When it comes to waging war on the ABC there are no stronger comrades in arms than the Liberal senator Sarah Henderson and News Corp outlets. The mutually reinforcing views of the journalist turned politician and the Murdoch press are uncanny.
Henderson’s call for the ABC’s managing director, Hugh Marks, to “shut down” the Americas editor, John Lyons, over his live analysis on the ABC News channel of the Australian government’s response to the US and Israel launching airstrikes on Iran is a case in point.
Last Friday the ABC ombudsman handed down the results of its investigation into Lyons’ analysis, noting that her office had received a “campaign of 103 identical complaints” and 21 distinct complaints about it.
This month Henderson’s criticism of Lyons’ “unsavoury commentary” was reported by The Australian, followed by Sky News Australia, and Sharri Markson declared it was time to “bring an end to his tenure”.
The Victorian senator – who was once an ABC reporter – called for an “urgent independent inquiry into the ABC’s impartiality failures”. This made another headline for the Oz, although it had zero chance of getting up.
Henderson was praised on Sky for her “very impressive performances” at Senate estimates, where she ventilated the same concerns.
In response, the ABC not so subtly reminded News Corp that Lyons was once The Australian’s own Middle East correspondent.
“John Lyons’ expert analysis for the ABC is informed by his extensive experience and close long-term coverage of the Middle East and the US for the ABC and The Australian,” a spokesperson said.
The ombudsman said the content did not breach the ABC’s impartiality standards or harm and offence standard: “We are satisfied that the ABC presented breaking news of the war in Iran with due impartiality, including an appropriate range of relevant perspectives to allow audiences to make up their own minds. Mr Lyons explained to the audience the basis on which he drew conclusions, referring to relevant facts and context reflecting his knowledge and experience.”
Strife over ABC strike
The ABC is bracing for a possible 24-hour strike on Wednesday that threatens to interrupt TV and radio news bulletins as well as the ABC News digital site. Last month the Fair Work Commission approved an application from the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance for what would be the first ABC strike in 20 years.
The union told its members this week to report for work on Wednesday before walking out at 11am, and to post on social media about their call for better pay and conditions. “Presenters are encouraged to speak on air during your segment to tell audiences why you won’t be here tomorrow,” the union said.
The plan is to walk back in together on Thursday at 11am. It would be almost impossible to put the 7pm news to air without any unionised staff.
The Community and Public Sector Union, which covers staff who are not journalists, is also taking part.
However, there will be a staff vote on a new enterprise bargaining offer on Sunday and the result will be known on Monday, giving hope to management that staff will accept the improved offer – plus a $1,000 sweetener – and call off the strike.
Staff previously narrowly voted down a pay deal that would have boosted salaries by 10% over three years.
In 2023 a strike was narrowly avoided after intervention from the former managing director David Anderson, who came in with an improved offer. Marks will be hoping to achieve the same result.
Forlorn, yet casual, and also stressed
The only upside to reading the wall-to-wall coverage of the termination of the $200m Kyle & Jackie O Show has been the increasingly lyrical takes in the Daily Mail.
This week Jackie “O” Henderson was photographed coffee in hand, but said nothing, leaving a reporter with the job of writing copy to accompany the multiple pics published in the classic Daily Mail gallery.
“Henderson, 50, looked forlorn as she took herself off for some much-needed ‘me time’ at a local nail salon,” the Daily Mail story accompanying the latest paparazzo shots said.
“She looked casual in a figure-hugging blue top that she tucked into a pair of loose-fitting cargo pants.
“Henderson finished her look with a pair of black Ray-Ban sunglasses and a pair of strappy brown sandals.
“Carrying a small takeaway coffee, Henderson looked stressed as she made her way to the pamper appointment.”
PR firm accused of ‘gaslighting’
A crisis PR firm, Orizontas, co-founded by the Minerals Council lobbyist Patrick Gibbons, is headlining at Mumbrella CommsCon next week, a one-day communications and public relations event at Crown Sydney which costs $828 for an individual ticket. Another co-founder of the firm, Vanessa Liell, promised to share how she countered a “surge of misinformation” which threatened to derail the bid to get the Murujuga rock art in Western Australia inscribed on the Unesco world heritage list.
The nomination of the site was led by the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, but its listing without more stringent protection from nearby industrial developments, including Woodside’s North West Shelf extension, had been contested by the Save Our Songlines group, headed by traditional owner and Mardathoonera woman Raelene Cooper.
“Just weeks before a critical UNESCO vote, a surge of misinformation threatened to derail the World Heritage listing of one of the world’s oldest living cultural landscapes,” Liell said in a statement. “In July 2025, Murujuga was successfully inscribed on the World Heritage List – protecting 50,000+ years of culture and custodianship. But that outcome didn’t happen by chance.”
But the framing of the opposing campaign, which argued emissions are damaging the rock art, as “misinformation” infuriated Cooper.
Cooper wrote to Mumbrella saying Liell’s assertion about “misinformation” was defamatory and misrepresented scientific evidence of industrial damage. She sought legal advice and asked the trade publication to cancel the panel.
“It is the lowest form of gaslighting for corporate lobbyists from Sydney to claim that Murujuga traditional custodians have engaged in ‘misinformation’ about our own Country and the threats to it from industry and government,” Cooper said.
Mumbrella responded to say they would remove the word “misinformation” from conference materials and told her they had “changed the description to better reflect Mumbrella’s position as a platform rather than advocate for the points of views of the speakers”.
A Mumbrella spokesperson told Weekly Beast: “Perspectives on this complex issue differ. After carefully considering the position of Save Our Songlines, we are comfortable that the … session presents a valid point of view that the audience will find valuable.”
Liell said the reference to a “surge of misinformation” was not directed at any one group or individual and she respected Mumbrella’s decision to refine the panel description. “It wouldn’t have been our call but it’s their panel,” she said.
Don’t go west
Late on Tuesday, when the news cycle was focused on interest rates and Kyle Sandilands’ termination from ARN, the government told SBS it had walked away from a proposal to expand the station’s production facilities to western Sydney.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported an email to SBS staff said: “The government has indicated that its decision has been made in the context of the current fiscal environment.”
The office of the communications minister, Anika Wells, sent Weekly Beast the following statement: “The government will not be providing additional funding for the expansion proposed by SBS at this time.”
The operative phrase here is “proposed by SBS”.
Weekly Beast would gently remind the minister that the idea for a western Sydney move for SBS, later downgraded to a new production hub when relocation proved too expensive, began as an election promise by Labor in 2021.
The characterisation of the failed plan as an SBS proposal prompted the broadcaster to post a rare clarification.
“The decision not to proceed with funding for the proposed SBS expansion to Western Sydney is a decision of the Federal Government,” the broadcaster said.
“SBS has worked constructively for almost four years to support the Government’s initiative of a new physical SBS presence in Western Sydney.”
The leaking of the $181m relocation figure was also addressed by SBS when it pointed out the amount was not simply for capital works for a hub in Blacktown but for a four-year investment in content, jobs, skills development, education outreach and industry growth.
