Adelaide

[Booney]

Listening to Jenkins on his spot on SEN yesterday he didn't do much to make the discussion go away. He basically said players had chosen not to speak publicly and break ranks from the group, everyone had a different experience and as such they have decided, individually, to remain tight lipped and not try to speak for anyone else.

I still think there's non disclosure agreements in place.

[DOC]

One of the nation’s most prestigious sports media awards has been stripped from an Age journalist after the newspaper was forced to issue multiple apologies in relation to a story about the Adelaide Crows’ controversial 2018 pre-season AFL training camp.

Sam McClure, author of the article that won the 2020 Quill in the sports news category, had his award “annulled” last week after the Melbourne Press Club’s board voted unanimously to rescind it.

The move to strip a journalist of a media award is extremely unusual in Australia; it is understood neither the Walkleys – the media industry’s most celebrated national awards – nor the Victoria-based Quills have ever retrospectively cancelled a winners’ trophy.

The decision to strip McClure of the honour is likely to set a precedent for other journalism awards bodies, some of which have previously granted significant honours to stories that have subsequently been discredited.

MPC runs the Quill Awards and The Australian understands the board discussed in detail whether McClure should keep the honour for his July 5, 2020, front-page article, “The camp that shattered a football club” in light of the newspaper’s apologies.

Age reporter Caroline Wilson
Age reporter Caroline Wilson
Ultimately, the board voted unanimously to strip McClure of his award, given the newspaper’s print and online apologies, and the fact that the article in question had recently been removed from all of Nine Entertainment’s news websites, including The Age.

The extensive apologies followed legal action taken by the Queensland-based high-performance mindset training specialists who ran the camp, Collective Mind, and its operators Derek Leddie and Amon Woulfe.

The pair took defamation against McClure and The Age’s former chief football writer Caroline Wilson, as well as Nine and the The Age over serious allegations relating to what the players were put through while on the camp.

The articles were published in print, online and broadcast on TV, including on The Age and Wide World of Sports websites.

The Age issued an apology this month to Collective Mind and its operators.

“The Age acknowledges that the camp was run in good faith and with the players’ interests front of mind,” it said.

“If the article was read to suggest otherwise, The Age withdraws that suggestion.”

An independent probe conducted last year by Workplace investigator SafeworkSA found no health and safety breaches occurred at the Adelaide Crows’ camp.

Nine agreed to remove 13 articlesrelating to the camp published between 2018 and last year by McClure and Wilson.

The MPC board also agreed the 2020 Quill in the sports news category would now be awarded to the category’s highly commended entrant, Herald Sun sports reporter Michael Warner, who wrote an exclusive article, “Danny’s tragic secret” about the late AFL legend Danny Frawley’s battle with a crippling disease linked to repeated head knocks.

McClure spoke out on Nine’s 3AW Sportsday segment last week amid the fallout surrounding his tainted Quill award.

Broadcaster Gerard Healy asked him: “Do you regret writing those stories?”

McClure responded: “No”.

“Caro (Wilson) and I spent a lot of time talking to people and working on what we thought and still believe is a really important story,” McClure added.

Wilson also spoke out last week on the podcast, Don’t Shoot the Messenger, saying: “The whole saga has been pretty disappointing, to be honest. This was an unbelievable story that involved the Adelaide Crows.”

Woulfe and Leddie questioned McClure’s and Wilson’s comments.

“We feel very disappointed by how disingenuous these public comments by Sam and Caroline appear, given they are not within the spirit nor the intent of the agreement that was signed by all parties,” they pair said in a statement.

Shortly after The Age published its first apology over the award earlier this month, McClure tweeted: “Winston Churchill: The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is”.

It’s understood McClure was instructed to delete the social media post, and did so a short time later.

Age editor Gay Alcorn said the paper was not consulted before the MPC made the decision last week and she contacted them in writing on Sunday to dispute the outcome.

“Discussions with the Melbourne Press Club are ongoing,” she said.

“The settlement with Collective Mind was a business decision, reached on a no-admissions basis.

“It would be an unfortunate precedent if journalism awards were annulled in these circumstances.”

[MW]

If this in anyway starts to keep these ambulance chasing parasites accountable it can only be a good thing.

[Booney]

If this in anyway starts to keep these ambulance chasing parasites accountable it can only be a good thing.

Again, it comes down to the information he was given and by whom. Firstly, he wouldn't trust them any longer and, secondly, he'd not be sending them a Xmas card.

[MW]

If this in anyway starts to keep these ambulance chasing parasites accountable it can only be a good thing.

Again, it comes down to the information he was given and by whom. Firstly, he wouldn't trust them any longer and, secondly, he'd not be sending them a Xmas card.

So isn't the onus on the journo to verify the information from the source is correct before going into print? cant simply say "a source told me" and go into print, which is what they are doing now and finally being held accountable.

[Booney]

If this in anyway starts to keep these ambulance chasing parasites accountable it can only be a good thing.

Again, it comes down to the information he was given and by whom. Firstly, he wouldn't trust them any longer and, secondly, he'd not be sending them a Xmas card.

So isn't the onus on the journo to verify the information from the source is correct before going into print? cant simply say "a source told me" and go into print, which is what they are doing now and finally being held accountable.

It is, makes me think his little Churchill comment on Twitter has him confident there is something still to be unearthed.

[MW]

So he's written something, had to retract it legally, but you think he held back writing something else?

[cracka]

So he's written something, had to retract it legally, but you think he held back writing something else?

I would guess he's had a source, written something, Collective Minds have threatened to sue & reveal his source which would probably break a confidentiality clause so he's retracted article to keep source protected

[DOC]

Eddie Betts is his source.

[MW]

So he's written something, had to retract it legally, but you think he held back writing something else?

I would guess he's had a source, written something, Collective Minds have threatened to sue & reveal his source which would probably break a confidentiality clause so he's retracted article to keep source protected

I stopped reading after that.

[RB]

If this in anyway starts to keep these ambulance chasing parasites accountable it can only be a good thing.

Again, it comes down to the information he was given and by whom. Firstly, he wouldn't trust them any longer and, secondly, he'd not be sending them a Xmas card.

So isn't the onus on the journo to verify the information from the source is correct before going into print?

This begs the question, what does 'verify' mean in this situation. E.g. asking another source? A number of other sources? The club? The operators of the camp? There are reasons why the club/CM might contradict accounts from a player/s. Do you then not publish at all? Or publish, but invite comment from those with conflicting views?

Seems to me that it would be possible for a story to be wrong - and therefore obviously should be corrected - without actually being as a result of the reporter failing to verify the info.

Still, it would have been a very difficult decision to decide whether to annul the award.

[mots02]

If this in anyway starts to keep these ambulance chasing parasites accountable it can only be a good thing.

Again, it comes down to the information he was given and by whom. Firstly, he wouldn't trust them any longer and, secondly, he'd not be sending them a Xmas card.

So isn't the onus on the journo to verify the information from the source is correct before going into print? cant simply say "a source told me" and go into print, which is what they are doing now and finally being held accountable.

It is, makes me hope his little Churchill comment on Twitter has him confident there is something still to be unearthed.

EFA

[stan]

If this in anyway starts to keep these ambulance chasing parasites accountable it can only be a good thing.

I agree with 100%.

These journos take people to the cleaners and pile on. Now they have been found out and there is some accountability.

If there was any decent accountability he would get his accreditation striped given 4 weeks suspension and then fined 5k for bringing the game.in to distribute.

The issue I have is the pile on they do and then everyone starts going on about mental health, right after these bottom feeders have been hiding into he bushes outside there house.

[tigerpie]

We can all be thankful these guys took journalism of the police force or law.

How many would they stitch up on one persons information.

They say they're professionals, but they are far from it.

How about Caro does a feel good article about how much work clubs do with the underprivileged to try and put smiles on faces.

She won't, because exposing human frailty is more her thing!

[Vamos]

If this in anyway starts to keep these ambulance chasing parasites accountable it can only be a good thing.

Again, it comes down to the information he was given and by whom. Firstly, he wouldn't trust them any longer and, secondly, he'd not be sending them a Xmas card.

Only Crows supporters send Xmas cards anymore. KG would receive tens a thousands of them.

[cracka]

So he's written something, had to retract it legally, but you think he held back writing something else?

I would guess he's had a source, written something, Collective Minds have threatened to sue & reveal his source which would probably break a confidentiality clause so he's retracted article to keep source protected

I stopped reading after that.

Or you've got a case of the
LaLaLaLaLas

[stan]

In this case I agree with Mark Riccuito on this one. These reporters run with whispers and rumblings and make it fact and they pile on and pile one and destroy people and the pressure it puts on people.

And then it comes out as bullshit because to make them stand down you have to drag them through the courts.

After that we start talking about mental health etc etc.

Where's Caro's pile on? She should be getting ******* destroyed right now.

Sam McLure lost his award and rightly so, he should be getting smashed right now.

[UK Fan]

It Looks like lions have piled it on.

88 point smacking of crows.

Rachelle looked good for the crows. Ben Davis appears to have been given Kelly’s role down back.

[whufc]

Caught a bit of this today.

It was clearly a team striving for a flag full of men versus a team on a rebuild playing a lot of kids. Brisbane attack on the ball was what you would expect for a team where spots will be hard fought whilst the Crows attacked like it was the first practise match of the year.

The part I thought was interesting was the Crows looked to play a fair bit of 'tempo' football and were really willing to slow the play whilst waiting for the perfect option. I wonder if that was due to Brisbanes pressure or the style that the Crows are looking to play.

Rachele is going to be a gun....Crows will be very happy with that pick up.

[Lightning McQueen]

It Looks like lions have piled it on.

88 point smacking of crows.

Rachelle looked good for the crows. Ben Davis appears to have been given Kelly’s role down back.

Aren't the crows covid ravaged atm and pretty much have their medical staff and waterboys filling in?

Tough ask first up.