Media Diary: Anthony Albanese promises to ‘fast track’ NFL superstar’s citizenship
An Australian-born NFL star has called out the prime minister for using him for social media ‘likes’ in a recent interview on Taylor Swift boyfriend’s podcast.
Anthony Albanese has confirmed NFL superstar Jordan Jordan Mailata can have his citizenship “fast tracked”.
“He is a national treasure and we have put measures in place to ensure people like Jordan can fast track citizenship,” Albanese told Diary.
It follows Mailata’s recent appearance on the New Heights podcast hosted by teammate Jason Kelce and his brother (and Taylor Swift’s boyfriend) Travis Kelce where he said “technically speaking I am a Kiwi, but I identify as an Aussie”.
“We’re going to petition the Australian government,” Jason said. “What do we gotta do to get my man an Australian Green Card?”
The Kelce brothers then asked who they would have to speak to.
“Albanese, I know him,” Mailata said. “It was the same guy that called me the night before the Super Bowl and said ‘I just want to say congratulations and wish you all the best’.
The former NRL player, who made the code switch and played in this year’s Super Bowl back in February, then recounted how he didn’t realise the call was being filmed.
“The next morning I get up, it’s all over f..king Instagram, Facebook. The motherf..ker was recording on his end. He didn’t even tell me this s…,” Mailata laughed.
“That’s a good politician right there,” Travis said.
Albo then posted a video of the phone call (placed by US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy), to his social media accounts attracting thousands of likes and comments.
Mailata was born in Australia to his parents, who are New Zealand citizens, and lived here for 20 years before moving to the US to play for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Before heading offshore, he played rugby league for Albanese’s beloved Rabbitohs.
Deb Knight is on the money
A shake up is happening on Sydney 2GB’s with Deborah Knight leaving her Afternoons shift to host a national finance program.
Knight has hosted Afternoons for four years and will front Money News on Nine Radio’s national network while continuing to host the weekend edition of A Current Affair.
“It has been a joy to host 2GB’s Afternoons over the past four years and I’m thrilled to be staying within the Nine Radio family, taking on a broader role and a new challenge as national host of Money News,” the ever gracious media stalwart said on Monday.
A replacement for her on Afternoons will be announced “in early December” according to a Nine Radio source. It is understood executives are keen to explore “fresh, new talent” for the lunchtime spot.
The on air shake up comes after Knight’s program slipped 1 point in the last radio ratings period taking her to just 6 per cent market share after starting the year on 7.6 per cent.
There are still two rating reporting periods for the year. The next results will be released on Thursday.
More questions than answers from ABC
Prominent Jewish leaders have been ignored by the ABC and its managing director David Anderson.
The snubbing comes after a letter outlining concerns over tonight’s episode of Q&A was delivered on Friday.
In it, Australia’s peak Jewish organisations called on the ABC to reconsider the inclusion of two panellists over allegations of their “anti-Israel and anti-Semitic positions” as well as previous support for Hamas.
At the time of publication, the letter had not been acknowledged.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry and NSW Jewish Board of Deputies requested Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni to be dumped from the broadcast.
It comes after the charity he founded was reported to be sending money to a Gaza-based health organisation accused of being affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group, the PFLP. The letter, co-signed by ECAJ president Jillian Segal and NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip, also urged caution over the appearance of UN special rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese and allegations she had made a series of “anti-Israel” comments.
Tonight watch #QandA with Tim Watts, Francesca Albanese, Dave Sharma, Nasser Mashni, & Mark Leibler. Tune-in at 9.35pm AEDT on @ABCTV and iview pic.twitter.com/ySsQSt51L2
— ABC News (@abcnews) November 12, 2023
Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson told Diary this behaviour is just another example of a lack of discipline shown by the national broadcaster.
“With declining journalistic standards at the ABC an ongoing issue, it is incumbent on our national broadcaster to exercise great care in its coverage of Israel’s war against Hamas,” Senator Henderson, a former ABC presenter, said.
“The Q&A program should not be providing a national platform to antisemitism, or to anyone such as Mr Mashni.”
Diary contacted the ABC for comment.
Nine hides the axe
You would think things would be pretty flush over at Nine Entertainment Co, with former Rear Window columnist Joe Aston’s (rumoured) prodigious expense account – and associated legal bills – off the table, writes Cameron England.
But times are tough in TV land, with cost cuts the order of the day at both Seven and Nine, as free-to- air television and radio advertising markets continue to weaken, after a lacklustre effort by both in their most recent full year results.
But while Seven chief executive James Warburton was upfront at last week’s annual general meeting, saying they were looking to slash $25m from the cost base this financial year, with a further $35m in savings the following year, his counterpart at Nine, Mike Sneesby, was much less forthcoming.
“I’m not going to go into what the specific cost saving initiatives might be,” he said, while adding that sharing more content across Nine’s platforms and technology measures would drive savings.
After the meeting he said that it wasn’t about “axing out pieces of our business, [it’s] about making sure that we are proactively looking for efficiencies”.
“We’re looking for efficiencies in production, in content, and across every part of our television operation,” he said.
Diary and others then did some sums: reverse engineering balance sheet estimates from broker E & P gets you to a $4m cost-out figure; however, that is over the broader business, and analysts surveyed by Diary wouldn’t speculate on the size of the haircut Nine’s TV division would be taking.
The pain is real though.
Sneesby said first quarter revenues in the metro free-to-air TV market were down about 12 per cent.
In a further twist, analysts at Morningstar cheekily suggested Seven derived its cost-out figure by replicating the set up at Nine.
“Their total TV revenue was about the same, at $1.1bn,’’ Morningstar said in a note to clients.
“It means Seven was effectively carrying about $60m in excess TV costs.
Guess how much Seven’s latest cost-out program is?
$60m.
“It is as if Seven management needed a hard target to justify another cost reduction, and chose Nine’s TV cost base as the goal to strive for.’’
The flagged cuts at Seven follow $35m in cost cuts already announced over the past year.
On the Aston front, Nine chairman Peter Costello would not be drawn on whether the company had tied him up in a non-compete clause, saying the terms of the departure of the “mercurial reporter” were not for public consumption.
Costello said Aston “did a lot of good”, but “he was also the subject of a lot of defamation actions. We didn’t win all of Joe’s defamation actions.”
Asking himself the rhetorical question as to whether his reporting had caused them some grief: “Well, people often complained about his stories. I can assure you of that.”
Lawyering up
Law associations in WA registered some strong protests about the reporting of the death of Perth barrister Alice McShera last month.
Ms McShera, 34, was found with serious head injuries inside Perth’s Crown Towers hotel, allegedly killed by a man she was in a relationship with, who has subsequently been charged with her murder.
He has been remanded in custody and will front court again later this month.
Organisations, including the Family Law Practitioner’s Association, the Law Society of WA, the WA Bar Association and Women Lawyers of WA, penned letters to Nine Perth and Daily Mail Australia.
In them, they expressed “serious concern” about the reporting of the family law specialist’s “alleged mental health” issues.
Some groups warned their members to not engage with the media due to some of the “irresponsible” and “extremely disappointing” coverage.
“We have been contacted by Ms McShera’s friends in the legal community who have advised that the references [as reported] are causing extreme distress,” Women Lawyers of WA president Catriona Macleod said in a letter seen by Diary.
“There is a serious concern that the reference to Ms McShera’s alleged mental health in Channel 9’s report may (whether advertently or not) attribute blame to Ms McShera.”
Diary has sighted a number of complaints sent to the Daily Mail Australia’s Sydney headquarters; however, the outlet denies being contacted by any parties connected to Ms McShera.
Diary understands no official complaints were lodged regarding the Nine coverage, however one was received by the AustralianPress Council over specific elements featured in some of the Daily Mail Australia’s stories.
“In the course of reporting the death of Alice McShera, Daily Mail Australia was the subject of a complaint about an article,” Daily Mail Australia’s editor Barclay Crawford confirmed.
“That same complaint, or a similar one, was also made to the Australian Press Council. Some amendments were made to an article after the complaint. The APC considered the complaint, but decided not to investigate any further as they did not believe our reporting breached the council’s standards.”
Meanwhile, 9News Perth’s news director Gareth Parker addressed the concerns immediately and met with representatives who had voiced their concerns.
He impressed at least one of them who said the former radio host and award-winning columnist walked through the “editorial decisions”.
Nine’s story was presented, produced and approved for broadcast by some of the most experienced women in media in WA, including top lawyer Carmel Galati.
“We stand by our reporting. We have listened to and positively engaged with members of both legal associations and, at this stage, no further action is being taken,” a Nine representative told Diary.
Nine recently lost leading crime reporter Jerrie Demasi to cross-town rival, 7News Perth.
Her reasoning for jumping ship after nearly a decade with Nine? The new mum said she “hopes to shine a light on domestic violence”.
1800 RESPECT
Palaszczuk party
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk – the leader more comfortable at the Logies than in the legislative assembly – will finally front the Brisbane Media Club.
Following Diary’s revelation last week that she had pulled the plug on a longstanding lunch date with the press next week, Palaszczuk’s office contacted the organisers last Wednesday to confirm she’ll now be there on February 6.
This will be the first time she has fronted the organisation – Queensland’s version of the National Press Club – in this term of parliament as she amps up her 2024 campaign to win a historic fourth term.
Tickets will cost about $200 and will go on sale in coming weeks.
I had a productive meeting with the Mayor of Shanghai, Gong Zheng, and Vice-Mayor Hua Yuan.
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) November 9, 2023
We discussed how we can keep growing trade, tourism, education and investment to benefit both sides of this succesful relationship. pic.twitter.com/PpjU9vqw3k
“The Press Club has been running since 2005 and has always been very well supported by governments and those in opposition. We are thrilled the Premier will be joining us,” forum organiser and executive director of communications consultancy Three Plus, Peter Kelly, said.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader David Crisafulli will appear next week, presenting his second speech in as many years, to a close to sellout session.
While there’s generally no theme for these shindigs, Diary gets the distinct impression tapas will be on the menu in the new year as Palaszczuk fronts a Spanish Inquisition.
Minister for Optus
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland had a taste of what life would be like on the other side last week when – for close to a day – she was also the stand-in Optus spokeswomen as 10.2m Australians were cut off from the telco provider.
Rowland had already conducted two radio interviews on Wednesday morning – with Sydney’s 2GB and RN Breakfast – by the time Optus boss Kelly Bayer Rosmarin got in touch with her to explain what was going on.
The call was apparentlyas blunt as Audrey Hepburn’s bangs.
Rowland had questions, Bayer Rosmarin didn’t really have any answers.
The CEO then retreated, while Rowland did more media, filling the void with a press conference encouraging small businesses and consumers to know their rights.
Connectivity is essential for Australian consumers & businesses. The impacts of this outage are concerning & has left many Australians feeling anxious.
— Michelle Rowland (@MRowlandMP) November 7, 2023
The Government has sought further information from Optus about this development & when they expect services will be restored.
On Thursday, Rowland was still holding the glitchy baby, fronting breakfast TV’s Sunrise, Today, ABC News Breakfast and Sky New’s First Edition, then phoning in to 3AW’s Neil Mitchell, as well as speaking to RN Breakfast’s Patricia Karvelas – again.
Reports of legislation to ensure telecommunications companies provide mutual assistance during outages and emergencies are premature, according to a government source.
“Before we get there, she (Bayer Rosmarin) will front the Senate inquiry, a government review, a post-incident review and now the Australian Communications and Media Authority, independent of the government, is said to be looking into Optus regarding the emergency calls situation,” another government source told Diary.
“She’s not in for a good time,” a federal senator added.
Sky’s the limit
The race to air documentaries about the Liberal Party will be won by Sky News’s (and The Australian’s) Chris Kenny, whose two-part miniseries, Liberals in Power, premieres at 8pm tonight.
Apparently production on the project began months after the ABC set to work on a yet-to-be-named three-part documentary about the Coalition’s nine years in power that was announced on slide 39 of a 42-page PDF presentation at its 2024 upfronts last week.
It’s the next trick for ABC reporter Mark Willacy and the head of investigations and current affairs Jo Puccini, who recently cost the national broadcaster – and Australian taxpayers – more than $400,000 for defaming former commando Heston Russell.
Former Prime Ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison will appear, Tony Abbott declined.
Kenny, Turnbull’s chief of staff in 2009, told Diary that his 20 interviews with a cast of players, including former leaders and potential future ones, like Josh Frydenberg, produced more than 20-hours of footage, some of it surprisingly emotional.
“Especially the interview with Linda Reynolds. She really opened up about the whole Brittany Higgins saga and the tragedy of former ALP senator Kimberley Kitching,” Kenny said.
His take out from the project?
“I will be absolutely shell-shocked that in 10 years’ time Josh (Frydenberg) is not back in politics.”
Nick Tabakoff is on leave
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