The Chaser : We Are Wankers


Channel Seven boss David Leckie

On Wednesday night, Channel Seven's Today Tonight devoted a solid, ad free 18 minutes to The Chaser. Unfortunately, it wasn't very funny. It was mostly footage of a couple of The Chaser team caught out in the midst of a stunt in the offices of Today Tonight, talking about calling their lawyers, saying their needed to speak to their lawyers and then speaking to their lawyers.

The funniest moments were delivered by a Today Tonight 'reporter' who berated The Chaser for "trespassing". This from Today Tonight less than a week after they aired footage of one of their reporters and a camera team refusing to leave the front yard of a western Sydney family, after being asked to get off the property God knows how many times.

The only big laugh from the increasingly symbiotic relationship between Today Tonight and The Chaser was the Rodney Rude-esque reaction from Channel Seven boss David Leckie :

'Where's The Chasers? What about The Chasers team? They're just f---ing wankers. They're nothing but a bunch of tossers, they're f---ing wankers."

The Chaser reaction?

"We are wankers," said Chaser executive producer Julian Morrow. "We make fun of people so we can't expect people not to make fun of us."

Morrow also got off another good line when he learned that Today Tonight had gone to court to stop them airing footage they had shot during the Today Tonight 'ambush'.

"We're stunned that Today Tonight has completely beaten up this story. Who do they think they are? Today Tonight?"

The Chaser and Today Tonight both need to take a long break from each other.

Or team up for a joint show.

Boy : 'Save Me From The Cannibals!'

TV Networks : Hello Ratings Bonanza And Major CatFight

By Darryl Mason

A massive public brawl has broken out between the two highest rating 'current affairs' programs in Australia over which one would, or would not, help rescue a six year old boy allegedly under threat of being "consumed by cannibals."

Yeah, that's right. A six year old boy, Wa-Wa, living in a remote region of Papua has been determined by his tribe - one of the last in the world to supposedly still practice cannibalism - to be full of evil spirits and therefore he must be eaten in some kind of tribal feast.

What better story to enjoy on the tele at dinner time?

'A Current Affair' claims they were never interested in doing the story of Wa-Wa's rescue. 'Today Tonight' claims they had the means and the contacts to rescue the kid. Presumably they would have had permission from little Wa-Wa's parents or guardian to feature him so prominently in such a controversial story. They must have. Otherwise it would be...exploitation or something.

And 'Today Tonight' would never stoop so low.

And just how did Today Tonight find room in its packed schedule of quality stories detailing 'society falls apart', 'dodgy councils' and 'bogan mum with ten kids to ten different dads' to fit in this heartwarming tale?

Child in danger. Lost tribe. Cannibalism. Heroic rescue by glamour gal talking head.

How could they possibly resist?

But the 'Today Tonight' team didn't get "We Saved Wa-Wa From Becoming Dinner" story.

They got another story instead. About their craptacular adventure.

A better story?

Maybe not. But it's far more entertaining.

'Today Tonight' host Naomi Robson was busted by Indonesian authorities trying to enter Papua on a tourist visa and was briefly jailed, then tossed out of the country.

Now Robson's team now claims that their rival, 'A Current Affair', dobbed them in to the Indonesian authorities to screw up their story and embarrass the star host.

Mission accomplished!

Read on.

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

The head of Seven's news and public affairs, Peter Meakin, said his crew had secured a team of locals to help Wa-Wa "or whatever his name is".

"I can't think of too many people who had a motive to shop us into the authorities for trying to save a child from being eaten other than ('A Current Affair')," Meakin said.

Here's Channel Nine's head of news and current affairs in reply to Meakin's allegations :

"They get off a plane and they have at least a dozen camera cases … If you try to do that in Jayapura with your hair extensions hanging off you and you say, 'We are here to write a story on cannibals', what do you really expect them to say?"

But what about Wa-Wa, Mr Meaking? You remember, "Whatever His Name Is"?

"What's going to happen to the little boy is now in the lap of the gods," Meakin said.

There you go. Australian journalism at its finest.