I don't have a problem with McKinnon or Smith. I do have a problem with 60 Minutes.

I can't remember the last time I watched 60 minutes. A few years ago probably. I remember watching a story that was so one sided that I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It used to be the kind of show that featured stories told professionally. It was true journalism. Now it is little more than a TV version of a tabloid.

I broke my 60 minutes drought as I wanted to watch the story on Alex McKinnon, the rugby league player who became a quadriplegic after a horrifying illegal tackle in a game last year. The story started off well. Stories from Alex's youth, funny anecdotes from his family and documentation of what seems to be a great love between him and his fiancé.

Where they starts to lose it was at the point where they obviously wanted to cause dissent, to get people talking, to make something pointed in order to shock viewers...keep them watching. Never mind it was only part of the truth.

Now I think McKinnon is a brave man who deserves the outpouring of sympathy he is receiving. It is a huge tragedy that a man so young has been so injured. When his mother spoke about how she felt when he said he wanted to die it truly touched me. I hope too he gets a bigger settlement from the NRL so he has the money he needs to live the rest of his life.

However today Cameron Smith, The Australian and Melbourne Storm Captain has been left shocked after being labelled the bad guy by 60 minutes, this program that should be led by guidelines of responsible journalism.

During the program they showed McKinnon sitting with Liz Hayes watching the footage of that terrible tackle. McKinnon found it hard, obviously and was trying to describe why he moved his head the way he did. The big surprise... The pointy part of the story that Liz Hayes & team seemed so keen to deliver was that McKinnon had no malice for the Melbourne Storm player who lifted him in the tackle, the player who was suspended for 7 weeks but rather was angry at Cameron Smith for his on field comments at the time.

It is fair to say that looking at isolation at what Smith says it does give the viewer a bit of a jolt, just as it does Hayes and McKinnon who are viewing it together. 60 minutes put the footage together just perfectly for best effect. McKinnon on the ground, his face stricken, unable to breathe and unable to move. Then carried off on a stretcher... The mood sombre. Then Smith is arguing with the referee about the penalty that went against his team. The referee tells him the penalty stands, the player is on report, it is an illegal tackle. But Smith does what many a captain has done before and will do again, he argues the point. 60 minutes make sure you see and clearly hear him say ' if he doesn't duck his head, that doesn't happen' Then go to McKinnon's reaction as he watches with Hayes. He is upset. He suggests that arguing over a penalty when someone comes off on a stretcher is fucking ridiculous. 

Now reading this you may think he has a point. I did at first. People are saying how did Smith not know how serious it was? How could he blame McKinnon for his own injury? Well I imagine if Smith were to see the footage he would agree it was not his best moment. Arguing over a penalty that injures a player to the extent they have to be carried off on a stretcher seems petty and unsympathetic.

But 60 minutes leave it there. A brief positive mention from coach Wayne Bennet about Smith's character and that is it. No talking to Smith or the Storm. Nothing. Just an seriously injured man watching footage of the moment his life changed forever reacting to that pain in front of a camera.

That's not responsible. They didn't need to show him watching the footage. They didn't need to focus on Smith but they chose to in order to spice things up. All the family shots and loving moments overshadowed by introducing a villain simply because they could.

Smith when he was on the field didn't get to watch the replay over and over. Perhaps he truly didn't know the extent of the injuries. He did what a captain would do... Try and argue against a penalty. Was it bad form to argue so long? Yes. In hindsight might he realise that those comments can be construed as blaming McKinnon for his own injury? Absolutely but that does not excuse the one sided reporting. If 60 Minute had done its job and reported all the facts it would have reported that despite McKinnon's suggestion that Smith never got in touch, Smith and other Storm players tried to visit him in hospital several times but were denied. They should have mentioned that Smith was instrumental in the Rise For Alex fundraising campaign and that Smith wore McKinnon's number as a sign of respect. They didn't.

If you want to call out Smith for his comments then do so but 60 minutes showed little integrity by the way they handled the story. When you leave out relevant facts to make your version more poignant then that is not journalism. So little wonder I stopped watching the program. Somehow I don't think I will be going back.