Media Diary: All in the timing for Laura Tingle’s ‘excellence’ gong

Just weeks before ABC 7.30’s chief political correspondent made headlines for labelling Australia a ‘racist country’, she picked up a gong for her prowess in journalism.

Laura Tingle picked up a gong for her prowess in journalism and “individual excellence”.

Just weeks before ABC 7.30 chief political correspondent and staff-elected board member Laura Tingle made headlines for labelling Australia a “racist country”, she picked up a gong for her prowess in journalism and “individual excellence”.

Activist group ABC Friends was quick to spread the news last week that Tingle had added another award to her “credentialed career”, but it failed to make any mention of the furore that erupted after Tingle went off script at the Sydney Writers Festival.

The newsletter wrote: “The 2024 ABC Excellence award for individual excellence was given to ABC political supremo Laura Tingle after a process which involved local ABC Friends NSW and ACT branches submitting nominations, which are then short-listed and voted on by the statewide committee.”

ABC Friends NSW and ACT president Tess Howes with ABC journalist Laura Tingle.

The newsletter rattled off a list of previous winners of the ABC Friends award including former 7.30 host Kerry O’Brien, controversial ABC health presenter Dr Norman Swan and radio host Geraldine Doogue.

Tingle’s gong came a fortnight after her now notorious rant about how Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has supposedly encouraged the open abuse of migrants at open home inspections.

Tingle told the festival: “I had this sudden flash of people turning up to try and rent a property or at an auction, and they look a bit different – whatever you define different as – (and) that basically he (Dutton) has given them licence to be abused, and in any circumstance where people feel like they’re missing out.”

Diary asked ABC Friends if Tingle received the award before her showstopper appearance at the Sydney Writers Festival.

President Cassandra Parkinson said: “We presented the award on May 4 to Laura Tingle.”

Timing is everything. Tingle’s outburst at the Sydney event occurred on May 26, by which time the award from the ABC Friends was already stuck on her fridge.

Joker in Seven’s pack

Channel 7’s freshly minted national news boss,Anthony De Ceglie, is forging ahead with his shake-up of the network’s on-air talent, but his latest joker in the pack prompted an outbreak of raised eyebrows across the company’s Sydney headquarters last week

The word is that Sydney’s flagship 6pm news bulletin, fronted by long-serving anchor Mark Ferguson, is set for a new addition.

No, not a journalist, nor a presenter, nor a weatherman.

Please welcome to the 6pm news … funnyman Mark Humphries.

Please, do not adjust your sets.

The satirist, well known to ABC audiences after his lengthy stint as the 7.30 program’s resident skit-head, was seen roaming around Seven’s Eveleigh headquarters last week.

Newsroom moles observed the 38-year-old comedian enjoying a sit-down chat and a cuppa with De Ceglie, and the meeting was apparently punctuated by a laugh or three.

Anyway, it seems Humphries will indeed be given a weekly slot on Seven’s 6pm news, with the hope being that his comedy snacks will deliver a much-needed freshen-up to the staid Sydney bulletin.

Depending on how it goes, Humphries could even jag himself a national segment, so don't despair if you’re not a viewer of Seven’s Sydney news. You’re still a chance!

Over the years, Humphries has been an ABC regular – most recently he was heard documenting his adventures on Sydney trains, and phoning in to ABC Sydney breakfast host Craig Reucassel to talk of his meanderings.

Then there’s the satirical video Humphries made with sacked ABC Radio fill-in host Antoinette Lattouf, in which the pair mocked parents dealing with the conundrum of putting the names of their unborn children down on private school waiting lists.

Humphries’ CV also boasts a few commercial credits, including one for the Climate Council, where he had some fun with car manufacturers over their petrol-guzzling vehicles.

“We’ve got Hondas that are so dirty, they’ve got their Only Fans page,” he joked.

“We’ve got Toyotas that are so polluting they’ll make you say, ‘Oh what a feeling! And that feeling is emphysema’.”

Kinda funny, in context, but how will Humphries’ comedy sit if a particular news bulletin is, say, heavily laden with grief or tragedy?

Our friends at Big Auto’s Aussie Dumping Ground expose the dirty truths of companies like @Toyota_Aus@MazdaAus and @MitsubishiAust.

They don’t mind that Aussies are paying too much for petrol-guzzling, high polluting cars because that’s how they make their profits. pic.twitter.com/nuuF92fQyQ

— Climate Council (@climatecouncil) April 3, 2024

Hiring Humphries is a crazy-brave move from De Ceglie, but remember, this is the same guy who, when he was still the editor-in-chief of The West Australian newspaper earlier this year, faked a newsroom fight with a professional wrestler and then reported it in the masthead’s pages as if it was a genuine news event.

But to give De Ceglie his dues, at least he’s having a crack.

Seven’s news division was in a shambles when he took over from Craig McPherson in April, following the Spotlight/Bruce Lehrmann saga.

Is an in-house satirist the answer? Dunno. But we’ll certainly be watching to find out.

Dusty and Jack

AFL great Dustin Martin does media interviews once in a blue moon, and despite every AFL journo in the land asking for a quote in the lead-up to his 300th game on the weekend, the Richmond champion wasn’t about to break the habit of a lifetime.

Despite Dusty’s obvious disdain for the media, Fox Footy bosses were holding out faint hope that if there was anyone who could twist the triple premiership and three-time Norm Smith medallist’s arm to do an interview it would be former teammate turned commentator Jack Riewoldt.

But if Riewoldt thought an exclusive post-match interview with his old mate was a done deal, he didn’t let on during the week.

Dustin Martin of the Richmond Tigers is interviewed by former teammate Jack Riewoldt after this 300th match. Picture: Getty Images

The retired star described Martin during the week as “forever the rock star of Punt Road”, but was also keen to remind AFL 360 hosts Mark Robinson and Gerard Whateley that Dusty “clearly doesn’t like doing the media”.

So how did Riewoldt pull off the unthinkable and get Martin to open up in an emotional post-match interview on Saturday evening, even after the Tigers had been smashed by 48 points?

It wasn’t all smooth sailing.

Just prior to the final siren, Riewoldt got caught in the crowd rushing down from the Fox Footy commentary box on level 3 at the MCG, after discovering the lifts weren’t working.

Fox Footy executive producer Leigh Carlson told Diary: “Jack then had to find his way down the stairs and through Richmond fans, and he’s a star in his own right, and to work his way to the boundary line was quite a journey for him.”

In the end, Riewoldt made it on to the hallowed turf in time, but even then the Dusty debrief was not a done deal.

“It’s Dustin Martin so anything could happen … we still didn’t know at that stage that it was 100 per cent going to happen,” Carlson said.

“But when you send out a three-time premiership teammate (Riewoldt) it’s probably hard to say ‘no’ in some ways.

“After Dusty did his little lap of honour, we totally didn’t expect that he would talk but we thought, ‘surely he’s not going to give his mate Jack a ‘don’t argue’ ’.

“We were just rapt that we got the interview.”

Congratulations to Dustin Martin on 300 games 👑

📺 Watch #AFLTigersHawks LIVE on ch. 504 or stream on Kayo: https://t.co/c5VwhmeFbG
✍️ BLOG https://t.co/2WfBItRxMP
🔢 MATCH CENTRE https://t.co/Ff7CPjNcR8pic.twitter.com/ZLlL0zrt9w

— Fox Footy (@FOXFOOTY) June 15, 2024

In front of a crowd of 92,311 fans – predominantly Tigers supporters – Martin lapped up the praise and said: “I love the Tiger Army so much, I love the club so much, it means the absolute world to me. All the love I received this week has meant the absolute world to me.”

But it was his parting words that provided a “drop mic moment”, Carlson said.

Was Dusty about to retire?

Riewoldt: “Look forward to seeing you in two weeks against Freo?”

Martin replied: “Yeah, mate, freshen up for the bye and we’ll see how we go!”

Well played, Dusty. And nice work, Jack!

Pool cam

TV stations in Adelaide are testing the waters and following what many networks interstate already do – pool camera crews and spit out the pressers to rival networks.

To many in the media this makes sense in an era of newsroom cost-cutting.

Seven’s newly installed news director, Mark Mooney, issued a note to staff almost as soon as he got his feet under the desk to break the news that a new two-week trial between the networks is being tested.

“We’re trialling a new pooling arrangement involving 7, 9 and 10,” the note, leaked to Diary, said.

“It’s designed to free up cameras by not having all of us shooting the same things.

“It will apply to things like political pressers, football pressers and training, event launches, police pressers, etc. Anything that we’d all normally attend.”

“Moons”, as he’s more commonly known, has taken over from Chris Salter, who has packed his suitcases and moved to Victoria to head up the Melbourne newsroom following the exit of Shaun Menegola, who was farewelled on Friday.

Seven Melbourne’s news director, Chris Salter.

Menegola announced he had resigned just days after former news bossCraig McPherson resigned in the wake of scandalous allegations by former Spotlight producer Taylor Auerbach that the network paid for sex workers and cocaine to secure an interview with former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann.

These claims were strenuously denied by Seven.

But back to Adelaide: Moons, Nine Adelaide news boss Jeremy Pudney and Ten Adelaide executive editor Gerda Jezuchowski, agreedthe pooling arrangements must be supplied immediately by the network shooting the press conference, and they must have a journalist in tow to fire off questions.

The vision must also be fed live.

Moons told his newsroom: “The other networks can send their own journos without a camera if they wish – or send questions to the supplied journo (via their chief of staff is probably the way to go).

“We’re hoping to keep it fluid and flexible … we don’t have to keep a scorecard, but it should even out in the wash.

“The trial will run for two weeks, allowing us to iron out any issues – but the goal is to implement it permanently beyond that.” 

Winds of change

Veteran ABC weatherman extraordinaire Paul Higgins signed off last week after completing his final weather bulletin on Melbourne’s 7pm news.

Referred to by many as “Higgo”, the TV veteran is not only well known for his knowledge on cold fronts and gusty winds, but so too for his prowess on our TV screens back in the ’80s.

Newsreader Tamara Oudyn shared her fond memories of the TV veteran from back in her childhood days as part of his on-air send off.

“I grew up watching you on BTN (Behind The News), so I was a fan even before I was lucky enough to become a colleague,” she told Higgins.

It's Paul Higgins' last day today and I've already had a little cry 😢
@abcweatherhttps://t.co/rKFEivTH94

— Tamara Oudyn (@TamaraOudyn) June 13, 2024

Like Oudyn, your Diarists – both avid watchers of BTN – can also vividly recall Higgins’s sharp dissection of the week’s events on the ABC’s long-running kids’ news program.

“I know how sad our audience will be feeling out there watching this, you are going to be so deeply missed, Paul,” Oudyn told viewers.

ABC TV Melbourne weather presenter Paul Higgins.

When Diary caught up with Higgins on the weekend he said it was an “overwhelming farewell”.

“All the wonderful messages from viewers made me realise how much I was a part of their lives,” he said.

After Higgo’s on-air swan song, it was party time.

“We had bubbles and nibbles after the news,” Higgins said.

“And a video reel from lots of people I’d worked with, including a long and heartfelt message from Seven’s Peter Mitchell.”

Higgo admitted he’s going to “miss journalism” after four decades in the business.

Congrats on a fine career, Paul.

ACA boss

Amy McCarthy has been appointed the new executive producer of A Current Affair.

McCarthy replaces Fiona Dear, who was given the nod as the head of Nine News following Darren Wick’s inglorious departure in March.

McCarthy is a seasoned hand and well liked at Nine, having worked as the executive producer of the network’s daytime news in the Sydney newsroom for the past 10 years.

Nine issued a press release to trumpet McCarthy’s appointment. “She knows what a story is and chases hard,” the tribute read.

No doubt Nine’s departed chairman, Peter Costello, would approve.

Nick Tabakoff is on leave