Aim of ABC NEWS WATCH

In a diversifying media landscape news editors face an increasingly difficult challenge reviewing the work of reporters under their supervision. Inevitably some mistakes, errors and substandard articles slip past their critical eyes.

The simple aim of ABC NEWS WATCH is to publicise the errors, omissions, and substandard reports produced by the News service and related entities of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). In doing so we hope to provide an independent check or audit on ABC news articles and in doing so improve the standard of ABC news reporting. After all its our ABC.

Monday, February 8, 2010

From the Vault-a few too many Scientologists

Original story (Senior Scientologist says no cover up) broadcast on AM, December 12, 2009; official correction listed on February 2, 2010 (see here).

On December 12, in a story about The Church of Scientology, the ABC's AM program reported that the organisation had "about a quarter of a million Australian members". This figure should have been attributed to the Scientologists themselves, based on their mailing list figures. The 2006 Census found the number of Australians identifying themselves as Scientologists to be 2,514. The story was corrected with an editorial note on December 23 that reads:

"Editor's Note: (December 23) These figures should have been attributed to the Church of Scientology which says it based the number on its mailing list. The 2006 census found the number of Australians identifying themselves as Scientologists to be 2,514."

Missed it by that much!

"From the Vault" - digging up past corrections and clarifications from the ABC archives (this one quite recent).
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