Business of Media
Labor says social media laws ‘carefully balance’ freedom of speech and misinformation
Social media companies will face multimillion-dollar fines for failing to remove “seriously harmful” misinformation spreading rapidly online under sweeping new powers to hold digital platforms to account, reports News Corp’s Clare Armstrong.
The Albanese Government will on Thursday introduce legislation to give the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) the ability to combat misinformation and disinformation online, with Labor moving to assure the laws contain “strong protections for freedom of speech”.
After extensive consultation the government has removed an exemption previously provided to government and electoral content, which platforms could now be required to remove if deemed to meet the high bar of “serious” harm.
Media organisations remain exempt, and a simplified exemption has been extended to protect content related to satire, comedy or used for educational purposes.
News Corp would have lost $9 million in 2017 by ditching Google ads
News Corp in 2017 estimated losing at least $9 million in ad revenue that year if it had switched away from Google’s massive advertising apparatus, keeping the media conglomerate captive to the Big Tech company, a former News Corp executive testified on Tuesday.
“I felt like they were holding us hostage,” Stephanie Layser said the second day of Google’s antitrust trial in Virginia.
Google frustrated publishers by introducing features that benefited itself more than them, said Layser, who worked in advertising technology at News Corp from 2017 to 2022. However, almost no one in the industry used anything else, because Google’s publisher ad server is tied to Google’s ad exchange, she said.
REA mulls London listing if $11b Rightmove takeover succeeds
REA Group, the $27 billion real estate giant backed by News Corporation, will list in London if it is successful in acquiring Britain’s largest property portal Rightmove, reports The AFR’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
But Rightmove, trading at £5.3 billion ($10.4 billion), has rejected REA’s initial $11 billion cash and scrip takeover offer, describing it as “wholly opportunistic”. The bid “fundamentally undervalued Rightmove and its future prospects,” the company said.
News Corporation would maintain a 50 per cent interest in the company if REA issued 30 million new shares to help fund the takeover. It currently holds a 61.4 per cent stake.
Nine’s review into its workplace culture to be handed down by October 31
Nine Entertainment has told staff the findings from the organisation’s independent review into its workplace culture – which was commissioned after allegations emerged of sexual harassment and bullying within the broadcast division – will be handed down at the end of October, reports The Australian’s Sophie Elsworth.
On Wednesday, Nine’s people and culture director Vanessa Morley sent an email to staff thanking those who had “contributed to this process”, and acknowledged the “courage you have displayed in doing so”.
Morley told employees the external report will provide Nine with a “systemic view of our workplace culture, risks and recommendations for change”.
“Importantly, this report will not sit in isolation,” she said.
“We will use the findings and recommendations alongside our prior cultural review and surveys, to inform evolving the culture we are driving at Nine.”
Meta admits AI tool scrapes Facebook and Instagram content back to 2007
Tech giant Meta has conceded it is using Australians’ personal posts, including photos and comments shared on Facebook and Instagram since 2007 without their consent and inputting it into the company’s artificial intelligence products.
Meta’s global privacy policy director Melinda Claybaugh confirmed the company can scrape users’ data on its social media sites and there is no option available in Australia like in the European Union to allow users to opt out of sharing their information to AI products.
ABC’s move out west splits Sydney staff amid building woes
Delays, staff division and union warnings about safety are some of the issues plaguing the ABC over its push to relocate from Sydney’s inner city to the western suburbs, reports Nine Publishing’s Calum Jaspan.
ABC staff met union representatives last week to air their concerns about the ongoing move after ABC Sydney radio staff were told that the whole network would relocate to Parramatta by early 2025.
Previously billed as a move to push the ABC’s content creators out of its headquarters in Ultimo to better connect with the city’s diverse communities, the move has been met with varying levels of resistance, ranging from frustration to anger.
ABC Radio Sydney shows Mornings, Afternoon, Drive, and Weekends were the first to start broadcasting from Parramatta Square in May. However, some shows, including the Sydney Breakfast show led by presenter Craig Reucassel, were not initially designated to move, given that program staff normally start their shifts before 4.30am.
Under the revised directive, all shows under the Sydney umbrella will have to move to the new facility. At the end of August, ABC Radio Sydney staff received an email from Mike Fitzpatrick, head of capital city network, telling them that to work as a cohesive unit “our teams should all be working from the same place”.
The ABC News Sydney newsroom will also relocate to Parramatta on September 30 after several delays, with the 7pm bulletin to be broadcast from a new studio on the promenade. With that studio still unfinished the ABC said works at the site were progressing to plan.
Presidential Debate coverage
TV Ratings: Harris-Trump face-off soars past Biden June debate
The first (and possibly only) presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump drew a substantially larger audience than a June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
Early Nielsen ratings figures for Tuesday’s telecast, produced by ABC News but simulcast on multiple broadcast and cable networks, show the debate drawing about 57.75 million US viewers across the big four broadcast networks, CNN, Fox News, Fox Business and MSNBC. That about 6.5 million more people than the final tally for the June 27 debate between Trump and President Joe Biden — and that total included nine more networks and out-of-home viewing, which aren’t yet factored into Tuesday’s numbers.
Despite the gains over the June debate, Tuesday’s telecast isn’t likely to break any records. In 35 televised presidential debates since 1960 (there were none in 1964, 1968 and 1972), the average audience has been about 59.1 million viewers.
Two debates between Biden and Trump in 2020 averaged 68.05 million viewers.
[Read more]
(Australian ratings data is not available at the time of writing.)
Trump turns media critic: Assails ABC, not thrilled with Fox News, either
By Wednesday morning, former President Donald J. Trump had settled on a clear message about his defensive and scowling performance in the ABC News debate with Vice President Kamala Harris: “I’m not the loser. ABC is the loser,” repoirts The New York Times.
“I thought it was terrible from the standpoint of ABC,” Trump said in a live interview on “Fox & Friends,” during which he assailed the network’s moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, for what he deemed a biased approach. “They are the most dishonest, in my opinion, the most dishonest news organization.”
Most strikingly of all, perhaps, Trump yearned for happier days – with CNN.
“CNN was much more honourable,” he said, a surprising remark from a man who spent years painting that news organization as a poster child for media bias. “The debate we had with Biden was a much more honourable one,” referring to the debate in June that was calamitous for Biden.
Time magazine: How Kamala Harris knocked Donald Trump off course
In a cover story that has just dropped, Time magazine reports: Despite weeks of speculation that Harris was poised to replace Biden at the top of the ticket, Trump and his campaign were caught flat-footed, left lurching from one attack line to another. More than once, top aides thought they had settled on a strategy, only to see the candidate himself upend it on the fly. According to a person close to Trump, the level of campaign infighting and backstabbing rivaled the 2016 operation, an infamous snake pit. Facing a new opponent, Trump reverted to his old ways.
In a matter of weeks, Trump frittered away his commanding position. Harris’ smooth debut galvanized the Democratic base and unlocked a fundraising behemoth that dwarfed that of Trump and his allies. In the handful of pivotal swing states, her campaign is building on formidable operations she inherited from Biden, and boasts a striking advantage in cash and reserved ad time between now and Election Day. “I think everyone was caught off guard by the way it shifted so dramatically,” says a person close to Trump.
Kamala vs Trump with Chas Licciardello and Josh Szeps
Josh Szeps has just dropped his latest Uncomfortable Conversations podcast episode:
In the lead-up to every US election of the past 12 years, Chas Licciardello has hosted a national primetime television comedy show called Planet America, covering the ins and outs of American politics.
He is a member of Australia’s most famous comedy group, The Chaser, and starred in their satirical TV shows for nearly a quarter of a century: The Chaser Decides, CNNNN, The Chaser’s War on Everything, Yes We Canberra! and The Hamster Wheel.
Chas and Josh sat down after the landmark presidential debate to share their thoughts.
To listen visit the Uncomfy Convos multiverse, hit the Substack or visit
http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_
http://instagram.com/joshszeps/
http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations
News Brands
Texts to high-profile journalist about Bruce Lehrmann trial revealed
The former judge who presided over an inquiry into former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann’s prosecution gave a draft of his report to a journalist at The Australian before it was delivered to the ACT government, and she texted back that she “loved the section … on presumption of innocence”, reports Nine Publishing’s Michaela Whitbourn.
A cache of documents released by the ACT Supreme Court this week reveal the extent of the communications between Walter Sofronoff, KC, and Janet Albrechtsen, a columnist at the News Corp masthead.
On July 30, Albrechtsen texted: “I loved the section towards the end of your report on presumption of innocence (my editor side coming in now – I’d put that up front – when I read it, I wished I had read it much earlier – it’s an important and clear exposition of the legal principle and the norm).”
Television
ABC journalist and pioneer Heather Ewart announces retirement plan
Pioneering journalist Heather Ewart has announced she will retire next year after an incredible career at the ABC of almost 50 years.
Starting as a cadet in 1977, Ewart went on to become one of the national public broadcaster’s most accomplished presenters, most recently as host of Back Roads.
The ABC reports she broke down many barriers as a woman in the industry as one of the ABC’s first female foreign correspondents and one of few women reporting on federal politics in the 1980s during the Fraser and Hawke eras.
Ewart is currently in production on a number of Back Roads episodes that will screen throughout 2025. She finishes up at the ABC in March next year.
UK TV production sector income falls by £400m as programming budgets cut
The TV production sector in the UK suffered a £400m fall in revenues last year as cash-strapped British broadcasters reduced spending to the lowest level since the height of the pandemic, reports The Guardian.
The latest annual industry survey found that total revenues made by UK production companies fell by £392m to £3.61bn in 2023. However, just as traditional broadcasters struggle, global streaming companies such as Netflix and Amazon continue to become an increasingly important income stream, the study showed.
The latest bellwether census from industry body Pact said UK broadcasters such as ITV, the BBC, Channel 4 and Sky cut programming commissioning budgets due to factors such as a falling advertising market, viewers moving away from traditional TV and rising inflation. The freeze on the BBC’s licence fee also led to severe spending cuts.
While spending by public service broadcasters – the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 – remained relatively resilient, budgets across multichannel broadcasters such as Sky plummeted by more than 35%.
Spend by the global subscription video-on-demand services (SVOD) – such as Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon’s Prime Video – shrank by just £13m year on year despite the wider malaise in the broadcasting industry.
Hugo Weaving rarely does TV. He made an exception for Slow Horses
Hugo Weaving has told me too much about Slow Horses. He said he wouldn’t – “Ask whatever you like. Of course, there are things I can’t possibly tell you” – but then he did. And now, like the journalist in season one of the British spy thriller, I’m in danger of being tracked down by the Dogs, MI5’s internal security service, if I discuss the plot and what comes next, reports Nine Publishing’s Louise Rugendyke.
However, it’s not Weaving’s problem. He’s thrilled to have stepped into season four of the Apple TV+ series, a rare foray into big budget international TV for the acclaimed Australian actor.
“It’s a superior piece of television,” he says. “The show is about family, not just this season, but the whole thing. Slough House is the dysfunctional family that is trying to get back in the good books of the institution.”
The Block’s latest outburst: ‘That’s paramount to cheating’ – Scott Cam accuses Grant
It was a baptism of fire for newcomers Charlotte and Maddy, reports News Corp’s Siobhan Duck.
Brought in to replace Jesse and Paige, the Sydney sisters arrived in Phillip Island to a frosty reception from Kylie, tension with their builder and a power struggle over plastering with Kristian. And that was just in the first 24 hours.
The poor pair also had to wrap their heads around life on The Block, undertake a challenge and finish their main bedroom and walk-in-wardrobe — using a palette and interior style they don’t like — in just three days.
Meanwhile Scott Cam was in a less jovial mood when he later visited Grant to lay down the law about challenge attendance not being optional.
“Number one, because I said so and number two because it’s unfair to the other teams,” he fumed.
“You’re here working on your bedroom worth $10,000 while they’re at the challenge so that’s also paramount to cheating.”
Podcasting
Mark Zuckerberg tapes a podcast 6ith 6,000 friends in San Francisco
More than 6,000 techies streamed on Tuesday evening into San Francisco’s Chase Center, a cavernous event space that is home to the Golden State Warriors and hosts pop stars like Olivia Rodrigo. Engineers, venture capitalists and other Silicon Valley digerati chatted as they found their seats, with Modelos and slices of pizza in hand. The anticipation was high, reports The New York Times.
They were not there to join a rager of a concert. Instead, they had paid $50 or more a ticket to see Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, tape a podcast about artificial intelligence, the metaverse and how he outmanoeuvred the rest of Silicon Valley to keep his company winning.
“You underestimate how painful things are going to be, so you can go and do good things,”. Zuckerberg told the crowd about the 20-year history of building his empire, which includes Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.