Where is he? Reporter Cameron Price is "near Beerwah", but was actually on the helipad at the Channel 9 studio in Brisbane, about 80km away.. Source: Supplied
THE director of news at Channel 9 in Brisbane has resigned and two journalists and a producer have been sacked in the wake of the Choppergate scandal.
Nine News Brisbane's director of news Lee Anderson resigned after working for the network for almost 25 years, the Courier-Mail reported.
Senior management from Nine News also made the decision to sack the producer and two journalists at the centre of the scandal.
Producer Aaron Wakeley and journalists Melissa Mallet and Cameron Price were all sacked by Nine Brisbane's managing director and head of news Mark Calvert this afternoon.
In the statement Nine said: "Newsroom procedures and lines of communication have been reviewed, resulting in immediate changes to QTQ's news gathering guidelines. All News staff will receive further training on their editorial, legal and code obligations."
The statement said that in a letter today Anderson said: "This morning I tender my resignation as director of news, accepting full responsibility for the events of the last few days. I have served this network to the best of my ability for almost 25 years. It has been a privilege and I wish the team all the very best."
The network said: "This has obviously been a very difficult process, but our primary consideration was always Nine News' commitment to accuracy. This is critical not only to our charter, but to maintaining the trust we have developed with our audience over a very long period."
While Anderson's resignation was accepted, Nine acknowledged his long and distinguished service.
Earlier today it was reported Channel 9 bosses in Sydney were unimpressed over the embarrassing fake news cross farce.
The television industry was abuzz with speculation during the fallout to Nine's fake news bulletin crosses to the Daniel Morcombe search site.
If you have come in late, journos Cameron Price and Melissa Mallet claimed to be near Beerwah in the Nine chopper, but were actually still in Brisbane.
In Price's case ... still on the helipad, rotor blades whirring, as rival Seven News watched on in disbelief.
Choppergate was the most-read story on websites around the country yesterday, proving a PR disaster for Nine which promises to be "first with the news" - not fake with the news.
The station wasn't talking about it publicly yesterday but did make a grovelling apology on its news bulletin last night.
But the matter did not rest there, culminating in this afternoon's terminations.
Meanwhile, parallels that can be drawn between this incident and ABC satire
Frontline
are endless, particularly a scene where camera operator Stu (Pip Mushin) takes issue with reporter Martin Di Stasio (Tiriel Mora) over his piece-to-camera about a siege.
Stu: What are you doing, mate?
Martin Di Stasio: Crouching.
Stu: What for?
Marty: 'Cause it makes it look like I'm in danger.
Stu: Mate, the gunman's 5km away.
Marty: Shut up. It's dark, who's gonna bloody know?
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