TikTok’s Australian hosts Abbie Chatfield and Tony Armstrong at odds with Shou Chew on Hamas conflict
The TikTok awards will be hosted by the ABC’s Tony Armstrong and podcaster Abbie Chatfield, raising questions about how the pro-Palestine pair will handle the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The TikTok awards – Gen Z’s Logies – will be held in Sydney this week by the ABC’s Tony Armstrong and podcaster Abbie Chatfield, raising serious questions about how the pro-Palestine pair will handle the issue of the Israel-Hamas war.
Given the plethora of #israel, #freepalestine and #hamas tags on TikTok since the October 7 terrorist attack, it may be hard to avoid any mention of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
TikTok’s chief executive Shou Chew has been getting personally involved in efforts to curb concerns the Chinese-owned app has fuelled anti-Semitism and disproportionally promotes pro-Palestinian content.
According to various US media reports, Chew, who is based in Singapore, has met with prominent Jewish leaders, organisations and groups on video calls and in person in New York.
Armstrong is an interesting choice considering he has signed an anti-Israel petition endorsed by the Australian journalists union that demands Hamas and the Israeli government are treated with the same amount of scepticism when dealing with information being fed out about the war and from Gaza.
Chatfield, who hosts Binge’s reality show FBoy Island, is a judge on Ten’s Masked Singer and has her It’s A Lot podcast aired via Southern Cross Austereo’s Listnr streaming service, has declared on her social media accounts she is “biased”.
“I have said I am biased. I acknowledge that. I will not platform a Zionist. I will platform Jewish voices, as requested,” she wrote in response to a commenter.
Since the terrorist attack when Hamas murdered more than 1200 Israelis, Chatfield has regularly canvassed the ongoing war on her podcast and has invited a range of “experts” on, including Bassem Youseff, an outspoken critic of Israel who has previously condemned the IDF’s efforts to wipe out Hamas.
Revealing a basic misunderstanding and a complete ignorance of the history of the Semitic people of the Middle East, Chatfield repeats the popular social myth that Israelis are white.
“Whether she realises it or not, her ban on Zionists means she is excluding all Jews except those who actively support the abolition of a Jewish state,” Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said.
Chatfield’s thoughts also echo those of Instagram commentator and author Clementine Ford who has been posting furiously on the Meta app, owned by Mark Zuckerberg, about how she is “fighting” to “free Palestine” from the comfort of her Melbourne home.
She recently posted a missive to “Zionist women” to her Instagram Stories calling them: “Enthusiastic supporters of a murderous regime that has been killing children for over 70 years because YOU want to believe YOUR colonising is somehow different,” Ford said.
Ford told her followers who have reached out, concerned with her anti-Semitic position, that “I don’t care babes” and they “disgust” her.
“Honestly you actually can’t get f..king whiter than that. You are not the victims, especially not when you live in Australia and are globbing on to some kind of bizarre pretence that you are being harmed here,” she said.
Seven taken to task
A scintillating sideshow to the civil defamation action Bruce Lehrmann has brought against Network 10 and presenter Lisa Wilkinson in the Federal Court is whether Seven – which gained a scoop interview with Lehrmann last year – should have disclosed to the Walkley Foundation board that they were housing the former political staffer while the program was in production.
Yesterday the foundation made their position crystal clear: “It is the Board’s view that the judging panel should have been equipped with all the relevant information about payments made or benefits flowing to a participant in a story under consideration, regardless of whether related stories were not submitted for consideration or were to be produced in the future,” a statement read.
The story, called “Trial and Error” by Liam Bartlett, Steve Jackson and Mark Llewellyn, was nominated for a Walkley, and named as a finalist for this year’s Scoop of the Year prize.
During the trial proceedings last week Mr Lehrmann confirmed the program has been paying his rent for a year, not just during filming, which was part of an arrangement to deliver what was touted as a “bombshell” interview with Bartlett.
From next year, the statement said, all terms and conditions will be reviewed in a bid to ensure transparency and eradicate any uncertainties around “chequebook journalism”.
A Seven spokesperson told Diary: “Spotlight adhered to the Walkley Foundation’s guidelines as part of the nomination process and in disclosing its arrangement with Bruce Lehrmann fully met the entry criteria. We welcome the Walkley’s findings after its exhaustive ‘review’ confirming this.”
Afternoon of chaos
Axed Sydney 2GB Afternoons presenter Deborah Knight could be forgiven a wry chuckle over the chaos that has ensued since her departure from the program was announced.
She was open about it being a forced move, but was not the only person left disappointed.
Diary understands that not only was News Corp columnist Joe Hildebrand expecting the gig, but that no one thought to inform him that he was not going to get it.
Hildebrand was also due to host Afternoons over summer but sources confirmed to Diary that is no longer happening.
“Joe wouldn’t join 2GB three years ago just to fill in on the graveyard shift,” a Nine staffer said. “He turned down a podcast offer from another rival network to remain a contributor. They did market research, there was a media and audience expectation that he would be next in line and then they didn’t even have the decency to call him.”
Instead, weekend’s presenter Michael McLaren was parachuted into the slot.
“McLaren has talent but the only life experience he’s got is maybe throwing his boater hat in the air after graduating from USyd (University of Sydney),” a veteran radio presenter opined to Diary.
The move on Knight leaves Nine’s Sydney station with no women presenters.
Men will dominate the airwaves of Nine’s commercial talk back stations around the country, with Jacqui Felgate and Heidi Murphy on Melbourne’s 3AW and Sofie Formica and Laurel Edwards on Brisbane’s 4BC.
Things are a tad more progressive in Perth, where there’s a female executive at radio 6PR in content manager Emily White who looks after the station that also has former Australian Financial Review Rich List editor Julie-anne Sprague in the chair for Afternoons.
This all comes after Neil Mitchell farewelled his 3AW Mornings audience on Friday for the last time with a less than sentimental: “That’s it.”
“There’s nothing profound to finish … thank you for being there. Take care,” Mitchell said.
His 34-year stint came to a close with a blistering interview with Anthony Albanese who had his own Scott “I don’t hold a hose” Morrison moment when pressed about whether he supports or condemns his home affairs minister Clare O’Neil and aged care minister Anika Wells accusing Opposition Leader Peter Dutton of protecting pedophiles.
“They’re your ministers, you’re the boss,” Mitchell said.
“Neil, I’m accountable for what I say,” the Prime Minister said.
WA’s ‘ethics police’
News bosses from 7News, Nine and ABC Perth have accused emergency services personnel of trying to control the media as reporters attempted to cover the Mariginiup bushfire and provide public services announcements.
The blaze destroyed 18 homes and impacted many businesses in the semirural area about 40km north of Perth last week.
During the emergency, 7News Perth reporter Letitia Wallace – who had not breached roadblocks and had completed mandatory training – had her live cross intruded on by DFES and was told with 30 seconds to air to change the camera angle and stop reporting on a damaged home.
The reason? DFES did not want her reporting the house was damaged. That’s despite the fact she was standing in front of the destroyed home and was preparing to interview the owner.
The DFES representative then stood less than a metre away from the broadcast. Wallace was later issued a move on notice by police.
“One reporter was ordered to stop reporting on the number of damaged homes, and to turn the camera away from damage during a live cross, despite the devastated owner talking on camera and being on the scene,” 7News Perth boss Ray Kuka confirmed to Diary.
It’s a situation Diary understands has not only incensed newsroom directors but also raised eyebrows at WA Police. A police spokeswoman confirmed: “We have reminded our officers that we are not the ethics police.”
Please explain this cameo
Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart has made a cameo appearance on Pauline Hanson’s hit animation series, Please Explain.
Mrs Rinehart’s likeness was captured by the show’s production crew, Stepmates, then, to the surprise of everyone involved, she recorded her own voice for the character.
“The excessive government tape issue is a critical issue for Australian businesses, and hence Australians, assuming most don’t want their standards of living to suffer. Pauline Hanson’s cartoon offers a more creative visual exposure to this critical problem. Other countries offer the red carpet to investment. Australia doesn’t, it offers excessive government tape and taxes,” Mrs Rinehart told Diary.
Ms Hanson’s chief of staff James Ashby approached the mining magnate about the show during a recent visit to Rinehart’s Roy Hill mining summit.
“I simply asked that if she liked her character, would she consider voicing a part in the episode,” Mr Ashby told Diary. “She saw me and without even having to be prompted, she said ‘I love my character, and yes’.”
Ms Hanson is the only other star whose real voice features in the series. The rest, including that of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, are impressions.
The episode, which dropped online on Friday, has clocked up more than 62,000 views on YouTube and close to 500,000 on TikTok, and attempts to highlight the importance of the resources sector using the online fantasy game, Minecraft.
“There are those who want to shut down the resource sector for their own ideological reasons. They will do whatever it takes, even if it means strangling the nation in red tape that isn’t designed to increase safety or protect the environment, it’s designed to shut things down,” Hanson posted to social media while promoting the episode.
Minecraft | Pauline Hanson's Please Explain
— Pauline Hanson 🇦🇺 (@PaulineHansonOz) November 30, 2023
The world runs on resources. Australia is the lucky country, we have abundant natural resources, and with them, we help power the world while creating jobs and bringing prosperity to our communities.
But there are those who want to… pic.twitter.com/axR4OgChOZ
Greens leader Adam Bandt is, for this series, painted as the ideologically driven villain, while the PM just wants to be liked. Mrs Rinehart plays Roy, the hero.
Mrs Rinehart appears at the end of what is essentially a five- minute commercial for mining telling Albanese: “Albo, it’s me, Gina Rinehart”.
Surprise, surprise
It’s amazing what a few weeks and a bit of scrambling can do to make sure all’s well that ends well – more or less.
Only last month Nine Melbourne downplayed to Diary the unofficial “surprise” celebration of veteran newsreader Peter Hitchener’s 50th anniversary at the network – that many in the TV’s newsroom knew nothing about until Instagram was flooded with posts from the celebrations.
Nine Melbourne news director Hugh Nailon and Hitchener’s heir apparent, Alicia Loxley were notably absent and Nine management were left, shall we say, not looking like they handled his milestone and transition off his weekday duties remarkably well.
“Nine will make the milestone with those who work with him,” a spokesman told The Australian just days after the celebrations took place.
Maybe so, but no amount of window dressing – the rollout of happy snaps, videos, cake cutting etc – could disguise that the official 50th shindig, which doubled as Hitchener’s farewell from 25 years of weeknights reading, was a boardroom lunch and a far cry from his 40th anniversary bash which included a four-course dinner at one of Melbourne’s most lavish eateries, Vue de monde.
In 2024 Hitchener will shift to reading the weekend news bulletins, while Loxley will be joined on weeknights by Tom Steinfort.
Unlike five weeks ago, Nailon and Loxley were front and centre at the celebrations last Wednesday, posing alongside the 77-year-old in what appeared to be one big happy family, with Nailon taking to social media to congratulate the veteran.
Congrats Hitchy, a remarkable innings with plenty more to come. 👠https://t.co/vMlEvnqrce
— Hugh Nailon (@HughNailon) November 30, 2023
Nine’s national director of news and current affairs Darren Wick was also seen smiling in the snaps as well as sports presenter and Weekend Today host Clint Stanaway who has some extra time on his hands after the KIIS FM breakfast newsreader was part of the team recently axed by parent company ARN.
Weather presenters Livinia Nixon and Madeline Spark, broadcaster Jo Hall and presenters Alicia Muling and Tony Jones were also among those enjoying the modest celebrations.
When Diary asked Nine how long the more budget-conscious affair had been in the making, it transpired that lunch in Nine’s boardroom at its Docklands offices – and a cake – had taken the best part of a year to organise.
“Plans to hold a celebration marking Peter’s 50 years at Nine have been in train all year,” a Nine spokesman told Diary.
But there has been much discussion in circles at Nine about Steinfort’s appointment to join Loxley in the dual newsreading role next year.
Multiple sources told Diary that the decision to appoint the pair as a duo was made back in August, but for some reason the timing appears to be a sensitive topic. Nine declared, “it was not decided in August.”
And whether Loxley has her nose out of joint after being overlooked for the solo newsreading gig has also been a hot topic.
Nine is also hoping for a full reboot in the new year in a bid to boost their news ratings against rival Seven, which includes a new lead-in to the weeknightly news with the game show Tipping Point, hosted by ex-tennis star Todd Woodbridge, replacing the axed program, Millionaire Hot Seat, led by Eddie McGuire.
With Sophie Elsworth.
Nick Tabakoff is on leave.
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