It’s the story that first caused friction between Nine’s Canberra bureau and the Today show, and even, as Diary revealed, prompted Kristina Keneally to go on a rant “in something between a shout and a scream” at a junior female producer at the network.
But now, the media tornado that is Andrew Probyn’s 7.30 investigation on the Ruby Princess has settled over the ABC.
And the 7.30 story is causing big divisions at Aunty: with Probyn himself and ABC news supremo Gaven Morris on one side, and Media Watch’s Paul Barry on the other. But political adversaries Peter Dutton and Kristina Keneally are also in the mix, as the story becomes a pawn in a wider political blame game.
The ABC political editor alleged that an Australian Border Force (ABF) officer mistook negative flu tests for COVID results on the now-notorious cruise ship, helping to set 2700 passengers loose.
However, the man in charge of the NSW Ruby Princess inquiry, Bret Walker SC, criticised Probyn’s story, concluding: “It is a pity that serious journalism…seems to have proceeded on this erroneous basis of a part played by the ABF.”
But it was criticism from within Aunty that really riled Probyn and Morris.
On last Monday’s Media Watch, Barry echoed Walker’s finding: “In the end, the incompetence of the Border Force was not a key factor. And the ABC’s suggestion was wrong.”
Seemingly primed for Barry’s on-air jab, Probyn live-tweeted as Media Watch aired at 9.25PM, tagging @TheRealPBarry and bluntly stating: “I stand by the story.”
At 9.30PM, Morris also tagged @abcmediawatch as he live-tweeted: “@abcnews stands by the reporting of @andrewprobyn.”
Then Morris’s news team defied Media Watch on the ABC website in a section headed: “Correcting the record: Correcting inaccuracies in media reports about the ABC”. It strongly defended Probyn’s reporting as “diligent”.
And the very next night, on Tuesday, Probyn thumbed his nose once more, this time on the 7PM ABC news. He again alleged an ABF officer mistook passengers testing “negative to the coronavirus when in fact they had tested negative to the flu”, highlighting it as a critical mistake.
This prompted online mutual backslapping between Probyn and Keneally — with Probyn retweeting a Keneally post strongly backing his story.
Now, that’s what you call doubling down.
Alberici’s new life after the ABC
With last week’s settlement of ex-ABC journalist Emma Alberici’s Fair Work Commission case against the ABC, Diary had one question for her lawyer Chris McArdle: did her settlement include a confidentiality agreement?
“Abso-f … ing-lutely! You can quote me on that,” McArdle told us on Friday.
If that’s the case, let’s hope the agreement didn’t include a “non-disparagement” clause, generally standard in these matters.
On Friday, the day after formally reaching agreement to leave Aunty after 18 years, Alberici let loose with Twitter attacks against ABC news supremo Gaven Morris and ex-PM Malcolm Turnbull.
First she accused Morris of wanting to call her final payment from the ABC “a termination payout, no doubt so he could tell the world I was fired for incompetence or some such” — despite “the enormous toll his actions have taken on my mental health”.
She also alleged Morris “refused to allow my payout to be called ‘damages’ ”, meaning parties for Alberici and the ABC “haggled for days”. And she “refused” an offer to go to Foreign Correspondent, after Morris wouldn’t issue a “press release … making it clear that I had not failed in the role of Chief Economics Correspondent”.
Following a fiery pro-Alberici tweet from Quentin Dempster, she then turned her gaze on Malcolm Turnbull, dragging in Morris as she accused the ex-PM of bullying the ABC into a backdown on her 2018 corporate tax stories. “Just cos you bully people doesn’t make you correct …. The countless letters you sent to the ABC were ridiculous and unbecoming of a PM,” she tweeted.
Turnbull fired back: “Pointing out factual errors in a journalist’s work is not bullying … It is a pity publication of your lawyer’s letter revived this issue as it distracts from your many achievements.”
Meanwhile that morning, another departing big name at a rival network, Seven’s Melissa Doyle, was a study in contrast. She broke news of her own redundancy “with pride, satisfaction and gratitude”, even praising Seven owner Kerry Stokes for his “constant support”.
But back at the ABC, Alberici’s Twitter tirade annoyed some prominent on and off-air ABC identities. One, for example, contacted Diary, unsolicited, to say that despite their public silence, they were “upset” on Morris’s behalf for the attacks on him.
Meanwhile, Alberici supporters called out ABC on-air identities on Twitter on Friday for their unwillingness to publicly back her.
Word has it ABC execs were bracing themselves for how to respond if any more feisty Alberici posts lobbed.
Attention has quickly turned to Alberici’s post-ABC life — and the potential fallout for Aunty.
Alberici revealed she’d “been made no offers from anyone in the media”. McArdle clarifies to Diary: “Emma’s feeling at the moment is her future isn’t journalism. She’ll probably go out and make a quid.”
But looming on the horizon is her planned memoir about her life in journalism. McArdle tells us: “That’s probably going to be what she does over the next year. She’s got an advance and a due date.” And that could yet cause tensions, as the book just happens to be published by — you guessed it — Turnbull’s publisher, Hardie Grant.
Will the book have anything to say about other ABC personalities? McArdle would only say: “Emma will not be defaming anybody.”
Maybe Emma can get her stablemate Malcolm to launch it!
Emma’s $20k gig canned
Lost in the media storm that surrounded The Australian’s revelation on Friday that Emma Alberici had settled her case with the ABC was a small detail from her July legal letter to ABC managing director David Anderson.
It was that a $20,000 commission was offered — and then cancelled in June — for Alberici to host an event celebrating the completion of the NBN’s construction.
So let’s get this straight: one taxpayer-funded body was initially offering the employee of another taxpayer-funded body $20K to host a single gig.
Clearly, the taxpayer tab is where the money’s at.
Karl’s diversity diatribe
A lot of airtime was spent last week on a “diversity report” from Media Diversity Australia last week that found three-quarters of those on Australian TV screens are from Anglo-Celtic backgrounds, with Nine having the highest Anglo-Celtic score at 88 per cent.
That claim didn’t go down well with Karl Stefanovic. With free time on his hands in self-isolation last week, Karl fired off a missive in Nine’s defence, soon after the report lobbed and just before he tested COVID-negative.
“I’m not sure how diverse you need to be to qualify for diverse, but I’m of Yugoslav, German and British heritage with a surname Stefanovic,” he wrote.
“I used to be called a wog at school. I’m proud of my heritage. I’m pretty sure it’s diverse and Nine have always supported that.”
And as one of the 12 per cent at Nine who is not Anglo-Celtic, Karl the proud “wog” is starting to cut through with his diverse audience.
With an average of 231,000 viewers last week, Today trailed Sunrise by just 36,000 viewers. Diary calculates that’s the smallest weekly margin since Karl was removed from Today in late 2018 after his OTT Mexican wedding.
Masked Covid cluster
Ten has been keeping up a brave face over seven positive COVID-19 tests on the show The Masked Singer over the weekend.
But Diary’s spies on the show’s Melbourne set tell us the story behind the scenes has been dramatic.
The show isn’t mucking around, testing all 200 production staff, most who will now face not one, but two hotel quarantines — because they’re mainly from Sydney.
But even stars are on the run to escape the dreaded virus. Of the show’s four panellists, we’re told two (Dannii Minogue and Dave Hughes) are self-isolating in homes, while the other two (Jackie O and Urzila Carlson) are in hotel quarantine. The secret remaining Masked Singers are also in hotels.
Minogue (also tested) is on a separate cottage on the family estate of her parents in Canterbury in Melbourne’s east. Hughes has also been allowed home because he is able to quarantine from his family in separate quarters.
Meanwhile, HAZMAT-masked host Osher Gunsberg and others are quarantining in hotel rooms, awaiting COVID test results that will start trickling out late Monday.
But worse, quarantined interstate production staff had booked flights to Sydney on the weekend, straight after the scheduled filming on Saturday of its finale, so they could start new 14-day hotel quarantines.
But staff are in fear of more positive tests, and that is only magnified by the fact the cluster of dancers affected were involved in nearly every masked act during the season. That means stars and others are very nervous, given many were on set for the shooting of a “finale reunion” on Saturday.
As one production member texted Diary: “Lots of tears.”
Bolt for 2022?
Andrew Bolt has signed a new deal with Sky News that will see him through to the end of 2021.
Diary caught Bolt on Friday: “It’s a new one-year deal,” he told us. “I’m looking at the papers now.”
But will he be back for 2022? As we revealed last week, Bolt is relocating about 100km out of Melbourne. Cryptically, he confided he had fleetingly entertained retirement before renewing with Sky.
“I’m struck by the genre of gentlemen who, once they’ve earned enough, devote themselves to other things. As long as I’m not eating baked beans for breakfast, lunch and tea as an old age pensioner, that’ll be enough for me.”
But he now hints retirement can wait until the 2022 election.
“If it gets red hot before the next federal election, I may not want to be throwing pillows at the TV — so maybe I’ll stay on. The main thing is I can also enjoy the life of a semi-retired person and read books, and also look at a painting or two.”
New Seven legal fight
As former Sunrise host Melissa Doyle parted almost joyously from Seven on Friday, praising everyone on the way out, the departure of another Seven presenter hasn’t gone as smoothly.
Diary has learnt Weekend Sunrise’s Simon Reeve has engaged top employment lawyer John Laxon to file a statement of claim against the network.
We’re told Reeve, who’s been with Seven 20 years and also hosted Million Dollar Minute and It’s Academic, learnt at the end of June he was being “let go”. His dispute will focus on the terms of his contract and his claimed right to a proper payout.
Seven had no comment.
Meanwhile, what were the reasons for the departure of the polished Doyle?
Put it down to the growing graveyard of canned news shows. As one Seven insider notes: “When you don’t have shows, you don’t need presenters.”
White House Outsiders
Sky News’s Outsiders inside the White House? It’s better than an outside chance.
Diary has learnt two members of the pro-Donald Trump Outsiders team, Rita Panahi and James Morrow, are heading over for the US election.
With Sky already using our former US ambassador and Trump whisperer Joe Hockey as a contributor, there are hopes he could pull some strings for his Outsider colleagues. Hockey is himself apparently trying to land an interview with Trump for Sky.
Sky is sending a full team for what could be the most watched election ever.
Other personalities Diary has heard will brave two weeks of quarantine on the way home will include breakfast host P eter Stefanovic, Chris Kenny and political reporter Annelise Nielsen, who’s already on the ground in Washington.
We’re told several of the team are ready to stay in the US after the November 3 poll, in the extraordinary event its result is contested … as some predict.
Jubelin for 60 Mins?
Former top homicide detective Gary Jubelin is looking to his next media gig in the wake of his departure from the NSW police force last year.
Diary hears Jubelin is in discussions for a TV-only deal as an on-air talent with Nine’s 60 Minutes, with contract talks for a set number of appearances each year.
Jubelin is as close to a celebrity cop as Australia has. He was, of course, portrayed by actor Matt Nable as the lead in Underbelly in 2012. On Thursday, he released a memoir, “I Catch Killers”, that by day’s end was topping bestseller lists, built on the success of his top-rating podcast by the same name for News Corp papers.
We’re told there are talks between 60 Minutes’ Kirsty Thomson and the ex-cop’s agency, The Fordham Company, following a lengthy August 16 profile of Jubelin on the show.
True crime is proving crucial content for COVID-affected TV networks. Jubelin reached peak prominence as detective in charge of investigating the disappearance of three-year old William Tyrrell, a case which has gripped Australia.
But on the flip side, Jubelin’s dogged determination to find Tyrrell’s presumed killer ended his police career after he was convicted of unlawfully recording conversations with a suspect. Incensed supporters outside court lashed Jubelin’s prosecution, talking him up as crime victims’ best friend.
With his profile raised by his book and two new News Corp podcast series about to air, a veritable festival of Jubelin looms.
The Age’s job ad
Nine was again advertising in its own newspapers on the weekend to help it search for a new editor of The Age.
But some of The Age’s diaspora, still fired up about alleged meddling from its Sydney head office, aren’t thrilled with what the ad implies about the new editor’s status. The ad noted the position’s “peers” would include the Nine newspapers’ Sydney-based “Life Editor”.
Blueblood ex-The Age publisher and editor-in-chief Ranald Macdonald asked a restricted Facebook group: “Ask yourself: what is the real authority of the next editor of The Age?” He also took issue with a line in the ad pointing to a key part of the role as “building partnerships with key Victorian organisations”.
That line seemed to irk Macdonald: “What? I thought the idea of the editor was to lead and run an independent newspaper. Amazing and depressing.”
But one Nine insider retorted yesterday: “The Age editor’s status hasn’t changed for 20 years.”
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