Dark muttering has been emanating from the team that produces ABC Victoria morning host Jon Faine, after The Age
literally ripped off a half hour story they put together on the
question of what happens to the families of servicemen and women killed
in action.

It certainly was an impressive full page feature in the new Focus section of The Age (shown below) which you can read here. There were special break-outs on The Widow, The Survivor and The Family – all of whom were featured on Faine’s program a day earlier.

In fact, the spoon-feeding of editorial ideas goes even further because Age
reporter Farah Farouque is said to have called Faine’s producers and
asked for the numbers of all the people who went public on the ABC.

An undertaking was given to credit Faine’s program but there was no appearance, your worship. Crikey hears that a complaint was lodged and that old favourite excuse of “the subs took it out” was trotted out.

The Age
shouldn’t expect too many favours from the ABC in the future given this
ordinary performance. Maybe a written undertaking from the editor to
give credit is the way to go in the future.