60 Minutes sorry for botched kidnapping

A policeman escorts Sally Faulkner (R) and 60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown upon their release from...
A policeman escorts Sally Faulkner (R) and 60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown upon their release from Lebanon's Baabda Prison for women, following the kidnap attempt. Photo Reuters
The 60 Minutes staff involved in the botched Beirut kidnapping had blurred judgement and got their priorities wrong, says the programme's founding producer.

The Nine Network on Sunday night aired an apology segment on "how things went so horribly wrong" with the bungled story, after releasing a review on Friday.

Senior producer Stephen Rice has been sacked over the affair and three other staff formally warned after the network found "inexcusable errors" were made which landed four 60 Minutes staff behind bars in Beirut.

Founding producer Gerald Stone, who led the review, said the failed mission to return Sally Faulkner's children to Australia in April was "without a doubt the greatest misadventure in 37 years of 60 Minutes".

Mr Stone said everybody involved in the programme appeared "emotionally committed" to Ms Faulkner's case, which clouded their judgement.

He insisted it was a worthy story to commission and cover, but wasn't worth the risk.

"It's amazing to me that a programme that bases itself on asking the right question didn't ask itself the right questions," Mr Stone said during the programme on Sunday night.

"All I know I did not see the kind of willingness to say: is this story really worth the risk?"

Mr Stone said blame for the bungled story lies with Mr Rice.

"If anyone was going to be picked out it would have to be the producer of the programme because things do rest heavily on (their) role," he said.

"That's why he is a producer, because he should take the blame when things go wrong."

The apology segment didn't explicitly canvass the ethics of 60 Minutes paying for the child recovery agency to carry out the attempted kidnapping.

But 60 Minutes journalist Michael Usher said mistakes were made in the planning and execution of the story.

"We sincerely apologise for our serious mistakes," he said.

"Sadly, we have damaged the reputation of a great TV programme. What's important is to learn from the mistakes, and we are committed to doing that."

Child recovery agent Adam Whittington remains in a Beirut jail over his role in the failed mission.

Mr Whittington's family says he feels deserted by the Nine Network.

Beyond outlining his role in the attempted kidnapping, 60 Minutes said very little about Mr Whittington on Sunday night.

"There is an ongoing criminal case in Lebanon involving our crew and the child recovery team led by Adam Whittington and for legal reasons we're not able to say any more about that," Mr Usher said.

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