“Paul McCartney: ‘Money can’t buy you love, or a
million delegates as it turns out.’”
Rating the motel a 6/10, Ms Graham wrote it had a "good location but the room was a bit noisy."
She said the view was "quite nice" and the room served the purpose but "was surprised that the room was not serviced as I stayed for two nights not sure if that's what they normally do or it was just overlooked."
A motel on the New South Wales South Coast has charged a guest $50 for writing what it described as a "defamatory" review.
Key points:
- A NSW motel has demanded a guest take down a middling review she left on a booking website
- The guest had an additional $50 billed to her credit card, along with a note on her invoice demanding the review be taken down
- The Accommodations Association of Australia says motels can take action against unfair or misleading reviews, but says it's not "best practice"
A Barrack Heights woman had her credit card charged an extra $50 after she left an online review of a South Coast motel, with the owner saying she would only be refunded once the review was removed.
The experience went viral after she posted it to social media and the motel owner - who claims the since-refunded $50 was a "damage charge" because the "inaccurate" review damaged their reputation - now says they have been forced to temporarily close due to the fallout.
The motel managers Rachelle and Graham Fulton, responded to Ms Graham's review online, and also spoke to the Mercury to voice their frustrations over reviews and social media backlash.
They said the $50 charge was a damage charge, which they said was detailed in the room conditions, "because the review was damage to our reputation".
"I have to reply to a lot of reviews and that takes time," Ms Fulton said.
"That money is a damage bond - I can charge for damage to our motel, and for administration."
They said they refunded the money "straight away" when asked by Booking.com
Mr and Ms Fulton said they believed Ms Graham's review was not a "genuine reflection of her experience" as they said her room had been booked at a discounted rate without housekeeping.
But Ms Graham said she was not aware of this being the reason for a $10 a night discount applied to her room rate.
"We offer a clean, affordable room, and we're not supposed to be five stars," Mr Fulton said.
"We're the cheapest hotel with the best view and we took housekeeping away to keep the price low. It says in the room that housekeeping is extra and you should put the sign out."
"But if she'd wanted to have the room cleaned she could have just asked us."
Ms Graham's post about her experience has gone viral on Facebook, with almost 1000 people commenting about the $50 charge.
Speaking to the Mercury, the grandmother said she had not intended to cause such a fuss.
One bad apple 🍎 does not make the orchard rotten: Czech out how to put in 48-hours on the stunning south coast
Super Tuesday coverage was must-see TV ABC’s new
production set, which debuted during Super Tuesday coverage. (ABC News)
It was just before midnight Tuesday — as I wore out my remote
surfing from one news network to another — when it hit me. Complain all you
want about the state of TV news, but man do they know how to do election
coverage.
Whether you want voting results, fancy big boards with maps,
smart commentary, hot takes, hindsight criticism or insightful predictions,
TV news has figured out how to make election coverage entertaining
television.
The coverage of Super Tuesday was must-see TV. If you’re a
news junkie, you could even go as far as to call it outright fun.
Maybe it was the shocking comeback of Joe Biden. Maybe it was
the back-and-forth races in such key places as Texas and Massachusetts. Maybe
it was the realization that it was going to be the end of the road for at
least one high-profile candidate. Maybe it was just moving a significant step
closer to what could be the most electric presidential election in history.
Whatever it was, there wasn’t a dull moment in coverage no
matter where you turned.
Network. Cable. Online. It was all superb, and a hopeful sign
for what we might see on the first Tuesday night in November.
As far as networks, more eyes turned to NBC than anywhere
else, but not by much. All of the big three had good numbers. According to
Nielsen overnight ratings, NBC averaged 2.94 million viewers — ahead of ABC
by 221,000 viewers and CBS by 298,000. All in all, it was a good night for
all the networks, starting with NBC.
Their coverage — led by Savannah Guthrie, Lester Holt and
Chuck Todd — was smart and conversational. That conversational feel has
always been the highlight of NBC’s coverage.
ABC unveiled a swanky 5,500-foot studio with glitzy lights and
state-of-the-art monitors that truly made a difference. The set was fresh and
inviting. Ultimately, of course, it comes down to content, which, led by
David Muir and George Stephanopoulos, was solid. But the set also made for a
pleasant viewing experience. (By the way, the set isn’t just for election
coverage. It also will be used for “World News Tonight,” “Nightlight,” “This
Week,” “America This Morning” and “GMA Weekend.”)
With its new toy, ABC carried its coverage well into Wednesday
morning, even prompting contributor Rahm Emanuel at one point to say, “This
is past my bedtime so I’m just going to go ahead and call Texas for Joe Biden
so I can go.”
And CBS’s coverage — led by Norah O’Donnell and Margaret
Brennan — maintained its typical serious tone, which isn’t a criticism. It’s
not as light as NBC’s coverage can be, but it certainly is a favorite landing
spot for many viewers.
PBS’s late-night wrap-up show featured always-entertaining
commentary from David Brooks and Mark Shields.
Meanwhile, Fox News actually had the most viewers of any
network during primetime, with 4.172 million viewers. MSNBC had 3.8 million
viewers and CNN had 2.7 million. But all three networks acquitted themselves
well.
MSNBC really shined late at night and was the most-watched
cable news network from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Host Chris Hayes was especially
strong leading panel discussions that helped put Tuesday night into perspective.
Best line of the night NBC’s Super
Tuesday election coverage. (NBC News)
As far as we know, no one has ever compared Mike Bloomberg to
an actual rock star. Until Tuesday night’s Super Tuesday coverage when
NBC/MSNBC contributor Claire McCaskill was asked about him.
She said, “Paul McCartney: ‘Money can’t buy you love, or a
million delegates as it turns out.’”
Good news for the news Former
Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg leaves after speaking to
supporters as he announces the suspension of his campaign Wednesday. (AP
Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
Mike Bloomberg dropped out of the presidential race Wednesday.
That’s good news for Joe Biden, who now has Bloomberg’s endorsement and, one
would assume, some of Bloomberg’s resources.
But Bloomberg dropping out also could be good news for
Bloomberg News. As long as Bloomberg was in the race, Bloomberg News was
under orders from the boss to not do any in-depth investigative pieces on
him. And, in an effort to be fair, that meant Bloomberg News also would not
dig deep into the other Democratic presidential candidates.
This also means Bloomberg will definitely not become
president, another piece of good news for those inside Bloomberg News.
But I said it COULD be good news for Bloomberg News. The fact
is, Bloomberg, the boss, will still be very much involved in this presidential
election if he throws his support and money behind Biden. You would like to
think that wouldn’t impact Bloomberg News’ coverage of the presidential race,
but you have to at least wonder if it will.
Donna Brazile’s comments, part two Donna
Brazile. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
Not long after telling Republican National Committee
chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to “go to hell” during a segment Tuesday on Fox News,
former interim Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile (now a
Fox News contributor) was a little calmer during an appearance later that
night with Bret Baier. Originally, Brazile was upset that McDaniel said the
Democrats were rigging the primaries against Bernie Sanders.
“I must tell you the secret — I'm a forgiving kind of person,”
Brazile told Baier. “I want to thank Chris Wallace and Brit Hume and Juan
Williams. Yes, all three men. Juan gave me the fist bump. Chris gave me the
talk. And Brit reminded me that, you know, sometimes you don't, you shouldn't
call people outright.
“But let me just say this,” she continued. “As long as I'm
alive, I'm going to speak truth to power. And I want to make sure that the
chairwoman, I know what her job is like, but I want her to understand, to
respect the process on the Democratic side. … Democracy is messy, but do not
tell the world that the Democratic Party is trying to rig it for one
candidate.”
The buzz in Sacramento
Here’s something you don’t see every day: a local politician
who wants to save the local newspaper.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento, California, is trying
to form a local ownership group to buy The Sacramento Bee. The Bee is
currently owned by McClatchy, which recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
to restructure debt and shed pension obligations.
Steinberg told the Bee’s Ryan Lillis
that it’s his “responsibility as mayor to fight for any community asset that
is vital to the future of Sacramento.”
McClatchy had no comment, but there’s no indication at the
moment that the paper is even for sale.
Sports journalism’s highest award Christine Brennan, left,
speaking with actress Katie Holmes last month. (Ann-Sophie Fjello-Jensen/AP
Images for Dick's Sporting Goods)
USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan is being honored
with one of sports journalism’s most prestigious honors. She is the recipient
of the 2020 Associated Press Sports Editors Red Smith Award, named for what
many believe is the greatest sportswriter who ever lived. Officially, the
award is for “major contributions to sports journalism.”
Brennan became the first female sportswriter at the Miami
Herald in 1981 and later covered football for The Washington Post. She has
been at USA Today since 1997. She writes about all sports, but has especially
made her mark covering the Olympics — something she has done 18 times.
‘I’ve been so fortunate to know or work with quite a few of
the Red Smith Award winners over the years,” Brennan said in a statement.
“They have been my role models, my editors and my mentors, so to join them is
very humbling.”
Smith was the first winner of the award named after him in
1981, the year before he died. Past winners include sports journalism legends
such as Jim Murray, Shirley Povich, Dave Anderson, Bud Collins, Frank Deford,
Dan Jenkins and Mitch Albom.
Media tidbits
The beginning of the end
Want more from the Chris Matthews’ firing from MSNBC? The
Washington Post’s Sarah Ellison and Paul Farhi have some of the details with “The end of the Chris Matthews era: How the bombastic
host got forced out at MSNBC.”
First off, yes, you could call it a firing — or, as Ellison
and Farhi wrote, Matthews essentially jumped before being pushed. MSNBC
president Phil Griffin delivered the news right before Matthews went on the
air Monday that a change needed to be made. The conversation came after
several recent controversies, capped off by an article in GQ in which
freelance journalist and frequent “Hardball with Chris Matthews” guest Laura
Bassett alleged Matthews had made inappropriate remarks to her.
Ellison and Farhi quoted a person familiar with the situation
as saying, “Each time he went on the air, he was at risk for saying something
that was not OK.”
In case you’ve forgotten Matthews’ problematic history of
saying wrong things, Vox’s Laura McGann has a recap.
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