Media Diary: Patricia Karvelas, Samantha Maiden get wires crossed on ABC morning radio
Don’t you love it when radio banter goes off-script? A journo chat about ‘a big week’ for Labor took an awkward turn during RN’s breakfast show.
Don’t you love it when radio banter goes off-script?
On Friday, ABC Radio National breakfast presenter Patricia Karvelas opened her weekly “journo chat” segment with news.com.au national political editor Samantha Maiden and Insiders frontman David Speers, with an observation about the conclusion of a “big week” in the national parliament.
Karvelas began by asking Speers about Labor’s mooted tweaks to the NDIS, before inviting Maiden into the conversation.
“Sam, the week has again been overshadowed by Gaza and visas but actually the government has achieved quite a bit in the parliament in terms of its legislative agenda, right? There’s a disconnect though between those two messages.”
Maiden briefly paused: “Ahh, there’s a disconnect between what message exactly? How do you mean? Which message?”
Karvelas forged ahead: “Well, the government has had quite a lot of successes. In fact, David Speers, you’ve written a piece that says this. We’ve heard largely out of question time … about Gaza and visas and national security, the government has been on the back foot on that. But, it’s actually done quite a bit in the parliament at the same time.”
Maiden was having none of it.
“Look, I am sure they have, Patricia, but I’ll be honest, I’ve been busy this week on other matters and this question was not flagged with me.
“So I will have to go to Mr Speers, who is sitting next to me, who wrote the article you’re asking me about.”
Like an old pro, Speers smashed his “In Case of Emergency” file and, in less than a minute, managed to reel off rapid-fire references to the NDIS, CFMEU, net zero, criminal penalties for sharing deepfake pornography, and aged-care reforms.
Oh, shut up Speersy! Nice save and all, but we want to hear more Maiden versus Karvelas!
Maiden jumped in first.
“Sorry, PK, I crammed on the eight other subjects that were flagged this morning but not that one, ‘cause I wasn’t flagged with it,” the news.com.au scribe offered.
Karvelas fired back: “Well, actually you were flagged with it, because it was all about the other things they (the government) have done.”
Maiden feigned emotional injury, letting out a prolonged “oooohhhhh”, but Karvelas had the final say.
“Well, you know, you push me, I’ll push you back, babes,” the ABC host said, with the hint of a smile detected across the airwaves.
Tick, ticked off: ‘class’ warfare divides 60 Minutes crew
If you needed any further proof of belt-tightening in the media industry, here it is: the cast and crew of Nine’s 60 Minutes will henceforth be schlepping across the globe in cattle class. And apparently they are tick, tick, ticked off about it!
Diary has learned 60 Minutes staff, who in recent times have stretched their legs in the halfway house of premium economy on long-haul flights, were last week informed they will now be travelling right back in economy with the great unwashed.
The news was not well received by those who work on the program, we’re told, Of course, way back in the glory days, when 60 Minutes was appointment viewing every Sunday night, it was business class all the way. But, we’re not in Kansas anymore.
Diary understands two members of the 60 Minutes gang — Liz Hayes and Tara Brown — will be exempt from the new-found frugality, and won’t be asked to sit at the back of the magical steel pipe.
A Nine spokeswoman didn’t want to talk about it when contacted by Diary.
CFO the favourite in battle for ABC’s top job
The race to find the next managing director of the ABC is a marathon not a sprint, given the board is not expected to announce the chosen one until early 2025.
But, the early (internal) frontrunner is Melanie Kleyn, who has been the chief financial officer of the national broadcaster for the past five years.
Kleyn first made a name for herself at Network Ten, where she rose through the ranks to become head of commercial finance before shifting to the ABC in 2017.
It’s understood even before incumbent managing director David Anderson last week announced his intention to step down early next year, Kleyn had been identified as his possible successor, albeit not until July 2028, when Anderson’s contract was due to expire.
Kleyn is said to have been an excellent CFO since assuming the position at the ABC in September 2019, and has impressed with some steady performances at Senate estimates hearings in recent years.
Others names being bandied about over the weekend include Justin Stevens, the ABC’s director of news and current affairs, although his relative youth — he’s 40 — might count against him this time around.
Another internal candidate could be chief content officer Chris Oliver-Taylor, who has straddled the commercial and public broadcasting worlds over the course of his career. Oliver-Taylor is close to departing boss Anderson.
As for external chances, might Amanda Laing, Foxtel’s outgoing chief commercial and content officer, throw her hat in the ring? Or is she eyeing off a possible shot at the top job at Nine, should current CEO Mike Sneesby move on from the troubled network before the end of the year?
SBS managing director James Taylor has done a solid job at Australia’s second public broadcaster, where he’s been in the top job for six years, and might be ready for a change.
And what about a wildcard, such as Screen Australia boss Deirdre Brennan?
She started her television career as a voiceover artist at the ABC, so not too dissimilar to Anderson, who at age 18 in 1989, took a job at Aunty changing tea towels and sorting mail.
Stone cold
All eyes were on Lia Finocchiaro on Saturday night, after her being elected Northern Territory chief minister.
But, for CLP president Shane Stone, it appeared he thought it was all eyes on him when he made what should have been Finocchiaro’s moment all about himself.
Making his way to the podium to address the cheering crowd — who were, er, waiting and wanting to hear from star of the show Finocchiaro — Stone hit a bum note by first thanking the Prime Minister.
“I didn’t know whether I should start my speech by thanking Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for making me redundant so I could devote myself full-time to this campaign,” he said as the chief minister-elect awkwardly grimaced a by his side.
“But I want him to know that I’ve got enough left over to come after him at the next federal election.”
OK, so, with his dud joke out of the way, surely, that was enough?
After all, Finocchiaro had just led her party to the success it had waited so many years for. She was there 2016 when it was just her and one other person holding CLP seats in the Territory parliament.
But no, Stone kept going, welcoming Sussan Ley and Marise Payne. He also welcomed senator Kerryne Liddle, who wasn’t in the room but apparently watching from Alice Springs.
And Stone kept rambling on while Finocchiaro stood there waiting for her moment. The entire crowd was waiting too.
“It is no easy task to stand for public office. as I know,” he said.
“I want to make a special call-out to two people who just stood with me over the last 12 months and did a lot of behind the scenes work.”
Funnily enough, at one moment his microphone was muted. Could it have been a subtle sabotage from someone at the back of the room attempting to give him a much-needed tap on the shoulder?
We’ll never know.
Finally, he said: “It is now my pleasure, the fifth chief minister of the Northern Territory, to introduce the 14th chief minister of the Northern Territory, Lia Finocchiaro.”
After 4½ minutes, we got there.
Rewriting history
The Sydney Morning Herald last week devoted three consecutive front pages, and several thousand words, to a series of investigative reports into allegations of serious misconduct and sexual assault within the Swillhouse group, which operates six of Sydney’s highest-profile drinking venues.
The hospitality company allegedly bullied female staff who reported sexual assaults in the workplace, encouraged employees to have sex with customers and take drugs during their shifts.
In his weekly note to SMH readers on Friday, editor Bevan Shields gave a shout-out to the reporters who had spent many months working on the project.
But, there was no mention of the fawning coverage the SMH served up less than two years ago, when Swillhouse’s best-known venue, Frankie’s Pizza, in Sydney’s CBD, closed its doors after being earmarked for demolition to make way for a metro rail station.
“For much of the past 10 years, if you were in want of a good time in Sydney after 11pm — or in want of anything, really — there was only one place to go: Frankie’s Pizza,” gushed the masthead’s Sydney editor, Michael Koziol in December 2022, in the bar’s final week of operation.
“More than any other Sydney venue of recent times, Frankie’s occupies a special place in the city’s soul. It has been the saving grace of the CBD, and an antidote to the war on fun waged by lockout laws, corporatisation and a culture that said: don’t bother, go home.”
Eighteen months prior, in May 2021, when it was first announced Frankie’s Pizza was on the chopping block, Koziol had lamented that the closure of the bar “may be mourned on Macquarie Street (home of the NSW parliament) more than anywhere else”.
“The late-night pizza joint … is a regular after-party destination for political staffers and journalists,” Koziol noted, in a sentence which immediately prompted 99.99 per cent of the newspaper’s audience to make a mental note to never go to Frankie’s.
Koziol went on to quote “Liberal-aligned political consultant John Macgowan”, a man better known these days as Bruce Lehrmann’s one-time media agent.
Of Frankie’s looming closure, Macgowan said: “Without Frankie’s, government staff will have nowhere to go to hook up with normal people, and the parliament will get even more weird and incestuous.”
Some news yarns from yesteryear age better than others.
News is hard
Kim Williams’ edict to staff to prioritise hard news over soft lifestyle content is off to a slow start.
The broadcaster’s morning digital newsletter has had a makeover, but still veers towards the fluffier end of the news spectrum.
Last Tuesday’s missive began with a story on “spiritual accountants”, followed by an analysis of Harry and Meghan’s latest tour — which wasn’t a royal tour — and a reference to the day’s Reserve Bank meeting.
Small problem: there was no RBA meeting last Tuesday. Rather, the minutes from the board meeting earlier this month were released that day, showing the central bank seriously considered increasing the cash rate to 4.6 per cent in August.
Fairly important news for almost every Australian household, and a matter the ABC should be right across.
Well played, Sam
Sports journalist Sam Landsberger will be farewelled in Melbourne on Monday morning.
The 35-year-old died last Tuesday after being hit by a vehicle in the inner suburb of Richmond.
In the week since, memories of Landsberger — who joined the Herald Sun in 2010, after cutting his teeth at Leader Newspapers — have filled the front, back and middle of newspapers, especially in his home town of Melbourne.
Sam, who covered AFL and cricket, was adored by people who worked alongside him.
“He was the sort of journalist that other journos love. Always putting his shoulder to the wheel, fearless, full of zest, never throwing around big opinions and never trying to make himself the story,” News Corp chief cricket writer Robert Craddock said last week.
Landsberger’s close friend and former Herald Sun colleague Nick Smart, who was due to meet Sam for brunch on the morning he was killed, penned a tribute in the Sunday Herald Sun on the weekend.
“He loved to drive me nuts with his constant and repeated one-word text messages of ‘wyd?’ (what you doing?) or ‘mate’ until I’d finally give in and reply. Now I’d give the world for just one more text,” Smart wrote.
Sam’s father, Jake Landsberger, is the former club doctor at the Western Bulldogs, and passed his love of the AFL team on to his son.
Wrote Smart on the weekend: “He was always in awe of his father and Sam sat sobbing with joy in the stands of the MCG after the Bulldogs won the flag in 2016. They were his childhood love but he desperately wanted the premiership for his dad. Those happy tears were for ‘Jakey’.
“Above all he adored his mother, Anne, who in his last Instagram post he labelled ‘the best mum’ in a touching birthday tribute.
“Sam had many peculiar quirks and one was that he referred to his mum and dad solely as ‘Annie’ and ‘Jakey’.
“It was always ‘Annie’ and her number was saved in his phone as such, along with a heart emoji.”
On Sunday, the Western Bulldogs paid tribute to Landsberger, posting a picture of him on the scoreboard at Mars Stadium in Ballarat prior to the start of the club’s match against the GWS Giants.
Vale, Sam.
Nick Tabakoff is on leave.
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