Peter Chapman first swam into public view as a Channel 10 sports editor, commentator and presenter in the late 1980s.
Monday 4 June 2018
Peter Chapman's stint as editor of The Queensland Times is catching up with him
Peter Chapman first swam into public view as a Channel 10 sports editor, commentator and presenter in the late 1980s.
Wednesday 19 September 2012
Celebrate nature at Jeff Keyes 'award winning property on Sunday 23 September 2012
will be hosting a celebration of nature at his property "Urimberra",
Tuesday 17 April 2012
APN's Peter Chapman turns even nastier than usual on the Fraser Coast
Wednesday 20 January 2010
Like a bad smell on the bottom of your shoe some editors continue to reek long after
When Peter Chapman resigned as editor of The Daily Examiner at Grafton on the NSW North Coast to move to a similar position with the Frazer Coast Chronicle in Queensland, the Clarence Valley almost seemed to echo with a collective sigh of relief.
Thursday 29 October 2009
Racial profiling in the Northern Rivers - an unpleasant odour lingers in APN media
It is less than two months since the unlamented departure of Peter Chapman from the editorial helm of The Daily Examiner, so it is perhaps overly optimistic to expect all the bad journalistic habits he fostered with such relish to have disappeared into thin air.
However, it is more than unfortunate that one bad habit which appears to linger is a tendency to report the racial characteristics of persons accused of a crime.
Last Saturday an individual before the court accused of aggravated sexual assault, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and related charges was described in The Daily Examiner's lead story as Caucasian in appearance.
What alleged racial appearance has to do with such a crime remains a mystery to me and can only be considered a gratuitous mention that this newspaper would be better served by deleting from future editions.
Saturday 19 September 2009
What a difference a change of editor makes
Under former editor Peter Chapman The Daily Examiner at times indulged in barely concealed Koori bashing, so this opinion piece by new editor David Bancroft was a welcome read last Wednesday:
Original The Daily Examiner article about young Kaleesha Morris (pictured) Grafton teen a future PM? by journalist Marsha Neville on 16 September 2009.
Friday 28 August 2009
Daily Examiner editor leaves the building: don't slam the door on the way out
When Peter Chapman took over as The Daily Examiner editor little was known of him locally in the Clarence Valley except that he hailed from other climes in recent years, was a former television sports commentator and had been rapped over the knuckles by an ABC TV Media Watch program in the 1990s.
I think I can safely say that a number of residents looked forward to having a new editorial voice at the helm of their only local daily newspaper on the grounds that a change was as good as a holiday.
So at first some Daily Examiner readers were puzzled by the odd discordant notes hit by Chapman in his early articles and comments.
Puzzlement quickly turned to something close to outrage in certain quarters, as those odd notes turned into frequent reports and opinion pieces which attempted to either demonise and marginalise segments of the Valley community or blatantly bag various small towns, villages and community facilities.
While an increasing number of so called news reports, whose raison ĂŞtre seems to have been advertising goods or services, tried the patience of many.
What wasn't widely known at the time was the fact that Chapman was using an APN News and Media running sheet benignly called Readers First. [APN version Ewart version Press Council version]
This publishing philosophy calls on editors and journalists to report news which is more responsive to and reflective of the needs and interests of a newspaper's readership, to make advertising an important part of the editorial/news team and have journalists give a less detached account of events or embed themselves in their stories.
However, in Chapman's rather clumsy hands this meant that The Daily Examiner abandoned editorials, began to pander to perceived community bias and prejudice, published blatant advertorials and allowed hearsay or downright gossip to form the basis of a significant part of the news in some issues (with a tinge of racial profiling or chauvinism often thrown in for good measure).
The Clarence Valley reacted in various ways - by simply shrugging shoulders as they turned the page, challenging the editor in the letters column, phoning him directly to refute some of his more outrageous assertions, complaining to senior management, contacting watchdogs, stopping any engagement with the newspaper or laughing outright at claims that newspaper circulation was rising rapidly rather than merely marking time as it has done since the turn of the century.
It was noticeable that some of the goodwill garnered by the 150 year-old newspaper was being needlessly dissipated under the Chapman editorship, but a few locals still tried to support this North Coast icon with news tips even when personal irritation levels were high and rising higher.
After less than fifteen months as editor Peter Chapman officially left The Daily Examiner this week as far as I can tell.
He is heading back to Queensland to take up the position of editor at yet another APN masthead, the Fraser Coast Chronicle.
Friday 14 August 2009
Northern New South Wales first quarter 2009 newspaper readership and circulation figures
Roy Morgan Report, June 2009: North Coast Newspapers.
Table showing Readership April 2007 to March 2009 (1st column) and Circulation January to March 2009 (2nd column)
Northern New South Wales | ||
Tweed Daily News, M-F | 11,000 | 4,593 |
Tweed Daily News, Sat | 10,000 | 5,182 |
Lismore/Northern Rivers – The Northern Star, M-F | 37,000 | 14,903 |
Lismore/Northern Rivers – The Northern Star, Sat | 56,000 | 23,164 |
Grafton/Clarence Valley – The Daily Examiner, M-F | 16,000 | 5,596 |
Grafton/Clarence Valley – The Daily Examiner, Sat | 15,000 | 6,397 |
The Coffs Coast Advocate, Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri | 10,000* | 3,293† |
The Coffs Coast Advocate, Wed/Sat | 45,000* | 31,194# |
Source:
Readership – Morgan Mar 09; M-F av. and Sat; APN total distribution area *Average readership
Circulation – ABC Jan to Mar 09; M-Sat av. and Sat †Publisher's claim #CAB Oct 08 to Mar 09
Now The Daily Examiner editor, Peter Chapman, is very fond of bragging that 'his' newspaper was the fastest growing daily newspaper in regional Australia in the first quarter of 2009.
However, if one compares circulation figures (average net paid sales/net circulation) for the first two quarters 2008 with the first quarter 2009, then it works out that each week The Daily Examiner managed to sell 76 extra newspapers, as 2009 Saturday circulation figures have actually fallen.
Compared with The Daily Examiner circulation figures for the last two quarters of 2004 these current figures are even less impressive, in view of the painfully slow circulation growth up to and including January-March 2009.
If one compares The Northern Star across those same quarters in 2008 and 2009 then a different story unfolds. It has shown circulation growth both Monday-Friday and Saturday and, therefore sells an extra 1,341 newspapers each week.
One has to suspect that Mr. Chapman in relying on percentages is hoping that no-one will enquire into what hard numbers his bragging might actually represent.
UPDATE:
More rubbery figures? The only conclusion I can draw from these latest numbers (which appear to indicate that quarter to quarter The Daily Examiner circulation varies markedly) is that this newspaper has more casual readers than it has devoted followers.
APN released these figures later this morning.
The publishing group sees these figures as showing a year-on-year 5% circulation increase for The Daily Examiner and a 1% increase for The Northern Star.
Table showing Readership April 2007 to March 2009 (1st column) and Circulation April to June 2009 (2nd column)
Northern New South Wales | ||
Tweed Daily News, M-Sat | 11,000 | 4,773 |
Tweed Daily News, Sat | 10,000 | 5,222 |
Lismore/Northern Rivers – The Northern Star, M-Sat | 40,000 | 15,141 |
Lismore/Northern Rivers – The Northern Star, Sat | 56,000 | 22,997 |
Grafton/Clarence Valley – The Daily Examiner, M-Sat | 16,000 | 5,811 |
Grafton/Clarence Valley – The Daily Examiner, Sat | 15,000 | 6,483 |
The Coffs Coast Advocate, Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri | 10,000 * | 3,293 † |
The Coffs Coast Advocate, Wed/Sat | 45,000 * | 31,194 # |
Source:
Readership – Morgan March 2009; M-Sat av. and Sat readership; APN total distribution area *Average readership
Circulation – ABC April to June 2009; M-Sat av. and Sat †Publisher’s claim #CAB October 2008 to March 2009
Sunday 9 August 2009
Daily Examiner editor spits the dummy as he grabs his hat and coat
Saturday 1 August 2009
Editor made use of internet sources, but he forgot to thank them
The front page of today's Daily Examiner carries a report written by its editor, Peter Chapman, about the disqualification of a jockey whose urine sample tested positive to a banned substance.
Racing NSW stewards disqualified the hoop for 12 months on the basis of an analyst's finding of an opioid in a sample taken from the jockey after he completed trackwork in July.
According to Chapman, "the test revealed traces of the prohibited drug, Buprenorphine, in his system".
No, Peter, stewards did not reveal to the public just what the jock's sample contained.
Chapman proceeded to provide readers with the duck's guts about Buprenorphine.
Although it made for interesting reading, Chapman didn't say that the information provided about the substance was lifted from any one of a number of sources on the internet. And, of course, he didn't acknowledge the source/s.
Even more interesting, was what Chapman (with all his editing skills) elected to leave out about the substance's adverse effects.
In addition to the effects stated, the source/s Chapman 'borrowed' from also stated that the substance had the potential to affect a chap's love making.
Thanks, Peter, for sparing the readers those details!
Read Chapman's piece in The Daily Examiner's here.
Monday 13 July 2009
Woke up with a vacant sensation between your journalistic ears? Then publish a viral email!
Thursday 2 July 2009
Newspaper porkies for sale in the Clarence Valley
Here are two of those The Daily Examiner articles from 11 June and 12 June 2009:
Click on images to enlarge
Friday 26 June 2009
Blistering barnacles, Mr. Editor!
Monday 22 June 2009
Brave young Maree Jay takes on the ugly face of Australian journalism at The Daily Examiner
Hot on the heels of The Daily Examiner office at Yamba being broken into and what sounds like an amount of petty cash stolen, that newspaper attempted to run a crime wave scare concerning people of aboriginal appearance and allegedly low police numbers [The Daily Examiner, 11 June 2009].
Something that Grafton Police Chief Inspector Darren Spooner flatly denied as he happens to live in Yamba [The Daily Examiner, 13 June 2009,p5].
By 12 June 2009 this inchoate media beatup had quickly morphed into a generalised attack on the indigenous community of Yamba.
Now 22 year-old Maree Jay of Grafton has taken the newspaper's boastfully unrepentant editor to task for his judgmental, one-eyed, hearsay-ridden view of the Yaegl community.
Once again, Peter Chapman has added an editor's comment which reflects his inability to recognise his own journalistic shortcomings.
Ngaru Village
THIS is a formal complaint written to the people involved in the production and publishing of the story 'Yamba's Mission' (DEX, June 13).
This article is an example of social segregation and disinclusion. These are two words identified by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commissioner 2003 as contributors to a) the history of oppression of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait lslander people and b) the continuation of such abuse.
By publishing this story you are actively continuing that cycle. The 'Yamba community' is spoken to as if they are white, and the 'Aboriginal people'are not spoken to, they are spoken about.
It is 2009, I am 22 years old and the printing of this story made me feel sick in the bottom of my stomach.
I wonder how a story with the same stereotyping, ignorance, opportunism and the lack of factual research seen in stories published when my grandmother was 22 years old can be so destructively distributed throughout our community.
Did you ask anyone in the Aboriginal community anything about their life? No. You snuck in at 6.15 in the morning to rely on photos that give an out-of-context, sensationalised impression.
lf you were a Koori person, would you want to go into town with this story in the press?
Maree Jay,
GRAFTON.
EDITOR'S COMMENT; The response from Maree Jay reflects indignation that someone would dare criticise Yamba's Ngaru Village.
Like us, you know that our story is based on fact, not on rumours.
Key details of what is happening at the village have been known to this paper for many months.
Rather than attack us, the question I put back to you is: As a concerned 22-year-old what have you done in the past few years to assist Ngaru Village and to help improve the living standards of the children who call the village home?
It would have been easy for this paper to have ignored Ngaru Village. We knew we would generate howls of protests like yours.
I don't apologise for taking the stance we have, in fact l would have been embarrassed if we
hadn't.
As the editor has not yet made one constructive suggestion or concrete offer of help, it is the height of hypocrisy on his part to suggest that another should be doing so.
Peter Chapman may not be embarrassed, but I wouldn't mind betting that there are a few reputable journalists who would be embarrassed by his amateurish existence.
North Coast Voices will be revealed for its ignorance according to the mainstream media!
This year The Daily Examiner of Grafton (which is the only local daily newspaper covering the Clarence Valley) marks 150 years of journalism and news reporting, so it is sad that the once proud newspaper was reduced to this last Saturday when the editor was criticized by James Patterson of Ramornie in a letter to the editor.
In part this is what Mr. Patterson said:
You deserve to come under attack for your articles on the Yamba village because, in your rush to get the story out, you delivered a piece low on research and fact and high on emotive journalism.
Your key story ran for a week to mainly justify your position.
A raised voice at 6.15am, a photo of a rundown building and a quote from a politician are not cold, hard facts that will convince people.
Peter Chapman's reply induced some mirth here at North Coast Voices when in part it stated:
EDITOR'S COMMENT: To every story there is a start and an end.
We have only just scratched the surface of the Ngaru Village story.
I refute your comments that it wasn't based on any hard facts.
It is unfortunate that many people in the community know about what is happening in the village yet very few if any, are prepared to put their name to the story.
Our information comes from impeccable sources and when the story is finished people who have criticised our stance will be revealed for their ignorance.
On Saturday The Daily Examiner also ran this story which, rumour has it, is a change of tone and emphasis brought on by the thought that ABC TV's Media Watch may be aware of Peter Chapman's recent over the top reporting on Ngaru Village.
A case of twice bitten, third time shy?
Thursday 18 June 2009
Did the editor's dog eat his homework?
In a piece titled Banks law unto themselves Chapman has simply reproduced, word-for-word, a media statement released by Senator Steve Fielding.
Okay, let's give Chapman some credit. He acknowledged it was Fielding's work and to make things easier for his readers he turned one paragraph that consisted of two sentences into two one-sentence paragraphs.
Perhaps the editor's dog ate his homework and when it came time to hand up his copy for today's paper he had nothing.
Let's hope other journos at The Daily Examiner don't follow Chapman's lead and simply rehash media statements.
Oh, by the way, Fielding's media statement can be read here.
Monday 15 June 2009
Greatest problem! Crisis! It's extravagation time at Tabloid City
There is a reason why newspaper journalists were just two places off the bottom of the Roy Morgan June 2009 poll, which rated public perception of the ethics and honesty of Australia's main professional groups.
Here is a perfect example of modern gutter journalism - The Daily Examiner indulging in a little Ngaru Village bashing (calling it the shame of Yamba) and in the process telling us that no-one wanted to talk to the newspaper even though it was going though politically correct channels.
According to the editor's Comment article; an urban residential area, with no more than fifteen unit clusters/houses (about twelve occupied) and a handful of kids, is apparently causing the greatest problem facing the Clarence Valley community today.
In fact it's a crisis!
In increasingly breathless purple prose the editor expects that any car he travels to the village in will likely be pelted with stones and abuse will be hurled.
Yes, I can really see his point.
Disregard the fact that many of the Yaegl traditional owners live quietly in the wider 6,500-strong Yamba community and, that there are around 50,000 people living across the Clarence Valley on any given day which means that the combined weight of the dominant groups outnumber these original Australian families.
Forget that it is the personal experience of many Yamba residents that when travelling into Ngaru Village they are only met with a quiet and dignified politeness.
Completely ignore those indigenous families where a parent works full-time and the children go to school regularly.
A few kids in one area are allegedly busy turning our cherished, otherwise major problem-free, whitebread way of life to dust if the hyperventilating editor is to be believed.
The day Peter Chapman published this tripe I happened to pass a Yamba home mourning the recent loss of a young indigenous person to suicide - but blinked editors don't even think about the sort of conditions which cause this all too frequent tragedy, do they?
Oh, but I am remiss! I am forgetting to mention that the very next day after his Comment went to print the editor offered to 'help' Ngaru Village.
How did he do that? Why by splashing out on the entire front page of The Daily Examiner's Saturday issue with this supposed offer, in which his opening paragraph stated that the Yamba aboriginal community...is collapsing.
Then on Page Four filling the personally-penned article with hearsay, outright gossip and ill-formed opinion.
As well as admitting that he had sent an apparently uninvited photographer into the village at 6.15am the previous day (when the Yamba air temperature was 7 degrees Celsius according to BoM and sensible folk were still inside eating breakfast in front of a heater) to take surreptitious photographs of one of the three dwellings that had already been scheduled for demolition years ago and what appears to be one occupied house.
Which seems to encompass the entire range of spurious help the editor offered.
Peter Chapman is indeed the ugly face of Australian journalism.
Update:
A letter to the editor (very similar to this post) was sent to The Daily Examiner, which published same on 16 June 2009, along with a lengthy Editor's Comment attached.
The comment was a laugh and a half as it stated in part; you are so far wide of the mark you couldn't find your way back with a guide dog, a compass and a map.
The editor rather strangely went on to say that this [my] attitude of indifference was what has caused all the problems at Ngaru Village.
However, what produced the greatest laughter was Peter Chapman's assertion that when publishing the letter in question he was not deleting any of your diatribe.
Poor man just can't help himself, as this was yet another extravagation - he had indeed deliberately deleted eleven words in the middle of a sentence; the Yamba air temperature was 7 degrees Celsius according to BoM and.
Apparently the rest of the Clarence Valley was not supposed to know that he sent the photographer out in cold weather!
Just as that Saturday's frontpage story and Page Four article have not been posted on The Daily Examiner website to date.
Friday 12 June 2009
So this is what passes for NSW regional news these days?
In fact I commented upon his views in this recent post Chapman uses Chaser blunder to hit back at Media Watch.
Well, Mr. Chapman continues to exceed himself, with blatant advertisement masquerading as reporting turning up in the newspaper under his stewardship yet again on 11 June 2009 at page 6 of a 32 page issue.
One cannot help wondering if all these not so stealthy advertisements are paid for or if they are freebies for friends.
What they are definitely not is news reporting.
Sunday 7 June 2009
Chapman uses Chaser blunder to hit back at Media Watch
they prance around with an air of superiority and arrogance watching the clock tick from 9am to 5pm
They live in a world of their own where they believe their snobbish upperclass views are indeed the only views that have any merit
While his dig at ABC radio news coverage on the NSW North Coast begs the question as to why The Daily Examiner editor, who is notorious locally for his advertorials and product placement in supposed news articles, dares to point to journalistic failings in others.
One almost feels like echoing the comment of his young daughter; Zip it, Dad. [The Daily Examiner,"Slants on Life",6 June 2009]
Though comments on the ABC Media Watch website go further:
Bred and born in the Clarence :
18 Apr 2009 2:36:13pm
I've lost count of the number of people I have spoken to who no longer buy the Daily Examiner due to its degrading gutter journalism. Reports continually try to divide our wonderful coastal community on a variety of issues.
Perhaps the community should call for a "vote of no confidence".
Friday 5 June 2009
What gripe does the Daily Examiner have with PNG?
After Wednesday night's State of Origin the Examiner's editor, Peter Chapman, called for all NRL video referees "to be taken to the docks for a one way trip to Papua New Guinea".
Many people will agree with Chapman that the video referee in Wednesday night's NRL State of Origin went way too far when deciding 'No Try' after Blue's Jarryd Haynes had flirted with the touch line.
However, sending all the video refs to PNG is stretching things a bit too far. What on earth have PNGers done that caused Chapman to decide they should have to host the refs?
Chapman admitted that he "bunkered down at home for the match complete with freshly-ordered pizza and a cold drink by (his) side".
Perhaps, Chapman had one cold drink too many. Then again, perhaps the pizza was off.