It seems that everone is up in arms about this, which is good.
Please note what i am postin here comes from a message on antilag.
"To whom it may concern,
I am writing to register my complaint regarding an article aired on tonight’s (Wednesday 9th May 9, 2007) episode of Today Tonight on Network 7. In particular, I believe the segment they aired regarding “Drifting” was not only a piece of inaccurate and poorly researched journalism, I also believe it contravened a number of regulations contained within Section 4 of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice July 2004 (CTICP).
The segment in question was centered around video footage located on the Youtube website (www.youtube.com) that appeared to show in-car footage of two drivers engaging in “drifting” on public roads. Host Monica Kos introduced the segment as such:
“There’s been an explosion of hoon behaviour in the last few years, fuelled by publicity on the internet. The latest ratbags to hit our roads do something called drifting - hoons in high-powered cars racing and weaving on public roads. And while police say the sport’s fine on raceways, they’ve launched a nationwide crackdown on drivers who risk innocent lives.”
In so doing Ms Kos has set up the segment to be viewed by the audience as being directly relevant to them – the use of the words “our roads” further reinforces this. The first section of footage shown is of the Youtube video, and includes a voiceover by the male reporter referring to the drivers as “amateur hoons”.
Section 4 of the CTICP concerns News and Current Affairs programs, which are defined as “a program focussing on social, economic or political issues of current relevance to the community”. Section 4.1.1 states that one of its main objectives is that “news and current affairs programs are presented accurately and fairly”. As such, this segment has already violated this objective. The Youtube footage featured is in fact filmed in Japan, and featured professional Japanese drivers performing a series of demonstration races on closed roads. A basic investigation into the footage would have yielded this information – the Youtube search tags used to locate it include the words “japan”, “night” and “drift”. Furthermore, the footage was filmed several years ago, and has been made widely available in Australia and numerous other countries on the DVD magazine “JDM Option”.
Section 4.3.1 of the CTICP further states that News and Current Affairs Programs “must present factual material accurately and represent viewpoints fairly”. It is my belief that this segment went beyond merely being grossly inaccurate, and instead became deliberately misleading, by the inclusion of an interview with what appears to be an Australian police officer (which force he is from is never clearly identified within the segment), and the statement by the male reporter that
“Authorities are trying to determine just where in the country this reckless stunt, weaving all over both sides of a public road, was carried out before being posted onto the popular website Youtube.”
This is taken further toward the end of the segment:
Male reporter: “The police are not taking the matter lightly either. Today Supt. Tony Rankin made this blunt warning to the drivers responsible wherever they may be.”
Supt. Tony Rankin: “It seems to me that people like this that take not only their own lives, but others, at risk, should feel the full weight of the law.”
“…as we speak, I’m having people from the Electronic Crime Section have a look at Youtubeto see whether or not they can indentify the vehicles, and/or the persons in there, and I’ll make further enquiries from there.”
Whilst it can only be assumed that it should have been immediately obvious on viewing it to determine that the footage was not filmed in this country at all, it becomes harder to believe that even a basic fact-checking exercise would not have discovered the true origins of the footage. Furthermore, it appears that there has been a deliberate effort by Today Tonight to conceal the true nature of the footage, and instead convince viewers that the footage was recorded by Australian drivers on Australian public roads.
Footage shown supplementary to the Youtube video during the segment consisted purely of drifting being performed on racetracks both here in Australia and in Japan – a completely legal form of the sport. At no point was there any other footage shown featuring the performance of drifting on the street – Japanese or otherwise. A brief clip of a motorcycle performing a “wheelie” on a public road was included in the segment, for an undetermined reason – it had no relevance to drifting, the driving behaviour in question. Interestingly, even a quick viewing of this motorcycle footage reveals it was recorded from a left-hand drive vehicle, again, meaning it was not performed on any Australian roads, and was thus also of dubious “current relevance” to the viewing audience.
I am thus convinced that this segment went beyond just incompetent journalism with regards to fact checking and investigative sources, and instead made a deliberate and concerted attempt to deceive the viewer. At the very least, I do not believe that constructing an entire segment around a single piece of footage taken from an open-source internet video website such as Youtube constitutes journalism, particularly when that footage is at night, and of an undetermined origin; and I fail to see how it fulfils the conditions set by section 4.3.1 of the CTICP in being “factual material”. Furthermore, I believe this segment completely contravened section 4.3.1 in that it did not “present factual material accurately” at all.
I hope that you take this complaint seriously, and that Today Tonight is made to reveal the true origin and nature of the Youtube video footage featured so extensively throughout this segment, at the very least. I would also expect that in future certain basic standards regarding journalism, primary sources of information, and fact checking would be required of Today Tonight, and future segments monitored.