Vince is the Media Show, with Jack couting.
Hello and welcome to the media Show. Tonight, we're going to take a look at Alban Easy being accused of bullying a female reporter after being caught on a hot mic incident. But first to the Kamala Harris interview, which ended up looking more like a campaign ad than a hard hitting interview.
After a historic nomination at the convention in Chicago.
On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nominations in the United States of America.
The Harris Walls ticket is now pushing forward with the shortest presidential campaign in modern history.
What did you hear from voters here?
People are very optimistic.
We joined them on the trail as they visited the back of Georgia just sixty eight days from the election.
And then after the first break, they ran this puff piece.
As voters are getting to know Kamala Harris, they want answers on how she will make their lives better. She heard that here at sand Fly Barbecue in Savannah.
All we're going to do to increase access to capital for small businesses, I'll be rolling out next week part of what we're going to be doing in terms of a tax credit.
On the trail, she talks about her experience years in the courtroom as a district attorney and eventually California's attorney general. She wants to reframe the contest as the prosecutor versus the felon.
I know Donald Trump's type.
I've been dealing with them my whole career. The former president is turning to a well defined playbook of personal attacks.
I didn't know she was black until years ago when she happened to turn black, and now she wants to be known as black.
And did just twelve days the nominees will meet face to face for the first time.
She's not a good debater, She's not a smart person.
She doesn't want a debate.
If you've got something to say.
CNN is a joke for pretending that this would be a legitimate effort to probe Harris that editing wasn't appropriate on either of those moments, and when CNN's Dana Bash did initially ask some substantive questions, there was no follow up and there was just rambling and off track answers. Harris was asked about why she backflipped on fracking, but there wasn't much pushback twenty nineteen.
I believe at a town hall you said you were asked, would you commit to implementing a federal ban on fracking on your first day in office? And you said there's no question in favor of banning fracking.
So yes.
So it changed in that campaign.
In twenty two twenty. I made very clear where I stand. We are in twenty twenty four, and I've not changed that position.
Nor will I going forward.
I kept my word and I will keep my word.
Harris had previously called for illegal immigration to be decriminalized, but when she responded to this fact, the reporter just let her ramble.
Another question about something that you said in twenty nineteen. When you first ran, there was a debate. You raised your hand when asked whether or not the border should be decriminalized.
Do you still believe that?
I believe there should be consequence. We have laws that have to be followed and enforced that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally, and there should be consequences. And let's be clear, in this race, I'm the only person who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations who trafficking guns, drugs, and human beings. I'm the only person in this race who actually served a border state as attorney general to enforce our laws, and I would enforce
our laws as president going forward. I recognized the problem.
In truth, Harris is part of an administration which has an out of control illegal immigration issue, and the journalist failed to press further on this fact. And after these more serious questions, it got super weird, fluffy, and very promotional. Rather than digging into her record of policies, they started asking about the amazing moment Biden stepped aside for her.
And we have some never before shared details about the phone call that changed everything between President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Really that's your big exclusive, Well better be good. Let's check it out.
My family was staying with us and including my baby nieces, and we had just had pancakes and you know, Auntie, can I have more? Yes, I'll make you more bacon. And then we were gonna we were sitting down to do a puzzle and the phone rang and it was Joe Biden, and he told me what he had decided to do, and.
I asked him, are you sure?
And he said yes, and that's how I learned about it.
Wow, compelling stuff. Harris has been hiding from hard hitting interviews since launching her campaign, and this was actually an opportunity for CNN to really test her candidacy. Instead, it is clear that this joke of a network simply wanted to promote her. It wasn't journalism, it was an endorsement. Well, joining me on the show this week is Sky News host Caleb Bond and Radio two Double C Stephen send
a tempo. Now, let's start with you, Caleb. I mean, could that have been more of a flagrant endorsement of this person? What we just saw?
I don't even know how to respond to that, to be perfectly. I mean, remember during the twenty sixteen campaign, CNN was derided as the Clinton News Network. Well, perhaps in this case they should change to K and N and be the Kamala News Network because what I just watched there had more Mayo on it than a bad burger from McDonald. Seriously, they have set her up as though she's the second coming of Jesus, and we've got to have Kamala Harris otherwise the US is going to
fall apart et cetera, et cetera. What you would expect from an interview with any presidential candidate is a sit down without the theatrics of all the production value. I mean they've gone for like it's a docco that you're going to watch on Netflix or something. Right, you don't want the production value. You want a hard hitting journalist sitting in front of someone who's asking to be elected president of the US United States, asking hard questions for
an hour straight. You want to see the candidate squirm and duck and dive and work out where they sit on things. And that's not what you've got. You got, as you've pointed out, a bit of a puff piece and what seemed to be a promotional bit of material. I'm sure Camale will now be using it on all of the social media because you know why, it spind money making your own stuff. We're in seeing it'll do it for you.
Well, that's the thing.
I mean.
It was a pre recorded interview Stephen as well, so they've had a lot of time to go in there and polish and edit. The way that they through to various clips and soundbites was very strategic. But to Caleb's point, you've got somebody that wants to essentially be the most powerful person in the world, and nobody wants to test her, nobody has the courage to put it back against her policies. Well, there's a couple of things here.
I was actually talking about this on my radio program this morning, the fact that American politicians are not very good when they front the media as opposed to Australian politicians who do it far more often. And I made the point that you know, as a talkback radio announcer, I can get the Prime Minister on my program from time to time, whereas that will never happen in the
United States. They're very, very polished when they make a speech that's been written by somebody else and they've got an auto queue, but you put them in front of somebody without a script and they're absolutely hopeless. But getting back to the point here, we all knew CNM was going to go this way. I mean, the fact that it was edited down from what somewhere in the vicinity of an hour to eighteen minutes tells you everything you
need to know about this. That it was always going to be a promotional piece rather than a hard hitting interview.
Yeah, and I knew it was Stephen and I mean, Caleb, let's bring you in here. I knew it was going to be bad, but the way that they were segueing this music, that the crying from the crowd. At one point they threw up a photograph and they made it, you know, this historic photograph where she's kind of silhouetted by a young woman, and tried to make it out as if this was the greatest thing that was happening. I just cannot believe. I mean, this is why n
is losing viewers, isn't it. Surely people watch this and the average American, the average person around the world watching this election, they have to understand that this is deceptive.
Yeah, I mean, look at maywell play well to the CNN audience, but the CNN audience was going to vote for Kamala anyway, So I don't know that it's done her any favors. And of course, the strategy you seem to be seeing from a media perspective here is much the same as Biden in twenty twenty, which is, you know, put Kamala in the bunker, don't put her in front of the media because she will slip up and we
know what she's like. I mean, if you see her in free form interviews or not interviews, but you know she's on a stage and like she's nuts, absolutely nuts, and that's what they're trying to protect her from. So she does the rallies with scripts and auto q etc. This is the only interview she's agreed to so far, and she had to have her emotional support candidate next to her while she did it. But it is so staged managed as to be ridiculous. And that is one
of the areas. And I know Trump's in trouble in the polls at the moment, but that is one of the areas where Trump really has an advantage over Kamala because he's not afraid of doing interviews and he's not afraid of going off script. And so as the campaign progresses, if we don't see her do any more interviews, she will hope that that is an advantage. But it gives space for Trump to go in and suck up, use the vacuum, and suck up all the space that Kamala refuses to fill.
Yeah, exactly, And look Stephen Carmla Harris's performance. We can critique it all day, but where I actually get a bit angry about this. It's this journalist, Dana Bash. She had the opportunity to probe. And I really think that you owe your viewers, you owe them to probe somebody that's about to take all of this power. She is the front runner now, and yes, maybe a few weeks
ago Donald Trump was in the lead. But the polls are saying she's likely going to be the next leader of America and we're just sitting here just waving her through. I just find it unconscionable.
Yeah, but you've got to look at the context of a jack. I mean, you think back to the twenty nineteen election when Scott Morrison was running and you know, and I'm not particularly a Scott Morrison fan, but the media was en mass saying he cannot win, he cannot win this election. He's gone, it's going to be a bill shorton government. Then he proved them wrong, and many secret and many people in the media here hated that,
and they never forgave him for proving them wrong. It didn't matter what his policies were, didn't matter what his performance was. He proved us wrong and we're going to get him.
Well.
Trump did the same thing in twenty twenty, and they are out to get him because he proved them wrong. Now, you know, I wish Trump was more statesman like and I wish he was different than he was, and he's very combative and all of that, but ultimately, the biggest crime is he proved the media wrong and they're going to get him back for it.
Yeah, it's a really good point. I mean, Trump has labeled this interview boring, and in journalism that's maybe the biggest sin you can admit if you're an anchor and you have that opportunity. And Caleb, I mean, some of those moments are just nauseating, where it's like, oh, tell us about when Joe called you and changed change the world, you know, this coup essentially, or they're forced him to step down and everything's just through these rose colored glasses.
And this is the thing, right, So you can do an interview like that, right, and so here it's Sky.
News is not the first, not the very first interview that she's done.
But my issue is that they've dressed it up as a journalistic interview. Right. So if you're going on with a host who clearly leans to one side, and that's what their program is you know what you're going.
To get out of it.
You know, if someone's interviewed by me on Sky News, they kind of know which way I'm going to go. Sometimes you don't know which way I'm going to go, but you kind of know which way I'm going to go with it. Right. But what you expect out of a presidential interview, particularly the first one, as you point out, is hard hitting journalism, and that's not what this was. It was an opinion in peace as opposed to a piece of journalism. Decide which laying you're in and stick to it.
Yeah, and the production value behind it was honestly a ken to a campaign and it was bad. But look, we're going to take a quick break when we're back. Albanesi accused of bullying after being caught on a hot mike incident. Welcome back, Anthony Alberanesi was filmed at a media event of the Pacific Islands Forum and Tonga, and he was filmed talking about policy with US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell.
We had a cracker today getting the Pacific policing induitive.
This fantastic is so.
Important, made its action and I talked with Kevin about it then, so you know we were going to do something in the assets n so we did nothing.
Given you Bowleen's on the cost if you.
Like Alberanese is lack of discretion led to many headlines. It also raised eyebrows that Kevin Rudd was dictating policy to the US because Albo got caught off guard by the subsequent reporting. He lashed out at the young female journalist who got the scoop.
The video is what it is.
Someone. It's up to them to whoever did that, to think about their own ethics when it comes to journalism. It was a private conversation. It was a jovial conversation and a friendly one. You know, it is what it is.
Well, the media were invited to this event and the Prime Minister was standing in public view. But instead of laughing it off and owning what he said, he attacks this poor woman. Now, she was there to be a reporter to report on what was being said. And if he is stupid enough to engage in secret geopolitical conversations openly in public, people are going to report on it. To attempt to humiliate this woman and suggest she is
unethical is an extremely telling move. This is the man who campaigned on transparency, who campaigned on integrity while in opposition.
I'm more honest and transparent. A government going forward who will make it transparent but being transparent, we will operate in a transparent way. Transparent, we being transparent.
But flash forward a few years now that he's got the power, well, even the Guardian is labeling him more secretive than the Morrison government. And keep in mind all of the bluster from Labor about stamping out workplace bullying, but as soon as the media accurately quotes him, he turns into a petulant bully. Well done to the journalist for not being intimidated into deleting her footage, and shame on any of those journalists ontour who let Albanezi slander
her without pushing back. Caleb, this was poor formed by Albanzi. I actually think this is one of the worst things he's done. Because we were talking before the show. What was being said on the hot mic wasn't really the worst thing. So why is he getting upset? Was it the Kevin Rudd reference? That's his writing policy, But it took that little provocation for him to call this young woman unethical and that could really tarnish her career? Why would he do that?
And it's like as he's saying it, he's almost thinking in his own hit, I probably shouldn't have said this because.
It is what it is.
It is what Well, if it is what it is, why are you talking about it like it's such a trivial issue. The bloke should have gone to specsators if he could not tell that there was a journalist thereat with the phone train, he had no idea that it was happening. And then the next day I couple, how dare someone was filming? We know if he didn't notice that there is something seriously wrong. There was nothing particularly egregious in what he said. I mean, you know, we'll
go Harvey so her keys. It was a joke. And the fact that he was so incensed by that, I think goes to the broader point that you made before about the secrecy of this government. And this government has routinely used when they're talking to people about potential policy
and legislation, they have routinely used nondisclosure agreements. If you want to come in and help shape policy within this government, you have to sign a document to say that you can't talk to anyone about what we've discussed or what might form a particular piece of legislation or a bill. That's not how open government is meant to work. And I think what he's really angry about is that, for the most part, they get away with doing what they
want without people knowing about it. And you know, the tables have turned just a little, very slightly with a journalist filming him in public and can't take it.
Oh, how dare she do her job? Steven, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Let's bring you in.
Where do I start here? I mean, firstly that the government is still indulging Kevin Rudd's delusions of grandeur and letting him write policy. Whether he's admitted to Kirk Campbell that we're so broke that we need to go Harvey's on this policy, the fact that we're going to police the Pacific but we won't pay the AFP properly and we're holding back their pay rise. But look, I mean, he's right when he said the government was going to be more transparent. He's true. We can see right through it.
There's two ways about that. But you'd think, given how badly he's performed with his comedy before. I mean, after making that joke about live exports and a room full of farmers, you'd think you give up on the jokes, wouldn't you. I mean, it's just extraordinary. But I hate this mentality that the thing that happened is not important. The fact that somebody told you about it must be punished.
It's the reality that's bad, not that you know it's all crazy. Anyway, Let's move on now because news dot com Dot a U Samantha Meiden and ABC presenter Patricia carve Ellis had a bit of an awkward exchange on air last week.
Let's have a listen, sam Maid.
Look, the week has been again overshadowed by Gaza and visas, but actually the government's achieved quite a bit actually.
In the Parliament in terms of its legislative agenda.
Right.
There's a disconnect though, between those two messages.
Ah, there's a disconnect between what message exactly?
How do you mean that? Which message?
Well, the government's had quite a lot of successes.
In fact, David Spears, you've written a piece that says this.
But you know, we've heard largely out of question time questions around Garza and visas and national security. The government has been on the back foot on that, but it's actually done quite a bit in the Parliament at the same time.
Look, I am sure they have Patricia, but I'll be honest, I've been busy this week on other matters and this question was not flagged with me, So I will have to go to the mister Spears who's sitting next to me, who wrote the article that you're asking me about.
SORRYPK.
I crammed on the eight other subjects that were flagged this morning, but not that one because I wasn't.
Flagged with it.
Well, actually you were flagged with it because it was all about the other things they've done.
Yeah, well, you know, you push me. I push you back.
Babes, Where is it aged female aged care reforms?
Stephen? You're the radio expert on this matter. What would you do if a guests if a guest came onto your show like that?
I just p Is there any wonder that the ratings for ABC Radio in Sydney are going through the floor at the moment when that's what they're producing. I mean, I fell a sweep halfway through the question, but it's just extraordinary. I'm a political reporter. I'm coming on your show to talk about the week in politics, but I'm not really across it. Can you make sure you please stick to my script? Look, I don't know what I
would have done in that situation. I would have said, oh, okay, well I would have hoped you were better prepared when you came in, Samantha David. Here's my next question. I find it extraordinary, love it.
I actually thought Patricia carve Ella's handled pretty well. It would be a very stunting way to start off your second.
It's a bit awkward, if nothing else, But it was it was a rubbish.
Question to begin with.
The question didn't make sense, no.
Question, Hell are you asking about? There's there's the guards of stuff and but but they've had some wins in the Parliament.
What are you talking about him?
It didn't make it an question.
But you know, I think that that is the one thing that you worry the most about in broadcasting is either that you have a guest who's not across what you're about to ask them, or you don't know what you're about to be asked, and you can as you've got no idea about both.
The horror scenarios.
Where do I hide?
Now?
Are you doing live radio, live television? There's absolutely no hide.
You can feel a bit about you know, it was a man, I mean her babes after I know that was that was pretty bitch.
Wasn't it. But but you know, you know as a man and that the female viewers probably don't understand what I'm talking. But if someone even talks about being kicked in the nuts, you just sort of feel it, right, you clench up. That's how I felt listening to Samiti.
It was hard. It was hard to watch. Well, let's go to stories of the week now, Steven, what do you have for us?
Well, I've got a crime against humanity. Apparently in the UK Tesco was selling for two pounded can spaghetti carbonara in a can and I think, look, I'm against the death penalty, but I'm starting to reconsider.
That's just absolutely terrible, Caleb.
The Advertisers front page today is that a bunch of boys from Blackfriars, which is a private school in Adelaide, have been expelled because for the first time in eight years, they beat a rival schools football team and then decided to set the rival schools jumper on fire. That's an injustice expelled. Sure, it was a silly thing to do, and the police have been called in now two. I mean, what a great use of police resources. A someone burnt a jumper, get the Copplers on it.
Yeah.
I always think of the things that they don't investigate while they're looking at this stuff. Caleb Steven, thank you so much for joining me. That's all the time we have for tonight, but we'll be back next week at the same time.