The tensions between the ABC and the federal government are showing no signs of abating, two weeks after Four Corners’ QAnon story and ahead of Monday night’s instalment about Christine Holgate’s Australia Post departure (which will inevitably raise claims of political interference).
On Thursday morning, as ABC News Breakfast was still screening, the show’s co-host Michael Rowland was clearly not happy when he took time out on Twitter to post a screenshot of Scott Morrison conducting an interview with Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon on the Today show.
“So, the PM is doing the ‘media rounds’ this morning, popping up on Sunrise and Today,” he posted snippily. “He decided against accepting our invitation to beam into @BreakfastNews from The Lodge during his quarantine (the bid made with the PMO just this week). We’ll keep asking on your behalf. #auspol”.
What Rowland may have missed was that it wasn’t merely Karl, Ally, David Koch and Natalie Barr who ScoMo agreed to interviews with on Thursday morning. He also made time for 4BC breakfast radio host Neil Breen, and even 11 minutes with 2DayFM’s Morning Crew, featuring Dave Hughes, Ed Kavalee and Erin Molan, which, if you recall, rated an abysmal 3.3 per cent in the latest Sydney radio ratings.
Now, when a national breakfast TV show gets passed over for 11 long minutes on a Sydney radio show listened to by little more than a boy scout and his toothless dog, it’s starting to sound awfully like a snub.
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‘Comeback Dan’ snubs The Age
The return of comeback kid Daniel Andrews to work on Monday has already prompted a media frenzy in Melbourne not seen since last year’s four-month Covid-19 lockdown.
Andrews’ office has granted the Herald Sun’s health editor Grant McArthur and the ABC’s Virginia Trioli print and electronic media exclusives with the Premier for Monday and Tuesday.
But Diary has learnt there were big dramas behind the scenes last week about another in-depth Dan comeback interview that was proposed weeks ago – but ultimately canned – with Melbourne’s The Age newspaper.
It is understood that Andrews refused to proceed with an in-depth chat with the masthead, after senior editors rejected his choice of interviewer, Sunday Age contributor and former ABC radio host, Jon Faine.
Diary can reveal that the Premier’s office had lined up the sit-down for Andrews with Faine, which was to have run in the venerable Melbourne masthead on the day of his comeback and at the same time as McArthur’s Herald Sun interview.
Faine had originally put in a request for the sit-down several weeks ago. But last week the interview was abruptly shelved.
Why? Because The Age decided Faine was the wrong man to conduct the chat.
Insiders at the masthead say the paper’s firm stance with the Premier’s office last week was that “we can’t have a freelance columnist of the government’s choosing conducting a significant interview with the Premier”. But Andrews’ office refused to allow the Premier to conduct The Age’s sit-down with anyone else but Faine.
In a series of intense but unsuccessful negotiations by phone and email last week, involving The Age’s news director Pat Elligett and the Premier’s office, the masthead instead offered up the choice of two of its senior full-time correspondents in Faine’s place: state political editor Annika Smethurst or chief reporter Chip Le Grand.
Before I come back to work tomorrow, I thought I would share what happened. In my own words. pic.twitter.com/RkJcvPTYyu
— Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) June 27, 2021
But Diary is told Andrews’ office firmly rejected these offers, saying that the only representative of The Age he would sit down with was Faine. So The Age decided to withdraw from publishing any interview with Andrews.
When Diary reached Faine on Sunday, he confirmed that his interview would no longer appear in The Age. “When The Age said they’d passed on it, I was more than surprised about it. It’s kind of funny. The Age said we’re not having the Premier decide which journalist conducts the interview, and the Premier’s office said we’re not having The Age say which journalist we’re going to talk to. So I still conducted an interview, and offered it to the ABC instead.”
Faine strongly defended his ability to conduct a probing but insightful interview with the Premier, dismissing suggestions that they are “mates”.
However, on Sunday night there was a further twist in the tale, with the ABC also belatedly knocking back Faine’s interview with Andrews about his “injury and recovery”, after the Premier posted his own video on the incident. A spokesman said: “ABC News decided not to run a piece written by former presenter Jon Faine”. The ABC said that while the piece was a “valuable insight” into Andrews’s ordeal, once the Premier “had spoken to these issues publicly” in his Facebook video, “the editorial value of the article was reassessed”.
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Andrews’ hectic schedule for return
Diary hears Dan Andrews will be immediately resuming the sort of frenetic pace he maintained before his enforced lay-off nearly four months ago.
Over the weekend, he got in early by taking to Facebook to post a video where at one point he lashed out at “vile” speculation about his accident in Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula.
On Monday, he will face the intensity of an all-in press conference with the Melbourne media pack, no doubt with more questions on the same subject after the Herald Sun’s story about the fall runs on Monday morning.
But Andrews is also unlikely to pass up the delicious opportunity to gloat about Victoria’s much-improved Covid-19 position relative to NSW, now that Gladys Berejiklian’s “gold standard” state has slipped into its own pandemic lockdown nightmare.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Andrews will conduct his first broadcast interview with Virginia Trioli, who last year succeeded Jon Faine as ABC Radio Melbourne’s morning host.
And what of Dan’s now-famous North Face jacket? Diary is already taking bets on how many press conferences it will take for Andrews to dust it off.
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Lisa’s lucrative new deal with The Project
Lisa Wilkinson was at centre of the biggest media story of 2017, when she stormed out on the Today show to take up a four-year deal with The Project, after Nine controversially refused to grant her equal pay with her then co-host, Karl Stefanovic.
Now Diary has learnt that Wilkinson has cemented her long-term future with the rival Ten Network and The Project as part of a lucrative new multi-year deal. And it is yet another gender equality issue that is at the centre of the contract, believed to have been inked in the last few weeks.
As part of the new deal, we’re told that Ten and Wilkinson have agreed that her primary focus from now on will be on hard news issues, and particularly on the treatment of women both in the workplace and in broader society.
When she was originally signed by Ten in 2017, her primary mission seemed to be on a very different track. Ten’s statements at the time noted that Wilkinson would be used to land the ‘big’ international celebrity interviews. And on that front she succeeded, jetting around the world to talk to everyone from Lady Gaga, to George Clooney, Serena Williams, Angelina Jolie, Celine Dion, Jacinda Ardern, Robbie Williams and Simon Baker.
But a Ten insider tells Diary that since Covid-19 closed international borders, Wilkinson has reframed her brief to focus more on news and issues close to her heart, like the treatment of women. That changed focus is reflected in her new contract with Ten, which is believed to worth millions and gives her latitude to explore issues that she is passionate about.
A key production insider tells Diary: “Through The Project, Lisa has a platform to highlight what she sees as injustices, and to influence change. Her championing of Brittany Higgins on TV and at this year’s March 4 Justice has helped Lisa to understand that her primary focus now needs to be on touchstone issues in Australia, such as making our culture in federal parliament, and indeed in all workplaces, one where women can feel safe.”
Wilkinson’s new contract will mean that Ten can now solidify the main core cast on The Project into two distinct line-ups: a Monday-to-Wednesday version of the show highlighted by Waleed Aly, Carrie Bickmore and Peter Helliar, and a Thursday, Friday and Sunday version of the show in which Wilkinson is the main consistent presence.
This structure is in accordance with the wishes of Ten bosses, who are known to want viewers to consistently be able to know which personalities will appear on any given night.
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Seven angered by Sam’s swipe at Barr
Seven has been infuriated by former Sunrise host Sam Armytage’s claim on Twitter last week that her successor, Natalie Barr, had coveted the plum TV job “forever”.
Armytage, who is still technically on the Seven payroll, is effectively now part of what insiders have wryly dubbed the network’s “special projects division” after leaving Sunrise earlier this year to allow her to, in her own words, spend more time with her family and live a more private life.
Since then, she may have disappeared from the Seven airwaves, but she certainly hasn’t quietly left the limelight.
Shortly after an interview on the Kyle & Jackie O show last week in which she was asked about her tensions with Barr, Armytage posted a tweet linking to a clip of the radio interview: “Look. I’m out. Nat’s wanted the job, forever. & she’s finally got it. She just needs to get on & enjoy it – & forget about me..(even though I’m unforgettable) #peaceout.”
We’re told that tweet went down like a lead balloon at Seven. As one insider told us: “When she left Sunrise, Sam said she wanted to get away from the attention. But the only one creating the attention around her is Sam. And her accusation that Nat wanted the job ‘forever’ is so untrue. She never did.”
Armytage caused another stir last month when she candidly revealed in an article in News Corp’s Stellar magazine: “I’ve got to this fantastic age and stage where I’ve unfollowed all the people who annoy or irritate me – both in the online world and in real life.”
What has raised eyebrows following that particular article is that Armytage has now unfollowed her former Sunrise co-host David Koch, her successor Barr, and Sunrise executive producer Michael Pell on Instagram. Quite the statement.
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Promoted Barnaby sticks with Sunrise
The halo of Seven’s breakfast show Sunrise for politicians can claim yet another win, after one of the show’s regulars, Barnaby Joyce, triumphantly returned to the deputy prime ministership of Australia last week.
For two years, Joyce and maverick Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon have had a “Punch and Judy” Sunrise sparring session every Monday at 6.45am that has performed well for the breakfast show. Sunrise, of course, became a star-making vehicle for politicians in the early noughties, when the careers of ex-PM Kevin Rudd and Joe Hockey were turbocharged by their weekly spot on the show.
But Diary has learnt there were some anxious moments for Sunrise producers last week to make sure that Joyce would continue to participate with the show, now he is Deputy PM again rather than simply a Nationals backbencher.
Sunrise unsuccessfully tried to call Joyce several times last week to make sure that he would continue with the show, with Joyce too busy to answer because of his chaotic week. Sunrise even tried calling Fitzgibbon and asked him to convince Joyce to keep doing the segment.
Diary can now finally confirm his answer is in the affirmative. “Yes, I will continue to be on Sunrise,” Joyce told us as he was driving back to his family farm from Canberra on Friday night.
Meanwhile, Joyce’s partner Vikki Campion told us she would also continue with her well-read political column each Saturday in The Daily Telegraph after Joyce’s elevation. However, tongue firmly planted in cheek, Joyce interjected with one key condition on her continuing in the Telegraph role: “She can’t go out and shit on the Deputy PM of Australia.”
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Sydney’s political tragics play Gladys Bingo
It’s amazing what lockdown boredom will do to normally sane people. Ahead of Gladys Berejiklian’s daily 11am press conference on Saturday, and again on Sunday, a game of Gladys Bingo sprung up on NSW Health’s busier than normal Facebook Live stream.
The aim of the game? To make predictions on which colour the NSW Premier would be wearing for her daily press conference. It’s all very reminiscent of the online predictions that used to be made about whether or not Daniel Andrews would be wearing his North Face jacket for his daily press conferences during last year’s four-month lockdown in Victoria.
For the Gladys tragics out there, Berejiklian wore a fire engine red coat for not one, but two press conferences on Saturday, causing consternation on Facebook Live about her bold choice, while she opted for a more muted brown coat on Sunday.
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Neil Mitchell offers to return from holidays
As his Melbourne morning radio rival Virginia Trioli lands the first broadcast interview with Dan Andrews since his return, Neil Mitchell continues to live in hope of landing his own interview with the Victorian Premier.
Mitchell has, along with most of the shock jocks around the country, headed off for their annual two-week mid-year break.
But the 3AW morning radio king has generously – some might say optimistically – offered to end his holidays and return to Melbourne just to interview Andrews.
Mitchell tells Diary: “I have requested an interview with him and offered to interrupt my holidays on any day he names.”
We can picture the scene: Mitchell in a Hawaiian shirt, sipping on a pina colada while he interviews the Premier. Sadly, that seems unlikely.
Andrews has boycotted Mitchell’s show for four years, ever since a testy interview between the pair in 2017 when Mitchell accused the Premier of “political trickery”. Still, Mitchell somehow lives in hope. “Maybe he’s been lying on his back for three months listening to me and thinking: ‘Hey, Neil’s not such a bad bloke after all. I’d better do an interview with him’,” he says.
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