Doctored video exaggerates confrontation between journalists and Labor Leader

Shares of the suspect video have surged, as has commentary on the performance of journalists working on the campaign trail.

An apparently doctored video of a press conference by the Leader of the Opposition, Anthony Albanese, has been viewed more than 57,000 times this week and the hashtag #thisisnotjournalism is trending on Twitter with more than 13,000 tweets.

A day after a fractious press conference by Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, shares of the suspect video have surged along with commentary on the performance of journalists working on the campaign trail.

The doctored video exaggerates the confrontation between journalists and Mr Albanese. Journalists asking aggressive questions have been inserted into the video to give a more negative impression.

These journalists are absolutely sick, feral and unhinged. This is not normal, this is unprofessional, this is abuse. What type of journalist behaves like this, and why don’t the others pull them into line? #AUSVOTES pic.twitter.com/gPBkAsISbA
— Eddy Jokovich (@EddyJokovich) May 5, 2022

The #thissnotjournalism hashtag has featured in more than 13,000 tweets in the last 24 hours, according to Trendsmap.com.

The video, shared by podcaster @eddyjokovich, has been retweeted by other users with the #thisisnotjournalism hashtag.

What has been altered:

The video carries the ABC watermark throughout but uses vision from channels 7 and 9;
It carries vision of reporters from Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s press conference from the day before;
It contains more than a dozen edits and effects;
The video shared on #thisisnotjournalism hashtag records more than 57,000 views*.

The bulk of the video’s contents come from a press conference given by Mr Albanese at the Smart Energy Council Conference and Exhibition at Sydney’s Ultimo Convention Centre on May 5. At the event, he was asked by a journalist to list the six points of the ALP’s NDIS plan.

The video carries an ABC watermark throughout but features vision from a 7News camera and inserts vision from a second press conference by the Opposition Leader.

Nine journalist Jonathan Kearsley asks the Opposition Leader what the six points of the ALP NDIS policy are; the exchange can be seen at the 1’02” mark in this video.

The journalist interrupts Albanese soon after he begins responding and then asks more questions on the policy points.

From 14”-17”, the video cuts to a completely different press conference.

This sequence was identified as coming from a press conference by Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Parramatta on May 4.

A different angle of this scene can be seen in this 10 News First clip, around the 1:02 mark. (Listen for his words "the contest between Labor" in the doctored video.)

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has this morning refused to answer questions about why he has not campaigned in electorates contested by 'teal' independents. @Stela_Todorovic was at the PM's press conference and has this update from the campaign trail. #auspol #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/73CsHusDFe
— 10 News First (@10NewsFirst) May 5, 2022

The video carries an ABC watermark throughout but features vision from a 7News camera and inserts vision from a second press conference by the Opposition Leader.

Nine journalist Jonathan Kearsley asks the Opposition Leader what the six points of the ALP NDIS policy are; the exchange can be seen at the 1’02” mark in this video.The journalist interrupts Albanese soon after he begins responding and then asks more questions on the policy points.

From 14”-17”, the video cuts to a completely different press conference. This sequence was identified as coming from a press conference by Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Its audio comes from Mr Morrison’s third visit to Parramatta on May 4. The added sequence to the trending video is from 59” to around 1’03”.

In the trending video shared by @eddyjokovich, this exchange is shown from behind the Opposition Leader, with Kearsley’s audio loud enough to hear his interruptions. While the source for this is unknown, Nine news shared video of Albanese flipping pages in a binder of notes.

Vision also repeatedly cuts to footage of Albanese turning pages on his notes in a Guardian video of the event bearing a 7News watermark from a reverse angle.

It’s likely that the hashtag and the discussion about the practices of mainstream media journalists will continue as verified journalists have joined the discussion.

Mentions of the press conference have spread with mentions of Albanese, as well as discussion on the #qanda hashtag thread.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The performance of the media covering the campaign is very important. The aggressive yelling behaviour in Albanese press conference yesterday would be totally unacceptable anywhere else. The press has become a very destructive force in Australian politics.</p>— Ann Kreger (@AnnKreger) <a href="https://twitter.com/AnnKreger/status/1522404618369519616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 6, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Visualisation - how the claim has spread

Here’s how the hashtag has spread in the last 7 days - visualised by Twitter claims tracking tool Hoaxy.

Vision also repeatedly cuts to footage of Albanese turning pages on his notes in a Guardian video of the event bearing a 7News watermark from a reverse angle.

It’s likely that the hashtag and the discussion about the practices of mainstream media journalists will continue as verified journalists have joined the discussion.

Mentions of the press conference have spread with mentions of Albanese, as well as discussion on the #qanda hashtag thread.

The performance of the media covering the campaign is very important. The aggressive yelling behaviour in Albanese press conference yesterday would be totally unacceptable anywhere else. The press has become a very destructive force in Australian politics.
— Ann Kreger (@AnnKreger) May 6, 2022

Update to story:

Eddy Jokovich has admitted the original clip contained vision from a different event and uploaded a new version that excludes the 3 seconds of vision of reporters at a Scott Morrison press conference the previous day.

Many mainstream journalists were more upset about 3 errant seconds that made it into this original video, rather than their sick, feral, unhinged, unprofessional, abusive behaviour, so here’s the amended video. Enjoy it the second time round! #AUSVOTES #ThisIsNotJournalism pic.twitter.com/PKYElmFo5e
— Eddy Jokovich (@EddyJokovich) May 6, 2022

The post comes after Twitter users, including some journalists, pointed out the doctoring and the fact that the vision was from a Scott Morrison press conference the previous day.

The original, misleading video remains online and has close to 150,000 views.

06 May 2022

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