An Australian television reporter who gave a nursing home resident chains to wear during a broadcast protesting her pending eviction has been fired.
The 84-year-old woman, Shirley Frey, portrayed herself as chained to room furniture at Willoughby Retirement Hostel in Chatswood, north of Sydney.
Reporter Nicholas Boot claimed Frey was refusing to leave her room in the opening story of Today Tonight on Feb. 20.
Show officials later investigated and apologized to viewers. They suspended and eventually gave Boot the boot. But it doesn’t end there.
Stung by national and international publicity over the stunt, the nonprofit nursing home has gone on the offensive. It has asked its lawyers to “take appropriate action against all parties who have damaged the good reputation of this association.”
