This week’s Media Briefs brings with it some robust criticism of the Australian media landscape from 10,000 feet and notes the strangely close relationship between Barnaby Joyce and News Corp as the former deputy prime minister tied the knot.
ABC News boss ticks off his journalists
ABC News boss Justin Stevens has hit back after reports that some of his own journalists spoke out last week against the newsroom’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Nine newspapers reported Stevens emailed staff saying the ABC was not the place for partiality and personal convictions.
“There are many jobs that allow you to operate from your personal convictions,” he wrote. “Journalism is not one of them. There are many media outlets whose stock-in-trade is partisanship, personal opinion, campaigning and trying to wield influence. The ABC is not one of those.
“Journalism is a difficult job, and we have obligations as to how we conduct ourselves in public spaces, including social media. We cannot compromise our standing as impartial journalists, no matter our personal beliefs.”
The remarks came before a turbulent week at the national broadcaster, with Q+A on Monday night hosting a fiery panel on the conflict that included Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) chair Mark Leibler, Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni, Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Tim Watts, former Wentworth MP and Australian ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma, and UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese.
The program came under fire around the country, with the Islamic Council of Victoria writing to ABC managing director David Anderson describing it as “an example of the ABC at its worst” and criticising host Patricia Karvelas for “not challenging [Leibler] when he insinuated that Palestinians were lesser than Jews in humanity when he claimed that they celebrate death”. Albanese described the program during her National Press Club address the next day as having put Mashni “in front of an execution squad”.
Murdoch press there as Barnaby Joyce ties the knot
Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce has married his partner Vikki Campion at what the News Corp papers described as an “intimate” ceremony on the family farm in Woolbrook, in north-east NSW.
That is, of course, notwithstanding the fact that News Corp’s photographers were invited to the wedding, with NCA NewsWire sending a photographer to cover the ceremony. The celebrations made the front page of Sydney’s biggest tabloid, in a move reminiscent of David and Victoria Beckham selling the rights to photographs for their 1999 extravaganza to British magazine OK!. To be fair, the Joyces may well be the Posh and Becks of New England.
Joyce’s daughter Odette, 20, told the Daily Mail none of his four daughters were invited and called the invitation for a media outlet to attend “not only tacky but [in] poor taste” as well as a “grand attempt from them to stay relevant when everyone is over it”.
The West Australian plays silly buggers
The West Australian has been caught out trying to play silly buggers with its annual best Australian yarn competition, about which it brags more than 5,000 entries were received for the grand prize of $50,000.
WA’s biggest-selling masthead sent a letter to entrants that was described as “carefully worded” to seem ambiguous as to whether the entrant in question had been longlisted, only to ask for a subscription to access the longlist for the princely sum of $30.
Critic Joseph Earp called it “the dirtiest trick”, and ABC reporter Patrick Lenton described it as “scammy”.
Moves
- Football reporter Tom Morris will return to television, News Corp reports, almost two years since being unceremoniously fired from Fox Footy over sexist comments made about a colleague. Morris returned to the industry with SEN earlier this year, and now joins Nine amid a number of moves at football rival and rights-holder Seven.
- Deb Knight steps down from 2GB’s Afternoons program, but will continue on-air hosting Money News next year, and filling in on A Current Affair.
- AAP Canberra bureau chief Paul Osborne departs the wire service, having worked with AAP for more than 22 years. He’ll take up a role in communications with the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
Tweet of the week
Former Socceroo Robbie Slater took to the papers as the men’s national side begin their qualification campaign for the 2026 World Cup against Bangladesh at AAMI Park in Melbourne this week, calling for a better reception for the side after the “heroics” of their 2022 campaign in Qatar.
“Not many seem to know,” he wrote on Twitter. Neither does The Daily Telegraph, it seems, which used an inset image of the Afghanistan flag.
