This is the Media Show with Jack outing, Hello and welcome to the Media Show. Tonight. We'll discuss a scandal of the Age newspaper and much more. But first, it was once unbelievably the biggest story in the world, but the Project's interview with breakdowns of Raygun was just a sixteen minute flop.
How are you doing?
Yeah, it's been a pretty wild ride. I'm not gonna lie. I definitely have my ups and downs, my good and bad days. But it has been honestly so amazing to see the positive response to my performance. Like I never thought that I would be able to connect with so many people in such a positive way.
It was billed as a world exclusive, but despite the hype and previous global obsession with the story, the publicity didn't really move the needle. TV Tonight reports the project interview draws world headlines, but no season high. It drew three hundred and forty three thousand viewers a national TV audience, which is probably down on what ten was hoping for. That number is only on par with last Wednesdays three hundred and thirty nine thousand, but no chance to spook
as a season high. We heard the project was happy with the social media performance, But when we last checked the full interview on YouTube, it only had one hundred and sixty thousand views. To put that in comparison, just three weeks ago, a two minute clip on Reygun published to the Sky News YouTube page has been viewed more than ten million times. So why has the public interest dropped off so significantly? Well, digital audiences move on fast.
Trends can be now hourly, and people like Reyguan who take the world by storm one day can be completely old news by the time pr contracts assigned and deals and negotiated. But of course another reason for the lack of interest could be the quality of content itself. Host will Lee Ali did ask a few tough questions like this one.
Genuinely think you are the best female breaker in Australia.
Well, I think my record speaks to that, But he also didn't push back against very cringe moments like this, where Raygan admitted that she was loving the fame her humiliating performance had afforded her.
The upside is you get.
Random people with contacting you that you never thought would ever notice you, you know, And it's not just like breakers that you've respected for you know, a decade. It's someone like Sir Richard Branson calling you to say that he enjoyed your performance and he thought that you.
It was plucky and courageous and fun.
And you know he would love to, you know, do something with me and have me on some cruises with boy George, Like.
What is life?
I don't know?
Well.
Joining me on the show this week is the Australians media writer Sophie Elsworth and Sky News contributor Louise Roberts. Luise, thanks for joining us. Let's start with you to go from this thing where you've got Jimmy Fallon is doing skits about her it's a global sensation, to barely being able to get a bump.
You know.
It's maybe five k more viewers than the previous week. To me, it shows that just the appetite for this woman has completely fallen off a cliff. What do you make of it?
I agree?
I think the interview was done too long after the actual event itself. But also there wasn't anything new or kind of spiky that came in the interview because it was so soft. I mean, the question I wanted to answered is are you going to say sorry to a talented dancer whose place that you took the fact that somebody could have actually got points and won, And how do you feel about sort of base disarming and insulting the whole breakdancing community. There was no sense of humility or anything.
There was a lot of laughs and yeah, you're right, because there was that Sophie, let's bring you in here as well. There was footage that came out of that number two dancer and the qualifier Holly Molly, who was dancing very well, and some people said, gee, clearly there's
probably some better breakdancers. It didn't really seem like her skill was prosecuted that thoroughly by Willie Alli, and it kind of turned into a bit of you know, smiles, a bit lighthearted, but there were some serious questions to be asked around Reagan because she was flown over to Paris, she was representing Australia and then she's kind of laughing about hanging out with Richard Branson and boy George. I thought it was a bit off putting. What's your take of this?
Well, it was billed as a world exclusive and Network ten were certainly pumping it up, but I don't think that it had the impact that they certainly hoped it would achieve, and those rating figures prove that it didn't really shed any new light on much about her, and she didn't really seem to be that humiliated by what many would argue was a pretty dismal performance at the Olympic Games. And then she sort of joked about the
fallout from it, making those references with Richard Branson. So I think the interview didn't really hit the mark, and I think it left a lot of people pretty disinterested. And I think she has had her fifteen minutes of fame and many people have now moved on.
Yeah, it's a really good point. And to your earlier point, it was it took too long. It did, and so I think this is a lesson from a public relations point of view. You've got so she signed up for these sponsorship deals and everything. Do you think maybe some of these companies might have made a mistake if they are going to be giving her money. She can't really even generate a minor audience lifts right the projects. So what's she going to do for your brand?
If the audience aren't watching that World Exclusive interview, as Sophie says, are they going to buy the products or go on the troops orways brands are going to drop her or not with pretending to never met her or whatever. But I think they'll be looking very carefully at their contracts.
Yeah, and particularly the audience relationship with her. The connotation is quite negative, so it's not even really as if she's beloved by Australians. A lot of people are quite annoyed that she was selected and to your point, put over dancers that may have been better.
Unfortunately, in Australia we still idolize our Olympic athletes, and for good reason, and Paralympic athletes especially. So to have somebod who's gone to the Olympics that we see as a figure of fun is not good for the brand and not good for children coming through in.
Such a good point. And these paralympians who are just on TV right now just doing the most remarkable things. Where's their sponsorship deal? And sixteen project interview? Yes, when you put it through that lens, it's really off pointing. You know, this person's talentless. We've got all these others we should be championing. But anyway, let's move on now to the US election. Because Kamala Harris has come under fire for seemingly shifting her identity based on her audience.
Have a listen to this rally in Detroit and pay close attention to the accent.
You better thank a union member for the five day work week. You better thank a union member for sickly. You better thank a union member for paid leave.
You better thank a union member for vacation time.
Now, have a look at how Harris normally talks at rallies.
Bank unions precickly, bank unions for pay family leave, Thank unions for your vacation time.
Well, the contrast sparked this awkward moment at a media briefing with White House Secretary Karine Jean Pierre, when she refused to entertain a question from US journalist Peter Doucy.
When does the Vice president have what sounds like a Southern accent?
No idea what you're talking about?
Well, I mean this is she was talking about unions in Detroit using one tone of voice.
Is this something the same line? Okay?
Peter? That she she used the same line in Pittsburgh, and it sounded like she at least had some kind of a southern at all.
I mean, do you hear the question that I mean, do you think Americans seriously think that this is an important question? They care, you know, what they care about. They care about the economy, they care about lowering cost they care about healthcare. That's what Americans care about. So that's what they want. Well, this is something care about. Your colleague just asked me about what basically we talked about, went back and forth about democracy and freedom. That's what
they care about. I'm not even going to entertain some question about the present. It's just it's just hearing it sounds so ridiculous. Well, but hearing it is. The question I'm talking about. The questions is just insane. How she talks in meetings. I'm just Peter. We're moving on.
So if you let me bring you in here. Two things I want to discuss from some of those clips. One, it's the identity issues that are plaguing the campaign. And you've got the Democrats who are suggesting it's potentially racist to point out that there is a bit of shape shifting going on, that this personality is morphing depending who
Krmala Harris is around. But then you've got the Press Secretary Karein Jean Pierre, and she is buffering away any questions, refusing to entertain it, suggesting that it's more important to talk about democracy. I mean, these people should be able to answer these questions firstly, but also is it not fair enough that we can listen to reality watch and see that clearly there is an accent being put on. Is that controversial?
Well, I really think people can make up their own minds no matter how much spin you try and put on this. The American public is not stupid, so they will make up their own minds regardless of what they are told. But Kamala Harris is constantly under attack. You know, she's known for her laughing, sometimes repeating her lines over and over again before they become tiresome. She giggles when she tries to avoid questions, so she's often ridiculed for
her way of handling the media. And this is obviously a problem because she has done, as we know to date, very few media interviews apart from that one sit down to date that she did last week. So I think she has to be careful with the way that she puts her messages out there to the American public because this is an easy way for the Republicans to criticize her.
Yeah, it's a really good point. And look, the only thing that it demonstrates is there is a degree of it being a little bit fake, And I do think it's a mistake to focus too much on it as being like this massive issue with her just demonstrates it's kind of you know, how genuine are you? But there's also contradictions that emerge in her policies, such as from a border perspective, what she did with the current administration, which she is part of, what is she going to
do now? And to Sophie's point, if she doesn't bring herself forward to do some of these more critical interviews and that's not what we saw last week with that CNN one, then these aren't probed and we're kind of just living this lie that this person can shape shift without criticism. You can't draw any attention to it. Otherwise you're the one who's being immoral.
Well that's right, Shoot, the messenger isn't it to lux But I think when she's in those sort of forums where she's talking to a mass group of potential voters, just be herself. They want to know what she's going to be like what her policies are, what she going to do if she's actually elected to the job a president, but she doesn't give that information away. Instead, it's sort of silly voices and it's quite patronizing in that, and a lot.
A lot of slogans too, And she's talking to union crowds at both of those clips. Very real people, very real people, but it's a bit more patronizing to kind of put on the voice that you think someone in Detroit might respond to me exactly.
Or maybe it's some sort of bizarre skit from her influencer mates who are going to sort of pump out and say hashtag just like us. I don't know. It's it's just a waste of time for the people who were there because they want to know what her policies are. And maybe it is a ruse to cover up the fact that she doesn't really have any authentic policies at this stage.
That we're aware of.
It's a really good point, and Sophie just finally on this. Do you think that the media in the US, for the most part, is scrutinizing her enough or do you think that we're in a situation where many people are just trying to walk her through to this job.
Well, I think it's hard to scrutinize her at the moment because she's not doing a lot publicly, so it's just looking back at what she has done as vice president. So the less media she does, the obviously, the less chance there is that she trips up, and there's less fodder for the media to work with, which makes their job difficult. But as we know, in the American media, it is largely left leaning and they will be hoping that she wins the presidential race.
Yeah, and I'm sure there's probably a lot of good journalists there as well that are quite annoyed that there is this collective blind eye going on. But look, we're going to take a quick break when we return inside a scandal at the Age Newspaper. Welcome back now to a scandal at the Age in Melbourne, after legendary cartoonist Michael Lunig has revealed he is now embarrassed to be associated with the paper after he was sacked ending his
fifty five year career at the Masthead. Now, Sophie Elseworth, you wrote about this in your media diary this week. Tell us a little bit about the backstory of this feud.
Michael Lunik is one of the nation's most famous cartoonists, and he ended his fifty five year career at the Age last week. He was pushed out of their news pages a couple of years ago during the COVID pandemic when he was criticizing Victorian Premier Dan Andrews for his harsh lockdown measures and also the push for people to be vaccinated against COVID, and many of his cartoons, about
a dozen were not published by the Age. But let's have a listen to a little bit of what Michael Lunik had to say.
There are these stories we were asked to sort of support, I guess not directly asked, but I mean it was in part we would stick to the general narrative, and that also includes this thing they called the Woke Marrow to the fullest inclusion and diversity.
It's so Michael Luhnig was pretty unimpressed with the way he was being treated at the Age and he was subsequently pushed out of the news pages to file one cartoon a week for the Spectrum section. But then his tenure at the Age was ended last week and Patrick Elliget, the editor of the Age sent an email round to subscribers to say Luonic had left, and he was pretty irate about this, said he's treatment at the Age was
not very good. He said his work was not being published because it didn't fit in with the Age's views on the COVID pandemic. So it's been a relationship spanning six decades that has ended pretty badly.
Yeah, it's such an interesting story, Louise, because I listened to that full interview by the ABC. Was a really good interview, and I think the host did a great job kind of extracting some of Michael's experiences. It seemed to be that there was this very censorious attitude to
some of the no go their topics. So you've got the COVID lockdowns obviously, anything to do with vaccines, anything that was against the narrative, and this, to me, it's everything that a modern intellectual newspaper should want to push against. You know, you've got a premiere who's locking people in their homes. The science behind some of those strategies very
very dubious, and it was one of them. Was there even any science do under And shouldn't that be the place of the journalist to push back against people stripping people of civil liberties, particularly a left leaning paper. I found that quite disturbing. There were allegations that they were killing off cartoons because they didn't fit the narrative. I think the Age has to respond to some of this.
I agree, because you would think in that sort of left leaning environment that a bit of a protagonist in the form of a cartoonist would thrive because you could really, you know, push the boundaries. Why shouldn't he attack Dan Andrews about his policy at the time, because everyone else in Melbourne was complaining about them. And also, cartoonists are a very rare and precious creature in a newsroom as well. They can encapsulate a story or a feeling or a
sentiment in one beautiful sketch. So the fact that they've gone after him and got rid of him, it does not bode well for other creatives I think in the industry too. I mean, his point is to be a protagonist.
Yeah, and now removed him. Toe the line or you don't have a place in our paper. These issues don't have a place to be debated. It's not right. And also he doesn't even necessarily have to attack Sometimes it's just satire, but it's uncomfortable satire and it makes sure think, Yeah.
You think, and that's the point of exact place. And as I said, they're precious, So any attacks on there might I think personally as a journalist.
Yeah, very very disappointing stuff by the Age. But let's move on now to the National Broadcaster with a really bizarre story about staff being told to lose the Q and I when talking about the lgb t QI community. Now, Sophie, this was your scoop. What on earth is the ABC doing having this lengthy editorial discussion publicly? I mean, is this really what mainstream Australians want the National Broadcast be focusing on whether Q Queeri intersex is involved in the LGBT.
It's very abstract, isn't it.
Well they sent around a note last week Jack and I reported on this in The Australian. I put questions to the ABC's corporate affairs team about the use of this language. They failed to respond to me. But I see today in the Guardian they've attacked my story and criticized it with failing to come back to me last week. So pretty appalling stuff from the corporate affairs team, but they are obviously concerned about the language that is used
within the ABC and sending out directions to staff. So I stand by my reporting on that, and the Australian public can make up their own minds when they see that the ABC is spending time on changing directions in editorial guidance to their employees.
Yeah, that editorial comms unit run by Nick lays that they do that a lot. To you, it's very weird. I think it's quite unprofessional considering it's a taxpayer funded body and your job is to extract information and give it to the public, just like we would do with a hospital or school policies, any kind of statutory organization. It's what we do as journalists. They're very defensive, particularly when Sophie gets into them. So well done, Sophie, keep
keep the fire up. But this story here about you know, telling them to get rid of the queue and the eye. I just think this is everything that's wrong with the ABC. It's they're focusing on these obscure niche issues and editorially, why aren't we looking at how we're tackling language around cost of living or the political debates You're getting lost in the weeds.
I mean, it's not a good use of taxpayer money to be tweaking in acronyms really, and also, as spoke about earlier, sort of removing a whole part of community by actually making it a shorter acronym as well. Why aren't we talking about cost of living? Because you can guarantee everyone else they're watching the ABC or listening to it or reading newspapers is thinking about cost of living, particularly with what the staffs between the RBA and mister Charlmers this week.
Yeah, definitely, Well let's move on to Stories of the Week, Sophie, what do you have for us?
So the Australians podcast broadwhen I highly recommend the viewers have a listen to this. It's coming back for a second series at the end of the month. New South Wales Police have asked for more information following revelations in the podcast about this cold case of Bronwin Winfield who went missing in the nineteen nineties. So pretty extraordinary stuff and well worth a listen.
Yeah, it's a brilliant body of work, some really great stuff. I love the recreation of the car that you guys did with AI and imagery. It was fantastic, and yeah, let's move on your story of the week.
I quite like a story that Adele put out on her Instagram page where she did a sort of mock front page of herself riding around London on a bike, a complete non story, but I think her point was to say that, you know, the tabloid the dirty tabloid press, if she likes to call them, are always riding about me and then inanities of my life. So I'm actually going to put that content out myself. So it was
a bit sort of tongue in cheek. I know celebrities love to attack the press, but I thought it was it was quite funny what she did.
It's a very clever way of doing it, isn't it.
It is you.
We'll probably see a little bit more of that.
I know she's not afraid to speak her mind, because she certainly waded into that Raygun debut, didn't she rather.
Yeah, that was very funny. Stop the whole concert for it, Louise, Sophie, thank you so much for joining me. Fortunately, that's all the time that we have for tonight, but we'll be back the same time next week.