But now to another example of sensational crime reporting, and some far more remarkable allegations aired in the media ten days ago.

GEORGIE GARDNER: A woman who says she was the victim of an alleged paedophile ring operating in the 1970s has made explosive claims in Sydney today. Fiona Barnett spoke at a press conference along with members of abuse survivor group, SNAP. FIONA BARNETT: Well, I was prostituted to paedophile parties at Parliament House, Canberra. The people involved in this elite paedophile ring included high-ranking politicians, police and judiciary. — Channel Nine News, 23rd October, 2015

And that was just the start of it.

Barnett claimed that at least three former Australian Prime Ministers were involved and that the ring is still operating today.

And after AAP filed the story, a large number of websites picked it up ... and reported:

FIONA Barnett also claims she witnessed "hundreds of crimes" - including murder, rape, abduction and torture ... — NT News, 23rd October, 2015

Lismore's Northern Star and Tweed Daily News also told readers she had made some even more startling allegations:

Ms Barnett recounted a story about being shown as a child what happened to "traitors" who spoke out. She alleged she witnessed a man being tied to two tractors which drove in opposite directions, tearing him limb from limb. — Northern Star, 23rd October, 2015

Are we beginning to have concerns about her credibility here?

Part of Barnett's reason for speaking out was to claim that this Prime Ministerial paedophile ring has been covered up by people in power.

As News.com.au reported, she had told her story many times but had always been ignored:

Ms Barnett said she had taken the allegations to multiple health professionals in the 1980s, NSW Police in 2008 and approached the Royal Commission in 2013. She said she and other victims of "VIP" perpetrators were "stonewalled" by authorities. — News.com.au, 23rd October, 2015

Hmmm. That's surely a sign there might be no evidence for her remarkable claims.

Yet all these media outlets ran with her story, and only News.com.au saw fit to suggest it might not stack up, by including this statement from ACT Police noting:

"The matter was thoroughly investigated by ACT Policing's Operation Attest and there was no evidence to substantiate the complainant's allegations," ... — News.com.au, 23rd October, 2015

Elsewhere, Ms Barnett's allegations were accepted pretty much uncritically by a host of newspapers and websites, including:

The Sydney Morning Herald

The Daily Telegraph

The Hobart Mercury

Adelaide's The Advertiser

And a raft of regional papers owned by Fairfax Media or by APN's Australian Regional Media.

Her claims also made headlines in the Daily Mail and in the UK's Independent newspaper, not to mention numerous radio and television stations.

We reckon they should have been treated with a lot more caution.

And a quick search on the internet confirms our doubts.

Here is Barnett writing last year about the CIA, paedophiles and Nazis:

The key to understanding organised paedophilia in Australia is the thousands of Nazi war criminals to whom our government knowingly offered asylum in this country. — Independent Australia, 9th May, 2014

And here she is again on a site called NeonNettle in which she and a fellow victim recalled:

... witnessing child sacrifices at the hands of the CIA and the Ninth Circle Satanic Child Sacrifice Cult all trained by former Nazis ... — Neon Nettle, 7th August, 2014

UPDATE: Fiona Barnett has contacted Media Watch to say "At no stage have I identified the 'Ninth Circle' as being responsible for my child abuse."

That story and another in September 2014 apparently quoted from Barnett's private testimony to the Child Abuse Royal Commission, in which she claimed that on her sixth birthday she had been taken to the rainforest in Kiama in NSW and drugged.

"... When I woke it was dark and I was lying naked face-up, spread-eagle on a picnic table with my hands and legs tied. Perpetrators took turns sneaking up on me". "They carried rifles and had a pack of starving Doberman dogs. I was told a group of naked children huddled nearby were my responsibility, I was to run and hide them. Every child I failed to hide would be killed and fed to the dogs ... " — Neon Nettle, 15th September, 2014

On that occasion, according to Fiona Barnett, several young children were shot. But their deaths went undetected.

So should the media have given prominence to her claims about paedophile Prime Ministers?

We think not.

Should they also have given credence to claims of a high-level cover up? Again the answer is no. And we think that basic checks would have led almost any media organisation to the same conclusion.

Naturally, Fiona Barnett begs to differ. She insists the child-hunting story is true and that police are also involved in the cover up, and she told Media Watch:

I have been reporting the crimes committed by VIP paedophiles including a NSW Police Commissioner, for many years. Not surprisingly, NSW Police have demonstrated a reluctance to investigate my allegations. I therefore appealed to the 'Fourth Estate', as victims do when all other avenues of justice fail them. — Fiona Barnett, email to Media Watch, 30th October, 2015

We understand that at least two journalists have investigated Ms Barnett's allegations and decided not to publish them.

And when we asked her to back up some of her claims, she was unwilling or unable to do so.