This week in Media Briefs, Channel Seven’s spot in the limelight continues, as well as the unsavoury details around a high-profile News Corp departure. Also, Fox Sports has a deeply unfortunate stuff-up to kick off the men’s summer of cricket.
All eyes on Seven
This week, with the ongoing Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial, one of the many actors placed under public scrutiny has been Channel Seven, who accommodated Lehrmann in return for a Spotlight interview with Liam Bartlett at the cost of $4,000 a fortnight, according to documents seen in court. The agreement, also seen in court documents, didn’t specify a rental amount but stipulated that it would be for a 12-month duration. The first of these accommodations was a Marine Parade property in Maroubra in Sydney’s south-east; the second a $2,500-per-week apartment on the city’s northern beaches.
The interview was later a finalist for the Walkley Awards’ Scoop of the Year. The Walkley Foundation’s terms and conditions require disclosure of payment for interviews, and in light of these revelations, the foundation has said it is considering its position. Liam Bartlett did not respond for comment when contacted by Crikey last week, but the Seven Network in a statement to Guardian Australia said:
7NEWS Spotlight adhered to the Walkley Foundation’s guidelines as part of the nomination process and, in disclosing its arrangement with Bruce Lehrmann, fully met the entry criteria. We welcome the Walkleys’ findings after its exhaustive ‘review’ confirming this.
Lehrmann’s former colleague Brittany Higgins alleges he raped her in 2019 in then-senator Linda Reynolds’ ministerial suite in Parliament House. Lehrmann denies the allegations and is suing Network 10 for a broadcast interview with Higgins that he claims identified him as the accused assailant.
As Higgins, a key witness in the trial, concluded a third day under cross-examination on Tuesday and left the Sydney legal precinct, a Seven reporter asked whether she thought there ought to be another criminal trial and whether she would give evidence if there was.
“Aren’t you paying his rent?” came the reply.
As the relationship between Seven and Lehrmann continues to be examined throughout the trial, the mood among some journalists at the organisation is understood to be increasingly fractious. One recently departed ex-Seven reporter told Crikey it’s “embarrassing to see 7News going so downhill. [The financial support of Lehrmann] makes one wonder what Seven values in journalism. I feel ashamed to have worked for Seven.”
News Corp’s tantrums
Free from the shackles of Holt Street, senior cricket writer Gideon Haigh has unleashed on The Australian, describing his treatment after 12 years at the broadsheet to The Betoota Advocate. Crikey in October reported Haigh’s departure from the paper, which came after the abrupt end to his popular podcast Cricket Et Cetera with Peter Lalor. It is understood Haigh and Lalor wanted to continue the podcast independently, even offering The Australian the chance to retain its branding on the production, but were nonetheless barred from doing so.
Haigh told The Betoota Advocate it was “a little bit like … dealing with a toddler that wants to break a toy rather than share it with somebody else”.
Crikey understands the paper gave him the cold shoulder on the way out, with correspondence unresponded to in an unceremonious departure. Haigh told The Betoota Advocate the departure amounted to “Fuck all. My last day came and I didn’t hear a word.”
An accidental slur in the cricket
The men’s home summer of cricket kicked off this morning, with the Prime Minister’s XI taking on the touring Pakistanis in Canberra at Manuka Oval. The match, broadcast on Fox Sports, saw Shan Masood’s side win the toss and bat, with an unusual new detail surprising a number of viewers (not least your correspondent, whose own heritage is Pakistani).
Instead of the usual “PAK” to denote Pakistan in a sporting context, Fox’s ticker instead read “PAKI 0-0” to begin the four-day fixture. Those more culturally educated among you may note that “Paki” is a well-established slur for Pakistanis and other South Asians, originating from the UK and dating back as far as the 1960s.
A Cricket Australia spokesperson told Crikey “the graphic was an automatic feed from a data provider which had not been used previously for a Pakistan game. This was obviously regrettable, and the error we corrected manually as soon as it came to light.”
Moves
- ABC 7.30 reporter Patrick Begley leaves for The Sydney Morning Herald, where he started his career as a cadet.
- ABC Radio National has made a raft of changes to its 2024 lineup, including the cutting of former Howard-era minister Amanda Vanstone’s program Counterpoint, and the Centre for Independent Studies’ Tom Switzer’s Between the Lines. ABC Radio Melbourne also sees the loss of Friday Breakfast host Charlie Pickering, who also hosts The Weekly on ABC television on Wednesday nights.
