By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
At a time Donald Trump’s Aussie fixer Dylan Howard should be celebrating his man’s return to the White House, he’s instead like a bear with a sore paw.
Howard was a key player in US tabloid the National Enquirer’s “catch and kill” strategy to bury negative stories about Trump in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, including a pay-off to porn star Stormy Daniels.
But ever since he slinked back into Australia last year ahead of the president’s hush money trial in New York, Howard has kept popping up like Where’s Wally at various Victorian pubs, cafes and coastal locations.
First he was said to be nursing a back injury in his parent’s coastal Lorne home that precluded him from flying back to the States to give evidence in the case which ultimately found Trump guilty of 34 felony charges.
Then he was spotted out and about at a bar with retired AFL legend Wayne Carey.
Now an eagle-eyed CBD source has seen the same pair enjoying a breakfast catch-up in Albert Park.
Howard was heard bemoaning his spot of bad luck, showing off a strapped hand that he told his cafe compadre was as a result of a second-degree burn.
A more unkind observer might point to the irony in a man who burnt plenty of people during his journalistic endeavours now finding himself on the receiving end of a literal flame.
Howard and Carey enjoyed a relaxed catch-up, bothered only by the presence of the pigeons near their outdoor table at Dundas and Faussett.
Alas, Howard and his American lawyer, John B. Harris, did not respond to requests about his welfare.
Front-page fail
For a News Corp tabloid, it was the front-page splash made in heaven.
“All aboard: Family and partners of illegal boat people given visas to stay permanently,” thundered the headline on the Daily Telegraph, in a story by political reporter Jade Gailberger that also ran on the front of Melbourne’s Herald Sun.
According to that classic pre-election immigration scare yarn, 21,581 partners and family of asylum seekers who arrived by boat before 2013 had been granted permanent Australian visas, based on Department of Home Affairs figures.
Except it wasn’t true. The real number was 2158 – a 10th of what the papers had claimed. Big whoops. While the online copy was quickly amended, a print correction ran on the bottom of page 22 in the Herald Sun and page 20 in the Tele, on Wednesday – so tiny you’d need a magnifying glass to see it.
News Corp didn’t respond to our questions. If we’re being charitable, we’d say it was a simple mistake, one which, as fellow journalists, we can at least empathise with.
In the Canberra bubble, people were less charitable. On Tuesday, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke fired up his X account to take a swing at his Coalition counterpart James Paterson who was quoted in the News Corp story, accusing the senator of making “wild exaggerations” that were “dangerous”.
By Wednesday, while the papers had amended their article, the original print copy remained on Paterson’s website, causing Burke to continue on the offensive, sending a media release titled: “statement on the misinformation spread by shadow minister James Paterson”.
The senator declined to comment on Burke’s spray. But we reckon it’s a telling sign of the febrile political temperature a few months out from an election. The resumption of federal parliament next week should be a lot of fun.
Trip of a lifetime
As horrifying as Donald Trump’s return to the White House may be for progressive ABC-luvvie types, CBD reckons it’ll have little bearing on the “West Wing syndrome” that has left so many Australians more emotionally invested in American politics than our own.
The national broadcaster probably read this mood when it sent a crack team of its biggest stars to the United States last November for the ultimate journalistic vanity assignment – covering the home stretch of Trump v Harris.
On top of the ABC’s three stateside correspondents, Aunty flew over the likes of Insiders host David Speers, 7.30 frontwoman Sarah Ferguson and global affairs editor John Lyons.
Sending all that top-tier talent wasn’t cheap. According to documents released under freedom of information, those trips cost the taxpayer $92,046 – a figure that included flights, accommodation and other expenses including travel allowance, sim cards and internal travel.
And while that might seem like a bit of overkill, the ABC aren’t solely responsible for the aforementioned syndrome, or for convincing their audience that last year’s vote was the most consequential political event in human history.
And before any of the ABC waste watchers over at News Corp get too lathered up about it, the only outlet to match Aunty for presence in the US last November was ... Sky News, of course.
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