This time, the starting point for attacks on Sales was news that Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews had agreed to be interviewed by the 7.30 host for the first time in months.
As soon as Sales revealed on Tuesday that Andrews was coming back to 7.30, the attacks by Dan’s Twitter comrades commenced. For months, #IStandWithDan trolls — known as some of Twitter’s most relentless — have loudly attacked anyone holding Andrews to account about the state’s well-chronicled hotel quarantine problems.
But what finally prompted Sales to publicly call them out was their accusation she had been peddling “negative BS” and the odd suggestion she should “congratulate” the Victorian Premier.
“For the love of god please don’t ask about HQ (hotel quarantine) and maybe congratulate him,” one pro-Dan critic warned her. “There’s been enough negative BS already.”
For Sales, who has faced constant attacks from the #IStandWithDan mob since the lockdown, the latest attacks were “disturbing”.
“This kind of attitude below has been endemic on Twitter this year,” Sales replied. “It’s disturbing and a profound misunderstanding of what the role of journalists should be in a democracy.”
Diary hears trolling reached a new level when Sales in September issued a call out to academics, asking for more information about who was behind the #IStandWithDan Twitter hashtag. That call was met with vicious and baseless responses like: “Are there any journalists out there?” and the hashtag “#LNPcorruption”.
But if Dan’s comrades thought the warnings would soften last week’s interview, they were mistaken. Sales interrogated Andrews about the “economic carnage” caused by his lockdowns, “the failures that led to the coronavirus outbreak”, “the poor communication”, “the lack of attention to detail” and the “weakness of the contact tracing”.
Definitely no congratulating there.
Warring Nine board’s tricky reunion
Diary would love to be a fly on the wall at the official opening of Nine’s new national headquarters in North Sydney this Friday.
Invitations have been sent to the entire Nine board, senior management and its staff in TV, radio and print to attend.
That leaves the tantalising prospect of Nine chairman Peter Costello and deputy chair Nick Falloon having a rare public reunion. We’d love to see the body language around that catch-up!
By all accounts, the warring Costello and Falloon Nine board factions have already been jousting on boardroom phone hook-ups about their preferred candidates to follow Hugh Marks — who will also be present on Friday — as its next CEO. Costello is said to want Stan boss Mike Sneesby; Falloon wants Nine publishing boss Chris Janz.
Your diarist had a go at asking if he could score an invite to the big in-house do — but was met with a polite “no”. Can’t blame a guy for trying.
The new Jackie O: why Molan left 2GB
A year after taking over 2GB, Nine is fast working out how it can save dough on salaries.
Diary has been told high-profile sports anchor and radio star Erin Molan’s move to host the breakfast show with Dave Hughes and Ed Kavalee on Sydney’s 2DayFM was driven in part by changes to how Nine pays its key talent.
Molan has been one of the lucky ones at Nine, along with Ben Fordham, who have had separate contracts for TV and radio. Until now, she’s had one contract with Nine for her TV hosting work, and a second with 2GB as co-host of its weekend NRL coverage and fill-in host elsewhere.
We hear those deals earned her $500k-plus a year, all up. But after completing its purchase of 2GB last year, senior management felt that paying a full extra salary to Nine staff who work on both TV and radio should no longer be necessary.
So Diary is told Nine bosses made Molan an offer that she could refuse, when her existing two-year 2GB contract — struck before the TV network took over the radio network — expired in October.
In a nutshell, Molan was told: “If you want to continue on 2GB as well as your main job as a TV anchor, we will boost your Nine contract. But we won’t give you a separate deal this time.”
The “boosted” contract offered to Molan was lower than what she previously earned with two separate incomes at Nine and 2GB.
So Molan instead decided to take a new deal at 2DayFM matching her lost 2GB salary. That will, however, leave her with an intense seven-day schedule with two employers, Nine and Austereo, involving early mornings and long hours on Fridays when she also hosts the footy on TV.
Nine Radio boss Tom Malone tells Diary: “We wish her all the best at 2Day.”
Meanwhile, we’re told Austereo insiders have big wraps on her. They see her as a future “Jackie O”, the squillionaire female end of KIIS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O show, which of course started on, you guessed it, 2DayFM breakfast.
No pressure, Erin.
Fitzgibbon cuts Albo’s media grass
The proof is in: the media blitz by Joel Fitzgibbon on Labor’s climate change policies since he stepped down from the shadow ministry has been so relentless, it has starved federal leader Anthony Albanese of media oxygen.
Research conducted for Diary by media monitoring firm Streem shows that in the two weeks after Fitzgibbon stepped down from Labor’s frontbench this month, he has actually been in the media more than his leader. Fitzgibbon had 1626 media mentions for the fortnight after his resignation as shadow minister for agriculture and resources, compared with 1624 for Albo, the Streem figures show.
The pair cleared out from the rest of the Labor pack, each beating the entire media mentions for the next eight members of the Labor front bench combined — led by Bill Shorten, Mark Buttler, Richard Marles, Mark Dreyfus and Tanya Plibersek.
It’s a stat that shows just how much of a gift to the government that Fitzgibbon’s stance has been. Remember, his move to the backbench came the morning after the Four Corners #MeToo episode about Christian Porter and Alan Tudge.
As one example of his relentlessness, Fitzgibbon did nine interviews by 9am on the day after his resignation from the shadow ministry, as revealed by Diary’s colleague Niki Savva.
Fitzgibbon’s push through the media for the Labor leadership seems likely to be futile, but it could also do plenty more damage to Albo yet.
SBS: Seriously Big Spenders
SBS, take a bow. You have won the title of the most outlandish spending by a public broadcaster on a programming launch, far outstripping the ABC.
Diary’s investigations of Senate Estimates documents show that last year, SBS, led by James Taylor, spent a whopping $444,000 on five separate “upfronts” — events used to launch the network’s 2020 programming schedule — in the major state capitals. That’s nearly 100 Cartier watches!
By comparison with its baby sister, the ABC was a positive picture of financial modesty last year, outlaying just $22,000, or just four Cartiers, on a single upfront event at its Ultimo HQ last year.
The most outlandish SBS overspend came at its lavish Sydney upfront at Barangaroo, where it outlaid $318,000 on a single event. That is not a misprint.
That number includes $77,297 on food and beverages, a remarkable $90,680 on venue hire and $140,250 on audiovisual.
SBS also felt the need to hold four other 2019 upfront events in Melbourne’s South Wharf (spending $72,571 on F&B, venue hire and audio/visual), Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley ($20,086), Adelaide’s Chateau Apollo ($17,763) and Perth’s The Stables ($15,740).
Diary has established that the ABC’s single 2019 Ultimo event, meanwhile, spent nothing on its venue, $3600 on catering, $13,200 on production, and a further $5200 on audio/visual technology.
Thankfully, there’s some relief for the taxpayer. COVID-19 may be causing havoc, but it did force both SBS and the ABC to hold their upfronts for their 2021 schedules on Zoom over the last two weeks.
Expect this year’s spending by the pair to be dramatically lower. But will SBS’s cash splash return in 2021?
Fassnidge to Ten after Evans axed
With Pete Evans’s sacking from Ten’s I’m a Celebrity a couple of weeks back, Ten seems to have wasted no time in finding another ex-My Kitchen Rules chef willing to brave the Australian jungle.
Diary’s impeccable sources swear Evans is to be replaced by Colin Fassnidge, who of course once reportedly dubbed himself the “Australian Gordon Ramsay”.
If the talk is true, it seems Ten has deemed the Irish-born Fassnidge to be the acceptable face of MKR.
Fassnidge’s Ten move would almost certainly end his rollercoaster ride over several years with Seven, where he was until this year seen as a potential network star.
But initial strong ratings at MKR slowly evaporated as the format became more tired in recent years.
Earlier in 2020, Seven rolled the dice on giving him equal billing on MKR with Evans and Manu Feildel, but the show was thrashed by Nine’s MAFS in the ratings.
This prompted Fassnidge to commit the big no-no of venting his frustrations about Seven to a rival media outlet, 2GB. He claimed “stupid decisions” were made by “some people in Channel 7 who don’t know how to program a show”.
Looks like Fassnidge is now free to vent in the jungle.
Cory: Sky’s next big thing
Succession planning is well underway at Sky News. Diary can reveal ex-senator Cory Bernardi is Sky’s first new talent to land a permanent show in 2021.
Andrew Bolt’s Friday night 7pm show — largely a “best of” program in recent years — will be replaced by the new live program, eponymously titled Bernardi. Sky bosses say it is likely to be the start of bigger and better things in TV for Bernardi, viewed as a “conviction conservative” at Sky.
In confirming the move, Bernardi tells Diary: “This is one of the greatest opportunities for someone who’s transitioning out of politics and looking to establish a new career. And just like in politics, I will not pull a single punch. Look out, politicians.”
Sky boss Paul “Boris” Whittaker says: “He never shies away from a difficult debate.”
Bernardi’s freshly inked Sky contract includes relief hosting, which is also expected to see him build his profile through stand-in shifts for names like Bolt, Alan Jones and Paul Murray.
Andrews picks Trioli and McGuire
Dan’s record-breaking run of 120-odd consecutive days fronting the Treasury Theatre as the leading man of his soon to be Logie-nominated production, Dan TV, finally came to an end last month because of Victoria’s improved COVID-19 situation.
So last Wednesday morning, a freshly liberated Dan had some time to do a lap of honour on Melbourne radio in a big way. But no prizes for guessing who missed out on the Premier.
Yes folks, Andrews yet again gave 3AW’s top-rating morning host Neil Mitchell the brush, despite a standing request for an interview, as the pair’s three-year feud continues. Our Melbourne correspondents tell us the Premier instead returned to his radio favourites, the ABC’s Virginia Trioli and old mate Eddie McGuire, whose Triple M radio show finally came to an end on Friday.
Trioli was given a generous 20 minutes on ABC 774 Melbourne, ending her interview by asking Andrews for his “hardest moment” of the pandemic: (Andrews’ reply? “It’s not about me, it’s about making sure we provide leadership … Get the job done. That’s what I do.”)
That interview left a certain 3AW morning king with the booby prize. Mitchell was delegated Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas while Andrews was on Trioli, and grumpily noted that day it had been “1310 days” since the Premier spoke to him. But who’s counting?
ABC pockets cash from Industry Super
Spare a thought for Industry Super fund members. It seems they’ve been funding Ita Buttrose’s ABC twice. They’ve not only been forking out for Aunty from their taxes — but from their hard-earned super as well.
Ita’s right-hand man David Anderson revealed to Senate Estimates this month that the ABC has been making money out of Industry Super’s fully funded progressive media outlet, the New Daily — which we’ve learnt is paying Aunty decent coin for a video segment called ‘News in 90 Seconds’.
It was part of a push to “find revenue for our news services,” Anderson said in answer to a grilling by the government’s self-proclaimed media watchdog, NSW Senator Andrew Bragg.
Diary can only say, well played to Ita and David for getting someone to pay for a news bulletin. But as Bragg asks: should Industry Super funds, meant to invest in their investors’ retirement, be putting millions into an unprofitable media venture that gives cash to the ABC?
The New Daily was founded back in 2013 by a collective of Industry Super funds, including Australian Super and Cbus, who provided an initial $6m in funding.
Australian Super boss Ian Silk told the Banking Royal Commission in 2018 that the purpose of his splurge on the New Daily was “principally about retaining members”.
But Bragg says: “This argument fails the government’s sole purpose test for super funds, which mandates that their focus needs to be solely on making money for investors. But it also fails the pub test.”
Bragg notes that Australian Super burned through significant cash on the New Daily. Australian Super sold its stake in the New Daily for nothing in 2016 — a poor investment return on the $2m it tipped in three years earlier.
On the bright side, at least the New Daily deal showcases the ABC’s money-savvy side. We’re told Aunty will shortly reply to Bragg’s questions about just how much the New Daily pays it.
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Alleged killer cop’s jail phone calls ‘monitored’ for potential media deal
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Three months after Nine’s political editor Chris Uhlmann vigorously defended Leigh Sales against online attacks by “left-wing thugs”, the ABC 7.30 host has finally had enough and hit back at a new round of vitriol from the left on Twitter.