Sam Newman is no stranger to broadcasting authorities, having twice been in breach of the broadcasting codes for his antics on the Footy Show. His response on Wednesday’s AFL Footy Show to the Eddie McGuire comments are now being looked at by those same authorities. The original broadcast by McGuire and co on Triple M may also be the subject of an investigation if enough complaints are made. The Australian Communications and Media Authority told Weekly Beast there had been complaints about Triple M and Nine but the broadcasters have to respond to them before the authority launches an investigation.
After McGuire and Triple M had made their apologies, Newman stirred things up again with an angry tirade aimed at Caroline Wilson and her supporters, whom he called “excrement”. Newman defended his mate McGuire and said: “The jig’s up Caro, honestly and truly. You are becoming an embarrassment. Even if you were under water, you’d still be talking.”
In 2009 the Acma found Nine had breached the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice when Newman dressed a female mannequin as Wilson in a segment that “provoked severe ridicule against the journalist on the grounds of gender”. In 2010 Newman was found in breach when he made fun of a Malaysian man who was marrying an older woman, by saying he was a monkey. Acma found Nine in breach because Newman had ridiculed the man on the basis of colour and race. Nine agreed to pay $200,000 to charity in the event of any future breach by Newman but that undertaking expired in 2012.
The clue’s in the name
The strangest word on the McGuire affair went to the Age, for which Caroline Wilson writes. It would appear Caro’s own editors are unaware that Wilson is not on Twitter and that a fake Twitter account @caro_whine is not the real deal. You’d think the name would be something of a giveaway.
The Age reported that Wilson had “responded on Twitter”, saying she had no comment. It included a screen shot of her tweet.
The Age doesn't realise one of its most respected journos isn't on Twitter and it's a parody account? pic.twitter.com/fq97Yohjux
— Rob Harris (@rharris334) June 19, 2016
Spoiler al... oh, sorry
The idea of a spoiler alert is to warn fans that something is about to be revealed and they should look away. But in a story about the latest episode of Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black, Fairfax’s smh.com.au made it impossible for fans to look away when it put the substance of the plot development into the headline. [SPOILER ALERT! The image is at the bottom of this story.]
Mindfully driving the nation to its full potential
Michelle Guthrie, the new ABC managing director, has been in the job for a couple of months now. We haven’t heard a lot from her except in her first interview, with the Weekend Australian magazine. We learned that she does yoga and spent three weeks in India on a meditation retreat before arriving at Ultimo. Next month there is an opportunity to hear Guthrie speak in person. All you have to do is pay News Corp Australia the tidy sum of $299 (early bird price) for the privilege.
Guthrie is a headline speaker at Creative Country, a forum staged by the Australian that will cover “how corporate Australia can harness creativity to drive the nation to meet its full potential”. Guthrie will share a platform with the News Corp executive chairman, Michael Miller, the president of the Business Council of Australia, Catherine Livingstone, the executive chairman of NBN Co, Ziggy Switkowski, and the head of engineering at Google Australia and New Zealand, Alan Noble. But we can’t wait to hear how the conference MC introduces Guthrie, as he is none other than the ABC basher-in-chief, Chris Kenny, the Australian’s associate editor.
Nauru calling
Nine reporter and Daily Telegraph columnist Caroline Marcus became only the second journalist in two and a half years to be legally allowed into Nauru. But even before her report aired on A Current Affair on Monday, she found herself under attack. She was keen to defend herself and appeared on Andrew Bolt’s Foxtel show and Ben Fordham’s radio program to insist that her report from the island was not a snow job. But her claim was somewhat undermined by her retweeting of comments that minimised the suffering of the asylum seekers and refugees she had just interviewed. “When I was homeless 3yrs ago, I would have loved free fuel, scooter accommodation and supported education”, said one comment retweeted by Marcus. In the Tele she criticised the “love media” and said refugee advocates had misrepresented her. “Still, many average Australians would have watched the story last night and wondered what all the complaining was about: on the whole, the refugees on Nauru are well-fed, most live in relative comfort and they’re free to move around as they please.”
Marcus is used to the sort of attention she got this week. She earlier wrote a piece headlined “If you disagree with me ... you’re a racist” and last year memorably contributed to the coverage of the two Australians on death row in Indonesia, saying: “Bali Nine smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran don’t deserve our sympathy; they deserve a bullet.”
At war with the warriors
News Corp columnist Rita Panahi likes to throw insults around. Her favourite is to call someone an “SJW” – a social justice warrior. Panahi called academic Martin Hirst a “rent-seeking simpleton full of bitterness & bile”, in a conversation that indirectly led to him being sacked by Deakin university. Working for the same masthead is no protection against Panahi’s wrath. She thinks the whole Eddie McGuire furore is “absurd”.
“Is Wilson immune from criticism and mockery because she is female? That would be akin to me declaring anyone who doesn’t agree with every word I write is a sexist or racist. It’s disappointing to see empowered Western women so keen to wrap themselves in the warm cloak of victimhood.”
So when News Corp colleague Richard Hinds, a sport columnist with the Telegraph, disagreed with her column, she was quick to dismiss him as an “ageing SJW”.
That SPOILER ALERT in full
