When Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes crew were detained in Beirut for their part in a botched child kidnap attempt, many of the finest members of the Australian press pack were dispatched to cover the story. As if having four reporters and assorted participants in jail wasn’t enough, things got a little interesting for at least one member of the following party. Charles Miranda, the Europe correspondent for News Corp Australia, filing for the Herald Sun and the Daily Telegraph, was detained by Hezbollah.
Miranda, based in London, had flown into Beirut and reported on the 60 Minutes drama for most of last week. “It’s an absolute circus,” Miranda told ABC Radio from outside a Beirut court. But then Miranda suddenly disappeared from the story and another journalist, David Murray, was flown in from Brisbane to fill the gap. Why would he leave in the middle of the biggest story on his beat? Well a piece expressing dismay that the abduction attempt was carried out in such a dangerous spot may well have had something to do with it. “Lebanese security forces have expressed dismay someone would attempt a kidnap mission not just at peak hour on one of the busiest streets in Beirut but in the district of Dahieh — the infamous stronghold of the Shiite Islamist Hezbollah,” he wrote. “Security on this bustling central shopping strip is significant with CCTV, military checkpoints, heavily-armed patrols and roaming Hezbollah agents distinguishable in their tanned jackets conducting random checks on locals.”
According to sources in Beirut, Miranda had illegally photographed the impounded boat, then blundered into Hezbollah territory where he and his photographer were detained for 90 minutes. After the harrowing experience Miranda headed for the airport and left. This note was pinned to the end of his story after the incident: “*News Corp Australia was questioned for an hour and a half by uniformed Hezbollah agents on motor scooters shortly after driving into the district. Mugshots were taken and passports examined with details of five years worth of travel having to be explained. The crew was then escorted through the area for a defined set time limit.”
A spokesman for News Corp Australia told Guardian Australia that Miranda had left the country for personal reasons.
Friendly fire
Hours after Tara Brown and her colleagues were released by the Beirut court, along with the Australian woman at the heart of the fiasco, Sally Faulkner, Nine announced an inevitable internal inquiry. Former 60 Minutes executive producer Gerald Stone will lead the review, also including Nine executive (and former boss of A Current Affair) David Hurley and Rachel Launder, in-house counsel. “At no stage did anyone from Nine or 60 Minutes intend to act in any way that made them susceptible to charges that they breached the law or to become part of the story that is Sally’s story,” Hugh Marks, Nine’s CEO, said in an email obtained by Australian Associated Press. “But we did become part of the story and we shouldn’t have.”
As they welcome Brown back, Nine executives face a barrage of unanswered questions. Marks insisted that the story “not only is in the public interest but also one the public is interested in”. Contrary to a suggestion by ABC’s Media Watch last week, Beast understands that Nine news director Darren Wick, sent to coordinate the legal effort in Beirut, did not know about the story before the arrests and will not lose his job. Marks made a point of singling out Wick in his note for staff. “We should all drop in to Wickie’s office when he is back and say thanks.”
While the 60 Minutes crew – reporter Brown, producer Stephen Rice, cameraman Ben Williamson and sound recordist David Bailment – were locked up in Lebanon, friends worked hard to portray them as nice people and ordinary mums and dads.
But pleas from Nine stars Tracy Grimshaw and Karl Stefanovic and network veteran Ray Martin attracted mixed sympathy even at home. Joining these supporters was Martin’s writer/producer daughter Jenna Martin who wrote a piece chiding the critics for news.com.au. “I am very sympathetic to the plight of the crew involved, and of their families, and I’m offended by the lack of support they have received from members of their own profession — people who frankly should know better,” Jenna Martin said. “In my lifetime, dad covered warzones, coups, and natural disasters among countless, dangerous others.
“I wonder if the same accusations would have been hurled at Four Corners if it was them, not 60, who found themselves banged up abroad. I don’t remember any cries of cowboy journalism when the Four Corners crew were themselves arrested in Malaysia last month, despite the fact that local laws were breached in that case too.”
Well, not exactly. The Four Corners crew was detained in Malaysia after attempting to question PM Najib Razak about serious corruption charges and was released without charge.
Combing the evidence
In what is almost certainly the biggest Australian media story of the year, every detail is being mulled over – even the state of Brown’s hair. Both the Australian and the Daily Telegraph reported that Brown had denied having a blow wave before her court appearance in Beirut on Thursday. “I don’t even have my hairbrush in here,” she said. “Did they seriously think we have some sort of beauty salon here?” Brown said. There was a great deal of interest in Brown’s blonde bob after it was seen being ruffled up by Lebanese police while they pushed her into a car. The caption on a publicity shot of Brown in the Tele read: “Usual look ... 60 Minutes journalist, Tara Brown, denied she had a blowwave to look more glamerous [sic]“.
Bolt’s exciting time
Andrew Bolt’s new show on Sky News will debut at 7pm on Anzac Day. Bolt whose columns are published in the Herald Sun, the Daily Telegraph, the Courier Mail and the Advertiser, will present his political talk show live from a Melbourne studio every weeknight. “This is the most exciting time to be on Sky News talking about politics,” Bolt said. “But there are many other things to talk about that other shows don’t dare discuss frankly. My aim for the show: to be the place where arguments aren’t shut down but tested. I am into challenging opinions, not confirming them.”
The Age of man
The Sydney Morning Herald and the Age have appointed a raft of people to senior positions after a restructure and – apart from Judith Whelan becoming editor of the SMH under editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir – the line-up is pretty blokey. On the SMH three out of four editing roles were filled by men and on the Age only two of the ten editing roles were filled by women. Behind the scenes the SMH is still dropping long-term contributors. After letting columnists Wendy Harmer and John Birmingham go, the SMH has also dropped its daily television writer Ben Pobjie. The Sun-Herald has also parted ways with veteran television writer David Dale, a former editor of the Bulletin whose Tribal Mind column was published every Sunday in the Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age.
Meanwhile as we predicted last month tabloid queen and Daily Telegraph staffer Gemma Jones has been appointed national chief of staff at the Australian. Jones is taking the role from Petra Rees who has been promoted to deputy editor. Jones is a former chief of staff for the Tele under Paul Whittaker, now editor of the Oz.
In praise of Col Pot
It’s been fun reading all the eulogies for retiring New York Post editor Col Allan (aka “Col Pot”) in News Corp’s Australian papers. Former News CEO John Hartigan, who worked with Allan when he edited the Daily Telegraph,described him as “a genius in prosecuting the craft of journalism,” in the Australian. In the same edition of the paper, media editor Darren Davidson speculated that Fairfax missed a big talent when they failed to hire Allan 40 years ago when he turned up for a cadetship interview. “It’s a decision that Fairfax would come to rue for decades.”
In his column Mark Day wasn’t short of hyperbole stating that Allan was “the standout editor of his generation”. Maybe he was inside Holt Street where his reputation as a hard-drinking, bad-tempered editor was made. But in the Big Apple where the New York Post haemorrhaged money for 15 years under Allan it’s a different story. The Post is a loss-making newspaper said to cost Rupert Murdoch as much as $80m a year. As for Allan himself, he said little, and we mean very little. He gave one quote to the Australian: “The real point is young Australians should fly the coop. America. Europe. Talent works everywhere.”
