In a rare move, the ABC has removed a 25-minute interview with a former Australian diplomat that “unduly favoured Russia’s perspective” and contained a number of assertions that were “highly contentious and were not adequately challenged or contextualised”.
“The ABC deeply regrets these misjudgements,” the correction, posted on Saturday, read.
As the Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian border in early February, the former diplomat, Tony Kevin, told Radio National’s Big Ideas host Paul Barclay that the Russians didn’t really want Ukraine because “they think it’s a very sad country; pretty much a failed state”.
“There’s been huge emigration from Ukraine, a huge demoralisation, and Nazi elements, Ukrainian Nazi elements, have assumed positions of real power from which they can intimidate people,” Kevin said. “I think if the truth be known most Ukrainians, more than 50%, would be very glad to be part of the Russian world again, not necessarily lose their political independence but to regain the ability to get on with Russia in a normal way.”
After complaints from academics the ABC’s editorial standards team examined the interview and found “insufficient efforts were made to ensure that material facts were accurate and presented in context”.
When contacted by Weekly Beast, Kevin was shocked to learn the program had been deleted. “What a slur on Paul Barclay, one of ABC’s best and most experienced broadcasters of ideas,” Kevin said. “I was never informed that our interview might be subjected to this incredible censorship days after it went to air.”
Come in spinner
The Seven Network has been more involved in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial against Nine Entertainment than previously thought. It was revealed in court that Seven was bankrolling – to the tune of $170,000 – three witnesses who are testifying on behalf of Roberts-Smith, right up until the day the payments were disclosed at the sensational trial last week.
Now Weekly Beast can reveal Seven’s former network director of publicity, Susan Wood, is on the witness list for the former soldier.
Wood was the unflappable publicity queen and corporate fixer from 2003 until she retired in 2020, spruiking programs including My Kitchen Rules, Home & Away, Seven News, Sunrise, The X Factor, Dancing with the Stars and Packed to the Rafters and personalities Andrew O’Keefe, Samantha Armytage and David Koch.
She worked under chief executives David Leckie, Tim Worner and James Warburton and is a loyal ally of Seven West Media’s chair, Kerry Stokes. Wood was a spokesperson for Roberts-Smith when he was general manager of 7Queensland and Seven Brisbane.
In a statement to the court in 2021, Wood said she had worked with Roberts-Smith at Seven since 2013 and found him to be direct and forthright, as well as loyal, honest and “a person of great integrity”.
“I was very upset for the applicant [Ben Roberts-Smith] and his family when I read the articles and I contacted the applicant to see how he and his family were coping,” she told the court.
Bad blood
Twelve months ago journalist Aaron Patrick took aim at Gold Walkley winner Samantha Maiden in a classic “hit job” published in the Australian Financial Review, only for it to backfire spectacularly.
Now the AFR’s senior correspondent has set his sights on former PM Malcolm Turnbull and “his relationship with the Morrison government”. Or more pointedly, as the publisher’s blurb says: “Malcolm Turnbull’s campaign against Scott Morrison and the Liberal Party is one of the greatest acts of political disloyalty in Australian history. This account explores the egos, alliances and thwarted power that have left a trail of personal destruction across the political world.”
Some my personal news. I have a book coming out in June on Malcolm Turnbull's relationship with the Morrison government. It explores all the big stories: Christian Porter, Brittany Higgins, Alan Tudge and more. #auspol https://t.co/o13Ek3BVS5
— Aaron Patrick (@apatrickafr) April 25, 2022
Patrick, who is well connected to the right of the Liberal party, has previously reported that the conservative faction sees Turnbull as a “centre-leftist impostor and opportunist”, so it is no wonder Turnbull reportedly told him: “You can write what you want … but I’m not going to be your editor.”
If it’s possible, Patrick appears to have an even more acrimonious relationship with the younger Turnbull, Alex, disclosing that he “blocked me on Twitter, so I follow him through an anonymous account”. Alex Turnbull responded to news of the book in a long thread on Twitter.
1/ Alright one thread on recent media reports. Aaron Patrick is getting published by Harper Collins, a News Corp subsidiary. If you think there’s a lot of rigorous fact checking going on there I have a bridge to sell you. #auspol
— Alex Turnbull (@alexbhturnbull) April 27, 2022
Patrick said: “The most intense of the Turnbulls, he [Alex] has referred to Morrison as a ‘dickhead’ on the site and complained about the quality of the Australian politics discussions.
“[Malcolm] Turnbull had tried to discourage me from writing the book from the start. He sensed, correctly, that I was sceptical of the protestations that his criticism of the government was entirely public-spirited.”
Ego will be published by HarperCollins, a subsidiary of News Corporation, in June.
The big teal
The Australian’s media writer, Sophie Elsworth, caused a stir this week when she implied that the ABC had unveiled a new teal logo that looked suspiciously like the colour of the so-called teal independents. Was the ABC subtly declaring its support for the independents challenging Liberal candidates in key seats?
Interesting colour choice for profile pic update by the ABC. 🧐🤔 #auspol pic.twitter.com/F3tmfqyLRv
— Sophie Elsworth (@sophieelsworth) April 24, 2022
The only problem with this conspiracy theory is that the update was a retro version of the logo that replicated 1970s ABC branding, and it was published to coincide with the launch of the TV drama Barons, which is set in that era. But Elsworth wasn’t backing down, even when ABC AM host Sabra Lane pointed out that the ABC iview logo has in fact been this colour for more than a decade, since 2011 in fact.
Another profile pic update from the public broadcaster. 🧐 #auspol pic.twitter.com/DDMbNbcVh2
— Sophie Elsworth (@sophieelsworth) April 26, 2022
Elsworth paid no heed to the hundreds of tweets knocking her observation with photos of Tiffany boxes and assorted gems, posting another update on Wednesday, complete with the monocle emoji. She is nothing if not consistent.
Lawler drops defamation case
A former vice-president of the Fair Work Commission, Michael Lawler, has discontinued his lawsuit against Four Corners, in which he alleged the ABC deceived him about the nature of a television program in which he participated in 2015.
In March Lawler filed a statement of claim with the NSW supreme court seeking damages for loss of income, pain and suffering and harm to his reputation, but it was discontinued this week after he reached the time limit.
Lawler agreed to be in a program with his then-partner, former Health Services Union boss Kathy Jackson, but claims he was misled by reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna about the subject matter.
In the program, he famously demonstrated himself recording a phone call with a dictaphone and made a crude reference to his relationship with Jackson. Earlier in the week, the supreme court registrar closed the case.
A hard act to follow
The global News Corp show, Piers Morgan Uncensored, launched in Australia on Tuesday night with a highly publicised interview with Donald Trump.
The first night did well for Foxtel, with an audience of 86,000 making it the most popular show on the pay-TV platform. But by Wednesday, which was part two of an overly long Trump interview, it had dropped to third place with 62,000 viewers – behind Gogglebox Australia (119,000) and Selling Houses Australia (82,000). On Thursday it plunged to 38,000.
BREAKING NEWS: @PiersUncensored got bigger ratings at 8-9pm last night than BBC News, Sky News and GB News…. COMBINED!!! What a start - thanks for watching!🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/NDVlQWqUhV
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) April 26, 2022
The program, pitched at the right with its claim to “cancel cancel culture”, is already offside with the right in the US where it has been attacked by the Trump team for allegedly deceptively editing the Trump interview to make it look like the former president had stormed out.
Morgan responded to the criticism by saying: “The promo reflects exactly what happened. Donald Trump got very angry about one particular thing and he couldn’t let it go. But when people see the interview they’ll see that we have nice exchanges. We always have done before. But simmering is this anger he was feeling about what was said to him before we started the interview.”
The former Good Morning Britain and CNN host was reportedly paid £50m (A$93m) by Rupert Murdoch for the daily TV talkshow, which goes to air on Fox Nation in the US and News UK’s TalkTV.
“I’m going to cancel the cancel culture,” he told Peta Credlin on Sky when he was in Australia on a flying visit, where we believe he recorded an interview with Scott Morrison. “I’m going to take those ultra-woke lunatics head on.” Maybe so, but who will be watching?
Defamation case setback for ABC’s Cannane
The ABC’s Europe bureau chief, Steve Cannane, who wrote the 2016 book Fair Game: The Incredible Untold Story of Scientology in Australia, had bad news on Friday. The complex, long-running defamation case he won in 2020 has been ordered for a retrial.
Cannane and his publisher, HarperCollins, were sued for defamation in 2017 by two doctors from Sydney’s Chelmsford private hospital, where some patients allegedly underwent “deep sleep therapy” to the point of death and who were investigated as part of a 1988-90 royal commission into mental health services. The doctors argued that deep sleep therapy was accepted medical practice at the time and said they were hung out to dry at the royal commission after a Scientologist campaign.
Their argument was rejected in the federal court in 2020 by justice Jayne Jagot, who dismissed the case and ordered costs to be paid by the former Chelmsford practitioners.
But on Friday the federal court handed down a judgment on the appeal by the doctors and ordered a new trial.
