Going For A Rowe

Channel 9's Jessica Rowe was left red-faced when East Timor taskforce commander Brigadier Michael Slater revealed how an interview was being stage managed. News.com.au reports the exchange between Rowe and Slater:

"I'm wondering how you feel about your safety given that you've got armed guards there standing behind you, armed soldiers," Rowe says.

"Jessica, I feel quite safe, yes," Brigadier Slater says. "But not because I've got these armed soldiers behind me that were put there by your stage manager here to make it look good."

The release of the interview footage on the web is part of an increasingly bitter war over ratings between Seven and Nine.

As we always highlight in our media training sessions, it's in the media's nature to want to make things look more dramatic than they really are.