5

Channel 9 Doesn't Want To Go To Crime Scenes, So They Fake It

The abduction of 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe in 2003 made national headlines, and led to one of the most in-depth investigations in Australian history. It only ended in 2011, when a rigorous search operation at a site in Queensland unearthed seventeen bones and a few scraps of clothing: all that remained of Daniel.

That he was dead came as no surprise, given that this was a week after Brett Peter Cowan was charged for the murder and taken into custody. The one-week period between the arrest and the discovery of the body sent search teams into overdrive, and news channels into a feeding frenzy. Channel 9, one of Australia's biggest television networks, got in on the action -- they even ended up with live coverage of the search being conducted at the suspected murder site.

9 News

4

CNN Tampers With An Interview And Gets Called Out

When John Cena, the most famous wrestler in the WWE, sat down with CNN for their documentary Death Grip: Inside Pro Wrestling, he was ready for real questions. And they came:

CNN: "Have you ever used steroids?"

He gave a real answer:

Cena: "Absolutely not."

CNN

Well, moving on we get into --

CNN: "Are you sure?"

W-what? Did they think he didn't hear the question? Did they expect him to snap his fingers and go "oh s**t, wait, I meant 'I do all of the steroids, all of the time.' Sorry"?

Cena, visibly frustrated, pointed out how hard it is for exceptional athletes to endure these media trials, wherein they are automatically suspected of using drugs, and only end up looking defensive if they refute allegations. A fair point. Aaaaaand here's how they ran the segment:

3

Fox News Childishly Alters New York Times Journalists' Photos

We tried our best to exclude channels that have the credibility of used car salesmen, but this is pretty low even by their standards.

When Jacques Steinberg of The New York Times wrote a piece on cable news which, among other things, pointed out that Fox News' rivals were fast catching up on them in terms of ratings, he must have been expecting some kind of response. He probably didn't expect the journalistic equivalent of Fox drawing crude sketches of him surrounded by stink lines.

2

The Boston Globe Doesn't "Get" Facts

On the 12th of May, 2004, Boston residents had their morning significantly soured thanks to a set of horrific images published by The Boston Globe. The images were part of a report on a war crimes expose, and depicted United States soldiers abusing and raping Iraqi women at gunpoint. It was a stirring reminder of the brutality of war, and the stark dehumanization that lies in its wake.

George Rizer/Boston Globe

Now, leaving aside whether or not you want explicit war-crime photos front and center before you've even had your corn flakes (odds are, you don't -- that's firmly "after coffee" territory), the images were never authenticated. That's a bold move - to see some graphic sex-horror and just be like "yeah, get the whole family in on this," before doing your actual fact-checking -- luckily, the Globe learned from their mistakes and managed to tighten up their system ... for almost a year. On April 12, 2005, The Globe ran an article covering the Halifax Seal Hunt, an annual "entertainment" event held in Halifax, Canada, where people gather for a fun day of casual seal-murdering. Writer Barbara Stewart described the barbarism of the event in vivid detail, including specific, gut-wrenching details of baby seal slaughter, waters turning red with blood, and the useless protests of animal rights groups. It would have made for a heart-rending tale ... had it not been for the fact that the hunt hadn't yet even started on the day the story ran, and was further postponed because of s****y weather.

1

The News Uses Special Effects

In 1986, CBS did a 60 Minutes piece about sudden, unintended acceleration in Audi 5000 models, which led to a series of recalls, and a blemish on the brand's image. 60 Minutes demonstrated on camera that the test car was experiencing bouts of sudden accelerating, despite the driver's foot being firmly on the brake, and the company's reputation lay in ruins. The camera doesn't lie, does it?

The camera might not, but CBS sure as s**t does. Conveniently off camera, an expert the channel used had rigged the car, by drilling a hole in the vehicle's transmission, and installing a hidden compressed-air pump system which held the accelerator down without the driver doing a thing. The public never saw this -- just the car speeding away unprompted.

CBS