This is the Media Show with Jack houting Hello and welcome to the Media Show. I'm Jack Houghton, and tonight we'll discuss the departure of Peter Costello from nine and look at coverage around the British election. But first, Labour's dirty financial relationship with union thugs is back in the media spotlight after CFMU boss and convicted harasser John Sector took aim at the AFL.
The Crow's relocation saga is facing an extraordinary threat tonight, with a notorious union boss vowing to throw the project into chaos.
John Seka has told the AFL to prepare for major disruptions to stadium construction across the nation unless its new umpiring boss is given the boot.
Well, the threat is nothing short of extortion, and you could make a pretty good argument it is blackmail and you don't believe me. Listen to the convicted wife harasser himself.
This is going to cost the AFL a lot of money. Projects without our full cooperation are going to be a misery for them. They will regret the day they ever employed him. The plan to instruct CFMEU members to work to rule. That means no working on rdios, no overtime.
No going the extra mine.
We have an obligation to pursue anti union, anti workers like him and we will until the end of the earth.
That's not threatening man, and I want not make it any threats.
So I'm were talking about exposing people.
That's how these thugs operate and they prop up labor coffers. The AFR reported earlier this year. Unions contributed more than five million to labor in the past financial year, with the CFMEU and its allied construction shops becoming the biggest donors to the Victorian branch in the months leading up to the twenty twenty two state election. So how did our prime minister respond to sectors clear threats against the AFL.
A lot of the.
Issues around version in the NFL giving it's a progerate for unions, the seas you can involved in dictating the appointment of CEOs and.
The high level officis.
The sorry is back to unions and John Sector.
Do you believe that he should give up on his campaign against the APHA.
Yes, I'm just not just common sense.
Incredibly weak and disappointing. And when pressure at press conferences became too much for our leaders, their minders started running interference.
Pressure fell.
Can I just anic a Wells staff member blowing the final sirens?
I think we're done.
Now let's bring in tonight's panel joining us as the Australian Sophie Elsworth and breakfast radio hosts Stevens send a tempo now, Stephen, why don't we start with you?
Thanks for joining us on the show.
First of all, it's always a bad look when a media minder takes that over zealous position where they have to block their minister from the questions.
What did you make of that performance?
Well, I thought it was terribly awkward television to start with. I thought it was really really hard to watch. But look, I think it just it's indicative of how the government's going at the moment, that ministers are afraid to take responsibility for anything. And well, somebody used to else sees me running the show, whether it be the unions or the minders. It ain't the politicians, that's for sure. Yeah, it's a really good point, Sophie.
The other thing that, when I'm looking at this story, I think some of the questions have maybe missed the mark a little bit. It's not so much about whether Anthony Albanezi needs to condemnj On Sector because obviously he has been stripped from the Labor Party. The question comes down to the financial ties and should Labor accept money from an organization which is essentially trying to blackmail the AFL.
Well Jack, they're really important questions that you ask and questions that should be asked of the ministers. And this was an incredibly bad look for Anika Wells when the PR spinner got involved and was caught on camera basically
saying no more questions. It's never a good look. It's not a good look for the government and they are getting themselves tangled in knots over this whole fiasco because as we know, John Setka does not back down and I don't think the government has handled this overly well.
But that clip there with.
The Sports minister was a very bad look and one also to be reminded for the PR spinners don't become the story.
Yeah, it's a really good point. And Steve just still on this topic, how do you think the punters react when they look at this. I mean, the AFL is an incredibly popular sport. The implications John Sector's words are that they could be delays to new stadiums over this petty feud that he has over the umpire appointment. How does it play out with if Anthony Albanez he can't can't condemn him in a way that the fans think is strong enough.
Does that chip away his popularity?
Well, of course it does, because I mean there's a track record now of the Prime Minister with merely mouth responses to things where he really needs to show some real strength. I mean we saw it initially with the Gaza Israel situation. It doesn't matter what it is, this Prime Minister is weak. That's just the reality of it.
Now.
Whether he's a nice bloke or not, it's not the issue here. But we need somebody that's going to show some leadership. And I understand what you're saying about the questions about the financial ties, and yeah they're important questions to ask, but it's incumbent on the Prime Minister and particularly Tony Birk, the Workplace Relations Minister, to actually come
out with a strong response to this. Now, it might not be their business, as John Setka says it is, but it's a bit rich of a union thug to say to the Prime Minister. But out this is none of your business, because we're talking about something that is a national passtime. Now, I know AFL fan, but plenty of other people in the country are, and they're going to be looking at this thinking, well, hang on a sec our Prime Minister won't stand up for us on anything?
Can he at least stand up.
For us if these people are going to disrupt our sport on the weekends and he won't do that?
Yeah, really well said.
Let's move on now to our friend at the ABC, star Paul Barry, who was leaving the network after eleven years at the helm of media watch. Now, we certainly don't always agree with Barry's take on things, but we have to say it was refreshing to hear someone from inside the ABC turn a critical lens on the organization recently over its attempts to transform to the digital age. Now, he made some very valid points about the massive organization somehow being unable to cover major breaking news.
So why was the ABC's TV coverage second rate? Lack of firepower, resourcing and experience are among the issues being raised internally, with some new staff furious at a lack of urgency and breaking news culture at the news channel and another blaming low morale and skeleton staffing at the weekend, telling us.
You can't keep on doing everything with nothing.
But ABC managers clearly don't agree. Internal emails, we've seen show bosses calling the coverage well executed and superb, and in response to a series of questions, the ABC defended its coverage, calling it urgent but measured, and saying.
The team sustained comprehensive rolling coverage for around five hours and provided the video and livestream coverage for the website and app, ABC I View, YouTube and Facebook. It did exactly what it's there to do.
Sadly, the evidence says otherwise, and in comparison to nine's leading coverage, it was miles off the pace. In fact, we wonder how the ABC can justify having a dedicated news channel if it can't do better on breaking stories like this.
Sophie Elsworth, can you get your take on this? Eleven years for a show like that is quite an innings. I think he's had his ups and downs. I think he's definitely made mistakes like we all do in this industry. But how would you rate his performance so over that decade?
Well, I definitely think in recent times Jack that Paul Barry has become more critical of the ABC, and I don't know that that would be going down so well with those who work at the taxpayer funded broadcaster. I don't always agree with his takes on things, obviously, I think he's had far too much of a focus on news corp content rather than looking across the whole media spectrum. He does work for the public broadcaster and should be looking across all media outlets, not just focusing on ones.
Perhaps that he dislikes himself. However, I think he has done some good work on the ABC. I think he has held the ABC to account on various times when they needed to be held to account.
But I think it is time for.
The show to have a refresh. He has been there a long time, as we said, over a decade, so it'll be very interesting to see who they do replace him with, but hopefully it is with someone who looks more broadly across the media outlets rather than focusing on news.
Call Yeah, Steve, I think that's fair to say every night that there's a lot of the news Court papers that seem to get a bit of his focus. I think that's a fair comment to make.
What do you think of this story? What do you think of his performance?
Look, I just think it was a funny story saying, you know, talking about resourcing at the ABC, when I'm led to believe that media Watch has something like a dozen producers. Maybe he could have lent them some of his staff and they could have done a better job covering.
That particular story.
I don't know, but look, I got to be honest, I don't watch a lot of Media Watch. I find the concept a little bit distasteful, the media taking potshots at itself. But you know, the reality is that on a number of occasions, Paul Barry has called out the ABC, and good on him for that. This wasn't the only time. The only time I ever sort of take any notice of it is when he does have a crack at the ABC. So I go back and watch those particular episodes,
and look, you know, longevity's great. Anyone that can stay at a job for eleven years in this industry is doing something right, despite the fact that it's only fifteen minutes of television a week, so it's not particularly arduous. But good honing.
Yeah, Well, Sophie, Steve touches on a really important point I think there were a lot of disgruntled people at the ABC that he was taking such a pretty big swing at their coverage when there are so many people that work on the program for just fifteen minutes of television. When we're talking about what a rebranded show would be with a new host, do you think that the taxpayers need to get a little bit more bang for their buck.
Perhaps, Well, as Steven said, he is producing a show or hosting a show that is fifteen minutes a week, and he puts out the media bytes on a Thursday, which is a couple of clips on a Thursday evening. So in terms of the grand scheme of things, some would argue it's not a lot of content, given there's quite a few staff that work for this program. And we do know that the ABC, like many media organizations,
has undergone staffing cuts. So once they refreshed the show, they have a new host perhaps so overhauled a format of it. But Paul Barry is in the hot seat. He is hosting the program until the end of the year.
Well, we're going to take a quick break. But when we're back inside the Fall of Peter Costello, Welcome back Nine's chair. Peter Costello has now resigned after a disgraceful incident where he pushed a reporter from The Australian to the ground. Now, if you somehow missed the moment, which has been broadcast around the country, here's a quick recap.
Well, you've got to answer.
Your questions, mister. You've just assaulted You've just assaulted me behind closed doors.
Costello was facing pressure to resign after that brutish display was caught on camera, but publicly nine's PR team was denying anything had happened at all. They released this statement. After arriving at Canberra Airport, the chairman was confronted by a journalist from The Australian. In the course of filming the chairman. While walking backwards, the journalist collided with an advertising placard and fell. At no point did the chairman strike the journalist. So what changed at nine?
Well?
As the ABC's Peter Ryan pointed out, costello resigning was humiliating as it showed his own statement could not have been correct.
We had been expecting this was possibly likely to come out even late on Friday evening. Remember this is a long weekend, so this is an announcement from no entertainment on the Sunday of a long weekend. But given the events of last week where mister Costello had that altercation with Liam Mendez, a reporter for The Australian at Canberra Airport, there's been a lot of speculation that this appeared to
be imminent. But overall, this is a major humiliation with Peter Costello because as late as Friday last week, he had rejected suggestions that he had assaulted the reporter from The Australian, Liam Mendez, and he brushed off suggestions that he should design or was under pressure to resign.
Well, Sophie, let's bring you in here. Great work by The Australian getting that and then getting that footage and then covering the story. The thing that I'm interested in is how the story evolved from a pr point of view, and how nine went from this steadfast position that nothing had gone wrong to eventually he has to leave the organization with that rather long winded statement that he gave what are your thoughts?
Well, I think this played out pretty quickly because that imagery and that video with the journalist Lam Mendez did go viral and it was an awfully shocking look for mister Costello, and I think a lot of people were left thinking, Okay, he looks like in that video he has barged into him, knocked him over, stood over him, laughed at him, and then marched off. So it was an incredibly bad look for the chairman of a media outlet who employs hundreds of journalists and some of them
work for programs that do exactly that. So I think mister Costello thought that he could hold on to his chairmanship, but obviously this quickly changed over the weekend when he lost the support what appears to be definitely from no There were very critical articles of him, very critical article of him this week in the SMH in their editorial, and I think it was just untenable. That's what I was being told for him to hang on to the chairmanship.
So the footage spoke for itself, and I don't think he was going to be able to worm his way out of it, and clearly that was the case.
Yeah, it's really interesting and Steve Keen to get your thoughts here as well, But I would make the comment that the publishing arm the SMH, they did a pretty good job of pushing it out really quickly. Even though obviously the ownership structure meant that he was their chair. But the thing that really stood out to me is that they had somewhat rejected the statement from nine's own PR team, and it was really buried down the bottom.
It's not what they led with, which then goes into the credibility of what statements are actually being put out.
But what are your thoughts.
Well, look, my opinion on this is probably unpopular because I don't think better cost I should have been forced to resign over this, and I hate this kind of journalism where you bail people up. It's like when the media scrumbs chased somebody out of a courtroom looking for a comment that's never going to eventuate. I think it's poor, poor journalism. I know it's what's done, and I know the Channel nine are guilty of it too. I just think it's got to stop. There's better ways to do this.
But let's be fair about this. The old Fairfax arm of Channel nine wouldn't be particularly enamored by Peter Costello being their boss. They weren't fans of his when he was in Parliament, and they probably weren't fans of his before the merger. So I'm not surprised that the SMH and the Age and that part of nine went after their boss. But look, given the media furor that erupted after this, I think his position did become untenable and he did the right thing and stood down.
Yeah, very very good points.
How do you do these?
Can I just interrupt jacksco?
How do you actually get answers from people? We were chasing mister Costello for weeks. We were repeatedly asking him questions, and so it does take that if you email them, call them, contact them, you go through their spinners, and you get nothing back. It results in journalists having to door stop them, having to approach them when they probably don't expect them to, because otherwise you get no response.
And it might be a type of journalism that people do not like, but sometimes it does take this type of journalism to get the answers that we deserve. So Steve, respectfully, I do.
You still don't get the answers? You still didn't get the answers. You still didn't get the answers.
That's the bat he did not handle it well.
It's a good point.
The other thing, though, is that Costello was a chair of a company that did profit off that style of journalism, and his guys, a current official, played it just as hard as anybody, and if he wanted to, he could have done a cultural change to not have that kind of focus. So I think that when you're in a certain position, you do know what the game is, and that's the way that I look at it. But you know, Steve, I've seen a lot of commentary public commentaries suggesting similar things,
So I definitely don't think you're alone there. I think it is a complex case. But you know, he's he's the big the big guy, and you've got to you've got to take what you dish out against. But anyway, let's move on now to the British election, where the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had another shock a week after he cut short a D Day ceremony in France to go and do this media interview.
Good to see you, very nice to see sorry too, well, thank you.
Yeah, it all just ran there was incredible, but it just ran over every time.
I'm sure it was an apology for keeping you No, not at all. I'm sure it's a powerful trip. I mean, so pertinent as well this year, you know, considering what's happened in the.
Ukraine, which I haven't seen President Biden's remarks by maybe that's kind of the echo it.
Yeah, did you get to meet any of the veterans or were you the ceremony not.
Yesterday in the day. Yeah, yeah, I've already spoke to almost everyone that was there. I hope it.
Has caused a major back We're Sunak apologizing and conceding it was a mistake to leave early. But even though his apology was swift, it led to awkward moments like this being televised to the world.
What can you say?
They're politicians.
They're politicians. They don't have a great regard to politicisans. But yesterday American president, the German Chancellor, the French president, they all stay to the end, and our Prime minister left early. And I wonder if he's eineering, Yeah, because you went, he's got the next As a British veteran, what does that? What does that say to you? What's your emotions? And I think he lets the country.
Down, Steve.
Politicians when they're putting electioneering before these actual events, where first of all, they have the opportunity to show some humanity and talk to these people who've served their country.
I mean, what a complete own.
Goal, no doubt about it. I think he probably thought he was being smart. I'll leave David Cameron behind because he's a better performer than I am, and I'll go and carry on with election campaigning. Just poor form all around. And I think that's all you can say about Richie Sunac.
Yeah, Sophie, your thoughts. I mean, there was some suggestion that David Cameron had given him some bad advice and I noticed that even David Cameron was getting peppered with questions about it. So the flow ons have hurt the entire party. It's a really bad look.
Well, it was a bad look, Jack, and one that has dominated headlines in the UK for days. And Richie Sunac put out an apology on social media, which I get again, I don't think was a good way to handle it. But a pr disaster for a prime minister who is about to lose an election, so in the grand scheme of things, that certainly won't help him. And I think he's finished anyway in terms of trying to win the election. But this was bad headline are early on in the campaign.
Yeah, I agree, Well, let's go to Stories of the week and Steve, what do you have for us?
Look, I think this is a story that shows you everything is wrong with the modern world and everything's wrong with the influencer movement. An Instagram influencer who makes a living out of putting bikini photos of herself on Instagram upset that blokes who are in relationships are liking her Instagram stories and she's going to dub them in. I'm not quite sure how she's going to do this, but have a listen to.
What she said.
So if you have a girlfriend and you dare like my Instagram story of me in like a bikini or a selfie or just just in general.
I am not one to play.
I will tell your.
Girlfriend that you liked my story. Oh my god.
Guy with longtime girlfriends like most, No, you're a weasel and you're a bit of a loser, and I'll tell your girlfriend you're cheating, sack of potatoes.
I'm not the one.
Get off Instagram, okay, because you're embarrassing.
So the question is she stalking all of her followers to the point where she knows they all have boyfriends or husbands or long term partners. I mean look, I have very very few Instagram followers, but unless I know them personally, I don't know their private lives enough to go and dob them in for liking stories on Instagram.
When I think that's exactly what she wants.
She puts up a keenie photos so the people are gonna like them, so that you can then say to people, give me free stuff because I've got this many followers and this many likes, and I don't get this, but I think it highlights everything that's wrong with the modern generation.
Yeah, it sounds like a bit of a stunt by her as well.
And Sophie, what do you have for us?
So on a more serious note, Jack, the death of doctor Michael Moseley. There was really sad stories out this week about how he wanted to see his grandchildren grow up, and he talked about how his father didn't because he died at a young age and then sadly the same thing has happened to him. So shocking tale. And for someone who changed the lives of so many, I think he will be sadly missed.
Yeah, yeah, no, it's a horrible story and a lot of audience appetite for it as well. If you look at the data. But thank you both so much for joining us. That's all the time that we have for tonight.
Up next is left.
He's losing it with Rita Panahe