Is Hugh Marks marking time for the ABC’s top job?
Hugh Marks will be the new managing director of the ABC. As far as media rumours go, we’re almost certain it’s rolled, gold, wheat.
If Diary had a dollar for every “sure bet” media rumour that had been whispered out the sides of mouths and into our welcoming ear – but ultimately turned out to be false – we would be obscenely wealthy.
Which is why, dear reader, you (usually) only ever read cold, hard facts in this column. Only the wheat makes it through; mountains of chaff surround our desk on the newsroom floor.
But here’s one rumour that just won’t go away, and we reckon it’s true: Hugh Marks will be the new managing director of the ABC. As far as media rumours go, we’re almost certain it’s rolled, gold, wheat.
It’s been four years since Marks announced he was standing down as CEO of Nine Entertainment following media scrutiny of a consensual relationship with a lower-ranked colleague, amid speculation he had lost the support of the board.
Despite his messy departure from the commercial media giant, his corpMorate achievements at Nine stand the test of his time.
He certainly left Nine in a better position than when he found it. And not every executive who has left that place in recent times can make that claim.
So, if we were to speculate that Marks will, as early as this week, be announced as the next ABC managing director – an all-encompassing role that incorporates the position of editor-in-chief, among many other things – would it be a match made in heaven?
You can’t argue with the guy’s media management chops. But of course at Nine, he was always at arm’s length from the editorial floor. At the ABC, it is a different, and arguably more difficult, story.
Then of course, there’s the requirement to play second fiddle to the ABC’s first clarinetist, chairman Kim Williams.
Marks is no shrinking violet but no one is under any illusion that Williams is the current pilot of the ABC. The second-in-command will be lucky to jag a window seat while Kim retains control. Has that reality scared off a few other would-be applicants for the job?
Or is Marks actually excited by the prospect of working with Williams, who is clearly attempting to point the ABC in the right direction?
We attempted to ask Marks those very questions, via phone calls, text messages and the like, but he didn’t want a bar of us.
Time will tell. Let’s hope Hugh gets the nod, if only to avoid Diary getting egg on its face.
ABC’s overly social staff causes chronic headache for the broadcaster
For outgoing ABC managing director David Anderson, the ABC’s social media policy was an enormous millstone around his neck.
During his six-year tenure, Anderson was peppered with questions at countless Senate estimates hearings about the errant online postings of his staff. Who could forget chief political correspondent Laura Tingle labelling then PM Scott Morrison “smug”, and accusing his government of “ideological bastardry”?
Or Four Corners star reporter Louise Milligan’s defamatory tweet about Coalition MP Andrew Laming, which ended up costing the taxpayer nearly $200,000?
And then there was former Radio National breakfast host Patricia Karvelas’s joyous election night tribute to Labor MP Linda Burney.
“This woman is a legend and looks like she will be the next Indigenous Affairs minister #UluruStatement,” Karvelas wrote beneath a pic of herself with the incoming cabinet member whom she interviewed multiple times in the ensuing 18 months.
Karvelas was subsequently “cautioned” by ABC management over the perception of bias.
And now it seems fan favourite Tony Armstrong – slated to feature in two new ABC series in 2025 – may have overstepped the social media mark, if the Karvelas example is anything to go by.
Last week, Ms Burney, who is retiring from politics at the upcoming federal election, posted on Instagram: “Peter Dutton is the man who walked out on the Apology to the Stolen Generations. This the man who gave no support to the Referendum. He refuses to offer bipartisan support on all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and justice issues. What else can you expect from a man like him?”
Of course, Ms Burney is perfectly entitled to publicly post her views on a political opponent.
But in sharing Ms Burney’s post on Instagram, Armstrong may find himself in hot water.
The ABC’s actual social media policy states that workers must not damage the ABC’s reputation for impartiality and independence, nor mix the professional and the personal in ways likely to bring the ABC into disrepute, and should not imply ABC endorsement of their personal views.
Earlier this year, ABC chair Kim Williams said if staff at the national broadcaster couldn’t be impartial they should leave.
Them’s the rules, but will they ever be enforced? Diary doubts it.
We went to the ABC for comment on Sunday, but it was all quiet on that front. Nothing to see here.
Maybe some guy called Hugh might decide to take a stand on the ABC’s social media policy?
For the record, next year Armstrong will front a docu-series called End Game, during which he will try to find “global solutions” to the problem of racism in Australian sport.
He will also host Eat the Invaders, a show about invasive plants and animals that attack Australia’s biodiversity.
PVO relieved as ‘ridiculous’ lawsuit dropped
Political journalist Peter van Onselen has expressed relief that former Network 10 colleague Tegan George has dropped her Federal Court case against him and the broadcaster.
In February 2022, George filed a lawsuit alleging the workplace conduct of van Onselen – her then boss in Ten’s Parliament House bureau in Canberra – had contributed to feelings of “hurt, humiliation and distress”.
In her statement of claim, George alleged she was “often” directed to write van Onselen’s news packages in addition to her own work in 2019 and 2020. When she complained about it to another manager, she was allegedly told: “Peter is bat-shit crazy, but we just have to get used to it.”
George also alleged van Onselen snubbed her by not inviting her to staff coffee meetings, and forced her to move desks in the office so he could more easily assert his authority as the boss.
Ten defended the lawsuit, and in its statement of defence described George’s claims as “vague and embarrassing”, and “liable to be struck out”.
George formally discontinued her case this month.
On Sunday, van Onselen, who now works for The Daily Mail, told Diary: “It was always a completely ridiculous claim, I’m not surprised it went nowhere and she’s finally dropped it.”
Diary was unable to reach George for comment on Sunday. Her lawyer, Josh Bornstein, declined to comment.
In September, it was reported that in a separate case George had reached an out-of-court settlement with Ten after she sued over trauma she said she suffered covering the horrific 2019-20 bushfires.
George filed the lawsuit in the ACT Supreme Court, claiming negligence and a breach of duty of care. She said she felt under threat while covering the fires in southern NSW, including at Bermagui, where she says she was sent to report even after the town had been evacuated. George said she was left unable to work due to trauma, and had claimed damages.
On Sunday, a Ten spokesperson said: “All matters (regarding George) have been resolved and the proceedings … discontinued.”
Stanton firms at Nine
Over at Nine, interim CEO Matt Stanton heads into the Christmas break with his nose in front in the race to be confirmed as the media company’s new boss, following its annus horribilis.
Stanton has been keeping the seat warm since the end of September, when Mike Sneesby vacated the top job.
Diary hears that while Stanton is considered the frontrunner – certainly no other suitable internal candidates are on the list – the board is still mulling over the merits of a couple of external applicants.
Stanton is understood to have impressed Nine insiders with some decisive action in the wake of the devastating Intersection review, which in October uncovered an entrenched culture of bullying, harassment and power imbalances across the company.
Coffee with Linton
Incoming Media Watch host Linton Besser isn’t wasting any time ahead of his on-air debut in early February.
Having waved the ABC show’s 11-year incumbent, Paul Barry, out the door this month, Besser has been busy asking senior media industry figures – newspaper and TV bosses among them – if they’d like to catch up for an off-the-record chat and a coffee over the summer months.
It’s an interesting tactic, and represents a marked departure from the strategy employed by Barry, who wasn’t one to build relationships with the heads of media organisations.
As one senior media figure told Diary: “He (Besser) seems more open in his approach than his predecessor in that regard.”
No word if he’ll be tapping Kim Williams for a catch-up before February, but we’re guessing the pair have already thrashed out a few issues pertaining to the show.
We phoned Besser to ask why he hasn’t asked us out for a latte, but he didn’t call back.
Molan moves on
There was much speculation over the weekend about journalist Erin Molan’s departure from Sky News Australia after a three-year stint at the News Corp-owned network.
Molan left Sky News last week after her Friday night public affairs program was axed ahead of 2025.
In a video posted to social media on Friday, Molan said: “I loved every second of my time with Sky. My show there became my passion, my purpose and, aside from my little girl, basically my entire existence. That’s done now, but I am not. I’m just getting started.”
In the video, Molan went on to criticise the world’s “demonisation” of Israel, which she referred to as “the only democracy in the Middle East, fighting bloodthirsty killers on multiple fronts on behalf of the entire world, desperately trying to get their people back, including babies, while simultaneously trying to protect the rest of their citizens from the same fate”.
Her departure prompted online claims that Molan had in fact been axed because of her overt Zionism – a suggestion rubbished by some of her former on-air colleagues, including Sharri Markson and Caroline Marcus, both of whom count Molan as a good friend.
“The spin is Erin has been pushed out because of her Zionism, being ‘cancelled’ for speaking out, yet anyone who watches Sky News Australia knows that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Marcus said on-air on the weekend.
The Australian understands that while Molan’s ratings were steady, management thought it was simply time to make some changes to the on-air line-up.
Molan, whose long-running breakfast radio show on 2DayFM alongside comedians Dave Hughes and Ed Kavalee was axed in August, remains a columnist with The Daily Telegraph.
Festive farewell
The Australian’s Media section is taking a break over the Christmas-New Year period.
Thank you to all our readers who have engaged with us this year, and we look forward to 2025, when we’ll welcome our new media writer, James Manning, to the team!
We’ll be back on Monday, January 20.
Merry Christmas to all!
Nick Tabakoff is on leave
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