“It doesn’t matter who did it, it’s a story”: Tony Jones on Four Corners’ African crime episode

Tony Jones has called out Four Corners for its episode last night, which focused on media bias when reporting on African youth crime in Melbourne.

“By all accounts this story was an attack on the media,” Tony said.

The episode included an interview with Peter Kidd, the head of the County Court, who said the media gives a false impression of African crime being more prevalent than it really is.

“If you are an African offender, certainly if you’re an African youth of South-Sudanese background from the western suburbs of Melbourne, rest assured your case will be reported upon,” Mr Kidd said.

“The media choose to report upon those cases, that creates an impression that a very significant portion of our work is taken up by African youths of the western suburbs. That is a false impression.”

On 3AW Mornings, Tony Jones said he’s “fascinated by it just being media bias.”

“I’ll tell you how it works,” he said.

Click PLAY below to hear the full details

“From a media point of view, you get a call saying there’s been a home invasion in Heidelberg, the owners are traumatised, the house has been extensively vandalised and they demanded the keys to a Saab and drove off.

“That is a story. It doesn’t matter who did it, it’s a story.

“Then comes the next lot of facts, whether they’re of Caucasian appearance or African appearance it doesn’t matter one iota, that story is going to get a run.”