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Las Vegas bigger, buffer, and looking to break records. This is going to be the biggest payday in the history of swimming. Tonight, we've got $8 million for swimmers. Hello, I'm Linton Besser. Welcome to Media Watch. First tonight, from Zeus's Mount Olympus Thunderbolt to Magnus's Las Vegas pectorals. The very natural, very noble evolution of athletic and scientific endeavor. A doper's paradise dubbed the enhanced games. Human potential will be redefined. Records are going to tumble. First to publicly sign up, Australian Olympic swimmer James Magnus, slipping into something more comfortable, a golden pair of bthers. Magnus, who
underwent a program of supervised doping, joined a group of athletes enjoying a menu of 37 different drugs from Aderal, think amphetamine, to five different types of testosterone, reporting increased power and faster recovery, but also side effects like mood swings and facial hair. His bulging body, the subject of much fascination. Magnus was impossible to look away from. His head balanced a top a bulging neck, traps spilling out like overrisisen sourdough from his bronze swimsuit. And how did these enhanced specimens perform against mere mortals?
It was an event to forget for Australia's James Magnus. The missile failing to fire, finishing last in the 100 meter freestyle, the wooden spoon, which the protuberant missile might now used to ladle his 100,000 US consolation prize, beaten by everyone, including one of several old-fashioned athletes who just ate well, pumped a bit of iron, and say they took no drugs at all. One chemically enhanced super dude did cop a $1.25 million US check, having shaved 0.07 seconds off the world record in the men's 50 m freestyle. New world RECORD 20.81. Although the real winner in Vegas wasn't any one of the gold medalists, but the company behind this grotesque spectacle, which having captured the world's attention, got down to the real business
of flogging pharmaceuticals. The Enhanced Games did not change the world. It sold you steroids. Because of course, Enhanced Group Incorporated is not only a sports events company, but also a drug company selling copper peptides, which by the way are not approved for human use in Australia. Testosterone only available here via prescription and tadalophil which among its many wonderful properties is known for enhancing the male anatomy and which who knows may have been top of mind when the enhanced games boss gave the closing speech. Now the people at home can also get enhanced and become the best they've ever been. Enhanced Group's real business, backed by the likes of billionaire tech investor Peter Teal and
Donald Trump Jr. is really no big secret. Reported worldwide, including in Washington and in London, and also reported here at times by some outlets, but receiving no mention at all on the evening TV news on 79 and the ABC. The games publicity machine surely unw worried either way as journalist Mark Fenel who was at the games explained. While traditional media is calling the event a flop, the version unfolding on Tik Tok and Instagram looks completely different. Rather, the company was focused on reaching the bro market online. Oh yeah, we're going in, man. This is insane. I know you can lift a£1,000, BUT CAN YOU LIFT ME? PUT ME DOWN. Put me down now.
Both Sports Integrity Australia and the Therapeutic Goods Administration, which regulates medicines here, are worried about the impact of the enhanced games and what is effectively advertising of unapproved peptides. which in case we need to really spell it out is why some in the media might have done well to have booked in for a winter jab, an injection of curiosity as to why it was all these engorged guinea pigs were being paraded around under the Nevada sun. And now to a wannabe prime minister, his brief entanglement with Australia's most controversial soldier and the page one splash on the West Australian and its sister title, The Nightly, complete with the biggest typo possible. Then replaced
like a shot by versions that managed to correctly spell the enmity within. Taking readers inside to a fivepage special investigation. Inside, senior Liberal MP Andrew Hasty's role in the campaign to send fellow SAS veteran Ben Robert Smith to jail for allegedly executing prisoners. reporting an alleged blood feud that dates back to 2010 when Liberal Party MP Andrew Hasty, then an Army officer, was undergoing the famously brutal selection trial for the Special Air Services Regiment where Ben Robert Smith, a lower ranked corporal, was an instructor. You officers, you always take the easy option, Ben Robert Smith barked. The corporal could not know that among the men was an aspiring
politician who would play a central role in the destruction of Mr. Robert Smith's reputation. Remarkably, that very SAS selection was captured by this fly on the wall documentary. Over the next 21 days, these men will find out if they are made of the right stuff for the regimen. And featured Hasty himself being put through hell to gain entry into the storied SAS. They need to have a perseverance that can ensure that they'll never ever accept mission failure. Also captured the looming figure, his face then still secret of Ben Robert Smith. Aaron Patrick's long feature story repeated claims by a former
commando Hon Russell that BRS advised against Hasty being granted entry to the SAS. A blood feud began between the two men. According to a former commando officer, Hon Russell after the corporal beasted Mr. Hasty and told the regiment's selection committee that Mr. Hasty should not be allowed to join the SAS and thereby raised a question whether Andrew Hasty was motivated by this alleged feud when he assisted the nine newspaper investigation which first leveled allegations against Robert Smith and years later under the force of subpoena gave evidence for its defense when Robert Smith attempted unsuccessfully to sue for defamation.
The story was long and detailed and heavily informed by this very court testimony. But was it fair? The answer, a firm no, according to one hasty supporter. A long article by journalist Aaron Patrick in the West Australian painting Andrew Hasty by hints and snides as a wimp, a sherker, a god bother, a hater, a kook, and an opportunist. This was a hit job. I'm not sure we'd go that far. But Patrick's story was missing the view of one very important player, Andrew Hasty himself, who did not respond to the publication's email. So why didn't he write back? Here's the email the reporter sent him, assuring Hasty he tries to behave ethically and isn't planning an ambush and going on to say, "At this stage, my
angle is looking like you may have been the first officer in the regiment to raise concerns about Ben. You're obviously a man interested in history, religion, ethics, and theory. It seems to me that your Christian views on just war were offended by what you saw, but never putting to Hasty a single direct question. Hasty told us, "Mr. Patrick's approaches to my office prior to his article were unprofessional. I was not given an opportunity to respond to Mr. Russell's comments, which Mr. Patrick included in his article prior to publication." And as for the central premise of Aaron Patrick's story, under cross-examination, Hasty accepted. He told nine's reporters Robert Smith was a
bully. Nonetheless, Hasty told Media Watch, "Mr. Patrick's article crossed the line. I reject the untrue and uninformed comments made by Mr. H Russell, who was not present on the 2010 SAS election course." H Russell admitted to us he wasn't there. An important fact left out of the nightly story and his information was mere hearsay, though he also insisted the so-called feud had become the stuff of folklore. Russell also said, "The special forces community is a very small one. The information flow to me from the instructors was quite specific and detailed. Had Aaron Patrick actually put the allegations to Hasty, the MP might have sent him these, his SAS performance reports, which we've
published on our website, and which make no reference at all to Robert Smith or to his opinions, and which are almost entirely glowing in their praise. Important context, if nothing else. We asked Aaron Patrick and his editor about their failure to give Andrew Hasty a proper right of reply. A spokesperson told us Hasty had previously said he wouldn't comment on the case. And the nightly rejects any suggestion that Mr. Hasty was denied an opportunity to comment. He was contacted well in advance of publication, provided with a clear outline of the article subject matter, and given ample opportunity to
respond. The BRS prosecution has become a high stakes public battle, dividing the community and drawing in the wealthy and the powerful. Among them, Kerry Stokes, who retains a major shareholding in the company that publishes The Nightly and The West Australian, and who has poured millions into Robert Smith's legal expenses. Also, Gina Reinhardt, who has publicly backed Robert Smith and who in 2024 dipped into her purse to help launch the nightly and this year has emerged as the money behind a new raid on the company's register by Kerry Stokes Lieutenant Bruce McWilliam. Since BRS was collared by the federal police, those WA based titles have been pumping out story after story
sympathetic to the accused war criminal, giving prominence to the voices of his supporters, raising repeated questions about the very public manner of his arrest, and pushing close to the line in publishing information about witnesses far more relevant than Andrew Hasty, whose identities have been suppressed by the courts. They have also been clearing plenty of room for opinion pieces, condemning the crown case and urging Australians not to turn their backs on BRS. Against this backdrop, One Nation, which has also received support from Gina Reinhardt, is now actively campaigning against the Ben Robert Smith prosecution. Andrew Hasty's seat under attack with polls suggesting the man only so recently mooted as a
potential Liberal Party prime minister is in serious trouble. Apparently, there's a 100% chance of you losing that, right? You worried about the One Nation Party picking up your seat though? 2 years is a long time. So, I'm going to be working very hard with my colleagues uh to win government. There is nothing wrong with journalism that exumes the history of these two men and investigates the evidence of animosity between them. But amidst a campaign against the prosecution of Ben Robert Smith by these mast heads backed by billionaires who have made plain their support for the man, it was more than critical that Andrew Hasty be given a
real opportunity to have his say, which in our view he was not. Poly's, especially those caught up in the most high profile of criminal cases, deserve the utmost scrutiny, of course, but also to be treated fairly. And now to the very serious problem, repeated head knocks that have been threatening the future of Australia's much beloved football codes until now. In a world first medical breakthrough, players could soon take a concussion pill, which essentially escalates the brain's capacity to heal. Yes, a miracle pill available soon. But how soon is soon? Despite the trial still being in its early stages, researchers say the results right now are promising.
Promising early results. How promising, however, nine Adelaide never quite explained. though it did have to hand a former Aussie rules pro, Keith Thomas, to explain. The drug really works like a an espresso if you like where you take it and it accelerates the natural function of the brain. Um, and if the footy player didn't convince you, nine also featured a researcher from Adelaide University telling us treatments like this could be revolutionary uh in preventing these things from occurring. Only when we contacted Ryan Quarrington, he said
there was one small thing missing from his interview. The part of my interview where I said that we need more research on this pill didn't make the final cut. The cutting room floor, where context goes to die. Keith Thomas told us he was very pleased with his outing, though he would be because he owns the company Spark Concussion, which is running the clinical trial, but which nine forgot to mention. Thomas told us he participated in the story to discuss the need for clinical research into the issue and declined to send us a copy of the concussion pills promising early research. So we contacted a number of our own specialists, one of whom told us
he could find no peer-reviewed literature that supports that this pill works to my knowledge. Rowena Mobs, one of Australia's top experts, told us nine should have been a little more cautious. We are far from a breakthrough medication for concussion. Balance journalism should report findings with caution. Nine declined to discuss with us its foray into concussion medicine, which is a real shame because maybe it had suffered a headnock and itself forgot who it was plugging those magic beans. And that's all from us tonight. Be sure to check us out on ABC View as well as YouTube and Facebook. You can find full statements on our website. And don't forget to send us your tips. See you next week.
