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Nick Tabakoff

Ray Hadley lashes his employer Nine over Katy Gallagher coverage

Nick Tabakoff
Ray Hadley. Picture: Jonathan Ng
Ray Hadley. Picture: Jonathan Ng
The Australian Business Network

The fallout from the leaked pre-­interview tapes between Brittany Higgins and Lisa Wilkinson is causing even current and past media colleagues to turn against each other.

The most notable example came on Friday, when Nine’s highest-paid star, 2GB morning king Ray Hadley, turned on his stablemates in the Nine TV newsroom and at The Sydney Morning Herald over their coverage of the questions raised in the tapes about whether Finance Minister Katy Gallagher misled parliament about her knowledge of the Brittany Higgins interview.

Hadley didn’t mince his words on his Friday show, lashing out at his own company’s coverage of the story.

“Surprisingly, our own TV network … Channel 9 in Sydney last night largely avoided the story on Senator Gallagher,” he told his listeners. “They ran way down the bulletin a little bit about Anthony Albanese out there opening the Western Sydney Airport, where he denied there was a problem (for Gallagher).”

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher. Picture: Getty Images
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher. Picture: Getty Images

He saved a similar brickbat for the Herald: “Unsurprisingly, you’d struggle to find the story in the other part of the Nine Entertainment machine, the Herald, today. It’s consigned, in the same way it was consigned last night on Channel 9, to the back pages.”

Hadley claimed it would have been a different story at the ­Herald if the story had involved “right-wing media types” and Liberal Party members.

“They’d be hung, drawn and quartered on the ABC, The Sydney Morning Herald, (and) all the social media sites (in that scenario),” he said. “They’d be calling for them to be put in stocks and have fruit thrown at them, and then dealt with accordingly. But of course, in many respects, it gets largely ignored.”

When Diary reached Hadley after the show, he was in no mood to back down. “I don’t resile at all from what I said today,” he told Diary. “There’s a call for a high-ranking minister to stand down. It’s a big story, and I don’t know how it finishes other than a high-ranking story. It’s a story of ­national significance.”

Did Hadley’s comments on Friday have any effect? The Herald gave much more prominence to the Gallagher story a day later – with a story run on the front page which questioned what the ­Finance Minister knew about the Higgins interview before it was aired on The Project.

Even the normally mild-mannered Deborah Knight, who hosts the 2GB afternoon shift, had some brickbats for her former employers at Ten about their search for the source of the tape leaks (rather than focusing on the comments on the tape) on her Friday show. “I worked for Channel 10 for a decade, and it is shameful the way this network is behaving,” she said. Ouch.

Wilkinson won’t be stripped of Logie for Higgins interview

There have been calls for Lisa Wilkinson to hand back the Silver Logie for the Most Outstanding News Coverage or Public Affairs Report that she claimed at the ­annual ceremony almost exactly a year ago for her Brittany Higgins interview.

The calls come after The Australian obtained leaked pre-interview audio conversations that revealed Wilkinson helped Higgins on everything from framing her story to suggesting angles, and offering unflattering judgments on Higgins’ former boss, ex-defence minister Linda Reynolds.

The pre-interview chats also caught Wilkinson and others present apparently mocking the Liberal Party’s preselection of Indigenous candidates like Jacinta Nampijinpa Price – prompting Wilkinson to issue an apology to Price over the weekend.

But despite this, Diary hears the chances of Wilkinson being forced to hand back the Logie are Buckley’s or none.

Wilkinson famously kicked off her headline-making victory speech for the Logie she won last June by basking at length in the glory of her win. “After 40 years in journalism, this interview and this story is by far the most important work I have ever done,” she told the Logies audience. “And I knew it from the very first phone call I had last year from a young woman whose name, she told me, was Brittany Higgins. As Brittany warned me before we went to air, her story would be seen by many of the most powerful people in this country not as a human problem, but as a political problem.”

Wilkinson was right in at least one respect: last week’s leaked tapes certainly confirm just how “political” the issue has become. But Diary has learnt that Logies organisers will not demand that she hand back the Silver Logie, ­despite the questions now being raised about the interview. Why? Apparently because the story was a team effort, not an individual ­effort. The Logie for Wilkinson’s “most important work” in 40 years of journalism was shared with producers at The Project.

Most of the publicity that followed Wilkinson’s win gave her the lion’s share of the credit for both the story and the Logies ­triumph. But a high-level insider says there is “no rule in the guidelines” that allows for the Silver Logie to be taken back. Additionally, it clearly wasn’t an award for Wilkinson alone, but for the entire team at The Project. “It wasn’t won by Lisa Wilkinson,” the source says. “It was never awarded to Lisa Wilkinson personally. It was won by The Project and Network Ten. Lisa may have made it all about Lisa, but it’s the show’s award.”

Lisa Wilkinson from The Project with her award at the 62nd TV Week Logie Awards.
Lisa Wilkinson from The Project with her award at the 62nd TV Week Logie Awards.

The source added that the award wouldn’t be stripped, but “if someone wants to hand it back, they can hand it back”.

From what Diary hears, that outcome is unlikely at this stage.  Despite the fact that Wilkinson apparently won’t have to hand back the Logie, other major media awards events have shown it is possible to take awards away.

Just last November, the Walkley Awards stripped a gong for the first time in its 67-year history, when two Nine Queensland news reporters had their gong taken off them for best TV/video reporting. Queensland’s Clarion Awards did the same thing for the same story in recent weeks.

Wilkinson’s triumphant speech after collecting The Project’s Logie had consequences all of its own, forcing the three-month delay of last year’s (later aborted) trial of Bruce Lehrmann in the ACT Supreme Court by Chief Justice Lucy McCallum.

The ACT Chief Justice said last June that as a result of that speech, the “distinction between an allegation and finding of guilt has been completely obliterated in the discussion”.

There’s just one burning question left: where is the Logie statuette that Wilkinson accepted a year ago? Is it at The Project’s Melbourne headquarters – or 900km away at the harbourside mansion of Wilkinson and her author husband, Peter FitzSimons?

ABC reporter tipped for PVO’s old Ten job

As Ten prepares to duke it out in court with its former political editor Peter van Onselen over the terms of his departure deed, the network is believed to be on the verge of filling his vacated job.

There was talk around Ten’s Pyrmont bunker in Sydney on Friday that the network would announce PVO’s replacement as early as next week, after a long search that even included a Seek ad.

The hot tip was that Ten had turned yet again to the ABC – perhaps its favourite external source of talent, with the likes of The Project’s Hamish Macdonald and Taskmaster’s Tom Gleeson – now featuring prominently on the network – for its latest hire.

ABC journalist Ashleigh Raper.
ABC journalist Ashleigh Raper.
Kieran Gilbert. Picture: Damian Shaw
Kieran Gilbert. Picture: Damian Shaw

Diary heard strong mail on the long weekend that Ashleigh Raper, the ABC’s NSW state political reporter, was set to be announced to fill the role shortly. Raper played a prominent role on the panel for the ABC’s NSW election coverage in March, anchored by David Speers and Sarah Ferguson, and performed well.

Ten has been offering a strict “no comment” on who’ll get the role. But if Diary’s late mail is right, it would entail Raper moving from Sydney to Canberra full-time.

The word is that, like PVO, Raper – if chosen – could also ­become a regular presence on The Project.

Apart from Raper, Ten put together a long list of political reporting types who may have been suitable for the job, which PVO vacated in early March.

In particular, we’re told Ten had discussions with The Age’s Victorian state political editor ­Annika Smethurst, which ultimately hit a dead end.

Smethurst was willing to work in the national capital only on a “fly in, fly out” basis, on account of her young family. But Ten was apparently adamant that the new appointee had to be based in the national capital full-time, not just on sitting weeks.

Two others believed to have received preliminary approaches about their possible interest in the role were Sky News pair Kieran Gilbert and Tom Connell. However, both are locked in with long-term deals at Sky.

Life after Kochie: Barr gives Plibersek a grilling

David Koch may only have left Sunrise on Friday after 21 years in the hosting chair. But already the show is adapting to its new reality of a Koch-free future, as it looks to consolidate its position as the country’s dominant breakfast show ahead of Nine’s Today show.

Diary is reliably informed that Natalie Barr – now the senior partner in Sunrise’s new hosting combination with Matt Shirvington, following Koch’s emotional departure on Friday – last week made clear moves to step up and embrace her new role as the show’s unofficial leader.

The first clear sign of the imminent changing of the guard came last Monday, when Barr conducted a surprisingly hard-hitting interview with federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek over the leaked audio of the pre-interview meeting between Lisa Wilkinson and Brittany Higgins.

Natalie Barr. Picture: Justin Lloyd
Natalie Barr. Picture: Justin Lloyd
Matt Shirvington. Picture: Sam Ruttyn
Matt Shirvington. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Wilkinson had been caught on tape singling out Plibersek as a “friendly” politician who could help Higgins’ cause in parliament.

And Barr, asking the types of blunt questions that Koch has traditionally become known for, showed a steely resolve in not ­letting Plibersek off the hook for standard politicians’ non-answers.

Barr asked Plibersek a number of times about whether she had been approached “by Lisa Wilkinson or her producer at The Project to raise Britney Higgins’ alleged assaults in question time”.

At one point, when Plibersek tried to wriggle out of directly ­addressing the question, Barr ­demanded of the cabinet minister that she “answer the question”.

Eventually, Plibersek admitted to having met up with Higgins, but claimed she had not been ­approached by Wilkinson or her producer.

In another segment last week, Barr attracted attention when she questioned whether Wilkinson had been “coaching” Higgins on the tapes before The Project’s headline-making interview with her in early 2021.

In excerpts of the tapes played on Seven’s Spotlight program a week ago, Wilkinson had told Higgins that she didn’t want to “put words in your mouth” but requested that she “enunciate the fact that this place is all about suppression of people’s natural sense of justice”.

Barr made headlines on various online news sites when she asked on Sunrise: “Was that coaching, or was that a journalist talking before the interview?”

A Seven insider tells Diary that Barr had already stepped up to become Sunrise’s chief interrogator, while Shirvington trains up and builds his experience as an interviewer: “The dynamic will change. Nat will take the lead on hard-hitting interviews, because she has lots of experience in news.

“She’s got to be the one making headlines on news.com.au, for example.”

Dee Dee’s fast exit triggers 3AW ‘shootout’

It’s not often that a radio broadcaster suddenly leaves their role at or near the top of the ratings in their timeslot. In recent times, only Alan Jones’ shock “retirement” from 2GB in 2020 while still topping the ratings, and ­Derryn Hinch’s 2012 sacking from 3AW as the drive slot’s ratings king in Melbourne readily spring to mind.

Now add to that list 3AW’s afternoon presenter Dee Dee Dunleavy. Despite having a ratings jump and finishing a very close second in her timeslot in last week’s radio ratings with a healthy 12.4 per cent of the audience, Dunleavy was told her contract wouldn’t be renewed at the end of the year, amid what we hear were creative differences over the content of her show.

Rather than serve out her notice with no prospect of being renewed, Dunleavy apparently chose to depart early. “I was having the time of my life in my job,” she tweeted after departing. “I‘m devastated that it has come to an end. I am extremely happy to be leaving with ratings that I am proud of.”

Dee Dee Dunleavy. Picture: Instagram
Dee Dee Dunleavy. Picture: Instagram

But we’re told that former Today co-host Deb Knight, who dropped 0.3 to 7.9 per cent on the equivalent shift on 2GB, still has the backing of management despite the fact she is a distant fourth in the Sydney afternoon ratings.

Dunleavy’s face has quickly been taken off the 3AW website.

Diary is reliably informed there are three clear-cut contenders in an all-female field to replace Dunleavy in the 3AW afternoons slot: ex-Channel 7 sports presenter Jacqui Felgate; Neil Mitchell’s former producer Heidi Murphy; and former TV news and current affairs reporter Elise ­Elliott (spouse of 3AW drive host Tom Elliott), who stood in after Dunleavy’s abrupt departure.

We hear Nine Radio bosses are in no rush to fill the slot permanently, with Felgate, Murphy and Elliott all likely to take turns to try to make an impression in filling the timeslot as a form of an on-air “shootout” before the end of the year. Let the games begin.

Seven’s Jason Morrison set to head back to radio

The Seven Sydney newsroom was in shock on Friday, after its news director Jason Morrison suddenly announced he was quitting the station after eight years in the job.

Making Morrison’s departure more surprising is that Seven’s Sydney 6pm newsreader, Mark Ferguson, is launching the most serious challenge of Peter Overton’s ratings dominance on Nine in several years, as the station ­attempts to return to the glory days of the late Ian Ross during the 2000s.

Jason Morrison. Picture: John Appleyard
Jason Morrison. Picture: John Appleyard

So with Seven on the rise, why would Morrison choose to go now?

Sources close to him maintain that he is simply tired of the 16-hour days that go with the relentless news director’s job.

But there is intriguing talk there may be more to it – namely a possible return by Morrison to radio.

Morrison had success in the drive shift in 2GB’s heyday in an era when it continually dominated the Sydney ratings, and there happens to be a vacancy at the ABC, with the newly created position of head of radio in Aunty’s big restructure, amid its recent local radio struggles.

Nick Tabakoff
Nick TabakoffAssociate Editor

Nick Tabakoff is an Associate Editor of The Australian. Tabakoff, a two-time Walkley Award winner, has served in a host of high-level journalism roles across three decades, ­including Editor-at-Large and Associate Editor of The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, a previous stint at The Australian as Media Editor, as well as high-profile roles at the South China Morning Post, the Australian Financial Review, BRW and the Bulletin magazine.He has also worked in senior producing roles at the Nine Network and in radio.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/lisa-wilkinson-wont-be-stripped-of-logie-for-brittany-higgins-interview/news-story/bdf8c37e67de377e26c1ee8da61ed142