Waleed Aly is a frequent punching bag for right-wing media and pundits. His commentary on The Project seems to get outsized attention in media outlets like the Daily Mail and Herald Sun.

And this week we’ve been hit with a particularly biased report. This time around, some media outlets — especially News Corp — have twisted facts to an extraordinary degree to create a baiting report about Aly.

On Monday night the Herald Sun published an article with a caption on Twitter that read “TV host Waleed Aly has been hand-picked by the AFL to consult on proposed rule changes”.

TV host Waleed Aly has been hand-picked by the AFL to consult on proposed rule changes: >> https://t.co/hU9vC51d9q pic.twitter.com/M3ZASOGyzQ

— Herald Sun (@theheraldsun) August 20, 2018

The story was quickly picked up by a few prominent (non-AFL) sporting identities, including Andrew Bogut and Shane Warne, who called Aly an “arrogant cretin”.

I love #AFL football like so many other people – please tell me this is fake news & that this arrogant cretan is in no way way involved on any level !!! pic.twitter.com/LPKArJmRb3

— Shane Warne (@ShaneWarne) August 20, 2018

So What’s Actually Going On

The article explains that Aly sat down with employees from the AFL to be briefed on the research they were doing into changing some of the rules of the game.

What the report failed to mention was that:

1. Aly was one of dozens of journalists who have participated in the AFL’s research process, and
2.  Aly did not “consult” the AFL.

As Aly said on SEN radio this morning, instead of the AFL consulting Aly, Aly was actually using the experience as a way to obtain more information about the AFL’s upcoming rule changes, because he’s, y’know, a journalist and commentator and that’s his job.

“That’s categorically incorrect. I did not advise anybody, I was not consulted,” Aly said in the radio interview.

Instead, he said the one-off meeting with the AFL only came about after he persistently asked the head of the AFLW, Nicole Livingstone, for more information about the rule changes.

Livingstone didn’t give Aly that information, but instead said he could come along to one of the already-planned briefings.

“I’d be extremely surprised if I exerted any influence at all,” Aly continued. “If I did it would be entirely incidental.”

So if you’ve seen commentary like this —

The AFL have consulted Waleed Aly on their proposed rule changes.

Writing satire about AFL is hard when they keep producing better stuff.

— Titus O'Reily (@TitusOReily) August 20, 2018

Waleed Aly helping the @AFL with rule changes
Must have beaten a long list on candidates
Captain Feathersword
Karl Stefanovic
Alf Stewart
Krystal from Big Brother
The Philippines Basketball coach

The game is in great hands 🤦‍♂️

— Neil Harper (@nharper021) August 20, 2018

Why in the world would Waleed Aly be recruited for this Role? The AFL just confirms it is more about making small minority militant groups happy rather than the majority of men and women who follow the game from Junior level through to seniors.

— Rod (@Polish_62) August 20, 2018

— take it with a very large grain of salt.