Same sex marriage: Network Ten admits doctoring controversial footage, by Rebecca Urban.
Network Ten has admitted to digitally doctoring footage for a news item on the alleged spitefulness of the same sex marriage debate, digitally superimposing a homophobic image sourced online onto a stock image of a random bus stop.
A poster with the phrase “Stop the Fags”, allegedly spotted in Melbourne’s Heffernan Lane earlier this month, was seized upon by marriage equality supporters as evidence that those opposed to changing the Marriage Act were willing to resort to hateful lies and scaremongering to win the debate.
Originally uploaded on Twitter on August 19 by a childcare worker Dan Leach-McGill, the image of the poster soon went viral, sparking extensive news coverage and commentary on both social media as well as in the mainstream press. Even Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition leader Bill Shorten weighed in, condemning the image and its message.
Yet when a Channel Ten news crew visited the alleged site on August 22, there was no sign of the offending poster.
And with a member of a global online forum for fascists claiming credit for the artwork, which has allegedly appeared on flyers across the US in recent months, and Mr Leach-McGill conceding that he had not personally viewed it, doubts have emerged over its existence. …
The poster in question … appears to derive from the US, with a member of the online fascist forum Ironmarch.org claiming credit. …
Coalition for Marriage, which is campaigning for the No vote and was forced to deny any connections to the poster last week, has expressed disappointment that a major television news program relied upon a photoshopped image as evidence of “hateful” campaigning ahead of the postal plebiscite.
“After an unsubstantiated allegation that anti-LGBTI posters were displayed in Melbourne, Network Ten – instead of doing its job to investigate the facts and report on them – used manufactured images in its broadcast,” coalition spokeswoman Sophie York said.
“Other news outlets, while not as brazen to use manipulated images, still ran with the story without testing the veracity of the claims.
Fake news that supports the lefty narrative spreads effortlessly through the media and into the national political conversation. Something true but counter to the left’s narrative dies in silence, ignored. So sad for the truth, but so helpful for the left.
