he assumed was a gunshot.
Barry instructed his viewers he had a “downside with Willacy’s story” and believed the ABC had “hit publish too quickly.”
When requested to remark, Barry instructed The Each day Telegraph he and Willacy “had a minor disagreement concerning the Media Watch section, which he (Willacy) thought was unfair. It was no massive deal”.
An ABC spokesperson added: “We will affirm there was no bodily confrontation and no investigation.”
ABC Investigations escalated the criticism over Media Watch to John Lyons, then ABC’s Head Investigative Journalism & Exec Editor.
The identical Line of Fireplace report is now a part of a deeper evaluation over claims additional gunshots had been added to audio.
ABC has beforehand blamed the audio on an “modifying error” telling 7News Highlight, (producer) Jo Puccini, and (journalists) Mark Willacy and Josh Robertson performed no position.
