ABC apologises over Gaza conflict reporting
A ‘production error’ saw the network illustrate a story about the ongoing war in Gaza in 2023 with overlay shot a decade ago.
ABC News bulletins around the country last week issued apologies over the network’s reporting on the Gaza conflict.
A “production error” saw the network illustrate a story about the ongoing war in Gaza in 2023 with overlay shot in Egypt a decade ago.
There was an immediate on-air apology, followed by another the next day.
“Last night, we broadcast a story about Israeli military operations at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Due to a production error, we inadvertently included incorrect footage of a hospital incident in Egypt 10 years ago. We apologise for the error,” every host of all state and territory 7pm bulletins said following a fresh package by Middle East correspondent Allyson Horne in Jerusalem.
It wasn’t the only taxpayer-funded media outfit to stuff up last week. The BBC issued an apology after a presenter falsely claimed that Israel was targeting medical staff and Arabic speakers during an operation at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.
pic.twitter.com/oAP8No89DK
— Inc.Monocle (@IncMonocle) November 15, 2023
BBC issue on air apology. Given the context this falls into and the high stakes at play, it’s really not good enough.
“This was incorrect and misquoted a Reuters report,” the UK broadcaster said. “What we should have said is that IDF forces included medical staff and Arabic speakers for this operation.”
“We apologise for this error, which fell below our usual editorial standards. The correct version of events was broadcast minutes later.”
ABC refuses review into kids program after complaints
The ABC Ombudsman is refusing to review episodes of the children’s news program Behind The News, despite receiving close to 100 complaints over its coverage of the conflict in Gaza.
Diary was alerted by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, which had observed the disquiet building in Jewish circles among parents of school-aged children, who began writing letters.
The issues all relate to segments broadcast in October following the terrorist attack in Israel. Parents of Jewish children have written to the ABC, some even directly to managing director David Anderson claiming the series included “bias” and “harmful” information regarding the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
There have been three BTN segments broadcast about the conflict – one specifically about the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack, one explaining the rules of war and one about international aid and what’s being done to help civilians.
Parents are up in arms but the kicker, and most tragic part, is that a number of students have also put their concerns in writing, including a year 3 student, whose father wrote to the ABC on her behalf asking for BTN to show “all sides”. The letter was then signed by the entire class.
They did not receive a response.
Another complaint was from the father of a nine-year-old public school girl in Sydney who said she was confronted after BTN was shown in class recently.
“A boy came up to me. I didn’t know who he was. He asked: Are you for Israel or for this other place … I didn’t quite get it. I told him Israel, and he said to me ‘I hope you die’,” the letter from a concerned parent said, calling the show “Palestinian propaganda made PG”.
Diary understands the ABC has not replied or responded to that or any of the complaints.
Ombudsman Fiona Cameron on Thursday rejected a written request from Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim to have the show reviewed.
“The ABC’s editorial standards for impartiality do not require that every facet of every argument is presented within a single discussion or piece of content. Rather, the ABC aims to present, over time, content that addresses a broad range of subjects from a diversity of perspectives reflecting a diversity of experiences, presented in a diversity of ways from a diversity of sources,” Ms Cameron wrote.
Mr Wertheim told Diary that following the ABC “sidestepping” the issues put forward, he now believed the TV show was “feeding children intellectual poison.”
“There was no mention of the well-documented cases of Hamas using Palestinian civilians as human shields, or using civilian structures such as homes, mosques, hospitals and schools for storage of weapons and munitions, or firing missiles from within densely populated locations within Gaza. These matters were omitted but were highly relevant to the episode’s emphasis on the devastation and suffering in Gaza,” Mr Wertheim said.
“The episode was calculated to trigger emotional responses among impressionable schoolchildren through a selective presentation of the facts, instead of following the weight of the available evidence. It was like feeding children intellectual poison.”
An ABC spokeswoman said the show was “committed to impartiality and consulted a wide range of expert sources for these reports”.
“Some complainants have expressed concern that the story on international aid did not mention the Hamas terrorist attack.
“This is not the case. The attack was mentioned – albeit briefly – in the story, which focused specifically on the international aid effort,” she told Diary.
“BTN went into detail about the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas. It clearly showed Israel was the target of deliberate terrorism. It also conveyed Israel’s statement about rocket attacks. It referenced Hamas being described as a terrorist organisation and its history of violence.”
Diary understands the ABC employs an education adviser to ensure the appropriateness of BTN content and it also provides resources to help young people with “upsetting news”.
On its website, BTN suggests that teachers of younger students preview stories to make sure they are age appropriate.
Radio gaga
A lot of action at Nine radio and elsewhere as the year draws to a close: as reported by Diary last week, Deborah Knight was punted from her Afternoons show on Sydney’s 2GB on the eve of radio ratings last week.
The sucker punch was that she had a solid bump in listeners for the seventh survey period of the year, recording a market share of 6.7 – up 0.9 per cent from the previous period. Next year she’ll host a national finance program on the Nine Radio network and continue to host A Current Affair on Saturdays.
She hung up the cans after announcing on social media on Friday that it was her final show, saying her time there had been “hugely rewarding and it has been a hell of a lot of fun”.
Her photo was swiftly removed from the 2GB website.
The ever-gracious Knight didn’t want to comment. “I might need to open a florist,” she captioned a photo of her desk overflowing with flowers from wellwishers.
Weekends host Michael McLaren will replace her for the rest of the year, with one more ratings hurdle to cross.
When Knight took over the afternoons program four years ago, she was the only woman in the 2GB and Brisbane’s 4BC line up; now there are no female hosts on the Sydney station.
Meanwhile, drama on the Adelaide talkback radio waves: Nova’s FIVEaa has poached ABC Adelaide’s breakfast host, Stacey Lee, for the afternoons shift.
Lee quit, effectively immediately on Friday after another dismal ratings showing with her early-mornings co-host Nikolai Beilharz, shedding listeners and pulling in 10.1 per cent of the market share.
A far cry from the duo’s first survey in 2022, when they were the No. 1 show with more than 18 per cent of the market.
Tensions had been simmering since June, when Lee called the ABC’s decision to scrap state-based Sunday night news bulletins “a real shame”.
And on the Gold Coast, Sea FM dumped veteran host Bianca Dye from its breakfast show just days after she won an Australian Commercial Radio & Audio award last month. She left immediately and the latest ratings, released on Friday, show 1.4 per cent of listeners departed with her.
“Obviously, this wasn’t a decision that I made. But I understand, I have worked in this industry for 30 years. As they say, that’s showbiz,” Dye said.
Hitch ditched
As long expected, Alicia Loxley has ascended to Nine Melbourne’s nightly newsreading throne, while the man who had the gig for 25 years, Peter Hitchener, has been shunted to the weekend shift.
The twist in the tail of Loxley’s promotion is that she has to share the winner’s podium with 60 Minutes reporter Tom Steinfort.
The new arrangement will start in January and the network reckons the new duo will bring “a fresh perspective and investigative rigour to the weeknight news”.
That’s good, because ratings have been sliding. So far in this survey year, 7News Melbourne has won 36 weeks, Nine just two. Last year, Nine won just seven weeks while 7 was No. 1 for 33 weeks.
Hitchener recently celebrated his half a century with Nine with a surprise “non-Nine” party, Diary reported at the time
Loxley and Nine Melbourne news director Hugh Nailon were not on the guest list.
Some, er, breaking news from our newsroom. https://t.co/WVEVZoJh7w
— Hugh Nailon (@HughNailon) November 18, 2023
Diary understands Hitchener was told by management last week the changes were happening and the handover was slated to be announced with a slick roll out on Sunday, but the news was leaked.
Nine then hastily organised an all-newsroom Zoom meeting. Loxley and Steinfort were online as Nailon spoke to the broader team. The awkward silences were not a tech issue, according to a number of people on the call, as Nailon tried his best to “rev up” the team about the changes.
According to sources, Hitchener doesn’t want to read weekends but “management are still trying to convince him”. When Diary reached Hitchener, he responded with a thumbs up emoji.
Joining him in the green room on weekends from 2024 will be Tom Morris, a former Fox Sports reporter who was fired for making offensive comments about a female colleague and who is Nine’s new chief AFL reporter.
Morris was offered a liferaft by Craig Hutchison on his SEN radio network, then won the 2023 Football Media Association’s Alf Brown Award, named as the best overall media performer of the year.
During that time, he also did the work behind the scenes: he committed to learning from his mistakes by spending time and working with domestic violence advocacy group Our Watch.
“Twenty months I never want to relive ever again,” Morris told Diary.
At the other end of the eastern seaboard, Nine is losing one of the nicest guys in tabloid TV journalism, Chris Allen, of A Current Affair, long a tireless expert in the spontaneous live-camera walk-in. From rip-off merchants to dodgy doctors to neighbours from hell, he’s seen them all.
“I can’t count how many times I’ve been to Bali, unfortunately not for lovely holidays, instead we’re usually chasing drunk Australians or drug dealers,” Allen told Diary.
He’s now going to be seeing them a lot less.
Allen originally joined ACA when Jana Wendt was hosting. (Yes, I’m really that old,” he laughed), and covered a range of historic moments including Perth’s WA Inc scandal, a coup in Fiji and the 2004 tsunami. During that time he also headed off for tenures at the ABC and Seven.
He also nabbed ACA a Walkley-nomination in 2013 for a grippy story about a drug dealing grandmother who was “selling dope to school kids and tradies out of her kitchen”.
“Her name was ‘Ma’ and we tailed her for weeks. Watching people dashing in and out every 15 minutes and her with her fluffy pink slippers and nightgown. We went to the cops and asked to be alerted when they were set to swoop but the investigation got delayed after a light-fingered cop was caught helping themselves to Ma’s takings. I think it was the first time the words ‘The Drug Granny’ were ever uttered at the Walkleys,” he said.
This second stint on ACA has lasted almost 20 years and now, Allen who is reputed to be in his mid 60s despite appearing ageless, reckons he has plenty of great yarns left in him but he will be doing fewer; he’s going to operate part-time at ACA for a while.
Shonks, charlatans and neighbours from hell will be happy. So too will his family.
“I think it’s time I start spending a bit more time with my lovely wife,” he said.
Basil in premier league
Polling out of WA shows that media personality and City of Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas is on track to lead the WA Liberals.
This is according to a survey of a little more than 630 “Perth residents”, conducted by The West Australian, which is owned by Zempilas’s boss, Kerry Stokes.
Zempilas is still contracted by Seven West Media, where he makes regular Sunrise appearances and occasionally presents sport on 7News Perth – the state’s most watched news program.
Sure, Zempilas already has a political gig, but the bigger issue may be that he’s not even a member of the Liberal Party.
“Funny that. I’ve never seen him at a branch meeting,” one senior Liberal told Diary.
“He cannot be guaranteed a seat. This isn’t 2021 anymore. Things have changed and it’s not going to be a closed pre-selection,” another said.
The Libs already have a leader in Libby Mettam, who is one of only two lower house MPs left since the Mark McGowan wave wiped out the opposition at the 2021 state election.
Following a review into the landslide loss, the WA Libs agreed that for future campaigns, prospective MPs will be selected by party member plebiscites in each electorate.
Diary understands Zempilas has until early next year to decide, join the party and nominate in the plush western suburbs seat of Churchlands.
This latest poll showed just 19 per cent of respondents back McGowan’s replacement, WA Premier Roger Cook, as the preferred leader of WA; Mettam attracted 12 per cent support and Zempilas 11 per cent.
The West Australian reported that Zempilas is now “emerging as a stalking horse to Ms Mettam despite the fact he is yet to confirm his intention to enter state parliament.”
Zempilas then interviewed himself about the poll in his weekly column, also published in The West Australian, calling it “the elephant in the room”.
“It is what it is. I am in a leadership role. I’m the Lord Mayor of the City of Perth and have just been re-elected. You could argue if I didn’t show up in polls like this, I’m not doing my job,” he said.
“I also accept the polling reflects the current political environment in WA.
“Is there an opportunity for someone like me to contribute? Sure. Do I have an announcement to make today? No.”
Bazaar twist
Women’s Health and Men’s Health, the once popular health mags, have made another comeback, writes Joseph Lam.
Both were closed a few months into the pandemic, in July 2020, by Bauer Media Australia, as well as Harper’s BAZAAR, ELLE, InStyle, Good Health, NW and OK!
Less than six months later, Paragon Media enthusiastically announced it would revive both publications, with owner Ian Brooks telling The Australian that “they’re just fantastically strong brands, and we’re focusing on the brand rather than just the print side”.
They survived for two years or so, but were closed abruptly in March: staff were called to a meeting one Monday morning, with some finishing up that day.
But last week, they were back again, resuscitated this time by Switzer Media & Publishing, publisher of Esquire Australia, Switzer Report and Switzer Advisory.
Women’s Health and Men’s Health homepages carry a “returning soon” message, however all sections of the websites are accessible with a couple of clicks.
Alex Switzer is listed as chief executive and publisher of Women’s Health and publisher at Men’s Health.
Switzer Media & Publishing also brought Harper’s BAZAAR Australia back, with it going to print again in September 2021.
Nick Tabakoff is on leave
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