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Poh, then Julie, in online slip.

In the race to publish a story on MasterChef, one newspaper inadvertently ran one of two prepared articles, announcing Poh as winner.

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pohIn the race to publish a story on the winner of MasterChef Australia, one newspaper proved a little eager, inadvertently running one of two prepared articles, written in advance of the win.

At 8:57pm last night the Daily Telegraph told its readers Poh Ling Yeow had won the title, some thirty minutes before Julie Goodwin was announced the winner on Channel TEN.

Excerpts from the article said:

Australia’s culinary experts backed her and Poh Ling Yeow delivered, becoming the first contestant to win MasterChef Australia last night.

It was a case of third time lucky for the Adelaide artist who initially didn’t make it past the first audition, was asked back, eliminated from the top 20 and returned one last time to claim victory over mother-of-three Julie Goodwin in the reality TV cooking contest.

Using her cultural connection of her upbringing in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur and the traditional influences her parents Christina and Steven have taught her over the years, Ling Yeow was stunned with the verdict but happy to embrace it.

“This is really a surreal feeling,” the 35-year-old, who hails from Norwood in South Australia told The Daily Telegraph.

“New ground is forged when you take risks and I’ve taken a few during this competition which have paid off.

Disappointed but humble, Goodwin praised her feisty opponent for her success.

“Poh’s a very deserving winner,” she said. “I’m proud of her, she’s a good friend and I wish her every success in the world.”

By 9:42pm the news has changed.

New excerpts read:

A majority of Australia’s culinary experts didn’t back her, but MasterChef Australia contestant Julie Goodwin went from underdog to winner last night.

In a shock victory, the mother-of-three’s old fashioned home-style cooking beat out Poh Ling Yeow’s passion for Asian cuisine in one of Australia’s most-anticipated TV cooking showdowns.

“He found the Christmas card while I was inside the MasterChef house and read it to me again,” Goodwin told The Daily Telegraph.

“Isn’t it amazing? I couldn’t believe what it said. I said to him ‘For God sake don’t write that this year I need a rest,” she laughed. “This is great.”

“I am the most blessed person in the world,” said Goodwin, who hails from Niagara Park on the NSW Central Coast.

In a case of production staff no doubt running the wrong prepared article, it at least proved that media had been kept in the dark on the outcome of the contest.

The erroneous page has since disappeared.

Source: Daily Telegraph

17 Responses

  2. I notice they’ve now acknowledged their mistake too!

    “The Daily Telegraph got caught up in all the MasterChef excitement last night and inadvertently served up our own wrong dish.

    Due to a technical error we incorrectly named Poh Ling Yeow for a brief time.

    The Daily Telegraph apologises for the error.”

  3. Its pretty standard practice for PR quotes to be available as an event is happening. They are typically ‘approved’ by the person but may be quoted directly from the person or from a interview held before hand. They may even be drafted by PR and approved by the person. This does not really demonstrate a conspiracy theory.

  4. Ten will be wise next year to do the final live-to-air, or at least with a much tighter lead time than the 18 days they did this year. That was a big risk and could have backfired on them badly.

  5. Lucky I saved a screengrab of the website with the erroneous headline using Aviary and posted it to my Facebook profile before it got taken down then, hey? Now I have the commerative “Poh Never Actually Won Masterchef” edition of the Daily Telegraph

  7. Remember how News Limited’s CEO recently gave a speech about how newspapers are still the relevant and accurate news medium and that online outlets such as blogs are irrelevant, ill-prepared, ignorant and full of misinformation?

  8. The more revealing aspect is that each article included double quoted comments from the contestants. The direct quotes, allegedly told to the Telegraph, must be fakes.

    Something for Mediawatch I’d have thought!

  9. logically – of course ten would need to supply both sets of quotes to news limited. otherwise news limited would have access to the winner information early on and then leaks occur.
    they had to have two stories written depending on the outcome. its not unusual?

  11. My favourite bit is when they directly quote Julie as saying “Poh’s a very deserving winner,” Makes you question where they get there quotes from.

  12. There’s one thing running the wrong article…but providing supposed quotes from Poh claiming her victory and Julie lending her support to Poh the winner? Channel 10 subterfuge, or as is suspected by a lot of fans, a very rigged final outcome???

  13. Looks like it wasn’t just Australia’s culinary experts backing Poh, but the staff at News Limited were also. Do newspapers actually interview people, or do they just make these quotes up like “Poh’s a very deserving winner” and “I’m proud of her, she’s a good friend and I wish her every success in the world.”???

  15. well, what does one expect from The Daily Astonisher. Too busy pandering to the Conservative side of politics and making up stories (Pauline Hanson nude anyone?) to be a proper Newspaper.

  16. Poh – “This is really a surreal feeling,” the 35-year-old, who hails from Norwood in South Australia told The Daily Telegraph.

    Julie- “Poh’s a very deserving winner,” she said. “I’m proud of her, she’s a good friend and I wish her every success in the world.”

    False quotes being attributed to people? How unusual for a media outlet to do that… 😉

  17. So does channel 10 just provide a list of quotes, one set of real quotes and the other made up, and hand these to media for use in preparing articles?

    How odd.

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