Annabel Crabb has received some harsh criticism for her ABC TV show Kitchen Cabinet over its seven seasons, but a recent critique motivated the political journalist to hit back hard. The result is a withering 2,500 word defence of the type of TV interview she conducts, why it works, and the skills needed to pull it off. It’s a masterclass in responding to what she describes as a “lazy op-ed … about the bankruptcy of the politico-media industrial complex”.
Her “Dear Tim” letter was written in reply to a blog post in which the writer Tim Dunlop said Crabb was “soft-soaping powerful people” and Kitchen Cabinet “dumbs down debate”. Dunlop took issue with her interview with Peter Dutton, aired on 22 August, and referred to a 2015 piece by Amy McQuire in New Matilda, which has circulated again on social media.
Crabb had no issue with the McQuire piece, calling it a well-argued and passionate article, but she aimed both guns at Dunlop, claiming she was “being chipped for my journalistic practice by someone who has done (as far as I can see) no basic research or made any effort at all to interrogate the subject of his article”.
“It’s a lot, Tim. Not gonna lie”, she wrote.
She continued: “I’m not sure if you’ve ever interviewed someone for broadcast, Tim. Particularly someone who’s been interviewed a million times before. It’s actually quite difficult.
“And I use every ounce of my skill to draw them in and make them feel like this is a real conversation, not an interview. That’s why people tell me things.
“I don’t do it this way because I love flouncing around with a basket; I do it because it works.”
Dunlop, to his credit, accepted he had made some factual errors and published her letter in full on his blog, along with a correction.
Voice ABC archive deal a ‘conspiracy’?
The ABC’s policy on licensing archival material is that it shouldn’t be used for political purposes, but when the yes campaign on the voice asked for historical footage to use in its You’re The Voice TV ad, ABC Commercial made a deal.
When the anomaly was pointed out, the ABC apologised for licensing 26 seconds of footage and five seconds of audio. “This was done in error as it does not meet our policy on the use of ABC archival footage and is regrettable,” an ABC spokesperson said on Thursday.
“We are updating our licensing processes to avoid this situation in the future.”
But the no camp, in the form of the campaigning group Fair Australia, saw a conspiracy.
“The ABC has been a cheerleader for the voice since this divisive referendum was a twinkle in Noel Pearson’s eye,” a spokesperson told the Daily Telegraph. The no campaign leader Warren Mundine told the Australian the mistake was “a joke” and called for “a very, very serious investigation”.
Ita’s parting shot
The outgoing ABC chair, Ita Buttrose, received a standing ovation for her address at the Women In Media conference in Sydney on Friday morning. Recovering from back surgery, the 81-year-old was unsteady as she walked towards the lectern. But she inspired the room with tales of her long media career.
Her rallying cry to female journalists was to be “brave and push yourself forward”.
She had some advice for editors too, including her own ABC head of news Justin Stevens, who was in the room: reverse the “terrible” decision to get rid of so many subeditors. “Sorry Justin”,” she said, declaring there were too many bad headlines and mistakes even on the ABC website.
Buttrose said she made no apologies for her passion about the independence of the ABC and she wants Australians “to understand how precious and precarious that independence is”.
Daily Telegraph digs for gas
The City of Sydney recently voted to investigate banning gas connections in new homes and some commercial developments, a move welcomed by health professionals and climate change organisations but criticised by others who say it would lead to higher energy bills.
The move was not welcomed by News Corp tabloid the Daily Telegraph, which gave the veteran Sydney lord mayor, Clover Moore, the full front-page treatment, labelling her a hypocrite because some of the properties she owns have gas appliances.
“The Daily Telegraph has confirmed the tenants in the Lord Mayor’s four-bedroom property on Kepos St in Redfern have been provided with a gas stove,” the report by John Rolfe said.
“Another investment property Ms Moore owns on Elizabeth St at Zetland also uses gas, as does the Bourke St, Redfern unit block in which she rents.”
Moore responded on Facebook: “So the Tele spent the better part of a week stalking my home and the homes of other councillors to execute their brilliant gotcha moment – never mind the proposed changes would only apply to new builds, and we all live in buildings that currently exist …
“It’s all very clever from a news organisation that has spent considerable time and resources fostering climate scepticism and inaction, protecting our country’s reliance on fossil fuels.”
Rolfe replied to the accusation of stalking, saying it was “not unusual for a journalist to get out and check in this way”.
“I respect that many people don’t agree with much of what’s written in the Tele,” he said. “I don’t agree with all of it either.”
Gold and grimaces at Nine’s ad day
Nine Entertainment held its annual sales pitch, referred to in the industry as upfronts, at Sydney’s Entertainment Quarter on Wednesday, taking over the Hordern Pavilion and the Hall of Industries for the blue-carpet event. Nine flew in 1,300 advertisers and media buyers for a two-hour presentation in which executives, led by the CEO, Mike Sneesby, extolled the benefits of advertising with Nine’s stable – which includes television, the streaming service Stan, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age, digital platforms and Nine Radio.
Having paid $305m for the rights to the next five summer and winter Olympic Games, from Paris in 2024 through to Brisbane in 2032, Nine has a lot of ads to sell to make it profitable and the pitch was “gold, gold, gold for brands in an unprecedented premium integration ecosystem across TV, streaming, audio and publishing”.
Once again it was up to Eddie McGuire to deliver a cringe moment. He was interviewing the co-captain for the Paris Paralympics, Curtis McGrath, who was severely injured while serving in Afghanistan, losing his right leg at the knee and the left leg just below the knee.
There was an audible gasp in the pavilion when McGuire said: “You’re in Afghanistan in 2012. You’re there, you stand on a landmine. Your legs get blown off, you get blown to kingdom come.” Well, not quite. McGrath went on to win several gold medals in canoeing.
One of the genuinely interesting offers from Nine is a self-serve advertising platform for small to medium business which is designed to rival advertising on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.
The tech platform uses artificial intelligence to make a TV commercial for as little as $500 and will screen it on 9Now in specified postcodes.
Political cartoonists ‘virtue signalling’?
Why I'm not entering the Walkleys this year https://t.co/gdaPqcECyJ pic.twitter.com/RdEJbv20IK
— the xdenburg (@jonkudelka) August 29, 2023
The boycott of the Walkleys by several cartoonists – including Jon Kudelka, Glen Le Lievre, Matt Golding and Guardian Australia’s First Dog on the Moon and Fiona Katauskas – appears to have had an impact, with the number of entries for cartoons down from 25 last year to just 15 this year. There were 17 entries in 2021. Kudelka kicked off the exodus when he published a piece about pulling out after he found out the fossil fuel company Ampol was a platinum sponsor of the awards.
The renewed spotlight on the awards led to the Walkley Foundation expressing “deep regret” for the racist views expressed by the founder of the awards, Sir William Gaston Walkley. The foundation also revealed it had launched a comprehensive review of its sponsorship policy in March.
The Australian did not warm to the boycott, rolling out multiple stories accusing the cartoonists of “virtue signalling”. The newspaper lined up the Murdoch stable of cartoonists to condemn the activism including the Herald Sun’s Mark Knight, the Australian’s Johannes Leak and the Daily Telegraph’s Warren Brown. The Oz even got a hold of the Age’s Michael Leunig, who said the cartoonists’ action was “activist conformity”.
