When coffee costs a Tuppence

ABC User Submitted Photo. Stephen Shaw

It’s not infrequent to return to a story. It happens often in both politics and court stories. Updates happen, circumstances change, and events unfold. It’s this last one, events unfolding, which triggered the media’s recent revisit of a crime scene.

In late march I blogged about Desmond Moran who had been shot at whilst returning home late at night. The offender had fired a single shot through the front windscreen. Desmond, as it turned out was in the passenger seat, and his driver escaped injury. When media arrived to cover the event, Desmond emerged from the security of his home and held court with the waiting reporters and camera crews.

This week, Desmond Moran was shot dead. Moran, 60, was shot several times in the head in an apparent execution-style killing. His body still lay in the doorway of the Ascot Pasta and Deli Cafe several hours after the shooting.

In a Bizarre twist, gangland matriarch Judy Moran, sister in law to Desmond, is one of three people who have been arrested over the shooting death of Desmond "Tuppence" Moran.

Desmond 'Tuppence' Moran was the last man of his family alive. Melbourne's bloody gang wars claimed his brother Lewis, nephew Jason and Jason's half-brother Mark Cole Moran.

And who thought that so soon we would all be revisiting this story, only with a much different outcome.

Will it blend?

Oh dear! What will people do on YouTube. There is a 2nd part to this video. They actually try to return the camera to the shop.

TV Logie Awards

The TV Week Logie Awards are the Australian television industry awards, which have been presented annually since 1959. Renamed by Graham Kennedy in 1960 after he won the first 'Star of the Year' award, the name 'Logie' awards honors John Logie Baird, a Scotsman who invented the television as a practical medium. Awards are given in many categories, but the most widely-publicized and prestigious award is the Gold Logie, which is awarded to the 'most popular personality on Australian television'.

Sunday night saw the telecast of the 51st Logies and the ABC, amongst others, were winners.

The ABC won Logies for Most Outstanding News Coverage, The China Earthquake by Stephen McDonell and Most Outstanding Public Affairs Report by Foreign Correspondent, Afghanistan: A Survivor's Tale.

Stephen McDonell joined ABC as a reporter for Radio Current Affairs programmes AM, PM and The World Today.

Switching to television he worked at the 7.30 Report before going to Four Corners and Lateline.
In 2005 he took a year off to study Mandarin at Beijing's Language and Culture University. This followed an earlier sabbatical in 1997 studying Spanish at Madrid’s Universidad de Completense.
Along with the ABC’s Geoff Thompson, he won the Walkley Award for investigative journalism covering high-level bank fraud in Vanuatu and the New York Festivals prize for best documentary covering timber smuggling out of Indonesia.

In 2006 he returned to Beijing as the ABC’s China Correspondent.

Well done to all.

Roller Door Duty

Trust me when I tell you, there is no pleasure in hanging around court buildings. Not for me anyway. The only profit to spending hours wearing down an area of pavement, is that I get to catch up with friends and colleagues who like me, enjoy the experience as much as having a filling repaired without an injection to inhibit any reasonable feeing to the entire experience.

The court round is a depressing one. There are never buoyant stories, few cheerful results and for the minority that there are, we rarely cover them. It’s not the modus operandi of the media to cover such accounts.

As the Flotsam & Jetsam of daily life tread in and out through an ever revolving door, news crews remain on a vigilant alert, waiting for the cast of many a sad and sorry story being played out in an upstairs court room.

Here in Australia, news media are not allowed in courts to film or take pictures. Instead reporters send text messages to crews waiting outside, alerting them of a prospective witness finishing up and ready to leave. In most cases, a street walk with witnesses and family takes place. Sometimes a chase is on, either way; it’s much to the amusement of pedestrians attempting to go about their business without being skittled like pins in a bowling alley.

When someone is placed on bail, there is the predictable wait by the roller door at the side of the courts for them to leave and usually be ushered into a waiting car, surrounded by family and secure within their protection.

There again we come back to the start of this blog, back out on the footpath waiting for the roller door to rattle, a sign of action on one side for the crews and temporary freedom for another on their side.

Until that moment comes, crews stand around, camera’s sitting idle on the footpath, sipping coffee, passing around cigarettes and purveying eye-catching girls as they stride by the gauntlet of jaded media.

When finally the roller door comes to life, crews jump to readiness, coiled springs unravel as fingers flick power buttons, cameras are slung up on shoulders and thumbs hit the record button. All the hours of waiting have been for this very moment.

In ten minutes, it’s over and even less of it goes to air. The joys of courts.

Walkley winner Sorell dies

Taken from ABC TV Online

Veteran Melbourne journalist John Sorell has died of a heart attack aged 72.
Sorell worked for the now-defunct Melbourne Herald and was news director of Melbourne's Channel Nine for many years.

Sorell, a Walkley Award-winning journalist, died in the Alfred Hospital this afternoon.
Nine's chief newsreader, Peter Hitchener, said Sorell revolutionised television news.

"He really changed the face of Nine News and in fact had a big influence on how television news is still done today," he said.

"John Sorell was able to get people to perform at their best and he knew what it took to have them be their best."

'Tough but fair'

Sorell began work as a journalist on the Hobart Mercury in 1953 and later gained notoriety as the author of the On The Spot column in The Herald.

He won two Walkley awards for pieces written about US firefighting legend Red Adair in 1969 and on John Gorton after he resigned as prime minister in 1971.

Former Nine Network boss Kerry Packer lured Sorell to television in the mid-1970s.
Sorrel, in turn, brought Seven Network Melbourne newsreader Brian Naylor to Nine in 1978, establishing a combination that drove Nine's dominance of news in Melbourne for the next 20 years.

Only a few weeks ago Sorrel spoke lovingly of Naylor and his wife Moiree at a memorial service following their deaths in the Black Saturday bushfires at their home in Kinglake West.

Sorrel was known as a hard taskmaster and was nicknamed "The Bear" and "The Admiral" during his 28 years at the helm of Nine's Melbourne news service.

He retired in December 2003, handing the reins to long-time deputy Michael Venus.
At the time, Sorell said he was proud of his achievements.

"I've had a great innings but in your heart you know when it's time to hand over the reins and my heart told me that time is now," he said.

'Nose for news'

Friend and fellow journalist Ken Davis said Sorell would be missed.

"Very sad. I was with him on Thursday for dinner and to hear he had a massive heart attack on Friday and then passed away this afternoon leaves a hole in my life and leaves a hole in the news service of Channel Nine and in journalism," he told Channel Nine.

"He'll be remembered as a gruff old bugger but very fair, very tough, and he could write a great story and had a great nose for news."

Newsreader Jo Hall, who hosted Nine's news on Monday, paid a warm tribute to Sorell, her boss for more than two decades.

"He gave me my start in television news and taught me about journalism and life," she said.
"John was many things to many people but simply he was a larger-than-life character who will not be forgotten. So, for you John, on with the rest of the day's news."

Sorell, 72, leaves behind wife Bronnie, three children, including David who works as a Freelance Soundrecordist and eight grandchildren.

Low flying Spitfire & ducking reporter!

One of the things that TV reporters do frequently is the ‘Stand Up’ or ‘Piece to Camera’ also known as a PTC.

You see them most nights on the TV News and a reporter will be standing at the scene, on location or just out in front of a generic location.

The idea is to show the viewer you were there, pass on information you have no pictures for or simply to get your profile on TV.

Here is one that is a few years old but is a classic example of where the reporter and cameraman know they only have one shot at getting it right. The reporter is talking about the Spitfire fighter and in the background it is taxing towards them for takeoff.

Seeing in the dark!

Ever wondered what to do with your old VHS Camcorder?

Who gives a Tuppence?

The Moran family are well known around Melbourne, for their flamboyance and entrepreneurial skills, but unlike the Richard Pratt’s of this world, they are colourful characters more known to Police and Media than the philanthropists of the Arts community.

Desmond 'Tuppence' Moran is the last man of his family alive. Melbourne's bloody gang wars have claimed his brother Lewis, nephew Jason and Jason's half-brother Mark Cole Moran.

In early March, while sitting in his car with a friend in the driveway of the family home, a balaclava clad gunman fired a single shot at the car, narrowly missing the friend of Desmond.

As media, we congregated like seagulls over hot chips on site waiting for life to emerge from the home. We had been there since 05.15am and at 06.30 reporters decided to converge on the front door in the hope of enticing a weary Desmond from his slumber to tell his story.

At first he refused to come out and would only talk from the front door, as reporters and camera crews faced a door screen that clearly was intended to hide those within.

True to his name, he soon emerged to ‘hold court’ with those willing to hear. Des Moran was full of one liners and certainly had everyone ‘entertained’.