Legal eagles scrap over not-so-Good Weekend piece on Sue Chrysanthou
A profile piece on barrister Sue Chrysanthou, which appeared to confuse ‘mentor’ with ‘bitter rival’, not only raised eyebrows — it revived memories of some classic courtroom exchanges.
High-profile barrister Sue Chrysanthou received the kind of publicity money can’t buy on Saturday when she featured on the front cover of the Good Weekend, the magazine insert of the Nine-owned Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
The lengthy profile, by journalist Jane Cadzow, described the 44-year-old silk as the “barrister du jour in the defamation capital of the world” – a label that can only be good for business.
But some glaring inaccuracies in the piece caught the attention of the legal fraternity.
Close associates of Chrysanthou – who wasn’t interviewed for the magazine piece, in keeping with her longstanding practice of not participating in articles about her – were most shocked by the claim that fellow Sydney-based defamation barrister Bruce McClintock was her “long-time friend and mentor”.
According to well-placed legal sources, McClintock and Chrysanthou have been fierce rivals for more than a decade.
“Sue couldn’t be more different to McClintock – she would have choked on her toast reading that he was supposedly her mentor,” one senior Phillip St insider told Diary.
In her early years at the Bar, Chrysanthou was actually mentored by media law veteran Stuart Littlemore KC, a fact confirmed by Littlemore on Sunday.
“Bruce was never involved in helping Sue ‘come up’ through the ranks, nor the development of her expertise,” Littlemore said.
“Sue worked more closely with me than anyone else. Early in her career we did a great deal of work together.”
Littlemore told Diary he thinks Chrysanthou is a “remarkable lawyer”, and laughingly recalled the time he received a note from a grateful client after a trial he and Chrysanthou had worked on. “And please congratulate Ms Chrysanthemum for her solid work on the evidence,” it read.
In 2010, Littlemore and Chrysanthou successfully sued Channel 9 for defamation on behalf of renowned plastic surgeon Peter Haertsch, who was falsely accused of botching a Gold Coast meter maid’s breast implant surgery.
The publicly available transcript of the trial reveals a tense exchange during the hearing, with Littlemore calling McClintock, acting for the defendant, a “toe rag”. Chrysanthou, a junior barrister at the time, added as an aside in the courtroom: “Bruce knows more about a woman’s body … than I do.”
So, at what point did McClintock become Chrysanthou’s long-time friend and mentor?
Well, never, according to associates of Chrysanthou. But given that McClintock was quoted at length (and not in glowing terms) about Chrysanthou at various different points in the article, Diary asked SMH editor Bevan Shields whether Cadzow had sought to fact-check the nature of McClintock’s professional relationship with Chrysanthou.
Shields did not respond.
When contacted by Diary, McClintock said he regarded Chrysanthou as a “friend”.
“I did not use those words (‘long-time friend and mentor’) but I consider them to be accurate,” he said.
“I counselled (and consoled her) when she did not get silk on her first application, wrote letters and made representations supporting her in her second and successful application … that sounds pretty close to a mentor relationship to me.”
The Good Weekend article also included a bizarre passage in which Cadzow raised doubt over whether Chrysanthou was a “feminist” because of her “relentless cross-examination” of actor Eryn Jean Norvill in the successful defamation case brought by Geoffrey Rush in 2018.
A barrister engaging in relentless cross-examination? Who’d have thunk it?
Chrysanthou declined to comment.
Glover Parramattitude
Richard Glover, ABC Radio Sydney’s veteran host of its drive program, announced on Friday he would be departing the show in November after 26 years in the presenter’s chair.
Glover’s official line, pushed out via an ABC press release, was that he’d had a great run and he felt as though he’d “hogged” the show for long enough.
All true, no doubt.
But what Glover – and the ABC communications team – did not disclose in the glowing farewell statement is the level of growing angst among staff about the station’s relocation from inner-Sydney Ultimo to the flash new digs in Parramatta, in Sydney’s west.
It’s a bruising 25-minute train ride from the city’s Central station to the less-hip Parramatta and, as The Australian has previously reported, it’s a trip (and a destination) the majority of ABC Radio staff aren’t that keen on.
Glover and his team were reluctant to shift to Parramatta, but were among the first crews to be permanently relocated to the new offices earlier this year.
Glover even devoted one of his weekly Sydney Morning Herald columns to airing his grievances about modern offices. Published in June, it was titled “Give me back my landline, my desk drawers, and my dreary old office”.
Diary wonders whether Glover, whose ratings have been on the slide in the past two years, would have opted to bat on if allowed to work out of Ultimo?
Other program crews are still in the process of moving to Parramatta but all will be based in western Sydney by the beginning of next year, including the breakfast show hosted by Craig Reucassel – who, Diary hears, is also somewhat nonplussed about the shift from Ultimo.
Next in line at Aunty
With the looming departures of Richard Glover and Patricia Karvelas from their respective shows on ABC Radio Sydney and Radio National, the talk has turned to who might replace them.
The RN breakfast gig is considered the most prestigious timeslot on Aunty’s airwaves, although according to the most recent ratings survey its national audience numbers have never been lower.
Experienced radio host and former foreign correspondent Sally Sara will certainly be considered for the role, and is probably the best-qualified internal candidate, although another ex-foreign correspondent, Steve Cannane, now a reporter with the ABC’s investigations unit, also has strong claims.
But if ABC Radio’s strategists want to take the show in a slightly different direction, while retaining its political focus, Hamish Macdonald could be in the mix.
Even though his stint as Q+A host a few years back wasn’t a success, he is well-regarded inside the ABC, and is seen as a capable all-rounder, and a talented interviewer with political chops.
Of course, Macdonald could also be a good fit to replace Glover on the drive program, if the RN job is gifted elsewhere.
Media Watch, and wait
Not long now, we’re hearing, until the next Media Watch host is announced. So, who’s going to fill the role of pompous judge, jury and executioner?
Our guess is ABC chair Kim Williams will have suggested to managing director David Anderson, while having him in a gentle headlock, that he should appoint someone from outside the organisation to replace Paul Barry, who leaves in December after 11 years as host. Among the favourites is Janine Perrett, who has the advantage of having filled in for Barry when he was on three weeks’ leave last month.
If Perrett’s cameo was viewed as an audition, she certainly impressed the judges, with sharp pieces on the ABC’s controversial wartime reporting by Mark Willacy, and the undeclared side hustles of Aunty’s favourite sports presenter, Tony Armstrong.
But when Diary called the usually garrulous Perrett last week to squeeze her for inside information, she wouldn’t tell us boo.
Former editor of The Age, Gay Alcorn, has also been the subject of some speculation regarding the position. But Alcorn told Diary that while she’d had a preliminary discussion, there had been no formal interview. “I made it clear my intention was to return to The Age next year,” Alcorn said.
What about Sydney Morning Herald investigative reporter Kate McClymont? “Definitely not!” was her firm response when we sounded her out last week.
Annabel Crabb? She didn’t respond to our text message.
Neither did Lisa Wilkinson – although given that she’s pretty much burned all bridges at Australia’s commercial TV networks, the ABC might be her last chance saloon.
And are there any blokes in the mix? Diary reported in August that Federal Court judge Michael Lee politely declined when the possibility was put to him that he’d be great on TV, while Sky News Australia’s Chris Kenny – admittedly an ardent (but always fair) critic of the ABC – told us he wasn’t in the running.
“I’m refusing to answer their calls,” Kenny said in an email, alongside an entirely unnecessary laughing-crying emoji.
Diary also got hold of the show’s inaugural host, barrister Stuart Littlemore, for his assessment: “I though Janine Perrett was pretty good when she was on the other week. I was impressed. She seemed to get the tone right.”
Finally, we asked Barry himself if he’d heard any whispers. “I’m waiting for the white smoke, like everybody else,” he replied, somewhat reverentially.
An ABC spokesperson told us: “We’ll announce the new host at the end of the recruitment process.”
Which is usually the way these things work.
Guardian misfires
The Guardian Australia has taken aim at the Herald Sun’s handling of an adverse finding by the Australian Press Council, which last week ruled a cartoon published by the News Corp newspaper was “offensive and prejudicial”.
The Guardian’s media column on Friday claimed News Corp had “mocked” the finding by giving cartoonist Mark Knight the opportunity to defend his work.
Earlier in the week, Knight’s right of reply was published (alongside a reprint of the cartoon in question) below the full transcript of the 780-word finding by the Press Council.
“News Corp Australia has demonstrated again how much respect it has for its own self-regulatory complaints system, the Australian Press Council, by mocking its latest adverse finding,” the Guardian thundered.
What a joke.
The Guardian Australia is the only major news masthead in the country that is not a member of the Press Council, the industry’s principal body through which complaints about the nation’s press outlets are assessed.
News Corp (publisher of The Australian) and Nine Entertainment (publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Australian Financial Review) are members of the APC, as is Country Press Australia, the Community Newspapers of Australia, Daily Mail Australia, and several smaller online publishers including the owners of Mumbrella and Crikey.
None of these outlets will claim the Press Council is perfect, but they will acknowledge they recognise the value in having an independent watchdog scrutinise and judge their work. The Guardian chooses not to subject itself to the same scrutiny, preferring the safety of the failsafe “mark-your-own-homework” model. Independent assessment be damned!
On its website, the APC states: “Non-members are, in effect, shirking their responsibility to contribute to the industry’s self-regulatory regime and in doing so they inevitably weaken it. They create space for those who would impose unwanted government regulation on the sector.”
Diary asked Guardian editor Lenore Taylor for a reminder on why, exactly, it chooses to shun the Press Council.
“As we’ve explained many times before, we’re accountable to our editorial code of practice and guidance, which is available for anyone to read on our website. We also have an independent global readers’ editor to collect, consider, investigate, respond to and, where appropriate, come to a conclusion about readers’ comments, concerns and complaints in a prompt and timely manner, always from a position of independence within the paper,” a spokesperson for the Guardian replied.
Hmmm, an “independent” in-house complaints editor? Your mum has more clout!
Can you imagine the outcry if News Corp, or The Age, or The Australian Financial Review decided to establish their own complaints editor, and refused to allow ordinary complaints to be judged independently?
But back to Knight’s cartoon, and his right of reply, which was basically just a helpful explainer of the thinking behind his work.
The fact the scrutiny-averse Guardian would find fault in a newspaper engaging in healthy debate over a contentious issue is, in itself, bizarre.
The Herald Sun complied with its obligations as a member of the Press Council by publishing the watchdog’s full findings. To offer a well-argued counter view of the findings simply adds to the reader’s understanding of the issue.
For the record, the cartoon in question – published in May – depicts Anthony Albanese winding up a drawbridge as a bare-chested Peter Dutton strides towards him, saying “STEP ASIDE ALBO” In the background are people with predominantly brown skin, carrying suitcases, appearing to arrive in Australia from overseas.
In its finding, the Press Council said it “accepts that the intention of the cartoon was to comment on the political debate surrounding the immigration numbers and not on who or where the immigrants were arriving from”, and recognises the public interest in commenting on the issue.
But the council found fault with the manner in which the immigrants were depicted.
An editorial published in the Herald Sun last Tuesday stated: “The Herald Sun supports Knight and his vow to give the ‘perpetually outraged something to be outraged about’.
Departure lounge
Still at the Guardian, and another heavy-hitter is heading for the door, with the lefty online news site’s highly regarded foreign affairs and defence correspondent, Daniel Hurst, set to move on to greener (if that’s possible) pastures.
Hurst’s exit comes hot on the heels of the well-publicised departure of Guardian political reporter Amy Remeikis, who downed tools on Thursday and is off to a job with left-leaning think tank the Australia Institute.
When Remeikis handed in her resignation last month, there were industry murmurs – including some from within the Guardian itself – that there had been a Canberra level of frostiness between her and the masthead’s political editor, Karen Middleton.
Middleton joined the Guardian in February as a replacement for Katharine “Murpharoo” Murphy, who had jumped at the chance to join the Prime Minister’s office at the beginning of the year to spin for Labor in a more formal capacity.
So, is there any truth to the rumours about Remeikis and Middleton not seeing eye to eye in the Guardian hothouse?
Hell, no!, says Amy. When Diary approached Remeikis on Friday, she politely thanked us for our continued interest in her career, before setting us straight.
“I’m not sure who you would have spoken to, as I’ve had no problems working with Karen (or anyone at the Guardian) – we have a warm relationship, both professionally and personally, both before and during her time as my manager, and I don’t see that changing.”
Wow! We were way off the mark! BFFs, apparently!
Remeikis continued: “I have loved my time at Guardian Australia and hope to be back one day, when my life circumstances allow for the intensity of the daily work. It has been the honour of my professional life to work with the Guardian and everyone in the Canberra team, and I don’t consider this to be a permanent ending.”
Guardian editor Lenore Taylor posted a note of thanks to Remeikis on the site’s political blog on Thursday, praising her “insight, knowledge, wit and humour”.
But Taylor was less forthcoming when Diary asked about the staff turnover at the Guardia, handballing the inquiry to a masthead spokesperson, who said: “We are in the process of hiring two new members for our Canberra team after Amy and Daniel decided for personal reasons to take jobs outside of journalism.”
Palestine in focus
In January, political journalist Nour Haydar quit the ABC, citing the organisation’s treatment of culturally diverse staff and its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
Not long after, Haydar popped up at Guardian Australia, in the role of senior audio producer and co-host of one of the masthead’s podcasts.
Next month, Haydar will deliver the annual AN Smith Lecture in Journalism at the University of Melbourne. The title of her speech is: “A reflection on Palestine, Australian media and who gets to shape the story.”
The online promo for the event reads: “How can organisations empower journalists to report with rigour and authenticity on events that they have unique and valuable insight into? What do terms like credibility, objectivity and impartiality mean in the modern and diverse newsroom?”
Hmmm, sounds thought-provoking … and a little bit controversial. Haydar will deliver her lecture at 6.30pm on November 26. It’s in Diary’s diary.
Sunrise sinks in south
Does Seven’s juggernaut breakfast show, Sunrise, have a Melbourne problem?
Last Wednesday, it drew an average of just 29,000 viewers in the Victorian capital – exactly the same audience as The Adventures of Paddington on the ABC.
And, while the madcap escapades of the Peruvian bear can be entertaining, you’d expect the combined might of Nat Barr, Matt Shirvington et al should be able to eclipse the kiddies show.
Sunrise’s rival, Nine’s Today, fronted by Karl Stefanovic and Sarah Abo, pulled 65,000 in Melbourne on the same day, more than double the audience of their Seven counterparts.
But that’s where the good news ends for Nine. The average national audience for Sunrise on Wednesday was 379,000, easily outstripping Today’s Australia-wide number of 311,000.
Despite the program’s curiously soft numbers in Melbourne, the show’s ratings lead over Today ensures it will retain its crown as the most popular TV breakfast program for the 21st year in a row.
Mugs for mugs
Inner-city masthead The Saturday Paper is pulling out all stops to boost its dwindling readership.
Having seen its readership dip by 10 per cent in the year to June 30, according to Roy Morgan research, its editor-in-chief, Erik Jensen, last week issued a public plea for more subscribers.
“Your support is vital. By subscribing to The Saturday Paper you help us maintain our commitment to quality, independent reporting. Plus, when you subscribe today, you will receive a FREE ceramic mug,” Jensen offered.
A free mug? Of all the unwanted household items, you’re offering us a free mug?
Diary could be wrong, but a quick straw poll with close associates found most Australian households are pointlessly overstocked with mugs by a factor of 10. Please, no more mugs!
We also think that very few mugs (sorry) will be tempted to shell out more than $100 for an annual subscription to The Saturday Paper on the promise of a free drinking vessel.
But for those who are interested, Jensen’s note warned that the offer of a free mug is only available “while stocks last”.
We’re willing to bet that stocks will last for quite some time.
Nick Tabakoff is on leave.
Tonagh quits ABC board early
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