The Media Show | 16 August

This is the Media Show, with Jack couting Hello and welcome to the media. Showed tonight we'll look at the meltdowns at CNN and a last minute legal change to an ABC investigation. But first Vice President Kamala Harris has enjoyed the full weight of the US media behind her, which has created an appearance that she is significantly ahead of Donald Trump. But cracks are starting to appear. Some more brave voices in the media have started asking why Harris won't do any substantive interviews.

Would it kill you guys to have a press conference?

Why hasn't she had a press conference? Listen?

The Vice president and Governor Walls have been busy criss crossing this country since the launch of this campaign and adding a Governor Walls to the ticket. You saw the ways in which they went across the battleground states last week, generating rallies of a thousands, ten thousand here, fifteen thousand there. But Michael, you know a campaign rally is not a press Do you mind if I cut in?

I mean, you know, a.

Campaign rallies on a press conference. Why hasn't she had a press conference?

She's the vice president, she can handle the questions, why not do it?

We absolutely are going to do it. You hear her take.

Questions as she's out on the stump, and she's as she said last week, we're going to be having a sit down interview here before the end of the month of what she is going to be focused on and what this campaign is going to be focused on, is communicating directly with the voters that are actually going to decide the pathway to two hundred and seventy electoral votes.

That's why she got a press conference plus week three that passed me.

That's why we're doing a bus tour in Pennsylvania as we head into Chicago, and it's why we'll sit down for an interview before the end of the month to make sure that we can have a deep dot conversation about the vision the Kamala Harris has for where she wants to take this country in the contrast that we're going to have with Donald Trump. We're gonna have plenty of opportunities to do that throughout the micro but one.

Interview by the end of the month this month, the rest of the campaign, I don't I.

Don't want to, you know, belabor this, but one interview before the end of the month.

I mean, that's that's not a lot. I mean, can you commit to a press conference before.

The end of the month.

We will commit to directly engage with the voters that are actually gonna decide this election. And that is going to be a complete with rallies, with sit down interviews, with press conferences, with all the digital assets that we have at our disposal.

And it isn't just political pundits noticing that Harris is trying to win this election by literally hiding from scrutiny. ESPN host Stephen Smith says that Harris has got his vote already, but it's called on her to do the right thing and be present for interviews.

Joe Biden step down step aside as the presumptive Democratic nominee on July twenty first. Okay, now I'm gonna look at this right now. I'm looking at my calendar because I just want to make sure you know, July twenty first was a Sunday. We've had one week, two weeks, three weeks and one day, says Joe Biden. Stepped aside place. We've seen Kamala Harris as their pet rally and it can't just be the Conservatives.

Right is right.

I'm talking to my sister here. Come on now, you're running for the president's theory the United.

States of American. You got my vote.

You're running for the president's theater the United States of America, which you're hiding for.

Harris has plenty of policy and consistencies which need to be probed by reporters. Her record is a hardline prosecutor is an issue, as well as contradictions between how she's dealt with the border crisis between twenty twenty and today.

We can't do that if she hides.

And even if you detest Trump, you should be furious about the prospect of somebody waltzing into the White House with barely any scrutiny just because the media hates the other candidate.

That is a democracy. That is just a farce.

Well, joining me on the show this week is the Australians Darren Davidson and Sky News contributor James Bolt. Darren, let's with you the way I think Joe Biden as well did in the last election. There was all these notions of he was hiding in the basement. It's a proven tactic for the Democrats. But even her own supporters now are saying, even if it works, even if politically it is advantageous, it's not really the right thing to do.

It's not I think. I mean Biden was hiding behind COVID and that's how he was able to do that campaign from the basement. Obviously, COVID is no longer an issue for anybody, and that reality's gone. I think it's really bizarre that she's all but telling Americans that they'll have to elect her to find out what she really believes in. That's bad enough on domestic policy and on

I agree, And James, look, those were the rare clips that we found to kind of show this level of scrutiny. I will note that The Guardian has made this point. Lots of other journalists have made the point that she does appear to be hiding, but others in the press just seemed so just overwhelmed by joy that the polls are now going in their favor, that they're just they're turning a blind eye and they don't want her to have this scrutiny because they need her to win, that's the thing.

And to be honest, to be fair to Kamala Harris, she did actually sit down for an interview today, and I don't know if you guys saw the hard hitting journalists that she finally ask the tough questions her running mates in walls is the person asking her all the questions that the media haven't been able to ask her yet. Sorry, got on for if we're finally sitting down to a big interview, But you're right, it's simply not enough. It should be one hundred percent of journalist should be standing

Yeah, and James, I mean on your point as well, the campaign saying let's commit to one sit down interview. It's not the same as a press conference where people are firing questions. There's the chaos, and Darren, let's bring you in. Because I think Kamala Harris doesn't have the best track record of having concise answers. And yes, Donald Trump has his weaknesses that everybody knows, and I think he gets more criticism than any other candidate out there,

I mean, the word salads are unbearable. The point about Trump is, I mean he often choose from the hip on foreign policies. Comments about dictators are pretty witless sometimes. But actually his first term record, particularly on Iran and at least, was actually pretty favorable and pretty good and strong, particularly compared to Biden Harris and their performance in the

Yeah, well said, Well, moving on now, because Donald Trump has had a COmON sation with Elon Musk this week and some journalists lost their mind over it.

Yan with forty minutes of silence and then a bro apocalypse of politics. No matter how you frame it or what caused the glitch, what was finally said between Donald Trump and Elon Musk at last night's Big X event can largely be defined as a rant filled with familiar lines and lines of attack.

Kamala wouldn't have this conversation.

She can't because she's not smart.

You know, she's not a smart person. He is a radical left San Francisco liberal and now she's trying to protect Now she's looking like she's she wants to be more Trump than Trump, if that's possible.

I don't think it's possible.

But he wants to be more Trump than Trump. She's terrible, but he's getting a free run.

All right, But did it too what it was designed to do, which was to put the brakes on Harris's momentum.

Well that's not objective reporting. It's just angry and unhinged. Let's take a listen to what actually took place during the conversation.

More of a believer, I think, and a lot of people have said that to be a lot of great people have said that to me, actually, but it was it was amazing that I happened to be turned just at that perfect angle, and all because I put down a chart on immigration that showed that the numbers were so great.

I love that chart even Maybe it's a sign.

Maybe that's a sign immigrations.

You highlighted a serious issue at that moment, you know here, But but you knows of your head, James.

I think there's a combination here of the Trump arrangement, since right where no matter what he does, what he says, it has to be met with hostility. But I also think there is a little bit of relevance deprivision here because CNN didn't get this long form conversation. Both of these two blokes don't really want anything to do with this media organization, so they've managed to talk directly to voters on their own terms. And that kind of infuriates some people in the media, Yeah.

Because they want to see themselves as a gay keepers and to be honest, to be fair to seeing in there. At least the journalist or the producer whoever wrote that script did actually take the time to sit down and watch the interview. I've got to clip here from someone who doesn't even need to wait for Donald Trump to say something before he actively calls him to be shut down.

Elon Musk is slated to interview Donald Trump tomorrow tonight.

On on X.

I don't know if the President has gone today. Feel free to say if he is or not. But I think that misinformation on Twitter is not just a campaign issue, it's you know, it's.

An America issue.

What rule does the White House or the President have in sort of stopping that or stopping the spread of that, or sort of intervening in there.

You've heard us talk about this many times from here, about the responsibilities that social media platforms have.

That's without him saying anything, just you know what it's about to happen, so it should be shut down.

That is a White House beat reporter.

You want to talk about someone who should be the vanguard of defending free speech and holding power to account. It's this person in the room saying, what are you guys doing? And that is someone just saying, actually, you know, the state should use its power to silence a political energy.

I love how Korean Jean Pierre the Press sect is just saying, well, thank you for this question, which I very much want to answer, not about anything we're doing, but about stopping literally stopping our political opponent from having a conversation. I mean, and this is where it gets kind of creepy from my point of view. Yeah, they probably got a lot of stuff wrong in that interview, right,

Yeah, agree, I mean, it's interesting he's returned to Twitter after leaving the platform many years ago, and it just shows that he's adopting a very different approach in this election. And he's good for him for showing a willingness to actually go onto new platforms and be interviewed. Look, you know, Eli Masco would much rather see the journalist's interview him

Yeah, I mean, for me, for one, I found it interesting, and I don't think you need to agree with every single word uttered between two people talking to find it interesting. They're both quite fascinating people with different backgrounds. Why would you want to put it to the White House that they should censor.

That, well, because you want him to lose. And I just like to take it back to the first point is that you've got one candidate who can talk for two hours, and you know he's going to get things wrong, he's going to muddle things up a bit, but he can't talk for two hours versus a candidate they actively have to hide from you because you're going to find out that that's going to comparisonjustaposition between the two. Let's move on, because breakdowns of Raygun has broken her silence.

I didn't realize that that would also open the door to so much hate, which has frankly been pretty devastating. Well, I went out there and I had fun. I did take it very seriously, I worked my butt off preparing for the Olympics and I gave my all.

Truly.

I'm on it to have been a part of the Australian Olympic team, meant to be part of Breaking's Olympic.

Debut, Darren, I get uncomfortable when people try to frame criticism. And I've criticized Her've criticized her academic work. I think it is childish. I don't think it's academia. I don't think it's intelligible. I don't think it should be funded by the taxpayer, subsidized by the taxpayer. Now us criticizing her and that performance where she's she chose to hop around like a kangaroo.

No one made her do that, right.

And is it fair to say that that's a hater, that there's this there's a hatred behind that, because what you're kind of saying is if you critique me, then I'm going to slaner you and label you as some kind of hateful bigot. I think that's I think that's much worse than just criticizing somebody.

I agree.

I feel like we're all being gasol a little bit here. It's a good thing about all of this and the attention that Raygun has gone that is that it's actually opened up this big debate around funding and how this even happened in the first place. And I think that's

That isn't really a celebrating mediocrity.

It really is when we have these great athletes and James spring you in here, because we do have these people that are just the most incredible thing. I mean, to win eighteen Golds and you know there were some very close matches like the women's water polo, the stingers with the silver as well, some incredible moments, and then you've got the AOC, the Australian Olympics Committee putting out these lengthy statements defending this.

Person and I don't think it's appropriate.

Well, the thing you have to realize is that she tried to do a bunny hop and do a kangaroo thing. So of course we are going to talk about that because how.

Did that happen?

So and the idea that it's like shocking to wear that this feedback. I don't know if you guys have ever like really sucked at something on a public stage. But it's not afterwards that you realize that things are about to go bad. It's when you see the guy before you. So that's when she should have tweet things are about to go bad for me right now because that person.

Was really based on that. It was it was a bit nasters. If she's not being honest, she doesn't seem to realize that she had no place from a caliber point of view, she wasn't up there.

Yes, and yet if she's not in the ABC New Year's Eve coverage this week, then this year and what are we doing?

Well, we're going to take a quick break. But when we're back Four Corners an investigation which had to make a last minute legal kill. Welcome back this week four Corners and it's investigation to Network seven.

And if you missed it, this was the promo.

Is one of the most soul crushing places you can work in, smoke and mirrors.

Channel seven likes to portray itself as a family.

It's a very dysfunctional family.

In Silence for Life Breaking seven Silence, the fear is visceral.

And I haven't seen anything like it. I wouldn't just call it the second Chance Club. I'd call it the third, fourth and fifth Chance Club.

They shouldn't be in business if that's what they're doing to young women. How do they sleep at night?

That promo, which featured Amber Harrison, the former lover of X seven boss Tim Warner, attracted a legal letter and was eventually deleted from the Internet. The program went to air without the Harrison segments, ironically, which had her complaining

It's not a great look.

No.

I think Arma deserved an explanation and heads up ahead of the program airing on Monday evening that she wasn't going to a peering up all of that time, and presumably disclosing things that she probably felt uncomfortable talking about that were difficult to talk about after that only happened. What's seven six years ago now or maybe a little bit longer.

But what did you think in general about the program? I thought it was reheated seconds.

There were noly revelations given all the publicity and the build up and thess stories about the program. I've watched it as it was had on Monday night. I just found the whole thing. Stuff we've all known and we've read, and it's been reported already. It was just a rehash.

James, what are your thoughts?

Yeah, I got So the good news for me is that it sort of told me that this is an industry that is cleaning itself up. I mean, you talk to people that are like, you know, veterans of the media, and what it took the ABC going.

Back in the time capsule together on Channel seven.

You sounds like it was just what people did on a standard work day, you know, fifty sixty years ago.

So it's good to know that.

I mean, some of the stories are pretty aerbic, and some of the story and a bit like I need to hear the other side as well, But overall I kind of felt, hey, we are getting somewhere in an industry where.

It was also Louis Milligan interviewed about two hundred people, and if that was the best that could come out of it, it's actually not the worst look for seven.

Yeah.

Yeah, So I just think this is an industry that is getting to a pretty good place.

Yeah, well, let's move on now. Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi has been accused of spreading misinformation once again, this time involving our country's top spy, ASIO chief Mike Burgess. Here is what our Prime Minister had to say in question time yesterday.

I'll refer to what the ASIO Director General himself has said. If they've been issued a visa, they've gone through the process, they're referred to my organization and ASIO does it seem.

But what did Burgess actually.

Say, Brith they've been issued at visa, they've gone through the process. Part of that visa process is with criteria hit they're referred to my organization and AZIO does its thing.

And Opposition leader Peter dun And seized on the mistake in parliament, but Albanesi was not apologetic.

It's been brought to my attention that the Prime Minister, in quoting the Direct General of Security earlier, misquoted the Director General.

I would ask you to invite the Prime Minister to correct, to correct the requisite is in given this is the first available opportunity for him to do that.

The leader of the Opposition has confirmed the accuracy of what I've said, what I have not done. Mister Speakers, read out the entire inside this.

Transcript, Darren, It's not a great look for a man that's trying to introduce misinformation legislation, getting the facts right, transparency, it's been a huge part of his political platform. The time and time again we're seeing Albanese is either making mistakes, refusing to apologize, or in the words of Peter Dudden, deliberately misleading for political gain.

What are your thoughts?

Yeah, Look, I think rather than defending a process that's clearly flawed at a very chaotic time, he should just be addressing, honestly, the questions around this. It's not clear that you know people, it's not clear that the approval process was thorough enough, and whether we did in fact consult Israeli and intelligence agencies over some of those people, and the big jump in those visa refusals as well kind of indicates that there was a problem, and that's

Honestly, it's almost the defense of nature.

Yeah, the way that he gets his back up when he's asked about this, when I think Australians just want the transparency and back to my earlier point, he kind of ran on this as a platform like I'm going to be transparent and clean up Parliament. But when there's a question over procedural you know, the mechanics of how visas are into, he gets his back up and then you know, it becomes a cultural war issue rather than a mechanical question.

Yeah.

Yeah, he's not good on the back foot. It's not just this, it's when he's been press conferences and journalists are going Adam, he can get a bit shifty. We saw the famous Women's March where he was copying a barrage from one of the speakers and then decided to return fire and that made her cry like he's not someone accustomed. Strangely enough, for a guy that has risen to Prime minister, he's not accustomed to defending himself and to keeping his call when he's under pressure.

It's bizarre.

James Darren, thank you for joining us. That's all the time we have for tonight. Thank you for joining us. We'll be back next week at the same time.