Business of Media
Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann files defamation suit against ABC
Bruce Lehrmann has lodged defamation proceedings against the ABC after the abandonment of the trial against him over rape allegations by his former colleague and Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins, reports The Australian’s Tricia Rivera.
Lehrmann filed proceedings against the ABC on Wednesday afternoon with an originating application, a statement of claim and a genuine steps statement. The contents of the documents have not been made available.
An ABC spokeswoman said the broadcaster was unable to comment.
Lehrmann pleaded not guilty on rape charges at his trial, which was aborted when a juror was found to have brought outside material not presented as evidence into the jury room.
The ACT Director of Public Prosecutions did not pursue a retrial amid concerns for Higgins’s health.
More time for Crikey on Lachlan Murdoch defamation defence
Online media outlet Crikey has been granted an extension to file its defence in an ongoing defamation case with News Corp co-chairman Lachlan Murdoch, despite allegations the news site was “abusing” the proceedings to further a crowd-funded anti-Murdoch campaign, reports The Australian’s Ellie Dudley.
The court heard on Tuesday that counsel for Private Media, the company that owns Crikey, had applied to update its defence for a fourth time, in light of documents revealed in a $US1.6bn lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News in the US.
In granting the short extension, judge Michael Wigney cautioned Crikey about deficiencies in its defence as pointed out by Murdoch’s legal team, but said he was “satisfied Crikey has advanced a reasonable explanation for the delay”.
Judge willing to force Rupert Murdoch to testify in $1.6bn Fox News case
A judge in Delaware on Wednesday said Dominion Voting Systems can compel Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch to testify in the election machines company’s $1.6bn defamation suit against Fox News, reports The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly.
If Dominion files the appropriate subpoena, Judge Eric M Davis said, “I would not quash it and I would compel them to come.”
The trial is due to start on 17 April. Testimony from the Murdochs promises to be dramatic. A series of explosive court filings have already exposed messages sent by the two Murdochs, other senior executives and leading Fox News hosts.
Dominion says the messages show Fox News broadcast conspiracy theories and lies about its work on US elections, pushed by Donald Trump and his allies in their attempt to overturn his 2020 defeat by Joe Biden, despite knowing such claims to be untrue.
Fox says it was presenting allegations made by public figures that reasonable viewers would not take for statements of fact.
Former TV star Andrew O’Keefe facing fresh charges
Embattled former television personality Andrew O’Keefe has returned to court after he allegedly drove with meth in his system, report News Corp’s Steve Zemek and Adelaide Lang.
The 51-year-old was driving his grey Mercedes C200 through the exclusive Sydney suburb of Point Piper when he was stopped by police on January 20.
He underwent a random roadside breath test just after midnight which returned a positive result for methamphetamine.
The former television personality was subsequently taken for a secondary oral fluid test and his driver’s licence was suspended.
He was arrested at his home on Tuesday and was charged with driving a vehicle with an illicit drug present in blood and breaching his bail conditions.
On Doge Twitter, everything is meaningless
The purge siren was more like a whimper. As verified Twitter users braced for the Elon Musk–run social media company to begin removing verification badges en masse over the weekend, the Twitter product team appeared focused on something else entirely: replacing Twitter’s blue bird icon on Monday with that of a Shiba Inu, the dog associated with the Doge meme and cryptocurrency Dogecoin, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s J. Clara Chan.
Doge Twitter is emblematic of Musk’s chaotic and unfocused reign over Twitter, where features are rolled out haphazardly with little to no notice, select organizations like The New York Times are punished (i.e., lose their check marks) on a whim based on Musk’s uneven standards and basic site functionality — remember when users couldn’t even tweet? — isn’t a given. Aside from an “as promised” tweet by Elon, the company never even officially acknowledged why it embraced Doge as an icon, leaving it as another random moment in the Musk era.
The bloodbath that wasn’t is likely because there is no method for Twitter to remove verification badges en masse, as The Washington Post reported. In a since-deleted tweet on April 2, Musk said he would be giving “a few weeks grace” to legacy verified users to sign up for Twitter Blue “unless they tell they won’t pay now, in which we will remove [their verification badges],” which appeared to be the case with The New York Times’ main account. (A representative for the Times did not respond to requests for comment on whether the outlet has seen a decrease in engagement or reach after losing its verified status.)
But as of early this week, most verified users have kept their badges, with many expressing no interest in paying for Twitter Blue, the $8/month subscription service that will verify any user with a phone number and offer other perks like a decrease in ads and a boost in visibility across the platform. If anything, a Twitter Blue subscription has become somewhat of a scarlet A on the social platform to some, with some legacy users even begging for their blue checks to be removed and 39,000 users following an account that shares tools on how to weed out and block Twitter Blue subscribers.
News Brands
Catalano and Waislitz’s newspaper arm to sell, shut down 13 titles
Antony Catalano and Alex Waislitz’s newspaper business is preparing to sell or shut down more than 13 mastheads as the company combats rising print costs and a slump in the advertising market, report Nine Publishing’s Olivia Ireland and Zoe Samios.
Australian Community Media (ACM), the publisher of titles such as The Canberra Times, The Newcastle Herald, and The Land, is asking staff to take their annual leave over Easter, a move which will reduce costs but also leave a skeleton staff for the days after the break.
In an email sent to staff on Monday, seen by this masthead, ACM managing director Tony Kendall told staff the business was in the process of selling seven titles in the NSW central-west and south-west regions after receiving an approach by Provincial Press Group.
Titles in this area include The Forbes Advocate, Parkes Champion-Post, The Grenfell Record, Cowra Guardian, Boorowa News, Canowindra News, and The Young Witness. The agreement has been signed and transition should be by the end of the month. This would add to titles in South Australia and Queensland which were sold to regional newspaper company The Star Group last Saturday.
Kendall also told staff he planned to shut down Queensland community titles the Jimboomba Times and Redlands City Bulletin and four Western Australian titles including the Bunbury Mail, the Mandurah Mail, and the August-Margaret River Mail. The Queensland titles have already shut and are closing for good while the Western Australian titles are going to digital-only by the end of the month.
NPR pushes back after Twitter designates it as ‘state-affiliated media’
Twitter on Tuesday evening labeled the account of National Public Radio (NPR) as US state-affiliated media, drawing fierce criticism from the news organization’s leadership., reports The Guardian’s Johana Bhuiyan.
Other publications with the label include Russian propaganda network RT and China’s Xinhua News Agency.
The change to NPR’s designation appears to be in violation of Twitter’s own original policy on how the social media platform determines which companies receive this label. “State-affiliated media is defined as outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution,” the policy reads.
Up until a few hours ago, Twitter explicitly listed NPR along with the BBC as exceptions to this categorization. The policy noted that while both organizations receive state financing – NPR derives less than 1% of its annual operating budget from government programs – they have editorial independence, according to screenshots posted by NPR reporter David Gura.
By Wednesday morning, however, the policy had been changed to remove the mention of NPR. The designation of the BBC’s Twitter account remained unchanged, and the organization was still included as an exception in the policy.
The Twitter accounts of other publications that receive various degrees of state-funding, such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Flemish VRT NWS, have also been left untouched.
Radio
Popular KIIS 97.3 radio newsreader Monique Dews quits ARN
Popular newsreader Monique Dews has quit the Australian Radio Network and will leave KIIS 97.3 breakfast show Robin, Terry and Kip, reports News Corp’s Kylie Lang.
Dews, also recently acting national news director for ARN, will join Adoni Media PR, media training and crisis management company.
Dews has been with 97.3 for more than 11 years and said she would miss her radio family including Robin Bailey, Terry Hansen, and Kip Wightman but Brisbane was entering an exciting phase.
“Brisbane is going through such an incredible time of change and development as we countdown to the Olympics, so it feels right to make a move now,” Dews said.
Robin Bailey said Dews was “one of the hardest working, kindest, most credible journos I know”.
“She not only reports the news but she truly cares how it’s received. She is also super fun.
“There was nothing she didn’t have a response to, no matter how absurd or unexpected it was, and we put her on the spot a lot.”
Television
‘We had to blow up a hamster’: Inside Aunty Donna’s bonkers ABC comedy
The cavernous soundstages of Melbourne’s Docklands Studios can simultaneously host production for several television shows or feature films, but last September it wasn’t difficult to distinguish which soundstage was hosting the hit American network drama La Brea and which one was home to Aunty Donna’s Coffee Cafe, the sitcom that brings the Melbourne sketch comedy savants to the ABC, reports Nine Publishing’s Craig Mathieson.
In the hallways of the latter, a procession of extras could be divided into three groups: nerds, sports bros and vampires. Apparently they were needed for a musical number, which was part of the show’s sixth and final episode. To one side, guest star Miranda Tapsell was kitted out in Chanel pink and heels. And when word politely arrived that Mark Bonanno, one of the three performers who make up Aunty Donna’s public face, would be held up for a few minutes, it was for a suitably unexpected reason.
“He’s covered in blood,” was the explanation. “We had to blow up a hamster.”