Internet troll group, Facebeef, has made a public mockery of Australian news program Today Tonight after convincing the show to run a bogus cyber bullying story as its lead expose.
A member of the group, whose real surname is reportedly Vanmidde, went on the show as “Jasmine Frost”, told the show that she had been targetted by Tristan Barker, who had emailed her pictures of male genitalia.
Her story went to air, but none of it was true.
Today Tonight reporter David Eccleston approached Barker, who was dressed in a Nazi costume at the time, for a response to Ms Frost’s claim.
In a YouTube video posted after the expose went to air, another Facebeef member “Nebz Adlay” explained that Today Tonight had tried to make a “villain out of a comedian by taking his words out context” so that “when they unmasked him they found exactly what they wanted the world’s nastiest man – Adolf Hitler”.
Nebz also went on to explain that Barker couldn’t be a racist since he was part Maori.
The YouTube reply has already attracted about 80,000 views.
Vanmidde told YouTube watchers that she had acted as a secret accomplice and “all it took was an email titled ‘Tristan Barker cyber bullied me’ and then a three minute conversation to convince one of the most watched news programs in Australia that I was a poor bullied girl”.
She said she had actually been a member of the Facebeef team for the better part of the year.
“Sometimes it really pays to do some research Today Tonight, particularly as not two months prior, I was on the shorts for A Current Affair,” Vanmidde warned.
She said ACA did not end up running the story, in which she had posed under a different false name while targeting Facebeef member “Nebz Adlay”.
“I don’t even know why people keep coming after us saying that we’re ‘evil’, all we really do is be mean on the internet and play dress-ups,” said Adlay in conclusion to his online message.
The Seven Network and Today Tonight has been contacted for comment.
Media Week has reported that Barker has since been charged over allegedly slapping Today Tonight reporter David Eccleston when he approached the Facebeef founder for the interview.
Footage of the incident went to air and is available through YouTube but Today Tonight has since pulled the story from their website.
The program told Media Week they had footage of Barker leaving a New Zealand court.
The show also featured an interview with Barker’s father, former Split Enz drummer Michael Barker.
Today Tonight presenter Helen Kapalos said on Tuesday’s program:
“Last night, in our story on Tristan Barker, the Internet bully, we featured a young woman who claimed to have been bullied by him. This was wrong. The young woman, as it turns out, is an attention-seeker with a history of making up stories. It’s not the first time she’s deceived the media. She uses false identities and we understand that she’s friendly with Barker. Clearly, the young woman has a lot of time on her hands and the less said, the better.”
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with Adrian Lowe
– FFX Aus
