Vince, It's the Media Show with Jack houting.
Hello and welcome to the Media Show. I'm Jack Houghton, and tonight we'll take a look at the ABC campaigning against Peter Duddon and much more. But first to the biggest media story of the week.
Good Evening, one of Channel nine's on air stars, has revealed her former boss Darren Wick allegedly sexually harassed her in public, groping her and breathing heavily down her neck.
The revelations have sent shockwaves through the media industry, with sources entering the Frey to allege that nine not only knew about wicks alleged behavior but covered it up. Now The Australian Sophie Elsworth and James Madden reported that while Nine you of these allegations, it still gave Wick a near million dollar golden handshake on his departure. One star for at Wednesday's meeting asked whether there was a cover up relating to Wick's behavior and was told there was not.
According to the senior managers conducting the meeting, the network was duty bound to protect the confidentiality of any workplace issues lodged by staff. Well duty bound in theory perhaps, but then this news.
Broke tonight the scandal surrounding Channel nine deepens with shocking allegations that the company betrayed the confidence of a high profile female presenter when she raised concerns about sacked newsboss Darren Wick. The on air star was horrified to discover that soon after discussing her concerns through the appropriate channels at nine, her confidence was breached almost immediately when the top news exec was told about the complaint against him.
Well, joining me this week on the panel as the Australians media writer Sophie Elsworth and columnist at the Daily Telegraph Tim Blair. Now, Sophie, I want to start with you. You've been doing some fantastic reporting on this well done.
What a story.
What do you make of how nine has has I guess tried to pivot this story and the allegations of a cover up.
Well, thanks for your kind words, Jack. Look, my colleague James Madden and I were asking Nine questions about the whereabouts of Darren Wick way back in March before he departed the company and were told that he was returning and basically there was nothing to see here. And then suddenly on a Friday, night on March fifteen, an email went around to staff saying he had resigned about six point thirty that evening, and a lot of questions were being raised why he was on extended leave and then
suddenly departed in the middle of rating season. This is nine Channel nine's most senior news boss.
And then we.
Exposed at the start of the week that there was a complaint by a female staff member about his alleged conduct, and this has resulted in a whole series of stories and allegations coming out since then Jack, But they have tried to pivot away from this story. Yesterday they announced his replacement for your Own a Dear, but they have had to deal with the fallout. They held an emergency
meeting on Wednesday. They had an email sent out by Mike Sneezeby saying if anyone has concerns about inappropriate conduct, to report it. So this Jack is a network, I would say in massive damage control.
Yeah, definitely, and Tim Blair putting the allegations and the substance of them to one side. The thing that I found extraordinary about this is Sophie just mentioned briefly these emails going out by the CEO reassuring staff that there'll be confidential complaints. I haven't seen that kind of discourse from a seat in a very long time over something like this.
At the very least Jack, it's been and clumsily handled. It shows perhaps a culture that is maybe not evolved as rapidly as some of the areas of society. I mean, it's long been known in the media that commercial television it's a bit of an eighties hangover in a lot of ways. The wages, the attitudes, the Christmas party scandals,
the allegations involved here sound very eighties. But the rest of the organization, the rest of the culture around all of that stuff, Jack doesn't seem to have sort of caught up with things, does it.
Yeah, it's very interesting and obviously seven has had its own issues as well. But for many in the media, the news of Wick's behavior came as no surprise, mainly because the official announcement from nine claimed that Vic had had a sudden moment of realization while walking along a beach that media was no longer in his heart. Nine pushed out the bizarre explanation for Wicks to departure in March,
and its printer dutifully carried the narrative nationally. Some of you are aware that I have taken a few weeks off to think about my future, and after many long beach walks and even longer conversations, I know in my heart that this is the right time for me to step down and leave nine. I don't want to use the word retiring because I don't know how to sit idle, but I am going to take a very long break from what has been four decades of working as a journalist.
I'm tired and need arrest.
Now let's bring the panel back into discuss now, Sophie, you mentioned earlier that in March when this statement came out, it raised a lot.
Of red flags.
Privately, a lot of us in newsrooms were saying that is strange, there is more to this, And you were going to Channel nine who obviously knew about this. They obviously knew a lot of the allegations. The complaints had been made and been investigated. That engaged private law firm to investigate it. What did they tell you in March?
Well, I was told a given information that Wick was returning Jack. He was missing from the Sydney newsroom from about February. This is the middle of rating season, and this is critical time for a news boss to be on the ground, not to be on holidays. It's a very odd time. And what did raise a lot of questions was that my colleague and I were repeatedly told Wick was coming back, there was nothing to see here.
And then the real alarm bells started ringing even louder when an email went out by Nine at six point thirty or thereabouts on Friday, March fifteen, which has that statement that Darren Wick just said saying it had long beach walks and he was going on off to take a serious amount of time off. Now, this email went around when I was at the Victorian Media Awards, all
the media congregated at Crown Casino. This is a time you put a story out when you're trying to hide something or you don't want coverage, and that again raised lam bells. So this has been a pretty badly handled situation, especially with the reporting that we know this week, and I think Nine could have done a better job of handling this, and that has been said very much so internally.
Yeah and Tim the entire nine apparatus as well. And one thing I want to bring up as well is that the Fairfax former Fairfax papers, the nine papers, they carry this very arrogant slogan of independent always, but they have run dead on this story.
They're covering the top line.
They don't seem to have done too much about the victim who has spoken to Shari Markson my opinion, they could be doing.
A lot more reporting and if it was any.
Other network that they were independent from, there would be ferocious reporting from the Sydney Morning Herald.
Oh you're very much, way too cynical there, Jack, because as we saw, as we saw yesterday, I think the Fairfax nine paper in Melbourne, the age. I think it's Leeds story was the great split in the Australian Republican movement. Now that's news, mate, that's really a big story. But just on nine and especially Darren Wicks talking about his long walks on the beach during nine heyday in the eighties when it was massively more influential politically and through everything, socially,
everything everywhere. George Nigas the sixty minute start, was in an interview with Margaret Thatcher and he used that old journalistic construction of you know, some people say that you're a terrible evil tyrant or whatever, and Thatcher pinned him on it and said name them, who are these people? And the left all took this as a great victory for Nigas somehow or has he actually looked like a fool? I would say, in regard to Darren Wisony's beach walks,
name the beach. If he's actually working on beaches, where the hell were they and how long were these walks?
Yeah, it's a very good point.
And it was a false narrative that a company whose reputation with trust with an audience I think has been impacted by this. It turns out it was a lie. They knew he wasn't coming back, and they allowed that lie to permeate through their print arm as well. And that's the broader problem here. But look, moving on now to the UK where British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced a general election for July.
Now.
It was weird, to say the least. The media strategy appeared to be let's put Sunac out in the rain for some reason, while activists trolled him with the labor winning campaign song from the nineteen ninety seven election.
Now is the moment for Britain to choose its future, to decide whether we want to build on the progress we have made or risk going back to square one with no plan and no certainty.
So what were the medium minders thinking? And it wasn't the only bizarre decision. At Sunax's campaign launch, a Sky UK journalist was thrown out by bouncers.
This is where the Prime Minister is going to speak in the next few minutes and I'm being forcibly removed. We just simply wanted to have access tonight as Sky News, but unfortunately we're at all that because there are pool arrangements in place, we're not allowed it to be here.
This is, by the way, what we're trying to film is the campaign event where the Prime Minister is due to speak in the next couple of minutes in the front of conservative activists, is eventually trying to get across the message that we had in Dining Street today.
Well, Sophie, nothing says open and transparent governance like a pair of bouncers hauling journalists onto the street.
Very strange scenes. What do you make of it all?
Well, it doesn't look good does it when you've got a journalist being carted out. I security guards and they've got footage of it, rolling footage of it, a pr nightmare. Looks extremely bad for the government, whatever the circumstances, whether or not the journalists should have been there or not, this is a very bad look.
But it's for a.
Government that is already under siege and I think they've got pretty much zero chance at the upcoming election.
Yeah, Tim, that's a good point.
Every poll, every single poll in the last couple of months, shows that they are on track to be completely wiped out. It almost looks like they've given up. It looks like maybe the top media minders have gone and look for another job. They don't want to be associated with it. But that, to me did not look like a man who thinks that he can genuinely win an election.
Now it looks like one of the wealthiest politicians in UK history can't afford an umbrella or can't hire someone to hold one. It's always a risky game, I guess in British politics to make that big decision, let's go out when you're in London, not five times out of ten it's going to back for you. It's a real coin toss. I would say about the Bouncary issue the highed goon. All credit to the reporter for just keeping talking.
As you and Sophie know. First rule of media when it camera's on, don't shut up, don't betray any panic, just keep and there were no arms or ours. He just kept going on. He told his story even as the goon advanced him down the hallway.
Was impressive work.
Yeah, it was cool, calm and collected. We're going to take a quick break. But when we're back, how an ABC star has decided to campaign against Peter Dutton. Welcome back now to the US, where some progressive presenters are trying to figure out how to cover Joe Biden without being critical.
Now.
In this clip, Joey Behar explains to legendary hosts Bill Maher why she is hesitant to criticize her beloved leader.
I'm nervous about saying anything against Biden because I feel that you know, not that I have so much power, and you have some with them than I do, obviously, but are you afraid that you might, you know, influence the people who are on the fence.
I think you lose all credibility I do. I mean, my bond with my audience has always been I don't pull a punch. My bond with my orience is you're not going to like everything I say. But you know I'm saying what I really think is true. Right, that's and that's.
Well.
The fact that the View is just blatantly admitting this on air is extraordinary. But it actually gets worse when Bill Maher tries to explain why we should be critical of Biden. It goes in one ear and out the other.
Biden just presents as old. It's not really fair, no, because he's almost the same age. Trump is almost the same age as him, but Trump doesn't present that way. You know, you look at somebody right away, you can kind of just sum them up. I mean, we are not young, but we don't present as old. Yeah, Biden does. I saw him yesterday making that speech. I mean, I'm sorry, he's cadaver like, but his brain is good.
He's still great.
Tim Blair, he's kadaver like, but his brain's still good.
Yeah, he's dead, but he's living. The view is an extraordinary thing if we can get it on cable TV, I guess, and various other means to look at it. But from an Australian perspective, it makes the ABC look balanced, It makes the Old Drum Show look as though it was an accurate reflection of public opinion. But yeah, to actually say that they're reluctant to say anything bad about Joe Biden because it might convince people to vote the other way. I mean the delusion involved in that sentence.
Want to present yourself as any type of journalist and say that you're going to conceal bad news because it might might influence the things the way you don't intend. But also to imagine that you're audience of that show contains anyone who's on the fence. Everyone in the crowd is cheering for Biden. It's a unified force. And no, they're not being realistic about this at all, really are they?
Jack Well, Sophie, I love it because it's what we all expected. You're looking at the view and you could not genuinely possibly hold that opinion. That opinion clearly isn't your actual opinion. There's no way. And now she's admitting it. She's watering down her views to not be critical because she doesn't want to influence the election.
Jack, this is incredible and I expect we will see more of this type of commentary leading up to the US election, and by goodness, it's going to be delicious. I mean, seriously, they're sitting there conflicted that they can't criticize Biden for fear that someone might vote against him. This is absolutely absurd, but it makes for great stuff for us to talk about Jack, So.
I say, bring, yeah, it's great content. I particularly like where she says that she's powerful and Bill Marsley don't do that. But look, let's move on now to the ABC, which has been actively campaigning against the coalition's immigration policy. Now here's Laura Tingle slandering Peter Dutton as dangerous for daring to suggest a reasonable cut to immigration.
But I think what was concerning is for a political leader to come out and say, not only is housing the fault of migrants, but you can't get a childcare space, you can't get through the traffic on the roads, you can't get in to see the doctor because of migration. That is lighting this thing up in a really disturbing way, regardless of the arguments about whether there's you know, there should be more or less migration, regardless of whether his
policies make sense. And I would say that they don't make coherent sense in what he's put out in his budget reply. You know the hot buttons he's pressing there, I think are very dangerous for our community.
First of all, no one is suggesting that migrants are personally responsible for those issues. The argument is that labor is responsible for failing to properly manage the numbers. It has absolutely nothing to do with the morality of the individual. It is about what we as a country, inclusive of migrants, can cope with.
Now.
If Tingle is seriously advocating for some sort of open border policy, then all of those issues that she flags, housing, childcare, traffic will get significantly worse. It will get worse for the migrants who are here now. She is attempting to turn a maths equation into a cultural war issue. And this isn't even the biggest problem with what Tingle did. The main issue is that she is on a taxpayer funded broadcaster calling a mainstream reasonable policy dangerous. She's effectively
campaigning against the opposition leader, I mean, Tim Blair. We spoke about this a little bit from the comparisons to the view before about the ABC's problem with bias. But this here is somebody who is supposed to be a down the line hardened political journalist, and she is taking such an ardent side to the point where she is describing the policy as being immoral and dangerous. How can the ABC justify that under its charter?
Under its charter, it can't justify it. But the ABC's charter is a you know, it's an ancient scroll locked under a pyramid bury, beneath ten thousand layers of sand. It's a it's a a not a living document, as they say. But this is an old technic of the left. Whenever there a subject comes up which they're uncomfortable with or they feel that they're losing, they then go to the moral level. As you pointed out, they've turned a
mathematics question into a moral equation. And what they do is they indicate that it's dangerous to speak of this subject at all, just totally shut it down. We can't speak of it in any And we heard this about the gay marriage debate, we heard it about the voice debate. We never thinking about immigration like they would prefer to have the subject taken off the table because they know in a lot of ways they can't win this one
at all. And people know how the numbers stack up, and apparently the way maths work these days is, as you pointed out, ughly immoral.
Jack.
Yeah, there's an aneptitude towards as well, Sophie, politically, because Labor wants to cut immigration as well, But the negative connotations are only towards one party, and the differences in their endgame policy aren't that different really on a broader macro level, a lot of people, Sophie that would argue Peter Dutton should cut it further.
In some areas as well.
So how can the ABC look at two parties, both of whom want to cut immigration, but then slander one party is being dangerous?
Well really it's comment but it's dressed up as analysis and that's how they really try and get away with this. But I think the viewers know that it often falls in one direction. It's pro left, anti right, So you don't really see this type of commentary for the Labor or the Greens, I would argue, however, it's very commonplace for the Coalition. So this is the problem the ABC has. They have a new chair, Kim Williams. Perhaps he's going to do something about it.
Yeah, well, I won't hold my breath. But let's move on to stories of the week. Tim Blair, what do you have for us?
During the week we had, back to the US, we had Donald Trump being accused of using Nazi style language. A fan of the president or someone campaigning on his behalf, pulled together a little online ad and eagle eyed readers
discovered the word riich in there. What they didn't discover or didn't care to reveal, was it Wright was buried as part of a You know, it was a template of old newspaper headlines available to anybody, but the fact that it had been used as the background of a Trump ad, and we can see it there had the word right buried in there for I think three seconds
of airtime. Everyone from the President down absolutely condemned this use of Hitler style speak, and including all the way to Australia, our beloved colleague in media criticism, Paul Barrett the Oversea he apparently fell for it. Look at this, even by Trump's standards, that is crazy. Well, let's see if you run something about this on Monday night on
Media Watch. Because it's been totally debunked. I think even the template now as removed or referenced to Reich's and by the way, the Reich referred to in that ancient clipping was from the First World War, not the Second, so Hitler's off the table as well. Good luck working with that, Paul.
Barry, great topic, Tim, Sophie, what do you have for us?
So The Australian Today is just released a new podcast, an investigation by reporter Headley Thomas into the disappearance of a lady called Bronwyn Winfield who disappeared in nineteen ninety three. Grab a copy of the paper tune into this podcast. This is going to be absolutely gripping to find out what has happened to this woman who disappeared nearly thirty or thirty odd years ago.
While worth listening to, Yeah, and Hedley obviously did The Teacher's Pet, which became one of the most downloaded podcasts in the world actually, so it's probably going to be really good. Listen well, Tim, Sophie, thank you so much for joining me. That's all the time we have for tonight. Up next is Lefties Losing It