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ACA recycles petrol price story

A Current Affair replays a story on petrol prices it had already played in April.

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“Strap yourself in. You’ll be shocked at what we discover,” A Current Affair‘s Brady Halls said last night.

In ACA‘s test on high octane petrol we heard from motoring and auto experts who road-tested various petrols around a race track, to see which one was the best value for money.

But if you think you’d seen the story before you were right.

It ran on ACA four months earlier.

Both videos are currently available on the ACA website:

August 18, 2011: Petrol price breakthrough. Why buying premium fuel can actually save you a bundle.

April 18, 2011: At the moment fuel is at its highest price in nearly three years, so it is more important than ever to get the most mileage from your fuel. High octane petrol claims to give you more kilometres worth the extra expense, so is it really the case or the cheaper 91E variety going to get your dollar further.

Last night’s petrol story even led the bulletin.

In April Halls concluded the following results on his petrol test:

91E petrol delivered 16.93 cents per kilometre, 95 was 15.88c, 98 was 15.27c and Diesel was 9.75c per kilometre.

Last night the results were exactly the same.

There’s no law that says any current affairs show can’t replay a story, but it’s not really the convention.  Both Today Tonight and A Current Affair are known for revisiting their favourite subjects and even using scenes from previous stories, but usually embellish them with new footage.

Updated: Grant Williams producer of ACA told TV Tonight, “We did this experiment back in April which ran on one of our Sunday night shows….we went around this week and checked current petrol prices to see if drivers would still be in front with 98 octane and established that they were. So we re-visited the experiment to remind the viewers of the savings.”

26 Responses

  1. I don’t find Grimshaw to be a talented journalist at all, she just plays on the emotions of the story to exploit it as to achieve ratings. I find her to be completely fake and insincere. It is a sad fact to know that these ‘junk food jornalism’ shows will continue to pollute the airwaves as people lacking in taste and intelligence are easliy fooled.

    It’s the same people that make two & a half men the most popular comedy show in the world, CSI miami the most poular drama in the world and Dane Cook the most succesful touring comedian in the world

    I much prefer having people say, ‘you watch community? that show isn’t funny at all”, “huh, i have never heard of breaking bad” and “i don’t get ricky gervais’ comdey”

  2. Tracy has more than just ACA on her resume 🙂

    But she can be a good interviewer when she’s given the chance, so that is some redeeming quality for ACA. But because she fronts ACA she becomes the face of the rot that often dominates the show. And IMO she is better than that.

  3. Tracy you are a talented jurno and presenter you are worthy of so much better than ACA get out while you can

    i just cant understand why so many people watch this sh*t when there is the much better 6:30pm on or if you have foxtel there is prisoner

    1. It’s interesting people say Tracy is a talented journalist. Given she doesn’t appear anywhere else on television can we assume people are making these conclusions from her work on ACA? Discuss.

  8. “So we re-visited the experiment to remind the viewers of the savings.” That’s a cop out. “Revisiting an experiment” is not the same as replaying a story, and does it serve as a “reminder” when it’s passed off as a new story? Did ACA say anything that it was an old story? I bet not.

    Do the experiment again, display the results and compare them to the April experiment, whatever. But don’t play a 4 months old story and pass it off as new. That’s just an insult to both the reporter and the audience.

    But then again this is the same ACA that took a 4 minute TT interview and played it as their own, so we know the show has a pretty low benchmark for “journalism”.

    Jana Wendt had the dignity to walk away when ACA turned to rubbish, Tracy Grimshaw is a journalist who should be questioning why she is supporting such a show.

  11. I generally watch the Caff shows if I see a story promoted about some shonk getting outed or a story where they (ACA or TT) go into bat for the little guy against foolish and incompetent decisions of public servants, the bureaucracy or the establishment.

    But – especially in the case of ACA – I move on in my evening’s viewing with an urge to go have a shower to rid myself of the feeling of grime after watching the sub-standard and odious excuses for reporters and commentators that ACA trots out daily, letr alone the childish tit for tat story recycling and flagrant pinching/spoiling of stories from TT and other news shows.

  12. Today Tonight recycle their stories too..over and over again,
    I have seen the story about the guy who is kept on hold on the phone with companies and he pretends to be a grannie..about 5 times now.

  13. Like other I don’t get why people are so attracted to ACA and TT, they recycle the same stories regularly. If it’s fuel prices its under cover investigations into some rip off or the best price for your new TV. And to get a bit of T&A it’s the latest bra or bikini’s. Watch 7:30 on ABC or George on TEN, before it goes.

    @Jezza – you’re right, it’s not what you drive it’s how you drive. The Prius was being pushed hard but the much more powerful M3 easily kept pace and used less fuel.

    BTW – My 18 year old Lancer still gets around 35mpg (8Lt/100Km) around town and I’m not lite foot at the lights, many new cars don’t do much better than this today.

  16. @Secret Squirrel – It’s the way cars operate. When fuel consumption is quoted in car ads. it’s “City” or “Highway” cycle. The difference could be, e.g. 10.3L/100Km City & 7.6L/Km/100Km Highway. Stop-start city driving always uses more fuel.
    @John – Agree. Can’t believe so many watch ACA/TT garbage (from the yellow recycling bin)(LOL) rather than switching to “6:30” where they actually may learn something.

  18. Never ceases to amaze me when I see the number of people who watch either ACA or TT. Such awful, lazy so-called “journalism” with the same stories recycled ad nauseum

  21. @Jezza – that’s true. Also, I find that it’s more economical when I go for a spin in the hills or on a nice long drive to the country than when I’m doing short trips in the city. Therefore it follows that the more I drive, the more I’ll save.

  22. How can people watch the same stories about petrol prices, Centrelink fraud, ‘dodgy’ neighbours, Woolies vs Coles vs Aldi price test, speed cameras, cleaning products, comparisons of different milks… the list goes on. People enjoy this? The same dumb stories on constant rotation, yet people watch in droves? ACA was so lazy, they just replayed the same story, not that TT is any better. I’ll never understand the fascination with these two shows.

  24. Ha ha ha, excellent. Brain rotting ‘current affairs’, nice one David.

    For the record, the way you drive has the biggest impact on your consumption as a certain Mr Clarkson “proved” that a BMW M3 was more economical than a ??? Prius I think. Of course this was done with humour, intelligence and a little tongue in cheek…

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