Editors at Murdoch’s South Australian masthead, the Advertiser, could not have imagined that hours after they published the first instalment of a major advertising series, Defending Australia, the Trump administration would announce a review of Aukus.
Sponsors for the series included the South Australian government, ASC, Babcock, BAE Systems, Hanwha Defence Australia, KBR and Deloitte. The acres of print coverage about building submarines in the state was to culminate in a summit in Canberra’s Parliament House on Monday 16 June.
Apart from defending Australia, the focus of the series was finding skilled workers for “Australia’s biggest-ever project, Aukus nuclear-powered submarines”. On Thursday the ‘Tiser ran a double page spread about plans for a $2bn transformation of the Osborne Naval Shipyard into the world’s “most advanced manufacturing centre” for the Aukus program.
The stories were pre-written and spruiked plans for nuclear submarine construction, complete with maps and diagrams and interviews with defence boffins.
Friday’s paper went ahead with the eight-page Defending Australia lift-out but its front page acknowledged the roadblock with a big stamp saying “Under Review” and it reported that the future of our nuclear submarine deal with the US is in doubt.
Kenny, Kelly and Stutchbury sign up for Israel trip
It was a public relations coup for the Australia-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC). The three journalists the lobby group took to Israel were so enthused by the experience that they all wrote long features upon return: the three main pieces totalled 10,000 words.
While these sponsored trips are an annual occurrence, attended by journalists across the media industry, this year’s comes at a time when the relationship between Australia and Israel is more fraught than ever.
In The Australian, which sent two journalists on the sponsored trip, Paul Kelly’s article in the weekend paper came in at just under 5,000 words. He followed that up with an appearance on Sky News Australia with Sharri Markson in which he reflected on his visit.
The editor-at-large was one of a media delegation that visited Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, as well as the sites of Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack.
Among the dignitaries lined up to speak was Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, families of IDF troops fighting in Gaza and survivors of the Nova music festival.
Kelly’s colleague, Chris Kenny, wrote a 2,500 word feature and also provided live crosses on Sky News, where he has his own program.
“This is the diabolic dilemma deliberately created by Hamas,” Kenny wrote. “Every time Israel is criticised for its actions in Gaza, Hamas scores a propaganda win. The deaths of Palestinian civilians are central to the Hamas strategy. That is why Hamas shelters underground in its extensive tunnel network, leaving Gazan civilians above ground and exposed.”
Michael Stutchbury, the outgoing editor-at-large of the Australian Financial Review, filed a news story from Israel and last week reported on the accusations he heard while there of “betrayal” and “backstabbing” by the Australian government in a 2,500 word feature.
All three men disclosed the trip was hosted by AIJAC at the end of their articles. AIJAC has not responded to a request for comment.
Fungi furore
With a criminal trial involving mushrooms dominating the news cycle it’s no surprise the Daily Telegraph devoted its front page to the fungi on Wednesday. Or was it? The exclusive story Magic Mushrooms Found Growing at State Parliament had nothing to do with the Erin Patterson triple murder trial but was a stunt handed on a plate to the tabloid by the Legalise Cannabis party MP, Jeremy Buckingham.
“A crop of illegal drugs sprang up at NSW parliament last week, metres away from unsuspecting NSW police special constables,” state political editor James Doherty wrote. He followed up his remarkable yarn with a video.
“Psychedelic ‘magic’ mushrooms started growing outside the main entrance to Australia’s oldest parliament after a period of heavy rain, right under the noses of state politicians, bureaucrats and law enforcement.”
The point of this story was lost on some of the Tele readers too, with one commenting: “So a naturally occurring fungi, whose spores are wind blown, are growing in the gardens of the NSW Parliament House. I have probably had these growing in my yard under the right conditions. What will become a news story next? Breaking news, there are sharks in the waters around Mrs Macquarie’s Chair.”
Buckingham told Weekly Beast he wanted to publicise what he sees as the excessive penalty for magic mushroom possession and he approached the Tele. He made clear that he spotted the mushrooms growing near the stairs and he did not plant them there.
Should anyone accuse the Tele of handling illegal drugs, Doherty reported that “following consultations with authorities, the Telegraph handed the samples over to NSW police for appropriate disposal”.
Casey Briggs takes top numbers role
ABC News has named one of its cadetship positions in honour of Antony Green – who has taken on the grand title election analyst emeritus – the managing director, Hugh Marks, announced at an event at Ultimo last week. It will be awarded each year to a cadet specialising in data analysis, statistics, mathematics or AI skills.
Following Green’s retirement after 90 elections, Casey Briggs is now the ABC’s chief election and data analyst. Briggs’s first Australian election in the new role will be the upcoming Tasmanian poll.
Green has revealed he is donating three decades’ worth of his personal comprehensive election guides to the National Library of Australia so they can be preserved in perpetuity.
Ad Standards blasts ‘green’ gas claims
The self-regulatory watchdog for advertising, Ad Standards, has found an Australian Gas Networks (AGN) advertisement which ran on Ten’s MasterChef Australia breached environmental advertising standards and has been taken off air.
The ad said: “It’s not just the innovative dishes that come out of this kitchen that will surprise you, it’s also the gas. The MasterChef kitchen is cooking with renewable gas again, and at AGN we’re working towards a future where renewable gas could one day be used in your kitchen. With all the control you love”.
In its ruling, Ad Standards said the claim was “vague and does not make it clear that the plan to fully transition to renewable gas, sourced from hydrogen and biomethane, is not expected to be realised until 2050”.
Last year environmentalists accused the hit reality TV show of greenwashing after Ten announced sponsorship deals with AGN, a subsidiary of Australian Gas Infrastructure Group, which delivers gas to more than 2m homes and businesses.
Founder of climate communications charity, Comms Declare, Belinda Noble, who lodged the complaint, said AGN had been found to have repeatedly breached ad standards on the subject. “Australian consumers are still being duped into thinking that fossil gas is a climate solution.”
Environment Victoria, which launched a campaign exposing MasterChef’s greenwashing, told Weekly Beast: “We are pleased that Ad Standards have vindicated the call to expose the misinformation and false solutions from the Australian Gas Networks”.
7.30 banks on new recruit
The ABC 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson told viewers on Thursday’s program that Jacob Greber would replace Laura Tingle as political editor.
A former Australian Financial Review economics and US correspondent, Greber only joined the ABC as chief digital political correspondent a year ago, but his story-breaking and analysis skills have impressed.
Greber, who takes up the new role on 7 July, paid tribute to Tingle, now the ABC’s global affairs editor as “an absolute class act and fearless force of nature”.
“I’m humbled and thrilled to pick up where she’s left off,” he said.
