Laura Tingle calls it a day as president of National Press Club, passes baton to Tom Connell
ABC heavyweight Laura Tingle has decided it’s time to hand the baton to a younger journalist. And before your emotions get the better of you, we’re talking about the National Press Club.
Laura Tingle has resigned.
Tingle, 64, says she can no longer devote the significant amount of time that her prestigious role requires, so she is handing the baton to a younger journalist.
Oh, wait – sorry for the confusion. We didn’t mean to frighten you by suggesting that Tingle is ditching the ABC. Heavens, no!
To clarify, Tingle has stepped down from her role as president of the National Press Club, the self-described iconic Canberra institution that hosts weddings, wine tastings and pointy-headed debates attended by politicians and journalists.
As president, Tingle had the job of moderating the debates, thanking guest speakers for their time, presenting them with a token gift of appreciation and then posing for a photo with the guest orator. Similar duties to the captain of a primary school but with no obligation to attend the end-of-year disco.
Anyway, according to a statement released by the NPC on Friday night, Tingle’s “resignation after more than four years as president was reluctantly accepted by her colleagues”.
“Laura had formed the view that the demands on her time with a federal election and being an ABC board member that (sic) she was unable to give the president’s role the time it deserves.”
Fair enough. As chief political correspondent for ABC TV’s 7.30, Tingle certainly has a hectic couple of months coming up.
But it’s a bit rich to claim that being a member of the ABC board is an onerous time-suck – it meets only six times a year. And it comes with a handy $58k annual stipend.
Tingle’s decision to shed the NPC gig also comes less than a month after her weekly column was dumped by The Australian Financial Review. But that development won’t have delivered her any additional free time, as that same column still gets published online by the ABC.
The veteran journalist told Diary on Sunday that at the end of last year she was persuaded to run for re-election as NPC president and did so despite some misgivings about her workload.
“The past couple of weeks confirmed it just wasn’t a viable arrangement – particularly given all the extra events we run during the election campaign and extra demands on me at the ABC.
“I decided it was better to pull up stumps before the campaign proper starts.”
Tingle is being succeeded as NPC president by Sky News Australia political presenter (and the network’s chief election analyst) Tom Connell, who has been a director of the club since 2019 and its treasurer since 2021.
Connell paid tribute to Tingle’s time in the NPC hot seat, describing her as “a tour de force as president … she made a towering contribution to this important national institution”.
Diary wonders what (if any) changes Connell may introduce to the club. Will he relax the rule that outlaws high-vis vests and rubber thongs inside the joint? Is there no room at the inn for the common man?
And what about the edict that “clothing bearing provocative slogans” is not acceptable in the club? Where does that leave NPC hall-of-famer Grace Tame?
Paterson settles
Former Nine Brisbane news boss Amanda Paterson has settled the unlawful termination case she brought against the media company after being sacked for a series of minor transgressions in the workplace.
As first revealed by The Australian, Paterson – who worked at Nine for 31 years – was given her marching orders on November 7 last year when she was summoned to a snap meeting in the boardroom of the media giant’s Mount Coot-Tha headquarters in Brisbane.
In a seven-minute video call with Nine director of news and current affairs Fiona Dear, Paterson was fired, effective immediately, without being given the chance to defend the allegations made against her.
Paterson then was escorted from the premises and thus was denied the opportunity to farewell newsroom staff. She also was unable to retrieve her dog, an 11-month-old poodle called Pepe, which was on site as part of “bring your pet to work” day. (The dog and Paterson were reunited later in the day.)
And what were the allegations against Paterson? Nine claims she failed to properly manage the contract negotiations of her staff in a “timely manner”, had been tardy when it came to completing mandatory online training modules and had used inappropriate language at an office party when she said to employees: “We’ve got rid of all the dickheads at Nine.”
By any measure, Paterson’s alleged workplace offending was – in the context of other horrendous behaviours uncovered at the company last year – relatively mild.
The case was discontinued in the Fair Work Commission following a conciliation hearing between the two parties earlier this month.
The Australian previously has reported that Paterson was seeking a seven-figure sum from Nine for unlawful termination, reputational damage and personal hurt.
Paterson did not respond to calls from Diary last week.
A spokesperson for Nine said: “Nine and Amanda Paterson have settled their dispute in the Fair Work Commission. The terms of settlement are confidential and without admissions by either party.
“Neither party intends to comment further on the matter.”
The settlement was reached just a few weeks after Sydney-based TV journalist Airlie Walsh resolved the sex discrimination complaint she had launched against Nine.
Walsh, who worked across Nine’s Canberra press gallery and the Sydney newsroom with the network’s Today program, filed a complaint with the Federal Court last year that alleged serious misconduct among senior figures at the media company.
In a statement announcing the matter had been finalised, Walsh praised the women who “bravely” came forward to expose alleged wrongdoings at Nine.
“After 15 years with Nine Entertainment, in October 2023 I made the difficult decision to engage lawyers and try to right a number of wrongs,” she said. “During this time, more women bravely came forward, Nine conducted a culture review, and many of my broadcast colleagues contributed their experiences. In doing so, I was buoyed. It turns out courage IS contagious.”
The so-called Intersection report into Nine’s workplace culture, released in October 2024, found 57 per cent of current employees in the television news and current affairs division had “experienced bullying, discrimination or harassment” while working at the company.
Dear, dear
The Intersection report, of course, didn’t name the chief offenders at Nine, but there remains frustration – especially in the TV news and current affairs division – that some perpetrators of bad behaviour have yet to face any sanctions over alleged workplace misconduct.
The whole scandal began in May 2024 with the revelation by The Australian that the network’s longserving news boss, Darren Wick, was forced out of Nine after a female staff member complained about his inappropriate conduct.
In the wake of his departure, several women came forward with further allegations of Wick’s predatory behaviour.
Wick was quickly replaced by Fiona Dear, who was one of the newsroom’s two chiefs of staff. Dear subsequently went public with her anger at the mess Wick had left behind.
“I worked in the newsroom in that period (under Wick),” she said in an interview published in October as part of a report by the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia.
“I was angry. I was angry as a woman who worked in that environment at that time.
“I was angry that I was given this opportunity and had to clean up someone else’s shit. This sounds selfish but I was angry.”
Dear’s diatribe prompted jaws to hit the floor in Nine’s newsroom, with many holding the view that she had failed to intervene to stop Wick’s predatory behaviour, even when staff complained directly to her about his misconduct; that she repeatedly bullied and belittled staff herself; and that she contributed to the culture of fear within the newsroom.
So imagine the reaction within Nine’s newsroom last week when it was announced that as part of International Women’s Day, Dear would be one of six senior female figures at the company to host “group sessions” on “career advice, networking and some cracking good yarns” on March 5.
Actually, no need to imagine – Diary can reveal that the reactions from the newsroom floor ranged from “disbelief” to “hurt”.
“It’s highly inappropriate,” one insider told Diary.
“You really have to wonder who thought it was ever a good idea,” said another.
The event is titled Meet the Trailblazers, with journalists Sarah Abo, Kate McClymont and Effie Zahos involved in the mentoring sessions, alongside executives Tory Maguire, Vanessa Morley and Dear.
A spokesman for Nine declined to comment.
Target audience
With the federal election just around the corner, Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton are conducting strategically planned interviews with their preferred media outlets.
Last week, Albo sat down with avowed leftie, podcaster Abbie Chatfield, who offered up this gem in the episode’s introduction: “My primary goal in this is to get Labor back into government.”
Great! So a worthwhile exercise in journalism, then.
A couple of days before, the Prime Minister also appeared on a podcast published by satirical news publication The Betoota Advocate. It was another safe space for the Labor leader, who was allowed to bang on endlessly about his beloved NRL club, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, and offered this quote for the 1000th time: “My mum raised me with three great faiths – the Catholic Church, the South Sydney Rugby League Football Club and the Australian Labor Party.”
It’s a line Albo has been rolling out since before his mate Kevin Rudd became prime minister (the first time), and while it was a zinger the first time around, his wash-rinse-repeat use of the quote is making his “log cabin” story sound painfully rehearsed.
As for Dutton, friendly interviews with Sky News’ Peta Credlin and 60 Minutes’ Karl Stefanovicshowing his softer (I have a family!) side have laid an early base for his campaign.
In December, the Opposition Leader also conducted a podcast interview with Australian diver Sam Fricker, which was largely sympathetic to Dutton.
That interview was attacked last week by The Sydney Morning Herald, which reported that the one-on-one “received only 4600 views despite the Olympian’s 5.8 million subscribers”.
“There is no suggestion Fricker has manipulated his subscriber count, only that his videos have not drawn the engagement politicians are used to through mainstream media,” the SMH reported.
But Fricker claims the SMH has wildly misrepresented the online community’s engagement with his interview with Dutton.
Fricker says that across various platforms – TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and YouTube – the interview has been seen more than 1.4 million times.
“I think The Herald should ask itself whether it is out of touch with young Australians,” Fricker told Diary.
“Declaring my interviews with senior politicians a ‘flop’ – based solely on YouTube views while ignoring the many platforms I publish on – is misleading and disingenuous.
“I think they cherry-picked numbers from just one of my many videos to fit the narrative they wanted to push. This wasn’t just an attack on me. I think it was an attack on social media as a legitimate platform, seemingly designed to prop up traditional media at my expense. The Herald’s full-scale attack across print, digital and even its own TikTok account left many in the alternative media space scratching their heads.”
One thing’s for sure – the SMH would kill for Fricker’s level of online traffic.
Mum TV
With the opening round of the AFL season less than a fortnight away, Seven’s move to secure the rights of the sport’s second-tier competition, the VFL, caught quite a few of the industry’s heavyweights by surprise.
Seven’s Saturday night VFL coverage will be screened on 7mate, putting it in direct competition with Fox Footy’s live coverage of top-tier AFL games.
As part of the new seven-year AFL TV broadcast deal – which begins this season – Fox Footy has exclusive rights in Melbourne across every round to broadcast each AFL game live on Saturdays.
And for at least the first eight rounds of the year across all other states outside Victoria, Fox Footy also has exclusive rights for every AFL game on Saturdays.
Hence the head-scratching over Seven’s VFL deal. What’s the thinking behind pitching the sport’s amateur competition against the professional league?
Diary approached Fox Sports managing director Steve Crawley for his thoughts on the Seven’s VFL push.
“I think it’s really good for the players’ mothers,” Crawley said dryly. “But I’m not sure their partners, kids and friends will be watching.”
Foxtel chief executive Patrick Delany was slightly more diplomatic.
“The No.1 Australian rules football competition in Australia is the AFL,” Delany said.
“I think Seven and the VFL will do a fantastic job of marketing our service, but really it just draws attention to the fact that people need Kayo to watch live AFL on Saturdays.”
Asked about global sports streamer DAZN’s recent acquisition (pending regulatory approval) of Foxtel, Delany said he was “optimistic” about the opportunities that the deal would present.
“We’re a small country of 26 million people, so being part of a family of a global streamer will bring a lot of back-end technical scale to us,” he said.
“I think it will make us a stronger company financially and will allow us to step up and compete against global streamers like Netflix and Amazon.”
Production lights
There was good and bad news for the TV production sector on Friday. The bad news dropped early when it was revealed by British media and then confirmed locally that the long-running soap Neighbours had been cancelled for a third time.
The decision to axe the soap, made by Fremantle for Amazon Prime and Paramount’s Network 10, came just weeks before the show will mark its 40th birthday celebrations. Production will wrap in July and the final episode will air in December.
Later on Friday the good news was somewhat overlooked when Paramount ANZ revealed that it and CBS had commissioned a third season of NCIS: Sydney.
Neighbours runs a tight ship and offers good value for money, pumping out 400 episodes for Amazon since its recommission in 2022.
NCIS: Sydney costs quite a bit more. The original US version of the franchise, NCIS, costs close to $20m an episode, although much of that goes to the stars of the long-running series.
The first series of NCIS: Sydney ran for eight episodes, the second went for 10, and it is likely there again will be 10 in the third season.
The Sydney version of the format is made by Endemol Shine Australia under the guidance of head of scripted for Endemol Shine Australia, Sara Richardson, and showrunner Morgan O’Neill.
A key executive for Paramount who has worked on both shows is Paramount Australia’s creative drama adviser, and former head of drama, Rick Maier.
The drama decisions reinforce how much commercial broadcasters, without access to government funding, rely on co-funding from broadcast partners outside Australia.
Belle bull
The only thing more mind-boggling than the number of people watching the Netflix drama Apple Cider Vinegar last week was the number of Australian journalists scrambling to claim ownership of the Belle Gibson story.
Gibson, of course, was the Aussie influencer who faked brain cancer on her way to a lucrative book deal with Penguin and commercial arrangement with Apple.
It all famously came unstuck and the scandal went on to inspire the chart-topping Netflix series and a doco series titled The Search For Instagram’s Worst Con-Artist (also on Netflix).
Nine’s 60 Minutes wasted no time jumping on the Belle bandwagon, punching out a one-hour special last Monday night straight after Married at First Sight.
The 60 Minutes special gave plenty of airtime to Age journalists Nick Toscano and Beau Donelly, who wrote a series of Gibson stories back in the day and managed to parlay them into a book deal.
And while The Age duo published the first story suggesting Gibson had defrauded charities, it was The Australian’s own Richard Guilliatt who broke the major story that she had been faking her brain cancer.
The 60 Minutes special featured hero shots of Toscano walking purposefully down The Age’s corridors, striking his best Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein pose for the cameras while Tara Brown and her colleagues indulged in an unseemly orgy of self-congratulation about what a coup they had pulled off by landing the first TV interview with Gibson.
Oddly, there was no mention of the $75,000 that 60 Minutes paid the convicted fraudster to sit down in front of their cameras, and Toscano seemed to have conveniently forgotten that small detail too.
But it wasn’t that long ago that Toscano and Donelly weren’t so enamoured by 60 Minutes’ handling of the Gibson scandal.
Writing in a September 2016 article for The Age under the headline “Cancer con Belle Gibson’s $75,000 payday for 60 Minutes interview”, Toscano and Donnelly noted: “The revelations of Ms Gibson’s payout from Nine’s chequebook journalism will likely anger thousands who signed a petition titled – ‘Belle Gibson is still profiting off faking cancer’.”
Of course, that article in The Age was published before the Fairfax-owned press titles were absorbed by Nine. Now they’re all one big happy family.
When you add the burgeoning outrage of real-life characters who feel that they have been misrepresented by Netflix’s dramatic re-enactment of the Gibson saga, it seems the tale behind the actual retelling of the fraudster’s demise is turning into quite a story in itself.
Guardian fail
Nothings grinds a journo’s gears more than a rival who breaks an agreed embargo on a story.
For those outside the media bubble, it’s common practice for governments to enforce embargoes on certain policy announcements to ensure that all news outlets can publish the details at the same specified time, thus avoiding accusations that one organisation is receiving favourable treatment.
It’s an honourable tradition in a sometimes dishonourable industry.
So there was a massive case of collective side-eye inside Canberra’s Parliament House on Saturday afternoon when the Guardian Australia – the arbiters of all that is fair and righteous in this land – published full details of the Albanese government’s $8.5bn health policy at 3.30pm, a full seven hours before the agreed publication time.
Given that it was arguably the government’s most significant policy announcement in months, the Guardian’s reckless act went down like a brick in Lake Burley Griffin.
The error was compounded by the fact that in off-the-record briefings to journalists ahead of the announcement, the Prime Minister’s Office couldn’t have been clearer in terms of the need to observe the strict 10.30pm Saturday night embargo, which was designed to allow the Sunday newspapers to lead with the story.
When the Guardian decided to go rogue, the PMO was quick to get on the phone to express its displeasure, and the story was removed from the masthead’s website.
We asked the Guardian’s editor Lenore Taylor for a please explain.
But instead a spokesperson responded to our question, and we knew what the statement would say before we’d even read it: “There was a regrettable error during the production process which we rectified as soon as we realised the error.”
Diary feels some sympathy for “the production process”. It is blamed for pretty much every single stuff-up in journalism. Actual journalists are never responsible!
Nick Tabakoff is on leave.
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