Business of Media
Election 2022: Labor kills off Kevin Rudd’s anti-News Corp crusade
Anthony Albanese has doubled down on his opposition to establishing an inquiry into News Corp or other media companies if Labor wins the election, delivering a killer blow to Kevin Rudd’s campaign for a media royal commission, reports News Corp’s Troy Bramston.
In an exclusive interview with The Australian, the Labor leader said he did not see “a case” for Mr Rudd’s proposal and there was no plan to revisit it or consider any other media regulation should he form a government on May 21.
“I have ruled out a royal commission into News Corporation,” he said. “At this point, I can’t see a case for any other regulation or inquiries. Clearly media policy won’t stay the same forever and we would deal with that on a case-by-case basis. At this stage, I don’t envisage anything being on the immediate horizon.”
Chaser star Julian Morrow given a legal dressing down
A Supreme Court judge has found an ABC broadcaster engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct and acted in breach of his duties as a director, reports News Corp’s Liam Mendes.
Chaser star Julian Morrow is potentially facing a damages bill of more than $430,000, but has been awarded $35,000 in general and aggravated damages after it was found he was defamed by his former business partner Nick Murray.
Morrow’s company, Giant Dwarf, was in a joint venture with Murray’s company, Cordell Jigsaw, from 2013 to 2018.
Judge James Stevenson also found Morrow lied during attempts to settle and breached a joint venture agreement between his company and Murray’s.
Morrow – represented by high-profile barrister Sue Chrysanthou – submitted 26 affidavits sworn by a variety of personalities, including senator Kristina Keneally, Labor MP Tony Burke, commentator Norman Swan and ABC veteran Phillip Adams, who all attested to his good character.
Election 2022: Old guard’s crusade to save ABC from sale that never was
A group of high-profile former ABC journalists, spearheaded by one-time Media Watch host Jonathan Holmes, is actively campaigning against the Coalition, launching a scare campaign over the possible privatisation of the public broadcaster despite the Morrison government’s long-held opposition to the idea, reports News Corp’s James Madden.
In a YouTube video posted on Wednesday, Holmes, who is chairman of the ABC Alumni, urges Australians to “support candidates who back a better-funded ABC”.
“The video is not friendly to the Coalition,” Holmes admitted to The Australian. The four-minute clip – complete with ominous background music – includes the suggestion that the federal Liberal Party lied in 2018 when it declared it had no intention of privatising the ABC.
The claim is based on a long-forgotten motion – which was put forward by a single delegate at a Liberal Party national council meeting four years ago – calling for the privatisation of the ABC.
SAS soldier felt ‘threatened’ to testify against Ben Roberts-Smith
An emotionally vulnerable SAS soldier says he feared Nine newspapers would accuse him of a war crime unless he testified against Ben Roberts-Smith, reports News Corp’s Perry Duffin.
The soldier, known as Person 56, appeared in the Federal Court on Monday as the high-profile defamation trial resumed after a week’s break.
Person 56 was asked first about a mission to the Afghan village of Darwan where Roberts-Smith is accused of kicking an unarmed farmer down a steep drop into a dry creek bed. Nine claims Roberts-Smith ordered another soldier to execute the wounded Afghan – claims denied by the Victoria Cross recipient.
Person 56 told the court he did not witness any kick or execution and was not with Roberts-Smith through the entire raid.
Ben Roberts-Smith trial expected to dramatically shift as witnesses step up for accused soldier
Accusations of war crime killings and senseless brutality have been levelled at Ben Roberts-Smith by his former SAS squadmates for months – but the headlines could be about to dramatically change, reports News Corp’s Perry Duffin.
As Nines newspapers’ final witness steps down today, Roberts-Smith’s supporters will step up on Monday to challenge the war stories that have shocked Australia.
At the end of Nine’s evidence and weeks of confronting headlines, a handful of SAS soldiers and moments have emerged as potential linchpins.
Agencies
Dentsu appoints Tim Powell to chief PR officer ANZ
Dentsu has appointed BWM Isobar’s Tim Powell in the newly created role of chief PR officer ANZ.
Powell will lead the PR side as the company plans to build a more integrated offering.
Kirsty Muddle, Dentsu Creative CEO ANZ, said the remit of the new chief PR role will be to drive deeper connections across company’s capability, clients and strengthen Dentsu’s influencer marketing, BR and behaviour change offering.
During his time at BWM Isobar, Powell led dentsu’s Australian PR offering, which included Haystac dentsu, Cox Inall dentsu, as well as First Nation’s business Cox Inall Ridgeway.
Before joining the company, he spent more than 20 years at Cox Inall Communications, as group account director and then managing director.
News Brands
There is ‘no one News Corp view’ on election, head of company’s Australian arm tells staff
Rupert Murdoch’s Australian lieutenant has told News Corp journalists there is “no one News Corp view” about the election and that individual editors are free to decide which party to endorse, reports Guardian Australia’s Amanda Meade.
Executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, Michael Miller, said it was important to remember that “electorate issues in Surry Hills differ greatly to those in Broken Hill” and that audiences “expect us to interrogate all parties and all sides”.
“Firstly, there is no ONE News Corp view, and I purposely avoid expressing views at election time so there is no confusion between individual mastheads and columnist views, and any corporate position,” Miller said in an all-staff election memo sent on Friday.
‘Google it’: Greens leader Adam Bandt blows up at reporter
Greens leader Adam Bandt has told a journalist to “Google it, mate!” after he was asked about a claim made in his pre-election pitch to voters, reports NCA’s Newswire.
In a speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday, Bandt said the Liberal and Labor parties had designed a system that drove down wages, pushed up consumer prices and gave big corporations and billionaires too much power.
Asked what the wage price index was, Bandt said that was the type of question that was turning people off politics.
Television
Bachelorette Australia’s Jarrod Woodgate claims he shouldn’t have been on-air
Reality contestant Jarrod Woodgate has questioned his mental fitness to have been given the approval to appear on The Bachelorette and Bachelor In Paradise, reports News Corp’s Jonathon Moran.
Woodgate placed runner up in bachelorette Sophie Monk’s 2017 season, and scored the title of “stage five clinger” from fans of the series because of his focused pursuit of Monk onscreen.
He then went on to appear in Bachelor in Paradise a year later, on which he started dating now ex-girlfriend Keira Maguire.
The 36-year-old has now revealed he had been suffering from a mixture of mental health issues at the time, and said the franchise’s screening process did not pick up his illness.
“Part of me wasn’t mentally fit,” Woodgate told Confidential.
Karl Stefanovic storms off Today set during live broadcast after ‘disgusting’ insult
Karl Stefanovic stormed off the Today set in a rage this morning after copping a brutal insult from his co-host, Allison Langdon, reports News Corp’s Lexie Cartwright.
The 47-year-old veteran TV presenter was discussing the ongoing defamation trial between Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard, in which Depp’s sister Christi Dembrowski testified on day one that Heard had called the actor “old and fat”.
Stefanovic began, “Being called a fat old man is like …” before Langdon quipped, “You’re not old?” before cheekily adding, “Or fat!”
But by that point Stefanovic had already checked out, emerging from the couch and shouting at the camera, “She’s fat shaming! She’s fat shaming again, Australia. I’m going on a diet.”
Rumour: Ben Fordham & Brooke Boney pilot?
TV Tonight has heard whispers 2GB’s Ben Fordham and Today‘s Brooke Boney were working on a new pilot for Nine.
Part of the show is understood to have planned live crosses to pubs for “pub tests” during the election campaign.
It isn’t clear if the project is proceeding, with a Nine spokesperson only confirming the network is always developing new programs.