Lidia Thorpe’s outburst dominated the headlines this week and while most of the British press saw the dramatic moment an Indigenous senator heckled King Charles in Parliament House as front-page material, not all the local press did.
In the UK, the Guardian, Telegraph, Express and the very pro-independence National in Scotland published front-page photographs of Lidia Thorpe shouting: “You are not our king.”
Back home, Murdoch’s The Australian put the confrontation on page one with the headline “A royal pain in the house”.
But the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age’s front pages eschewed the dramatic photograph of Thorpe wearing a traditional possum-skin cloak and shaking her fist at Charles, although the Melbourne paper did carry the story.
King Charles was met not with a bow, but a sneeze, when he was greeted by his fluffiest fan Hephner the alpaca.
— SBS News (@SBSNews) October 21, 2024
The King was today in Canberra as part of a five-day visit to Australia.
Read more:https://t.co/XEBy02d4kO pic.twitter.com/zhJZQxYLMa
No, it was a sneezing alpaca greeting Charles which graced the front page of the Herald with the headline: “Nothing to sneeze at, unless you’re an alpaca.”
“The highlights or lowlights, depending on your point of view, were the sneezing alpaca, who gave his majesty a right royal spray, and Lidia Thorpe, who gave him an even bigger spray”, one Herald reader wrote.
The other major breaking royal news was that an Anzac biscuit was referred to as a cookie on a royal menu.
For the record, King Charles did not visit the Everest at Royal Randwick on Saturday, despite the Daily Telegraph’s “big tip” last week about the king’s “Royal Randwick visit”. Not to matter, apparently he sent a very gracious apology letter for his non-attendance.
Gas warfare
Speaking of front pages, anti-gas activists in Western Australia were celebrating on Thursday after their campaign slogan “Fuck Woodside” made it on to the front page of The Australian.
Disrupt Burrup Hub claim Woodside has destroyed thousands of sacred rock art sites as part of the development of a large-scale gas development known as the Burrup Hub.
The group was behind the spray-painting of a Woodside Energy logo on to a transparent sheet protecting the Art Gallery of Western Australia’s renowned painting Frederick McCubbin’s Down on his luck.
Their wildest dreams came true when The Australian ran a photo of the activist who defaced the logo, artist Joana Partyka, wearing the T-shirt, to illustrate a story about the museum acquiring the graffitied perspex cover for its collection.
As part of its merchandise range, the group sells for $35 a cropped white T-shirt with the words “Fuck Woodside” printed on the front in tiny print.
“Perth society has been left shocked and appalled that the museum has acquired the graffitied perspex glass that protected Frederick McCubbin’s iconic masterpiece ‘Down on his luck’ from permanent damage when Disrupt Burrup Hub activists sprayed the Woodside logo on it in January last year,” The Australian exclusively reported. No attempt was made to cover the words so we presume no one noticed.
Cheque’s in the Mail
Daily Mail Australia and the words “premium content” don’t commonly sit next to each other but a new offering from the Daily Mail is set to change all that.
The Daily Mail Australia editor, Felicity Hetherington, says that, driven partially by “a difficult time in the industry”, the company is offering a new subscription service at the end of the month.
The new Mail+ is a partial paywall for Australian users who sign up to receive “daily premium stories” and a “Best of The Mail” weekly newsletter for $1.99 a month.
Hetherington said paywalled stories will be “high-quality content on subjects that are of the most interest to our readers”.
The Daily Mail’s 10 years in Australia have been marked by a business model which relies on ripping off stories from rival media and publishing them alongside as many photographs as possible.
Brooks hooked
It was UK chief executive Rebekah Brooks who News Corp Australia turned to to deliver a video address from London at this week’s in-house journalism awards.
According to a report in The Australian, Brooks presented the award for investigation of the year to The Australian’s media team for coverage of the sexual harassment allegations at Nine Entertainment.
One member of the team was former paparazzo Liam Mendes, who claimed he was knocked to the ground at Canberra airport by the former Nine chair Peter Costello.
Costello resigned “effective immediately”, days after the former federal treasurer was accused of assaulting Mendes, who had approached him for comment.
Mendes was singled out for praise by Brooks, who said News Corp had “found a champion with this year’s winner”.
The Sunday Telegraph columnist Peta Credlin, who was overlooked for a Kennedy award for the same story, picked up the “best specialist” News award for her revelations “that the Uluru statement was longer and had more attachments than pro-voice referendum activists had let on”.
Does the award mean Credlin is a fully fledged journalist and can drop the label of Liberal party activist?
Tony Abbott’s former chief of staff was exposed by Liberal MP Moira Deeming as a “Liberal party mentor” at Deeming’s defamation trial against John Pesutto. More than 30 pages of texts tendered at the trial show Credlin advising Deeming on how to wrangle the Liberal party and the media.
A long way down
The Australian was awarded “news brand of the year” by the publisher of The Australian, News Corp Australia.
“Editor-in-chief Michelle Gunn highlighted the energy and excitement the paper’s younger journalists brought to the newsroom,” the Oz reported of its big win.
Readers don’t seem to be important when considering the success of a newspaper if the latest Ipsos rankings for the most-read Australian news sites is any indication.
For the third consecutive month The Australian was not in the top 20 – a big fall from 10th in June last year and even its 15th ranking spot in September last year.
The ABC News website, which has just been redesigned, re-claimed the top spot, followed closely by Murdoch’s news.com.au.
For the record, Guardian Australia occupies the seventh spot ahead of the Age, the Daily Telegraph, the Herald Sun and skynews.com.au.
Project marked down
ABC technology reporter James Purtill was annoyed when he watched Ten’s The Project after being interviewed for the show’s lead story.
Purtill had reported for ABC News that 23andMe, valued at $US6bn in 2021, was on the verge of bankruptcy and The Project was keen to follow up.
He had a personal interest in the fate of the company because he had bought a 23andMe DNA kit in 2016 for his San Francisco-based brother.
“Its CEO, [Anne] Wojcicki, is considering selling the company, which means the DNA of its 15 million customers would be up for sale, too,” Purtill reported.
Btw this was their lead story. During the interview we agreed my title would be, "technology reporter, ABC Science" but the story they ran just used my name 2/ pic.twitter.com/UDGDG7RrIT
— James Purtill (@JamesPurtill) October 21, 2024
Purtill said The Project’s story was very similar to his, he was the main talent interviewed and The Project did not mention the original ABC story or the fact that Purtill was a reporter.
In other words, the Project appeared to have done no original reporting and didn’t credit the ABC.
“The result is quite funny. This random guy (me), without any professional title, is making these apparently well-researched points about DNA testing. The absence of job title is very conspicuous.”
Purtill said the agreement was that he would be referred to as “technology reporter, ABC Science”.
Weekly Beast understands the staff member apologised to Purtill personally for the on-air error and it was fixed on social platforms.
