North coast TV station NBN was forced to apologise to federal roads minister Anthony Albanese after it aired a program that accused him of diverting funds from the Pacific Highway upgrade into roads in the electorate of independent Member for Lyne Rob Oakeshott.
The story was broadcast in January and followed the death of an 11-year-old boy at Urunga after a truck ploughed off the Pacific Highway and ran into the front room of the house where he was sleeping.
The report said money intended for that part of the road had been diverted to the Oxley Highway in Mr Oakeshott’s electorate. The Oxley Highway is not a federally funded road.
The broadcasting watchdog ACMA found the station had broadcast a ‘misleading, inaccurate and biased report’. It said the report was not ‘fair or impartial to minister Albanese or MP Oakeshott’.
Typical of much of Australia’s media that is more interested in its own political agenda (to look after the rich & powerful) and “to hell with the truth and facts.”