3 News has come out on top after the first month of a year long critique of the first five stories on the six o’clock news bulletins conducted by Throng.co.nz.

The study is in response to the general public’s lamenting of news standards and aims to bring greater accountability and awareness and ultimately a better news service.

3 News took ten wins over One News who took eight; with 13 being awarded as a tie.

Mistakes by One News included showing CCTV footage of the original Haiti earthquake but telling viewers it was of the 6.1 aftershock eight days later, and saying a rescued Haitian child was four months old when it really was sixteen months.

On Friday, to support their “breaking news” item, One News told viewers they learnt about the hadda beetle infestation in the past hour, however the story featured an interview with Auckland City Councilor Greg Boyle which was filmed at 4:30pm.  Further, the beetles had been discovered in the previous week.

One News featured three news items in their top five stories during January that had already been reported elsewhere at least ten days earlier.

Despite taking the win, 3 News still had their share of mistakes including incorrectly calculating the tax on $10 for minimum wage earners to be approximately 40%.

For the complete report, including lists of number of live crosses, number of breaking stories, mistakes, controversies, exemplary and silly reporting and old stories dressed up as new ones, visit: http://www.throng.co.nz/january-news-summary-2010