When the Nine network dumped Karl Stefanovic it was hoping to clear the air around the Today show, which had been dogged by negative tabloid stories about its star’s personal life ever since the break-up of his marriage. By replacing Stefanovic with a woman, Deb Knight, and hiring an Indigenous Triple J personality in Brooke Boney, Today struck a blow for diversity and change in commercial television.
But the negative stories kept coming this week – low ratings on day one and criticism of the new line-up of presenters. On Thursday the new recruit was asked for her opinion on changing the date of Australia Day and it was refreshing to hear an Indigenous Channel Nine presenter talk about her perspective on her own network. She was challenged by sports presenter Tony Jones but she held her ground, using her new platform to great effect. While many saw it as a breakthrough for commercial TV, soon Nine was feeling the backlash and being asked if management also supported moving Australia Day, a position vehemently opposed by News Corp.
please watch before you @ me. Love you guys ❤️ https://t.co/ZluD2pvBEG
— Brooke Boney (@boneybrooke) January 16, 2019
Boney said she thought Australia was the best country in the world but the date was wrong because of its association with dispossession. “But I can’t separate the 26th of January from the fact that my brothers are more likely to go to jail than school, or that my little sisters and my mum are more likely to be beaten and raped than anyone else’s sisters or mum,” she said.
“And that started from that day. For me, it’s a difficult day and I don’t want to celebrate it. Any other day of the year I will tie an Australian flag around my neck and run through the streets with anyone else.”
The Daily Mail framed it as an “astonishing rant” and a “VERY awkward clash”.
Most of the comments on Today’s Facebook page and nine.com.au were savagely negative and unabashed racism.
❤️❤️❤️ My love for this country and for all of you is stronger than the hate in any comments section. My experience is what it is. No one can take that away from me. #proudaussie #proudgamilaroi
— Brooke Boney (@boneybrooke) January 17, 2019
Race to the bottom
If 2018 was the year of the so-called “African gangs” crime wave, led by the Herald Sun’s hysterical coverage, this year is shaping up to be one in which sections of the media ascribe racial characteristics to people involved in road accidents. But only if they are black. Nine reporter Christine Ahern said on air and on Twitter that a crash involved six youths “of African appearance” while the identity of the occupant of the other car was simply a “40-year-old man”. No explanation of relevance was forthcoming. The Australian took up the theme with relish. “Seven people have been hospitalised after a car carrying six youths of African appearance collided with another vehicle in Melbourne’s southeast, leaving two roads closed and throwing traffic into chaos,” the Oz reported.
An instance of #RaceTagging in Aus media - when ethnicity is mentioned in a news report (where it would be ignored if the person was white), for the purposes of insinuating a link between race and crime and inciting community hatred: https://t.co/eyerKBxlRz pic.twitter.com/QVbDhdIezg
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) August 9, 2018
Science commentator Ketan Joshi called it race tagging and clashed with the Australian’s Bernard Lane – who has previously claimed there is a link between home country trauma and African crime – when he was asked why their race was not relevant.
Ketan, how do you know that African background is irrelevant? What if there is a link between criminal/risky conduct, home country conflict trauma and difficulties in refugee resettlement? Why don't you trust readers to make their own assessment of the possibilities?
— Bernard Lane (@Bernard_Lane) January 14, 2019
1 - What you're saying here is that the characteristic 'African appearance' is a trait from which you can assume behavioural characteristics. I'm pretty sure this breaches both the @withMEAA and the racial discrimination act; in addition to being wholly immoral and unethical.
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) January 14, 2019
The Australian Press Council has confirmed that the Australian has been reported for putting an undue emphasis on race.
Moir makes history
The award-winning political cartoonist Alan Moir told Beast he was “immensely proud, honoured and a little bemused” to have a cartoon that was originally published in the Sydney Morning Herald in 2012 included in the Oxford Illustrated History of the World, a “richly illustrated, truly global history of our world – from the emergence of homo sapiens to the twenty-first century”.
Edited by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto and published by Oxford University Press this month, the editors of the book sought his permission to include the work, which is the only political cartoon in the book. Boiling the Toad was published in the Herald on 14 May 2012.
Changing the date
The countdown to Triple J’s Hottest 100 has begun despite the protestations of the communications minister, Mitch Fifield, and the broadcaster’s own former chairman.
Don't half arse it. #Hottest100 voting closes in a week. Get yours in now https://t.co/Iu9AFLJyaY pic.twitter.com/ubXq0xTLNY
— triple j (@triplej) January 15, 2019
Last year Triple J changed the date of the popular event away from 26 January because “in recent years the Hottest 100 has become a symbol in the debate about Australia Day”. Voting closes on Tuesday.
“The Hottest 100 wasn’t created as an Australia Day celebration,” the youth network said. “It was created to celebrate your favourite songs of the past year. It should be an event that everyone can enjoy together – for both the musicians whose songs make it in and for everyone listening in Australia and around the world. This is really important to us.”
It was revealed late last year that the new date was the source of great tension between the former chairman Justin Milne and the former managing director Michelle Guthrie.
Ad nauseam
In a move not likely to increase its relevance or improve its image, the TV Week Logie awards has introduced a new category. Not for excellence in acting or writing, but for the most popular TV commercial produced for Australian audiences. Not even the best crafted TV commercial, but the most popular one. The 61st TV Week Logie awards will be held at the Star Gold Coast in Queensland in June and broadcast on Nine and 9Now.
Sky after Mark
Sky News Australia under Paul Whittaker continues to revamp its management line-up. After hiring former Seven news director Chris Willis last year, Sky has now picked up Nine’s director of morning TV, Mark Calvert – just weeks after he left Nine.
Along with Stefanovic, Calvert was a victim of Nine’s attempt to draw a line under the public relations nightmare that dogged Today after the Stefanovic marriage bust-up and the departure of Lisa Wilkinson to Ten.
Calvert started in his newly created role of head of programming and special events this week, taking responsibility for the channel’s national affairs commentary programs. Hello Paul Murray, Andrew Bolt and Peta Credlin. They might prove more of a handful than Stefanovic and his big fat Mexican wedding.
Acting program director Greg Byrnes, the guy who was in charge when Sky hosted neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell, has had Calvert put in over his head.
Whittaker said: “We’re delighted to welcome Mark to the Sky News team in this senior role, as we prepare for a bumper election year. We believe we have brought together a highly qualified editorial and programming team to lead our news and national affairs coverage in 2019.”
Calvert said: “There’s great energy and ambition at Sky News under Paul’s leadership, and I can’t wait to join him and the team. It’s going to be a huge year for news, and Sky News will be in the thick of it.”
.@TheCalebBond: When are we going to start talking about toxic femininity? Is toxic femininity the fact women expect their husbands to be people who provide, are employed, sensible, and can bring up children?
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) January 16, 2019
MORE: https://t.co/oTXdLQ4sg3 #gleeso pic.twitter.com/bcJwdUO8vq
Perhaps Calvert could give young News Corp columnist Caleb Bond his own show on After Dark in 2019. Bond has already qualified as a Sky commentator by delivering arguably the worst take on the Gillette ad so far: “What about toxic femininity?”
