Daily Telegraph apologises to Georgie Gardner
"The Daily Telegraph withdraws the claims, which we accept were wrong," says newspaper apology.
- Published by David Knox
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The Daily Telegraph has apologised to Today‘s Georgie Gardner for its story suggesting focus groups had been negative towards her.
Nine is understood to have considered legal action over the article which news boss Darren Wick described as “bullying” and “defamatory.”
“The Daily Telegraph withdraws the claims, which we accept were wrong,” it reads.
“The Telegraph has a commitment to accurate journalism and in this case we let our readers and Ms. Gardner down.
“We apologise to our readers and Ms. Gardner the hurt and embarrassment caused to both her and her family.”
On Thursday Darren Wick said, “Nine conducted a number of focus groups throughout the last six months of 2018, under my supervision, and the feedback from those viewers was overwhelmingly positive about Georgie Gardner. She rated head and shoulders above every other on-air presenter. And that’s consistent with all Today Show focus groups we’ve held during the last seven years, while I’ve been in the National News Director role.”
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16 Responses
Commitment to accurate journalism? That’s the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time.
Agree Carole – ethics and truth are notions totally unknown to most of the Fourth Estate. ‘Commitment to accurate journalism’ is a joke coming from the DT or any other newspaper, whether controlled by/dictated to (same thing) by Murdoch or some other soulless creature. Most are hacks or talking heads no worth our time.
We need to have truth in reporting laws. Other countries like Canada have them. No Murdoch there either. Lucky them.
Nine must be aware they stuffed up & got rid of the wrong person. Deb got the gig because of the chemistry she had with Karl. They both have a cheeky side which Georgie (& TJ) doesn’t have.
Lol. Absolutely have to disagree with you there. I’d stopped watching because of KS ages ago. So glad to switch back after hearing he was gone. Today has a way to go I admit. And maybe the changes they’ve made are a bit much. People seem to see two female hosts as a bit too PC and a change the audience isn’t quite ready for. But I think getting rid of Karl was a good move. Smug and arrogant doesn’t work for many of us.
From my observations of Deb Knight over her career, she would have chemistry with anyone she worked with, a consummate professional, and a lovely person.
Tick.
So the Daily Telegraph weighed up fact checking vs litigation and decided an apology was cheaper?
The DT should apologise for even existing, likewise all Murdoch papers. They’re a disgrace.
No mention of the journalist’s name?
As an erstwhile Prime Minister once told the press: “Stop printing crap”.
I bet the ‘apology’ is hidden away somewhere, where as the ‘story’ would have been very prominent. Who reads this garbage?
The original story was on page 7; the apology was on page 3. Like all newspapers, the apology item was smaller than the original article (in my view, this should not be the case)
The original story was also on page 1.
Yes, there was a small box at bottom left of the front page with the heading ‘Ice Maiden’ & ‘Focus groups blast Georgie >> Page 7’ and a headshot of Georgie.
If I was Georgie, I would say , “apology not accepted, clean up your act” , and leave it at that.