Feelgood story turns bad when Sky humiliates indigenous teenager who caught $1 million barramundi | Amanda Meade

It was the feel-good story of the year in the Northern Territory when 19-year-old Keegan Payne caught a million-dollar barramundi in a competition designed to promote tourism.

“The whole family was shocked; everyone is proud of me,” he told ABC. “We are from Katherine, Kakadu’s mother.

“It’s pretty hard for us right now with money, but now, with a million dollars, we don’t have to complain about it.”

Keegan Payne, a 19-year-old from the country town of Katherine, today becomes the NT’s new millionaire after catching the million-dollar fish in the Katherine River. https://t.co/IoxNE5Q1lb

– ABC News (@abcnews) April 30, 2024

But a live interview, on Sky News Australia, turned into a humiliating experience for the Indigenous teenager when presenter Peter Stefanovic asked him a question about an incident he was involved in when he was 16.

“There is a claim online that you stole a Polaris Ranger and a Polaris quad that you and your friends stole and damaged from a business a few years ago. First of all, is that true? Stefanovic asked.

A shocked Payne, who was sitting in the Darwin Sky News studio, quietly said “yes”.

Forced to explain himself, Payne said he and his teammates “were not thinking at the time,” were “still young,” and that he regretted it “a lot.”

It was unbearable to see.

Contacted by the Daily Mail, Payne’s former boss Bob Cavanagh said the young man had “always felt so bad about what he did” and was otherwise a “good guy.” He had also offered to pay her back.

Following the interview with Stefanovic, Cavanagh told Sky News reporter Matt Cunningham that he did not proceed with police charges at the time, instead opting to speak to the children and their parents and they agreed to work for free at weekends.

Indigenous leader and Sydney city councilor Yvonne Weldon said she was shocked by the interview.

“They invited him to talk about his prize catch and then proceeded to put him on the stand for a misdemeanor as a teenager,” Weldon said in a LinkedIn post. “In doing so, they have shown no respect for his well-being and his right to privacy.

“Furthermore, they have perpetuated a harmful and negative stereotype about Aboriginal youth.”

Naomi Moran, CEO of Australia’s only independent indigenous newspaper, the Koori Mail, said “this is what institutionalized discrimination in the mainstream media looks and sounds like.”

“A very familiar narrative,” said Moran, also on LinkedIn. “That a black person will only be who they once were, and not who they have become in this country.

“We must continue to call out this representation of our people in mainstream Australian media.”

Sky News did not respond to a request for comment and Stefanovic deleted his social media accounts overnight.

On Friday afternoon, Sky News issued a statement recounting the exchanges in the interview and included an apology to Payne.

“Sky News Australia and Peter Stefanovic apologize to Mr Payne and his family for raising these claims during the live interview about his million-dollar fishing competition win,” the statement said.

“Mr Stefanovic has communicated directly with Mr Payne and his family to convey his apologies.”

The original video had been removed on Friday afternoon.

Fitz tackles

Sydney Morning Herald sportswriters are discussing in the newspaper the emotive issue of banning the kick-off in NRL matches as a measure to reduce high-impact tackles that can cause concussion.

SMH senior sports writer Andrew Webster took aim at Peter FitzSimons on Friday over a FitzSimons column on measures to prevent head impacts in the NRL.

Admitting that “there is nothing so boring as columnists trading barbs in the allotted space,” Webster wrote that he was so hurt by what Fitz had written that he had to respond.

“How dare anyone accuse us of not caring about these people, our peers, just so they can fill column inches and prove that they’re right and we’re wrong,” Webster said.

“So, bottom line, we get it, Fitz.

“You leave your journalistic hat on your concussion coverage and that’s fair enough. You were the first and that will never be forgotten. You deserve credit for fighting the good fight.

“But wouldn’t it be more effective to take people with you on this concussion journey, rather than continually putting them down?”

What did Fitz say to provoke this angry response? In a column on Thursday titled “Expert opinion is out: NRL must address kick-off concussion issue”, without naming Webster, he ridiculed “people who say a source of concussions in “The NRL, the extended kick-off, is no problem, and all of us who advocate changing it for reasons of sanity are somewhere between engaging in a silly debate and wanting to destroy the game.”

Webster’s column two days earlier had referred to the proposed kickoff ban as a “silly debate.”

Will Fitz now respond to Webster’s response to his criticisms?

imperfect image

News Corp Australia chief executive Michael Miller has shown an optimistic attitude towards artificial intelligence, telling staff last year that it would “change our industry” and creating an AI working group to explore “10 new areas of AI opportunities.” high value for AI.” ”.

He also boasted last August that News Corp was producing 3,000 articles a week using generative artificial intelligence.

It now appears that AI is increasingly being used for the Daily Telegraph’s illustrations, replacing newspaper photography or commissioned art. An opinion piece by James O’Doherty on federal funding for roads, published last Friday, was accompanied by an image of a traffic jam snaking through a fictional western Sydney suburb, credited to ChatGPT.

A quick check showed us that many of the opinion pieces by O’Doherty, Joe Hildebrand, Tim Blair and Andrew Bolt are now illustrated by ChatGPT. We asked the editor, Ben English, what the newspaper’s policy is.

Ten stops celebrating

Ten Network may have won the defamation case brought by Bruce Lehrmann, but it has had little to celebrate since the ruling was handed down on April 15.

Not only is Ten likely to have to cover millions in legal costs because Lehrmann has extremely limited resources, but his behavior outside of federal court drew the ire of Judge Michael Lee, who demanded that Ten’s lawyers explain themselves before the hearing. costs hearing on Wednesday.

Lawyer Justin Quill, who was authorized to comment on Ten’s sentence, said outside court that Ten had been vindicated by the sentence.

Lee, who described the comments as misleading and discourteous, said he was “open to arguing” that Ten’s conduct “was intended or had a tendency to interfere with the administration of justice in a particular proceeding.”

Three very “remorseful” attorneys submitted sworn statements to Lee apologizing for calling his sentence a “vindication” and backtracking on some evidence presented at trial.

Lisa Wilkinson was heavily criticized in the media for an acceptance speech she gave at Logies in 2022 for the Project’s interview with Brittany Higgins. The speech caused the criminal trial in the ACT supreme court into Higgins’ alleged sexual assault to be delayed by three months.

Ten’s lead trial lawyer, Tasha Smithies, told the court in February that she did not believe there was any problem with Logies’ acceptance speech, which she had approved.

Lee disagreed and asked Ten why he “repeatedly expressed the view that Logies’ speech not only had no tendency to interfere with the administration of justice but presented no difficulty whatsoever”.

Smithies told Lee that the ruling had been “profound and sobering” and that she had a different opinion now that she had reflected on it.

“Since the first instance ruling was made, I have received advice from senior members of the legal profession, including Dr Matt Collins AM KC, on the advice I gave in relation to the Logies speech, the evidence I gave and the observations and conclusions about me in the first instance ruling,” Smithies said in his affidavit.

“As a result of all those issues, I believe I have developed a greater understanding of my behavior.”

In a separate claim for costs, Taylor Auerbach’s lawyer, Rebekah Giles, told the court her client had racked up a bill of nearly $40,000 for giving evidence. Her fee alone amounted to $900 an hour.

Devil in the detail

The ABC has removed a social media post that was not marked “analysis” and which gave the impression that the public broadcaster’s editorial team was accusing the prime minister of having gotten it “terribly wrong.”

The article was a comment by Annabel Crabb on Anthony Albanese’s appearance at the domestic violence rally in Canberra.

ANALYSIS: Footage of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese trying to cope with the feverish atmosphere outside Parliament at Sunday’s anti-domestic violence rally is almost impossible to watch, writes Annabel Crabb https://t.co/SgA3LWtxxV

– ABC News (@abcnews) May 3, 2024

The new post on X is clearly labeled.

ABC told Weekly Beast that the automated process removed the word “Analysis” from the post on X.