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Nine reporter apologises for “inappropriate” report

Nine News reporter Seb Costello has apologised after an "inappropriate" report on the wall collapse tragedy in Carlton.

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vlcsebNine News reporter Seb Costello has apologised to viewers after an “inappropriate” Live cross yesterday on the wall collapse tragedy in Carlton.

Two people died after strong winds blew over the brick wall on Thursday, and another person remains in a critical condition after the accident.

Costello was distracted by a man who walked into his view and tried not to laugh during the cross.

He took to Twitter to apologise:

“Apologies to anyone watching the last report. It was a sensitive issue and it was not presented in an appropriate way. Towards the end of the report, a man walked into shot, stopped in front of me and had to be walked away by a colleague. It was a strange & distracting situation to watch. But regardless it’s not hard to understand how upsetting that could be for people affected by the accident. I am very sorry it happened. My thoughts are now even more with anyone touched by incident.”

Update: I’ve decided to take the video down because of the sensitivity of the story. The media angle can still be documented without the need for families to be reminded of the report. Trust this makes sense.

16 Responses

  2. Yeah, it’s easy for all of us to sit here and criticise him. It’s happened before and it will probably happen again. I remember a couple of years ago, the same thing happened to the guys on Sunrise. There was a weird story they were reporting of a dead guy someone wanted to take on a plane. Can’t remember the details, but they all cracked up laughing as Nat Barr was reading it out, and people wrote in and complained.

  3. Just a sign of his professionalism I guess (or lack thereof), everyone makes mistakes and he apologised.. probably no promotions to the today show anytime soon

  4. As a trained journalist he really should of had a better sense of where he was and the story he was covering. It would not of mattered if he was covering a footy story or something light. I am sure he is sorry . A tough lesson though.

  5. I didn’t see it, but give this guy some slack, He apologised pretty well straight away and he has only been on air for about 3 months and this is just one piece of the school of hard knock training he will have to cope with.

    $0.02

  6. No, I didn’t think it was very professional of Seb. I was watching at the time and couldn’t understand why he was laughing about the tragedy and I noticed that the newsreader also cut away from him as soon as she could.

  8. I think the keyboard critics here are being a bit harsh. Yes, it was an inappropriate reaction in such a story but I think it’s clear it was involuntary. As much as we perhaps think they are robots talking in front of a camera at the end of the day they are just human and nobody is perfect even in situations such as that.

  12. Even professional reporters can get distracted Jason.Years ago Jo Hall was doing a live news update one night and mentioning the death of someone in an accident when she suddenly laughed.As it turned out the stations resident cat walked through the studio and she got distracted briefly.

  14. Surely the seriousness of the matter should have outweighed any other feelings the reporter must have had during this incident. I guess that most professional reporters would have been able to manage themselves for the duration of the broadcast. I also feel that the apology was not sufficient as it just sounds piss weak. Does the reporter think that anyone else in Australia would have found that funny?
    My housemate points out its just the same as when people laugh at funerals not to be rude but because that’s their normal reaction to their emotions/situations and while I agree I also have to point out those people are not being broadcast on national TV.

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