Sunday Night nabs Adam Whittington interview
Updated: Mike Willesee to interview former child recovery agent, with the network insisting no payment has been made.
- Published by David Knox
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Well this was just inevitable…
Sunday Night has reportedly struck a deal with Child Abduction Recovery agent Adam Whittington to tell his side of the story of the 60 Minutes saga.
The Courier-Mail has published pictures of Whittington and a Seven crew on a Gold Coast beach. It speculates the deal could be worth up to $1m (always just a guess-timate).
Whittington had always vowed to tell his side of the story, previously writing on Facebook, “The world, like I was, will be shocked when you hear the truth!”
Ironically Sunday Night‘s executive producer Hamish Thomson, who was appointed in July, is a former 60 Minutes executive producer. He departed Nine in May after Nine opted not to continue with Inside Story.
While he was running Inside Story, Thomson turned down Sally Faulkner story -before it later landed at 60 Minutes.
Adam Whittington left Lebanon in July after months behind bars and protests by family members outside Nine’s Willoughby base.
Whittington and Sally Faulkner still face kidnapping charges.
Yesterday former 60 Minutes story producer Stephen Rice settled his dispute with Nine after being dismissed.
UPDATED: Seven press release:
Seven’s Sunday Night will this week air an exclusive interview with Adam Whittington, the head of Child Abduction Recovery International (CARI), who has returned to Australia.
Mr Whittington was released from prison in Beirut at the end of July after nearly four months behind bars over his involvement in the plotting and failed abduction of Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner’s two children from Lebanon, with an Australian television crew.
The interview with Sunday Night’s Mike Willesee, Mr Whittington’s first on the failed child snatch, airs on Sunday at 8pm on Seven.
Sunday Night made no payment to Mr Whittington, his family or any other party for the interview. The fact that he wasn’t paid will be disclosed in the program.
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- Tagged with 60 Minutes, Inside Story, Sunday Night
7 Responses
He got paid, didn’t do what he was paid for, got caught, he was in jail. He kept the money he was paid. Full stop. Don’t feel sorry for him at all.
This!!! The poor Adam story has driven me nuts. Wonder if 7 will ask about his prior arrest, conflicting career claims, etc.
I suspect that the next story will be that Nine have sought an injunction to prevent this from going to air at least until they’ve seen the program for themselves.
For once, I support this sort of thing. Bring on some good old fashioned network biffo.
I read from another forum that there’s no payment involved for the interview. Regardless of which network got this interview, it’d be interesting to watch (not so much Nine bashing but to hear his version of the incident).
Michael Usher’s first story for SN? 🙂
This is delicious, hopefully it airs after Michael Ushers gardening leave so he can be involved. although last time the courier mail stipulated $1mil pay for an interview it resulted in a AFP raid, which resulted in an AFP apology.
Media watch pointed out how 9 have been burying this whole saga, not reporting any of the key developments that all other media outlets have been. If this is a 1hr 9 bashing session it will really force their hand.