Business of Media
Ben Roberts-Smith fronts court as 10-day appeal starts
A finding that Ben Roberts-Smith unlawfully killed two insurgents during a raid in Afghanistan should never have been made because it was speculation and logically flawed, an appeals court has heard, reports AAP’s Miklos Bolza.
The war veteran sat with his parents in court on Monday as his team of top-tier barristers attempted to overturn his landmark defamation loss over media reporting of war crimes.
TV battle for ‘prominence’ heats up, as Foxtel cries foul over search
Australia’s free-to-air television networks have lobbied the federal government to expedite the introduction of new laws that will provide them with greater prominence of their apps on connected TVs, despite concerns by other industry players that the changes are inherently unfair and deny consumers the right to choose what they watch, reports The Australian’s James Madden.
Under legislation introduced to parliament in November, television manufacturers will be forced to ensure the apps of free-to-air Australian services, including public broadcasters ABC and SBS, are put first on all smart TVs within 18 months.
In a submission last week to a senate committee inquiry into the prominence bill, Free TV Australia – the industry body representing the nation’s free-to-air commercial broadcasters – called for the “timeframe for compliance” to be reduced to six months.
Facebook rules allow altered video casting Biden as paedophile, says board
Meta’s oversight board has found that a Facebook video wrongfully suggesting that the US president, Joe Biden, is a paedophile does not violate the company’s current rules while deeming those rules “incoherent” and too narrowly focused on AI-generated content, reports Reuters.
The board, which is funded by Meta – Facebook’s parent company – but run independently, took on the Biden video case in October in response to a user complaint about an altered seven-second video of the president.
Snap to slash workforce by 10 percent amid tech layoff spree
Another day, another round of tech layoffs. Snapchat owner Snap on Monday said that it would be slashing its global workforce by 10 percent, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Weprin.
The company disclosed the news in a securities filing, writing that “in order to best position our business to execute on our highest priorities, and to ensure we have the capacity to invest incrementally to support our growth over time, we have made the difficult decision to restructure our team.”
Kremlin quiet as Tucker Carlson Russia visit creates Putin interview rumours
The Kremlin has declined to say whether Vladimir Putin would grant an interview to Tucker Carlson, the far-right American journalist, after the former Fox News presenter was spotted in Moscow, reports The Guardian’s Pjotr Sauer.
“We can hardly be expected to provide information on the movement of foreign journalists,” Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, said when asked about speculation that Carlson was in Russia to interview the Russian president.
“Many foreign journalists come to Russia every day, many continue to work here, and we welcome this,” Peskov said. “We have nothing to announce in terms of the president’s interviews to foreign media.”
Google and Yahoo are cracking down on inbox spam. Don’t expect less email marketing.
Tech giants Google and Yahoo are lowering the hammer on indiscriminate email marketing by introducing new requirements for bulk senders, reports The Wall Street Journal’s Katie Deighton.
Their new rules don’t mean consumers should expect to immediately glimpse the bottom of their inboxes again, however; if anything, they could encourage marketers to prize emails more than before, marketing executives say.
Brands hope the changes will mean that more recipients pay attention to their messages, because they won’t be so hidden among unsolicited junk mail and phishing scams. The new rules, which took effect this month, also could make it less common for emails from legitimate senders to be tagged as spam, as users are offered an easier way to unsubscribe.
News Brands
Local news websites accused of using AI to rip off other outlets’ articles
An Australian news company has been accused of using artificial intelligence to rewrite other media outlets’ stories to then publish them on the company’s competing news websites, reports Crikey’s Cam Wilson.
Local news websites across Queensland have popped up with content that’s strikingly similar to what can be found on other local news websites, on government press releases and even from a US-based community news website that shares a name with an Australian local government shire. But AI content detection tools suggested the articles were written by AI, despite the company’s director previously claiming that the publications are “human-written”.
CNN’s new morning strategy: More news, less banter
CNN spent years trying to compete in the cutthroat realm of chatty morning TV, cycling through formats in the hopes of catching up to breakfast-time staples like Morning Joe and Good Morning America, report The New York Times’ Michael M. Grynbaum and Benjamin Mullin.
That experiment never quite caught on with viewers — and now it is coming to an end.
In his first significant programming move since joining the network in the fall, Mark Thompson, CNN’s chairman, announced on Monday that the channel would exit the morning chat-show format by the end of the month. Instead, its morning lineup will focus on straight news coverage, the kind of bread-and-butter reporting that Thompson, a former head of the BBC and The New York Times, has championed.
Radio
Tom Elliott reveals pressure of taking over from top-rating broadcasting veteran Neil Mitchell
Melbourne 3AW mornings host Tom Elliott fondly recalls the sage advice he received from his predecessor, veteran broadcaster Neil Mitchell, when he first filled in for him more than a decade ago, reports The Australian’s Sophie Elsworth.
“Neil left a note on his desk that just said, ‘have fun, make sure you listen’ – with ‘listen’ underlined,” Elliott recalls.
“It was actually good advice.”
Television
Last surviving member of Dad’s Army cast, Ian Lavender, dies at 77
Dad’s Army actor Ian Lavender, who played “Stupid Boy” Private Frank Pike in the hit show, has died at the age of 77, reports News Corp’s Danielle Gusmaroli.
Announcing his death on Monday local time, a Dad’s Army spokesman said Lavender’s death “truly marks the end of an era”.
“His wonderful performance as Private Frank Pike will live on for decades to come,” the statement, which was posted to social media, said.
Mike Goldstein fair dinkum stumped by The Hundred’s Australiana
Mike Goldstein can probably be forgiven for not knowing what the Smith’s Chips ‘Gobbledok’ is all about, reports TV Tonight.
After all the ad campaign with a delirious chippie mascot hit screens in 1987, and the Colorado-born American didn’t arrive in Australia until around 2010.
Despite proudly considering himself at home in Australia, there are still things he is learning as part of The Hundred with Andy Lee.
Lisa Miller: What city viewers struggle with watching Muster Dogs
It’s a hit show for ABC but there are some aspects of Muster Dogs that cameras try not linger on for fear of turning viewers off, reports TV Tonight.
They centre around the caging of the loveable puppies, narrator Lisa Millar reveals.
“There are a few elements that people in the city look at and go, ‘I don’t want to see a dog in a cage,” she tells TV Tonight.
Sports Media
Gillon McLachlan in frame to become Racing Victoria chair
Former AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan is in the frame to become the chair of Racing Victoria, filling the position that has been officially vacant since June last year when Mike Hirst became interim chair after Brian Kruger resigned, reports Nine Publishing’s Peter Ryan.
A source with knowledge of the situation, who was not authorised to speak publicly because the process is confidential, said McLachlan has not yet agreed to accept the position but is a candidate, four months after his 10-year stretch at the AFL ended.