The culture wars are in full swing across the Australian media landscape this week, and while the Voice referendum and hostilities in the Middle East have provided plenty of fodder for bad faith opinion writers in the nation’s broadsheets, some of the more traditional battlegrounds still saw action.
Q+A guest confronted after panel
Advertising guru and ABC regular Dee Madigan is no shrinking violet, but even the long-time Labor operative was taken aback at being confronted late at night outside the ABC’s Southbank studios last week after appearing on Q+A.
Madigan was stopped after a show that reflected on the outcome of the Voice referendum by “citizen journalist” Bill Thompson. Thompson, who in 2019 as a questioner on the show told the panel that “no person living in Australia today should be entitled to any special benefit or recognition based on race”, recorded the interaction and uploaded it to his YouTube channel, taking umbrage at Madigan’s use of swear words. A normal interaction, then.
“Do you think that’s an appropriate way for an intelligent–”, Thompson began, before Madigan walked away with an apt “I don’t give a fuck what you think.”
Speaking to Crikey, Madigan emphasised the gendered nature of the confrontation: “I don’t think he really understood the difference between approaching someone outside when there’s people around or in the daytime after Insiders, and approaching a female at night on an empty street.
“Often guys don’t get that because they don’t have that lived experience on what is like to be female. He does go up to people all the time, but they’re not women by themselves at night.
“That he thought it was okay to tell me what he thought about my language — you know, I didn’t ask him!”
Guests on the national broadcaster regularly engage with the public in a markedly different way from those at commercial stations, particularly on Q+A, and the ABC told Crikey security protocols are regularly reviewed to that end: “We regularly review security arrangements for studio broadcasts to ensure we have the necessary protocols in place.”
News Corp takes aim at Zampa
Since the departure of national men’s cricket coach Justin Langer, the News Corp papers have been particularly loud in their criticism of the team, with captain Pat Cummins’ relatively mainstream views on anthropogenic climate change regularly criticised in the opinion pages as a woke distraction.
This week, Holt St’s knives pointed towards free-spirited leg spinner Adam Zampa, who had the temerity to appear to not sing the national anthem before Australia’s group stage clash against Sri Lanka in the World Cup.
“Storm erupts as Aussie doesn’t sing anthem,” cried news.com.au, with the storm in question being what the article describes as the “small-scale backlash” of a single commentator, X blue check Rosita Diaz (who has no discernible expertise in cricket, but makes very clear her opposition to all things woke and communist).
The article (which for reasons unknown lacked a byline) went on to make clear it was not suggesting that Zampa’s choice was linked to the result of the Voice referendum, despite a paragraph linking the two.
If that wasn’t enough, News Corp’s most-read digital offering doubled down after the team’s next game against Pakistan. “‘Burn him at the stake’: anthem storm erupts,” read the headline. Freedom of expression is alive and well at the game’s biggest rights holder.
ESPN’s Rohan Connolly described it as a “piece of filth posing as a news story”, and another industry figure bluntly told Crikey: “Cunts. [It demonstrates] you can be a vulture and still make a living. Utter, utter garbage. Outrage always gets clicks, but what do you stand for as a publication and as a journalist?”
Cricket Australia declined to comment when contacted by Crikey.
This all happened in a turbulent week for the News Corp cricket contingent, with the departure of esteemed senior cricket writer Gideon Haigh. Haigh, widely considered one of the finest cricket writers ever, departed The Australian after 12 years, and with his departure came the end of his cult podcast with fellow senior cricket correspondent Peter Lalor, Cricket Et Cetera.
The podcast came to an abrupt end on October 6, with Haigh telling The Grade Cricketer that unsuccessful efforts were made to keep the popular production alive in the face of a stonewalling News Corp. It appears to have been replaced in the interim by Will Swanton, who wrote a piece of his own this week dedicated to Zampa’s sins vis-à-vis the anthem.
ABC cops the third degree
The ABC has faced a grilling from Senate estimates — one of the Coalition’s favourite pastimes. Managing director David Anderson fronted the environment and communications legislation committee and fielded questions from Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson over an interview conducted with Hamas’ head of international relations and former health minister Basem Naim, on 7.30 with Sarah Ferguson on October 17.
Henderson, who hosted the Victorian broadcast of the program known as The 7.30 Report in the 1990s, called it a “disgraceful interview” that “undermined the ABC’s credibility”. She criticised the ABC’s director of news, Justin Stevens, saying he was “fundamentally failing in his job”.
Anderson stood by the interview, calling it “editorially justified”: “By interviewing one of their leaders we were able to test … some of the propaganda and outright lies being spread by Hamas. This is editorially justified to interview that representative given the heinous act that they did, to challenge them on the claims and the misinformation that they spread.”
Anderson was also forced to respond about Middle East correspondent Tom Joyner, who reportedly said reports of beheaded babies amid the conflict were “bullshit” in a WhatsApp group of international journalists.
“I know that Mr Joyner is quite remorseful and apologetic for the words that he used,” Anderson said. He also stressed Joyner’s right to procedural fairness in dealing with the matter internally.
Moves
- The ABC is joining the climate bandwagon, making the first hire in its new climate and regional team. Edwina Farley joins as editor, coming from the national regional reporting team.
- Andrew Probyn has landed on his feet after being “flabbergasted” at his redundancy from the ABC in June. He joins Nine News as the national affairs editor.
Tweet of the week
