0
Cocktails or chateau cardboard?
Watch Cocktails or chateau cardboard? [PG, 4:19min.] (Help):
RealPlayer hifi video RealPlayer lofi video
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/tra...s/s1437611.htm
First screened 15 August 2005 Presented by Liz Jackson
A Red Cross information night became an elite cocktail party in front page stories for the Sydney Morning Herald and the West - cabanossi and cheese or canapes and cocktails?
The Red Cross is also feeling aggrieved after a recent series of articles caning them, from Sydney to Perth.
It started like this in the Sydney Morning Herald:
Red Cross tsunami cocktails turn sour
Gerard Ryle
Until last night, a wine and canapés event at the Sydney Headquarters of the Australian Red Cross was to have been funded from money given to homeless tsunami victims.
— Sydney Morning Herald, pg 1, 4 August 2005
The story ran the day after the event, which Gerard Ryle said was:
The first in a series of catered parties for wealthy donors
— Sydney Morning Herald, pg 1, 4 August 2005
The West Australian picked up the Herald's story and ran it even bigger on their front page:
Charity pays for cocktail parties
The Australian Red Cross will hold a series of lavish cocktail parties for wealthy donors around the country.
— The West Australian, pg 1, 4 August 2005
Their cartoonist weighed in as well:
It says "You are invited to a cocktail party to celebrate the wonderful work of the Red Cross. Dress Black Tie"
— The West Australian, pg 16, 4 August 2005
The following day Chris Joyce, who actually went to the Red Cross evening, contacted Media Watch.
I have no association with the Red Cross other than to have made a tsunami donation, and to have attended the information evening.
— Email from Chris Joyce to Media watch
He went on to tell us around twenty people were there.
The event was held in a meeting room at the Red Cross offices ... with cafeteria chairs to sit on ... There were no "cocktails" ... It was an aid worker giving a talk on her time in Banda Aceh and that was it. The invitation said there’d be light refreshment. Light refreshment was overstating it. The wine seemed to be chateau cardboard. There was instant coffee, block cheese and cabanossi sausage. It certainly wasn’t a black tie or tiara affair.
— Chris Joyce to Media Watch
So could this be the same event that the Herald described? Where was the catering, the party and the cocktails?
Well the Herald hadn't actually gone, as journalist Gerard Ryle confirmed:
No, I did not attend.
— Email from Gerard Ryle, 12 August 2005
Read the questions to Gerard Ryle in full
Read Gerard Ryle's response to Media Watch in full
But what of Ryle's claims that the evening was to have been funded ...
... from money given to homeless tsunami victims.
— Sydney Morning Herald, pg 1, 4 August 2005
The Red Cross says the event cost just $300.
They concede their communications manager - Vedran Drakulic - initially said it was an administrative cost of the tsunami appeal. But that Vedran asked Gerard Ryle for the questions in writing, so that he could go and check.
Ryle sent this email later that day:
How does the Red Cross justify spending money raised for tsunami victims to wine and dine an elite group of donors?
— Email from Gerard Ryle to Vedran Drakulic, 3 August 2005
Read the questions from Gerard Ryle to Vedran Drakulic in full
Vedran Drakulic replied 6 hours later:
Sorry about the wait. I had to get to various people to provide me with relevant information.
Red Cross is organising a series of information briefings for donors who made a significant contribution to the Tsunami appeal. Any costs, including refreshment costs, will not come out of the Tsunami appeal fund.
— Email from Vedran Drakulic to Gerard Ryle, 3 August 2005
Read the response from Vedran Drakulic to Gerard Ryle in full
So did this outright denial cause Ryle to drop his story? No way.
He claimed his questions had forced the Red Cross to change its plans.
Until last night, a wine and canapés event ... was to have been funded from money given to homeless tsunami victims. But the picture changed rapidly when questions were asked.
— Sydney Morning Herald, pg 1, 4 August 2005
Now The Herald and the West may believe their accounts are right, but the evidence they've produced for their damaging claims looks thin, or wrong.
A beat up at best.
But their stories had an immediate impact, as the letters page revealed.
Red Cross loses the plot
People like me who donated to the Red Cross’s Tsunami appeal might think not twice, but thrice, about repeating the act unless we are assured no part of our hard earned goes to entertain the generous folk of the cabernet and canapés circuit ...
— SMH, Letters, 6 August 2005
The West shed crocodile tears for the damage their stories had done.
Sadly, any backlash against the Red Cross may be to the detriment of people who most need its help.
— The West Australian, Editorial, 5 August 2005
Spare us please.
Read the questions put to The West Australian from Media Watch, in full
Read the response from The West Australian to Media Watch, in full
Seems like the vindictive reporter from SMH has been caught out before....
Reply With Quote
CHEERLEADERS ROCK!!! 
Originally Posted by travelling_gerry
He actually shocks me with some of his comments...i just keep thinking he can't be human...no one thinks like that!
"Remember lads, rugby is a team game; all 14 of you make sure you pass the ball to Giteau." 
