ABC Denies “Manipulating” Triple J’s Hottest Sausage Fest Of All Time

The Australian has an interesting story about this year’s controversial Hottest 100 Songs Of All Time list. Triple J listeners decided on what they considered to be the greatest tunes in the history of modern music, and it seems that the majority of folks who don’t listen to Triple J and didn’t bother voting found the results to be exceptionally disappointing. But what if the results had been fiddled with? Gasp! Apparently that’s exactly what Triple J’s current affairs show Hack thought had happened, but the story “fell apart” before being broadcast.

From The Australian:

The ABC has rejected suggestions that Triple J’s Hottest 100 poll was manipulated or that it tried to censor a story on the countdown. A report in The Australian says insiders at the public broadcaster expected a story about the iconic countdown to go to air on radio show Hack tonight, but it was pulled at the last minute.

The reporters allegedly analysed the voting, and found a different outcome to the final list. The story reportedly questioned whether voting had been manipulated by CD sales, after this year’s list contained no female artists and the absence of big names like Bob Dylan.

The big boss of ABC radio is denying any naughty business or cover ups.

ABC’s head of radio Kate Dundas rejected the accusations, saying the story fell apart because the reporters were using an algorithm based on data which was missing more than 10 per cent of the votes.

“The management of triple J and ABC Radio fully stand behind the integrity of the Hottest 100 of All Time countdown,” Ms Dundas said. “Hack initially pursued a story because they had obtained raw data of the vote which looked like some of the songs in the Hottest 100 of All Time were wrongly included and others missed out. Unfortunately the data they used consisted of only 487,820 votes, whereas there were more than 545,000 votes in the Hottest 100 of All Time.”

Still, it’s nice to know that Hack aren’t afraid to pursue stories that might make Triple J look slightly dodgy. That’s proper journalism! On behalf of the nation’s youth (who love me and would be more than happy for me to speak for them) let me say thank you, Hack.

MORE: Triple J Hottest 100 list not tampered with – ABC