Media Diary: Saturday Paper’s journo goes on online rant about his own publication’s ‘unethical’ story
The left-leaning publication’s senior reporter Rick Morton has hit out as his own employer after it published a comment piece about public servants, taking his fury to those in charge.
Garbage, unethical, a betrayal of actual reporting.
That’s what The Saturday Paper’s top reporter thinks about his own publication.
Rick Morton has kickstarted a civil war by deciding there was no better place than Elon Musk’s X to unleash on the left-leaning media outlet, labelling an opinion piece it published on the weekend as “unethical” and a “betrayal of actual reporting.”
Morton was fuming over a piece penned by the paper’s columnist Chris Wallace – also a professor at the University of Canberra – in which she described former Department of Human Services secretary Renée Leon as “an upright and ethical public servant” whose career came to a grounding halt for putting an end to Robodebt.
But Morton – a prolific social media user – labelled Wallace’s piece as her simply “running cover” for a long-time mate.
“The newspaper for which I work has published a comment piece by Chris Wallace defending her friend of 40 years, former DHS Secretary Renée Leon,” he opined on X.
“I consider the piece to be garbage revisionism, unethical and a betrayal of actual reporting and told the editors as much.”
The newspaper for which I work has published a comment piece by Chris Wallace defending her friend of 40 years, former DHS Secretary Renee Leon. I consider the piece to be garbage revisionism, unethical and a betrayal of actual reporting and told the editors as much.
— Rick Morton (@SquigglyRick) September 20, 2024
In Wallace’s piece titled “The rot in the public service”, she described Leon as a “widely admired former secretary of the DHS” and said she was fired a fortnight after shutting down Robodebt.
She also told readers that Leon suffered the same treatment as her predecessor and Robodebt architect Kathryn Campbell.
But Morton disagreed, instead looking for a sparring match online.
“Why does your concern extend to misrepresenting the findings of the Royal Commission and playing down the actions of your friend?” Morton posted on X.
“The only people comparing her to Kathryn Campbell are you and all your mates.”
Wallace was far from impressed, hitting back at Morton and making a failed attempt to take their argument offline.
“Rick, wrong,” she posted.
“Not going to duke it out on Twitter with you though.
“When you’re ready to talk about 40 years of neoliberal corrosion of the APS (Australian Public Service) & what can be done about it to stop another Robodebt, look forward to a discussion over a cuppa about it.” ️
Rick, wrong. Not going to duke it out on Twitter with you though.
— Chris Wallace (@c_s_wallace) September 20, 2024
When you’re ready to talk about 40 years of neoliberal corrosion of the APS & what can be done about it to stop another Robodebt, look forward to a discussion over a cuppa about it. ☕ï¸https://t.co/4IhZ4gYJ4R
But it appears Morton wasn’t at all keen to take their online sparring match elsewhere and chew the fat over a skinny latte.
Instead he made sure he had the final word to Wallace, replying: “Because you can’t.
“Your defence is paper thin but you don’t actually care about that, you got your rehab of your friend in the paper so job done.”
Diary contacted The Saturday Paper’s editor-in-chief Erik Jensen multiple times to ask about Morton’s online outburst including his attack on his own publication but we never heard back.
4BC shake-up
Nine Radio’s 4BC has hit seriously tough times, losing four hosts in the space of two weeks, namely breakfast trio Laurel Edwards, Mark Hine and Gary Clare, who finish this Friday, and drive host Peter Gleeson, who has departed to take up a racing gig.
But all eyes have now turned to the future of the afternoons show, led by Sofie Formica, who has recently been on leave.
Experienced television reporter Michelle Tapper, who works at Nine News Brisbane, has been filling in for Formica and the consensus seems to be that she performed very well during her brief on-air stint.
Formica is the least popular presenter, ratings-wise, among the key four daytime weekly shows on 4BC, according to internal data that was leaked to Diary a few weeks ago.
Despite this, Formica will be front and centre of 9News Queensland’s first leaders’ debate between Premier Steven Miles and Liberal National Party leader David Crisafulli in the run-up to the Queensland election.
The October 3 one-hour broadcast will be led by Nine’s weeknight news anchor Melissa Downes, while questions will be asked by a panel that includes Formica, Nine’s state political editor Tim Arvier and Brisbane Times editor Sean Parnell.
Some have questioned why Formica got the gig to represent 4BC on the panel ahead of those with a stronger nose for political news, including Peter “Read a room” Fegan.
Word is Fegan is like the “cat that got the cream” after getting first crack at an audition for a breakfast radio gig. He starts as interim 4BC host next week.
Other contenders to take part in the debate that were overlooked included 4BC’s mornings host Bill McDonald and drive’s interim presenter and former minister in the Howard government Gary Hardgrave.
Jim Maxwell’s short-pitched delivery to the ABC
Australian radio’s human soundtrack of summer Jim Maxwell, who last year marked 50 years as a cricket commentator with the ABC, is one of the public broadcaster’s most treasured and authoritative voices.
So what he says is worth listening to.
In recent weeks, Maxwell has taken to social media to offer his forthright views on the ABC’s diminished sports coverage.
On August 25, he wrote on X: “Sadly ABC TV has no interest in live sports coverage. Yes, Radio does it well but TV gave up years ago. SBS does more.”
Sadly ABC TV has no interest in live sports coverage. Yes Radio does it well but TV gave up years ago. SBS does more
— jim maxwell (@jimmaxcricket) August 24, 2024
Six days later, he offered: “ABC sports news patchy and often uninformed.”
On September 2, Maxwell observed: “Last entry on ABC news app/website for Rugby Union was May 4th. Might explain its impoverished coverage. When I see AFLW stories leading US Open and Paralympic news, I know the Visigoths have arrived.”
Last entry on ABC news app/website for Rugby Union was May 4th. Might explain its impoverished coverage When I see AFLW stories leading US open and Paralympic news, I know the visigoths have arrived. 🙈ðŸ™
— jim maxwell (@jimmaxcricket) September 2, 2024
And then last Saturday: “News Radio used to deliver excellent coverage of sport on their weekend roundups. Now it’s predictable footie and always EPL scores. No Test cricket from Asia, no PGA golf and not a mention of Wobblies/AB (Wallabies/All Blacks) Test today.”
Maxwell is not the only senior sports figure inside the ABC to hold the view that the public broadcaster’s sports coverage has lost its way in recent times.
Another top tier ABC sports journalist, who for obvious reasons doesn’t want to be named, has made similar comments to Diary about the peculiar prioritisation of certain sports.
The regular failure of ABC Radio to report results of Australia’s mainstream sports is also a bugbear of many listeners, if social media is anything to go by.
And in the context of recent internal criticisms of the skewed priorities of the ABC News department, it raises the question as to whether the same level of scrutiny will be applied to the broadcasters’ sports division.
Last mention of the Shute Shield on ABC website was in 2020. Last night in NSW 7pm news covered NRL AFL Oscar Piastri Adam Scott and a lengthy pre Paralympics feature. Did they know that two semis in top Aust club rugby comp were played. Nine Gem and Stan ran live coverage.
— jim maxwell (@jimmaxcricket) August 24, 2024
Furthermore, has Maxwell breached the ABC’s (supposedly) strict social media policy with his criticism of the organisation’s sports coverage?
Will he be disciplined by the ABC’s social media police? And how do you discipline a journalist of Maxwell’s standing and experience if what he says is demonstrably true?
Maxwell, who officially retired in 2018 but still works for the ABC as a contractor during home Test series, said no one from the broadcaster had been in touch with him regarding his social media activity.
When contacted by Diary, Maxwell suggested that the ABC’s current focus is too narrow, with sport no longer on the list of priorities.
“Unless it’s politics or current affairs …(there is) no interest,” Maxwell said.
We approached the ABC for comment but unsurprisingly, they didn’t play a shot and the ball sailed through to the keeper.
Ghost Train doco drama
Like Jim Maxwell, former NSW premier Bob Carr didn’t mince his words last week when attacking the ABC, with the ex-politician taking aim at the public broadcaster over its now-notorious documentary about the fatal Ghost Train fire at Sydney’s Luna Park in 1979.
Speaking last Tuesday night at the launch of former Sydney Morning Herald editor Milton Cockburn’s book The Assassination of Neville Wran, Carr eviscerated the taxpayer-funded broadcaster over its decision to air the “outrageous” 2021 documentary that smeared former NSW premier Neville Wran by implicating him in a cover-up in relation to the fire that left seven people dead.
One of the unproven allegations that featured in the documentary was that Wran, when premier, used to attend Friday night drinks at the house of crime boss Abe Saffron, and that the pair were “really pally”.
This despite Wran (who died in 2014) declaring in parliament that he had never met Saffron – a claim that if proven to have been untrue would have spelled the end of his political career.
“The ABC’s journalism was shoddy and shameful,” Carr thundered as the gathered throng in NSW Parliament House’s Jubilee Room quaffed their wines and wrestled with the eternal challenge of how to eat Jatz and cheese cubes with some level of dignity.
Carr, who served in Wran’s cabinet in the mid-1980s, said it was “shocking” that the program, which is still available on the public broadcaster’s iview platform, was allowed to go to air without the most basic journalistic checks and balances – such as credible sources and, well, facts.
“Why wasn’t there an editor at the ABC who looked at the program before it went to air and said: ‘Hang on, you can’t say this without presenting a contrary view,’ ” Carr said.
The audience of 60 political and media types at the launch, including Wran’s widow Jill Wran, former NSW premier Barrie Unsworth and former ABC managing director David Hill, listened intently as Carr praised Cockburn’s “sober” disassembling of the ABC documentary.
And a couple of rows back, one attendee was paying particularly close attention to Carr’s anti-ABC diatribe – that person being Kimberley Lynton Williams.
The ABC chairman, who took over the role from Ita Buttrose sixmonths ago, has weathered a lot of criticism of the public broadcaster’s editorial standards since March, and in fact has issued some pointed barbs of his own about aspects of the organisation’s approach to its journalism.
But Carr’s blunt take-down of the ABC documentary would have given Williams pause for thought, given the chairman’s recent thoughtful reflections on journalism.
“Tempting as it is to want to take sides, I think all of us in the media and cultural institutions generally must resist,” Williams said in a speech earlier this month.
“When the truth is relative, democracy is imperilled.”
Following Carr’s 30-minute address, he and Williams were seen in deep conversation together.
Diary asked Carr if the topic of conversation was the Ghost Train documentary.
“It was, but I don’t want to put words in Kim’s mouth, he’s a good friend of mine,” Carr told us.
So we approached Williams, via the ABC’s communications team, to ask if he wanted to let us in on the contents of his powwow with Carr.
No comment, came the reply.
Carr, who began his working life as an ABC radio journalist, was at pains to tell us he is a “big fan” of Aunty and thinks the error-strewn Ghost Train documentary was a “one-off”.
“I’m always listening to ABC Radio National, and I think at its very best Four Corners can really nail it,” Carr said.
“But the Ghost Train episode was just outrageous.”
Months after the documentary screened in 2021, an external review found claims of a Wran-led cover-up in relation to the Ghost Train tragedy were unfounded.
Cockburn’s new book on Wran ends thus: “The character assassination of Neville Wran is mainly attributable to the media abandoning the moral responsibility which once went hand-in-hand with legal privilege.”
On Sunday, Diary asked the ABC if the documentary would remain on iview and other online platforms.
Again, no comment.
Seven exits continue
Seven’s Queensland news director Michael Coombes made his exit on Friday, ending what has been a tumultuous time at the Mount Coot-Tha headquarters in Brisbane in recent months.
It’s a far from ideal time for the news boss to call it quits, with Coombes announcing his departure from the network just five weeks out from the state’s election on October 26.
In recent weeks spies told Diary some heavy hitters – including Spotlight host and presenter Michael Usher, Spotlight reporter Sarah Greenhalgh, deputy news boss and Perth news director Ray Kuka and director of news operations Gemma Acton – have been flown to the Sunshine State newsroom amid the turmoil at the station.
Coombes’s sudden departure makes him the latest news boss to say his goodbyes under news boss Anthony De Ceglie who took over the top job from Craig McPherson in April.
Melbourne’s Shaun Menegola and Sydney’s Neil Warren also have gone in recent months, leaving Chris Salter, the former Adelaide news boss, to run Melbourne, while Kuka is still standing under De Ceglie’s reign.
Diary has been reliably told that Seven’s Brisbane newsroom has been deeply unhappy for some time – no surprise given the upheaval this year.
Coombes sacked veteran newsreader Sharyn Ghidella while she was halfway through a cut and colour at a Brisbane hairdressers.
She took to social media a few days later to vent her frustrations at her former employer, telling her thousands of followers back in July: “The past couple of weeks in TV has, sadly, been a miserable affair.”
And who can forget weatherman Paul Burt’s on-air truth bomb during his final live cross on the 6pm news several weeks later, when he complained to viewers: “If I’d had the opportunity I wouldn’t have wanted to go this way; it’s what happens when you get sacked.”
Ouch.
Burtie was pretty peeved off, to say the least.
On the evening of September 6, Coombes sent a 13-word email to staff that read: “Hi team, I’m on leave for a couple of weeks. Dante (Ceccon) is around.”
Coombes was never to return.
A Seven spokesman was asked about Coombes’s exit but he wouldn’t go into any detail, instead saying: “After 28 great years with Seven, including the past 18 months as director of news for Brisbane and the Gold Coast, Michael Coombes leaves with our sincere thanks and the very best wishes for the future.”
Coombes himself told staff in a farewell email on Friday that his contract was up on October 31, he would not be renewing it and he would take leave until then.
He also sought to set the record straight about his departure: “I am sure there will be speculation, but I want you to all know that, despite what you read, my decision is in no way connected with any negative inferences which may be thrown about.”
AFL merry-go-round
Channel 7 Melbourne news presenter Rebecca Maddern will need to put on a brave face on Monday night when she co-hosts the Brownlow Medal count, after her beloved Geelong’s dreams of having a crack at the 2024 premiership went up in smoke on Saturday losing to the Brisbane Lions by 10 points.
Maddern will be joined by Hamish McLachlan, amid much industry discussion as to whether she will take over as Seven’s weeknight sports presenter from former Essendon champ Tim Watson who, Diary revealed earlier this month, is getting ready to hang up his TV boots.
Seven’s bosses will be in Melbourne this week as the station is the key broadcaster during grand final week, alongside Fox Footy.
Among those to travel to Melbourne will be Seven chief executive Jeff Howard, network sport boss Chris Jones and De Ceglie, with spies telling Diary that Maddern is still deep in negotiations for the sports reading gig.
Meanwhile, the station’s commentator Luke Darcy confirmed Diary’s recent reports on Triple M on Friday that Watson would be finishing up at the network, describing him as “Kerry Stokes’ favourite ever media person”. But he did so before Seven could officially confirm the news.
Was Darcy getting revenge on his employer after it hired Kane Cornes, one of the hottest properties in AFL commentary land right now? Darcy and Cornes haven’t always seen eye-to-eye.
Cornes took a swipe at his Darcy on Nine’s AFL Footy Show on Sunday when fellow panellist Nathan Brown told viewers: “I don’t think there’s a more awkward person on TV than Tony (Jones), you’re leaving the network (he said looking at Cornes), you’d say that wouldn’t you?”
Cornes seized the moment by adding: “You’ve watched Luke Darcy?” which was met with laughter, particularly from Jones.
In April, Darcy asked Cornes what it was like to be “more mean-spirited and nasty to people than anyone in the history of our industry”.
That spray came after Cornes’s take-down of former Richmond star Trent Cotchin’s failed attempt at on-air analysis earlier this year, an attack that didn’t sit well with Darcy.
McKenzie’s splash
When you’re one of Australia’s leading investigative journalists, and you cross paths with murderers, gangsters, thugs and dodgy dealers on a semi-regular basis, it’s not that easy to earn a bit of coin on the side.
Being a part-time Uber driver isn’t an option – what if one of the bad dudes jumps into the back of your Toyota Corolla? Awkward!
Instead of the open road, The Age’s Nick McKenzie – who has won a Bradman-esque 16 Walkley awards – has opted for the open seas, and in December will host a “literature voyage” on board the Queen Elizabeth as it sails from Sydney to Hobart and back.
According to the blurb on the exclusive Cunard Cruises website, McKenzie will “engage guests with facilitating insightful talks and a special session detailing his most exhilarating cases”.
Sounds like any old night out with McKenzie and his journo mates at a Melbourne pub, but with a better view!
McKenzie will set sail for five nights with a bunch of acclaimed authors, including Alexander McCall Smith, Fiona McIntosh, Anita Heiss, Graeme Simsion, Anne Buist, Paul Cleave, Sue Williams and Elizabeth Stanley, with the gang pledging to “part ways with the secrets of their creative process”.
And of course the bonus for the cruise company is that if, god forbid, a grisly crime is committed in the cocktail bar, McKenzie will be on hand to solve the mystery (and interview the villain) well before the ship returns to port.
Nick Tabakoff is on leave.
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