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“You bastards.” Grieving mother slams Seven News.

Updated: Seven apologises after a mother labels them "a disgrace" for publishing online footage of her grieving over her deceased daughter.

The mother of a 13 year old girl killed in a quad bike accident earlier this month has slammed Channel Seven for showing footage of her grieving with her deceased daughter on its website (pictured) before all family members had been told.

13-year-old Molly Lord died after a quad bike accident at Kembla Grange, near Wollongong, 12 days ago.

Linda Goldspink-Lord wrote on Facebook:

“I am the mother of the beautiful Molly Lord who was killed on a quad bike last week. I would just like to let everyone know of the paid and harassment we suffered as a result of channel 7. A reporter was on our private property very soon after the accident and whilst Molly was still on the ground. He walked up to the house down to the stables anywhere looking for a story. I went outside at some point to go to her horse for some comfort when the channel 7 helicopter flew above me trying to get footage. My husband was overseas at the time of the accident but footage of myself sitting with my deceased daughter was put on the channel 7 website for the world to see before I had even told all of my family. Channel 7 you are a disgrace and what should have been a private moment between a mother and (get) daughter was exploited for the sake of an exclusive story. You bastards.”

There are claims the comment posted on the Seven News website had 32,000 likes but was deleted.

Now the Facebook page for Seven News Sydney has been flooded with a tirade of angry comments.

Comment has been sought from Seven.

UPDATED: A Seven spokesperson told TV Tonight, “Seven News apologises for the distress caused by the vision. In removing the vision we also inadvertently removed the comments. We are seeking to restore the comments to the page.”

Chris Willis Director of Seven News Sydney said, “Mrs Goldspink-Lord’s comments were removed from our site in error. We apologise for that. Taking into account her understandable distress over the coverage of Molly’s death, I did ask for the footage to be taken down. That happened but unfortunately her remarks were deleted as well. They are now being restored to our Facebook page. I would also like to stress that we have re-examined our reports into Molly’s tragic death and can find no video showing Mrs Goldspink-Lord hugging her daughter. We were not the only television station to visit the family’s property. Our reporter did go to the house but left immediately he was told the family wished to make no comment. Our reporters and camera crews know that grieving families have to be approached with sensitivity and compassion.”

In 2008 reporters from Channels Nine and TEN were injured when angry locals turned on members of the media covering a drowning tragedy in New South Wales.

In December the The Australian Communications and Media Authority stepped up its Privacy Guidelines after its own research indicated people believed extensive footage of a person grieving was an invasion of privacy.

Quad bikes now kill twice as many people on farms as tractors, but there are no laws governing their use, such as wearing helmets. Further info via Farmsafe.org.au

27 Responses

  1. “We were not the only television station to visit the family’s property.”
    Oh well that’s OK then! Pathetic, but no more than you’d expect from a 3rd rate sensationalist tabloid trash-peddlar like Seven (so-called) ‘News’. When it comes to chasing ratings, compassion, dignity an basic decency count for nothing.

  2. Did channel 7 actually use vision of the dead girl in their news coverage? on facebook they denied that it was used in their coverage. . .

    Either way its still pretty unacceptable to send a helicopter in the first place. And I dont know how deleting a video can also delete a completely different wall post “in error”

  3. I agree with pretty much with what everyone here (and on FB) has said, including that Ms Goldspink-Lord’s complaint must have been intentionally removed.

    However, the sad fact of the matter is that despite all of the netrage that will be directed at Seven News over the next day or so, nothing will change about the way that they or other network news services will quote happily stamp all over people’s privacy for the sake of a story.

  4. Sad – but why are we surprised? The need for commercial TV news bulletins to be “first” & “exclusive” has and always will override what should be their core business – being accurate, fair & even sensitive occasionally. Tabloid journalism at its worst!

  5. Bloody channel 7!! To remove a comment which had 30,000 likes and 2000 comments and then say it was an ‘error’ is a massive cockup. It’s social media 101 – what a bunch of boofheads. They’re going to get absolutely slammed for this – I bet it will make next week’s Media Watch, and rightfully so

  6. @camo2 – I agree with you of course. Apologies I’m not great with words. I couldn’t imagine being in her shoes so I’m not judging. I just mean that in our modern world of everyone being connected online and having an opinion I can imagine that being extremely stressful, hence my comment. I guess all I am trying to say that if it were me in that situation I’d just want to bury my head in the sand and not see the nation talking about my tragic loss. Cheers

  7. Chris Willis – “Our reporter did go to the house but left immediately he was told the family wished to make no comment.”

    There’s the problem… they shouldn’t go to the house at all… not unless they’re invited… any door knock is not going to be welcome…
    Bing-bong. “Hi, your family is in grief… any comment? No? Ok, I’ll leave then.”
    These reporters aren’t human.

  8. @JJB spot on! Was just going to write the same thing. In deleting a video or link all the comments on That post would be deleted. Not the posts directly posted to the wall, as this one was. You can clearly see it was a stand alone post as the post itself had comments. tut tut.

  9. News and a current affairs on seven/nine are getting to a sad state.

    All we seem to get are a bunch of stories that work to a “mine is bigger than yours” mentality.

    There was no need for reporters to be at the family property. Let people mourn in peace.

  10. Such a tragedy and Seven News Sydney not even attempting to offer any kind of apology to the family for invading their privacy.They simply tried to justify their actions by saying other news crews were there too.As if that makes it ok.Its just wrong.

  11. “In removing the vision we also inadvertently removed the comments.”
    Anyone who uses Facebook would know that this makes no sense. The video and mother’s post would have been separate entities on the Seven News page? Deleting one would not have affected the other. Therefore it could not have been inadvertently deleted.

  12. @the other adam…i assume you didnt actually mean your comment the way i have read it…. Dont you agree that it is a gross invasion of her privacy and she has ever right to grieve the way she see’s fit and if goin onto facbeeok to have her say…while may not be the best thing for all, but she has done it her own way…but to suggest she doesnt get “all worked up about it”…when she certainly has a right to convey her anger…and dont get me started on news services rushing stuff to air or online to get that exclusive, including news papers now with their online content, they are driven by a news hungry public..but somewhere a line has to be drawn.

  13. Please respect the Lord Family and remove the photo of Linda and her deceased daugherty in the field. m.facebook.com/#!/410903828946398/timeline/story?ut=3&hash=5074862517780510866&wstart=1341126000&wend=1343804399&pagefilter=2&ref=stream&__user=608835594

  14. Sad, and amazed they deleted it too. How sad for her, however I think it’s probably time she moved away from Facebook because she obviously needs time to reflect and not get too worked up by it all

  15. Um do you guys not get it either. We don’t want to see these images. Get them off. You are just as bad now by showing the aerial footage. Someone profited from these images and they were obtained and published without permission!!!

  16. I think the news services have a lot to answer for when covering breaking news like this.
    There is no restraint…
    As a viewer I don’t need to see a greiving mother…
    As a viewer I don’t need to see how a group of friends of a murder suspect react to having a media pact follow them down the street…
    When emotions are high… having a camera stuck in there never helps the situation and I doubt it helps the audience…
    So why do it?

  17. 7 and Yahoo7 have a long history of censoring comment and content (This may be true of other media outlets as welt), they do not subject themselves to the same standard they hold everyone else to.

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