The same could well be said for this effort by Sydney's Daily Telegraph last May:

Chained, Burned, Banished — ABC, Media Watch episode 14, 11th May, 2009

That story, by the Tele's...

Paul Kent, — ABC, Media Watch episode 14, 11th May, 2009

Watch the Media Watch story from episode 14, 2009

...was about Christopher Wayne Hudson, the Hell's Angel who shot and killed one person and wounded two others in the Melbourne CBD in June 2007.

According to Kent, whose story ran big in the Melbourne Herald Sun as well as the Tele,

The killer behind Melbourne's horrific CBD shooting was tortured by Hells Angels bikies before he surrendered to justice, it can finally be revealed. — ABC, Media Watch episode 14, 11th May, 2009

Hudson's Hells Angels tattoo was removed, reported Kent, in the most brutal fashion.

They chained Hudson up and, wielding the hot blue flame of an oxyacetylene torch, seared the tattoo from his arm. — ABC, Media Watch episode 14, 11th May, 2009

As we said at the time, that's the kind of gruesome detail that sells papers. Problem was, the Victoria Police told us it was nonsense.

But Tele editor Garry Linnell responded tartly:

The sources on this story were first-rate... I'll be standing by our report rather than anything spun out of the Victorian police's media unit. — Response from Gary Linnell (Editor, The Daily Telegraph) to Media Watch, 2009

Well Garry, here's something spun out of Barwon Jail near Geelong, where Christopher Wayne Hudson is serving 35 years.

A photograph sent to Media Watch by his stepmother, clearly showing the Hell's Angels tattoo on Hudson's arm.

She tells us the photo was taken a couple of months ago.

And she adds:

Chris has never had any tattoos removed by blowtorch. — Email from Christopher Wayne Hudson's stepmother to Media Watch, 9th November, 2009

Which means that Garry Linnell, and Paul Kent, and their first rate sources, to use a word beloved of the computer-gamers, have been well and truly pwned.

That's P-W-N-E-D. And I didn't know the word either, until I started using Twitter. I rather like it. If you want to know what it means, visit our website.

Click here for an explanation of the term 'pwned'

That's it for this week, and this year. Thanks to my hard-working team. Thanks to all of you who've tipped us off to the media's stuff-ups, beat-ups and barneys.

Media Watch, and I, will be back in February.

Until then, enjoy the summer. Goodnight.