Sober and disciplined reporting?

On Friday 13th September 2013, Tristan Barker received a conviction and discharge in a New Zealand court and was ordered to pay a $440 emotional harm payment to Channel Seven's David Eccleston.

And now to an example of the sort of behaviour that makes so many people long for tougher regulation of the media – in print, on TV and online...


Unmasked: Tristan Barker, Australia’s Worst Internet Troll, being investigated by police

Jonathan Marshall in Rotorua, New Zealand

— News.com.au, 3rd March, 2013

You may remember Jonathan Marshall.

He’s one of News Ltd’s young guns – their Network Investigations Editor, no less.

After a controversial career in New Zealand, he made the big time in Australia last year by secretly recording that notorious speech, when Alan Jones said that Julia Gillard’s father had died of shame.

From unmasking an old troll, Marshall is now unmasking a young one ...


Tristan Barker has used internet portals Facebook and Twitter to encourage harassment and ridicule of everyone from Muslims, businesses, local and overseas celebrities, murder victims and people who have committed suicide as a result of online bullying..

“I would consider myself an entertainer,'' he boasted.

— News.com.au, 3rd March, 2013

Now as we all know, nothing fuels a tabloid news story like moral indignation.

And Tristan Barker, at first sight, deserves plenty.

A classic attention-seeking 18 year-old, his foul-mouthed rants on Facebook are provocative, to say the least... but there’s more to them than you’d guess from News's graphic...


Tristan Barker’s vilest outbursts

Cyber-bullying victim Amanda Todd

In a 10-minute rant ... Barker labelled the 16-year-old US cyber-bullying and suicide victim as “slutty”, “attention-seeking” and a “histrionic ... attention whore” ...

— News.com.au, 3rd March, 2013
***Note: Jonathan Marshall's description of Amanda Todd being from the US is incorrect. She was Canadian.

Well, yes he did.

But he also had a message for his hundreds of thousands of young Facebook fans that wasn’t vile at all...


Tristan Barker: And instead of complaining about what’s going on right now, how about you go out there...
... and you find a sad kid, you find someone sitting on their own, someone who’s having an issue, and you have a word with them and maybe let them hang out with you – maybe that’s gonna prevent more suicides than talking about Amanda Todd is.

— You Tube, 14th October 2012

That’s the good side of Tristan Barker.

But we’re not denying that he and his so-called Facebeef team have a nasty side too.

So it’s not young Mr Barker we’re concerned about tonight – as we’ll see shortly, he and his mates can look after themselves.

It’s the ethics of Jonathan Marshall of News Ltd, and the culpable sloppiness of Today Tonight.

First, Marshall.

After “unmasking” Tristan Barker as a super-troll, he turned his attention to Barker’s parents.

On March the 4th, Jonathan Marshall reported...


... the teenager’s father has now been criticised after commenting on his son's views, particularly about United States teenager , who hanged herself in October 2012 ...

When News Ltd spoke to Mr Barker snr about his son’s views, he said: "Was she? Was she slutty and attention seeking?"

— News.com.au, 4th March, 2013

With that quote, Marshall had himself a story.

Because Michael Barker, Tristan’s father, is a minor celebrity, the drummer in the band Split Enz.

And, as Marshall reported, he was


to play with his two-man blues and roots group The Swamp Thing at this weekend's four-day music festival.

— News.com.au, 4th March, 2013

But not if Marshall could help it.


WOMADelaide festival organisers are facing pressure to dump a lead act after one of the band's two members made derogatory comments about a suicide victim.

— News.com.au, 4th March, 2013

In fact, Marshall had busied himself ringing WOMAdelaide’s sponsors to ask if they were outraged by the quote; and the WOMAdelaide festival organisers, to ask if they were going to drop Swamp Thing from their bill.

Festival Director Ian Scobie tells Media Watch...


The story that WOMADelaide was considering dropping Swamp Thing was, in my view, an invention of Jonathan's ...

— Ian Scobie, Director, WOMADelaide, 14th March, 2013

The ‘pressure’ was successfully resisted. Swamp Thing played at WOMADelaide.

But it seems the whole story may have been based on a deception.
Michael Barker’s wife Cathy was with him when he answered Marshall’s questions.

They both say that they had no idea they were being asked about a well-known suicide victim.

Marshall only asked them...


... “what do you think of Tristan's comments on the Internet calling a girl slutty and attention seeking?”
Mike asked: “Well was she?” as JM did not say it was any one in particular, let alone Amanda Todd.

— Catherine Barker, 14th March, 2013

Is that true?

As we'll see, the interview was covertly recorded.

But despite asking, so far we haven't been able to hear or view the recording.

Meanwhile, Today Tonight’s David Eccleston got in on the act.

He travelled to New Zealand to meet Tristan Barker, who’d got himself up in a Nazi uniform for the occasion.


A small section of the program has been edited for legal reasons. Australian viewers can go to iView for the complete program.


Back in Australia it got an even better break – an email from a certain ‘Jasmine Frost’ complaining she’d been cyber-bullied by Tristan Barker...

An interview with the young woman was quickly organised, and shot in a park in Melbourne.


‘Jasmine Frost’: He’ll say you’re a fucking ugly mole who has a lowlife job, is going nowhere, umm, you might as well just kill yourself now

— Channel Seven, Today Tonight, 11th March, 2013

But according to text messages sent to Media Watch by the young woman, it wasn’t until transmission day last Monday that the producer asked Jasmine...


TT Naomi Producer: Did you by any chance have or keep any screen grabs of tristan’s abuse?

Jasmine: Hey Naomi, sorry unfortunately I don’t!!

Naomi: Hey jasmine, no problem at all - don’t worry about it.

— Text message exchange, 11th March, 2013

But Today Tonight should have worried about it.

Because as the woman, whose real name is Jasmine Vanmidde, gleefully revealed in a Facebeef YouTube video, she was one of them. TT had been hoaxed...


Jasmine Vanmidde: And all it took was an email entitled “Tristan Barker cyber-bullied me”, and then a three minute phone call, to convince one of the most watched and believed “news” programs in Australia that I was a poor, bullied girl”

— You Tube, 11th March, 2013

Red faces at Today Tonight. But once again, the real victim was Tristan’s father.

David Eccleston put the knife into Michael Barker.

His weapon was provided by News Ltd’s Jonathan Marshall...


Jonathan Marshall: Michael Barker, I think, has got a lot to answer for. He’s clearly aware of what his son’s doing, we’ve brought it to his attention, it’s been across the news media for the last two weeks, yet he’s encouraging it.

David Eccleston: News Ltd’s investigations journalist Jonathan Marshall secretly filmed Tristan’s parents at their home. You’d expect him to protect his son, but not to be seen to endorse his views. Asked about the Amanda Todd suicide, when his son labelled her an attention-seeking whore, Michael Barker said this.

VOICE: An attention whore who deserved what she got for playing the victim.

— Channel Seven, Today Tonight, 11th March, 2013

You notice that we couldn’t actually see Michael Barker saying anything.

He told Media Watch...


The voice heard in the Today Tonight ... saying “an attention whore who deserved what she got for playing the victim” is most definitely not me, Michael Barker, it is actually Jonathan Marshall.

— Michael Barker, 14th March, 2013

Remarkably, Today Tonight and Marshall’s editor at News Ltd have both now confirmed that: it’s not Michael Barker’s voice, it’s Jonathan Marshall’s.

David Eccleston wasn't involved in the editing says Today Tonight's Executive Producer , and adds


We regret the oversight

— John Choueifate, Executive Producer, Today Tonight, 18th March, 2013

Oversight

One thing we do know: Jonathan Marshall turned up, uninvited, at the Barkers’ home in New Zealand in February, and secretly videoed them. And according to Cathy Barker, he lied about it...


At one point during the questioning, Mike asked Johnathon are you recording us, Johnathon was shaking and said no...

— Catherine Barker, 14th March, 2013

And in a later phone conversation, Michael Barker says Marshall denied again that he’d recorded the conversation.

A man’s reputation has been thoroughly trashed.

Is News Ltd's Jonathan Marshall responsible for deceptive, dishonest journalism? Is Today Tonight? Are both of them?

Jonathan Marshall’s Executive Editor has thanked us for raising these issues.


We are treating them very seriously and have started a formal investigation with the journalist involved.

— John McGourty, Executive Editor, Editorial Network, News Ltd, 16th March, 2013


**UPDATE: Jonathan Marshall has resigned from News Ltd


Perhaps they realise, at News Ltd, that this isn’t the time to be providing more arguments for tougher media regulation.

***UPDATE: On September 17 2013, news.com.au published an apology to Michael Barker.

You can read it here.

Until next week, goodnight.

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