[imagesource: YouTube / Glenn van Zutphen]
Two Australian Channel 7 presenters learnt the hard way that the cameras are always rolling, and the microphones always recording, when their frank exchange before a news report was leaked.
Mike Amor and Rebecca Maddern were prepping for their evening report, dominated (as much of the news in Australia has been) by the ongoing Novak Djokovic saga.
The latest is that the Serbian tennis star was entered into the draw for the Australian Open but could still have his visa revoked.
With news having broken prior to the broadcast that Djokovic admitted there were mistakes on his travel forms, as well as confirmation that he socialised following a positive COVID-19 test, neither Amor nor Maddern was in a forgiving mood.
“Lying, sneaky asshole”, “bulls*** f*****g excuse, “f*****g lies” – just some of what was said during the candid conversation:
After the footage leaked, Channel 7 defended the duo and said it was a private conversation between two colleagues, and the recording was illegal.
Attention then turned toward finding out where the leak came from, reports NewsAU:
…all Channel 7 employees have been cleared of leaking the savage hot mic recording, with an external company identified as the source due to one key detail in the video…
Seven’s internal investigators honed in on one small detail in the recording, leading them to caption company Ai-Media, which provides captions for the hard of hearing as required by legislation.
… a timestamp visible in the footage – which does not appear on internal Seven video outputs – led bosses to the company.
The investigation into who exactly at Ai-Media was behind the leak is ongoing.
Meanwhile, there were many on social media who said they backed the honest words from Amor and Maddern:
Is it too late to nominate Rebecca Maddern and Mike Amor for joint Australians of the Year? #Djokovic
— Tish (@oztish) January 12, 2022
Can’t see this leak hurting Mike Amor or Rebecca Maddern’s reputations – if that is what the perpetrator was hoping. https://t.co/X4TQdDXEsJ
— Colin Vickery (@Colvick) January 11, 2022
@7NewsAustralia
All Aussies give a bigto Rebecca Maddern and Mike Amor for showing how news presenters can be just as human as the rest of us!! I will forever watch and support Rebecca Maddern and Mike Amor!! Thank you for speaking what we are all thinking about #Djokovid
— Jez Scone (@JeremyCNascone) January 12, 2022
Hopefully, we are on the final stretch now, and Djokovic is either sent home or granted a visa to compete and we can all move on.
[source:newsau]
