Business of Media
Ben Roberts-Smith ordered to pay additional costs in marathon defamation case
A Federal Court judge has ordered disgraced former SAS corporal Ben Roberts-Smith to pay a greater proportion of the legal costs incurred by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald in his marathon defamation case against the masthead, reports Nine Publishing’s David Estcourt.
Roberts-Smith previously accepted he was liable for the millions of dollars in legal costs accumulated in the war crimes case after the date of a settlement offer he rejected on March 18, 2020. The media outlets had made another offer in June 2019, which Roberts-Smith also rejected.
On Tuesday, Justice Anthony Besanko ruled that Roberts-Smith should also bear the costs of the litigation from August 2018 – when he launched the case – leaving him liable for up to an additional $1 million in legal costs payable to Nine Entertainment Co.
Seven pays for Bruce Lehrmann’s harbour views
Just months ago, Seven insisted it hadn’t paid former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann for a sit-down interview with the network’s Spotlight program, report Nine Publishing’s Kishor Napier-Raman and Noel Towell.
“7NEWS Spotlight made no payment to Bruce Lehrmann for the interview, however, the program assisted with accommodation as part of the filming of the story,” was the official line.
That piece of spin was blown up in the Federal Court on Tuesday, when, under cross-examination from barrister Sue Chrysanthou, Lehrmann admitted that the Kerry Stokes-controlled network was paying his accommodation costs for a year.
See Also: Seven defends paying Bruce Lehrmann’s rent in return for Spotlight interviews
Rupert Murdoch to be deposed in Smartmatic defamation case
Rupert Murdoch is set to be questioned under oath on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of voting technology company Smartmatic’s $2.7bn defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp over coverage of debunked vote-rigging claims involving the 2020 US presidential election, a person familiar with the matter said, reports Reuters.
Murdoch will be deposed in Los Angeles, according to that person, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The deposition does not appear on the public docket for the case.
Disney CEO Bob Iger says company is ready to start building
Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger told employees that he faced a “myriad of challenges” upon returning to the company but remained upbeat about its prospects, reports Reuters’ Dawn Chmielewski.
“I knew that there were myriad challenges that I would face coming back,” Iger said in remarks at a company-wide town hall Tuesday at the New Amsterdam Theatre, according to people who attended the meeting. “I won’t say that it was easy, but I’ve never second-guessed the decision to come back.”
Publishing
Sports Illustrated magazine denies using AI-generated authors for website content
American magazine Sports Illustrated has denied it used content created by artificial intelligence after it was accused of publishing articles by fake authors with AI-generated headshots, reports the ABC’s Jack Hawke.
The magazine, famous for its annual swimsuit issue which features models and sports stars posing in swimwear, said the story was “not accurate” according to its initial investigation.
On Monday, science and technology website Futurism reported that Sports Illustrated had been using content created by AI-generated authors with fake personas without specifying they were not written by a human.
‘Still a very alive medium’: celebrating the radical history of zines
A medium that basks in the unruliness and unpredictability of the creative process, zines are gloriously chaotic and difficult to pin down. Requiring little more to produce than a copy machine, a stapler and a vision, zines played a hugely democratizing role in art during the 20th century and have managed to stay popular and relevant in spite of web-based innovations, like blogs, that might have supplanted a less compelling medium, reports The Guardian’s Veronica Esposito.
The Brooklyn Museum’s substantial and exciting new exhibit, Copy Machine Manifestos, offers a welcome, thorough examination of zines made by artists. With over 800 objects on display, Copy Machine Manifestos is a crucial step toward documenting the zine scene, even if, in zine terms this show is a proverbial drop in the bucket. As the exhibition co-curator and art historian Drew Sawyer put it in an interview: “Even if we wanted to be very inclusive and seemingly comprehensive, we knew it would be impossible to claim to be comprehensive in any way. It would be delusional to think anyone could be comprehensive on a history of zines.”
Radio
John Laws reveals he doesn’t think about retirement as he notches up 70 years in radio
The best is yet to come for John Laws after 70 years on air. The man known as ‘the Golden Tonsils’ has notched up seven decades in radio and at 88 says he has no intention of slowing down, reports News Corp’s Jonathon Moran.
“It hasn’t happened yet,” Laws told The Daily Telegraph when asked his career highlight.
“I can’t imagine me ever retiring. I don’t think about retirement. I suppose I will have to one day but no, I don’t want to stop, I’d like to be doing it when I am 100.”
Neil Mitchell to cop Bill Shorten grilling after losing bet
3AW’s Neil Mitchell and the ALP’s Bill Shorten had a bet not long ago over a Melbourne-Collingwood game, reports News Corp.
If Melbourne won, Shorten would have to speak the truth for 10 minutes. If Collingwood won, Shorten would interview Mitchell on air.
Mitchell lost. Which is why the promised interrogation, by Shorten of Mitchell, will feature on Wednesday in Mitchell’s final week in breakfast radio.
‘Escalated quickly’: Kyle Sandilands storms off on-air after bizarre rant
Radio shock jock Kyle Sandilands stormed off-air in an expletive-laden outburst after a bizarre stoush with co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson over an argument about Covid, reports News Corp’s Jessica Wang.
The chaos unfolded just 11 minutes into the show, when Sandilands and Henderson began arguing about whether people with Covid should stay at home and isolate, before tensions came to a boil.