There have been big ructions on both sides of Victorian politics over the last week. There was, of course, the shock situation of Dan Andrews’ admission to intensive care after a holiday house accident that could see him out of action for months. But over on the Victorian Liberal side, a separate dangerous curve ball was thrown by prominent conservative commentator Steve Price.
Just before Andrews’ high-profile fall down the stairs, Price used the pages of the Herald Sun to note that ineffectual current Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien had to go. But what really got people talking was Price’s choice of candidate to replace O’Brien: none other than prominent Sky News host Peta Credlin, in a piece titled “Why Peta Credlin should be our next Premier”.
Price proposed parachuting Credlin (for whom he promoted a long list of credentials) in to replace O’Brien, who he brutally noted “simply will get steamrolled by Daniel Andrews at the next election”.
“Sorry Peta if the idea horrifies you, but the current Opposition Leader and the two blokes I ran across in an Italian restaurant one night this week simply don’t cut it. Victorian Liberals need to identify a seat for Credlin and take her to (Melbourne dining institution) Di Stasio Citta.”
Price’s article certainly struck a chord with Herald Sun readers. At last count, it had attracted about 1100 comments — the vast majority vigorously backing Price’s suggestion. That made it one of the masthead’s most commented-upon pieces in a 12-month period that has included an unprecedented pandemic.
What also makes Price’s suggestion timely was that it came in the same week that Credlin is planning a bash to celebrate a significant milestone.
Diary has learnt Credlin’s husband, former federal Liberal Party director Brian Loughnane, has been quietly organising a small group of Credlin’s nearest and dearest from politics, media and her school days to a party to celebrate her 50th birthday in Melbourne later this week.
The original plan, we’re told, was for Credlin to head to Positano in Italy with five or six of her besties for a destination birthday getaway. When that became impossible, the back-up plan was stand-up drinks for about 150 people in Melbourne, but alas, COVID-19 once more had its say, because of Melbourne’s rapidly changing rules on gatherings.
The safest option ultimately became a small sit-down affair. Dress will be “cocktail” and dancing is “mandatory”, the invitation says.
And what of the guest list? Credlin was, of course, a senior adviser to two Liberal leaders: Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull.
Our reliable sources say Abbott — to whom Credlin remains close — will definitely be present. However, it would be fair to say that there’s about as much chance of Turnbull being at her 50th milestone as him ever leading the Liberal Party again.
In other words, non-existent. Credlin and Turnbull are definitely not bosom buddies.
Media names who will be attending have been hard for Diary to come by. However, there are two that we can definitely confirm: Credlin’s close mates (and fellow Sky News presenters) Alan Jones and Rita Panahi.
The most refreshing aspect of her party invitation is a note to guests at the bottom. “Rather than a birthday present, Peta would cherish a copy of your favourite book and for you to write why it’s so memorable to you on the inside.”
When we briefly asked a bashful Credlin last week about her bash, she replied: “Seriously, I feel very fortunate to be holding a party at all given the pandemic.” Then, tongue firmly planted in cheek, she reflected: “I’m worried that I might be tempting fate now that it’s out in the open, just in case Dan decides to impose another lockdown!”
Given last week’s events, perhaps Dan may have other priorities now.
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CNN’s big opinion change on Piers Morgan
In late 2010, Piers Morgan was trumpeted by CNN as the news network’s great hope for generational change, after replacing the news network’s most venerable star, Larry King.
But a decade later, CNN’s attitude to Morgan couldn’t be more different.
These days, he is viewed by his ex-employer as a pariah, after his decision to walk out on the show he hosted until last week, Good Morning Britain, over Meghan Markle. An opinion piece run prominently on the CNN website last week didn’t mince its words about Morgan, repeatedly accusing him of “bullying”.
At one point, it said he “mistakes cruelty for honesty — like most bloviating bullies would and do”, and also claimed he “wants a safe space for his explosive anger and bullying”.
The CNN piece concluded by shooting down Morgan’s quote that he was off to “spend more time with my opinions”, retorting: “Really, it’s his feelings that he’s off to coddle.”
Given that radical change of opinion over 10 years, who has changed: CNN or Morgan?
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Sales turns the tables on Twitter
Twitter’s obsession with Leigh Sales is likely to go through the roof this week when she hits back at her treatment on the platform.
As one of the most prominent women on Australian television, Sales has been a huge target for Twitter’s viciousness.
Now it’s time for Sales, who has 427,000 Twitter followers, to turn the tables.
Diary is reliably informed she will return fire over the nastiness during a Sydney Media Club lunch on Wednesday.
Sales will devote a large chunk of her address — to be moderated by the ABC’s head of investigative journalism, John Lyons — to the toxic environment on Twitter.
Last year, Sales revealed screenshots of the vile bullying she is exposed to on Twitter every time she interviews a major political figure.
In one tweet from last July, she showed some of the unprintable put-downs from both sides of politics.
“I just spent a few minutes collecting a fraction of the sexualised abuse I get (on Twitter) every time I interview a Prime Minister — female politicians, journalists, public figures get this non-stop,” she tweeted.
Largely as a result of Sales’s treatment, news supremo Gaven Morris delivered an unprecedented directive to ABC staff, telling them there was “absolutely no requirement for any ABC News staff member to maintain a personal brand” on Twitter.
Diary is told the Q&A between Sales and Lyons is likely to also cover the issue of why women seem to be treated more viciously than men on social media.
Sales won’t be taking questions from the public at the event.
We hear that’s largely because of the defamatory nature of much of the public discourse surrounding allegations of inappropriate behaviour in Canberra.
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PVO deletes all posts after pile-on
Ten’s political editor and host of The Sunday Project, Peter van Onselen, has been a darling of the Twitterati in recent years, not least for his feisty approach to Scott Morrison and his government. But on the weekend, van Onselen experienced the highly fickle nature of being a Twitter hero in all its glory — with the hashtag #UnfollowPVO trending on Saturday, helping to quickly drop his following from 193,000 to under 180,000 in just 24 hours.
What prompted the radical change in PvO’s Twitter standing?
Apparently, his stated friendship with Christian Porter, amplified by an appearance on the ABC’s Insiders eight days ago in which he talked about the matter, and then a story he co-authored in this newspaper on Saturday, titled: “In her words: Kate’s dossier of tragedy”, which featured at length notes made by Porter’s accuser.
By yesterday morning, van Onselen had deleted his entire history of tweets, and replaced them with a solitary post with a screenshot Franz Kafka’s “The Trial” and a five-word message: “Some light Sunday morning reading.”
Was his mention of Kafka in the tweet a cryptic reference to his own “trial” at the hands of the Twitterati?
“I’m not making reference to myself in the tweet — let me make that absolutely clear,” was the only light PVO would shed on the matter when Diary caught him preparing for The Project on Sunday.
Still, van Onselen did indicate the experience may well shape his presence on Twitter going forward. He confesses he seriously considered deleting the Twitter app altogether, and is now likely to use the platform purely as a means to amplify his own content.
“I’m prepared for however few followers will be left,” van Onselen joked.
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Media bosses head to Rockpool for … Xmas
It might have been three months late, but Free TV’s Christmas lunch last week was worth the wait.
Unavoidably delayed by the northern beaches COVID-19 lockdown in December, Australia’s most powerful media bosses finally got together for a slap-up do in the swanky private room of Sydney dining institution Rockpool on Thursday.
The event was put on by Free TV chair Greg Hywood, and featured News Corp Australia chief Michael Miller, incoming Nine CEO Mike Sneesby, ABC managing director David Anderson, Ten’s Bev McGarvey and ACMA head Creina Chapman. Communications Minister Paul Fletcher was guest of honour.
It might not exactly seem like a party crowd, but we’re told everyone was in a “convivial” mood and took on the delayed Christmas spirit with gusto.
Poor Sneesby, however, had to balance some competing priorities: his Free TV interests at Nine, and his streaming interests at Stan. A tricky balancing act, that one.
Meanwhile, which mischievous TV boss was the only one to shun the lunch’s general “mineral water only” policy?
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ABC boss: ‘No Facebook, no worries’
ABC managing director David Anderson’s recent profile-raising activities will continue today with his first speech of the year at La Trobe University in Melbourne.
Diary is told Anderson’s actual speech will avoid altogether the elephant in the room, the ABC’s Four Corners story by Louise Milligan last week about Attorney-General Christian Porter.
But Anderson’s oration will be followed by a short Q&A hosted by Andrea Carson, a former journalist with The Age and now La Trobe associate professor in media — and your diarist would bet the folding stuff that Carson isn’t going to let the opportunity slip on the national stage to ask about Porter and Four Corners.
Apart from that, we hear the other interesting topic Anderson will bring up is Facebook, and what the ABC has learnt from the social media giant deleting all news feeds in Australia for a week back in February.
From what we’re told, Anderson is likely to be pretty forthright, with a kind of “no Facebook, no worries” line.
He’ll suggest that many news sites, including the ABC, attracted more eyeballs than ever when Facebook vacated the field, hinting that the social media giant should take heed.
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Fordham gives office couch the flick
Exactly 10 years ago, a young Ben Fordham joined 2GB as its new drive host and noticed a faded 1980s Nick Scali black leather couch in his new inner-city Sydney office.
“I need to ditch that couch so I can put in a desk for work experience kids,” he told colleagues, as he promptly moved the couch into storage.
Someone was not amused. A certain Raymond Hadley quickly showed up in Fordham’s office demanding: “Where’s my couch gone?”
Turns out the Scali couch was Hadley’s back-up sleeping spot while pulling seven-day stints as both 2GB’s morning king and sports anchor. But Hadley’s couch stayed relocated, and Fordham became an employment machine for work experience kids. Of Fordham’s current staff, four — executive producer Zac McLean and team members Jake Lyle, Sophia Grady and Spiro Christopoulos got their starts on work experience.
Even Fordham and his boss, Nine Radio chief Tom Malone, started as work experience kids in the now-defunct 2UE newsroom.
Fordham’s work experience formula clearly works.
He rose to his highest ratings number yet, an 18.1 per cent rating, in last week’s first 2021 survey to dominate Sydney breakfast radio. “The decision to get rid of that old couch has paid off big time,” Fordham tells Diary. “And thankfully, Ray and I don’t have blow-ups any more.”
But ironically, things have turned full circle. It’s now Fordham — after pulling all-nighters for the last fortnight because of hosting duties on Nine’s Ninja Warrior — who has a fold-out bed of his own in Alan Jones’ old office at 2GB.
We’re assured he’s yet to sleep in it.
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Harris next after Armytage exit?
In light of recent events, there was a fascinating presence at a society party held by Sunrise executive producer Michael Pell in Sydney a fortnight ago.
As Diary noted last week, while departed Sunrise host Sam Armytage was absent in Tasmania, another breakfast host was present at the boozy Woollahra bash: Studio 10’s Sarah Harris.
While Nat Barr starts Monday as Armytage’s replacement, that still leaves a vacancy in the so-called Sunrise “family” for a strong woman, given that Barr was promoted from within.
And the most logical candidate to join that family is Harris, who has already built firm relationships with the Sunrise team.
No one at either Seven or Ten blames Harris for Studio 10’s flagging ratings since the show was reduced to a two-host formula last year (although, interestingly, her co-host Tristan McManus privately cops plenty over his contribution to the slump).
Her problem if she wants to head to the much-higher rating Sunrise is that we’ve learnt her contract with Ten doesn’t run out until the end of 2022. But in TV-land, any contract can be made to vanish — if the deal is right.
On Studio 10 last week, Harris played down the rumours.
“No, I’m here,” she said. “The cash cow can’t do the cha-cha.”
Hmm, we’ll see.
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