For the second time in days, a senior ABC political reporter has taken down a Twitter post that publicly smashed up a Liberal Party policy. Only this time, in contrast to Laura Tingle’s viral ScoMo tweet, it attacked a Liberal leader smack bang in the middle of an election campaign.
The ABC’s Queensland state political reporter Stephanie Zillman has caught the public broadcaster’s fast-spreading Twitter trolling bug by accusing the state’s opposition leader Deb Frecklington of “dog whistling”.
What made the tweet hard to miss was that it came just 10 days before this week’s election day, where Frecklington will challenge Annastacia Palaszczuk for the state’s top job.
It was all about Frecklington’s new policy to deal with rising crime in North Queensland, announced on Wednesday: imposing an 8pm curfew for kids aged 14 and under in Townsville and Cairns.
Zillman’s TV news stories during the campaign appear to have been fairly straight. But the same couldn’t be said for her Twitter response to Frecklington’s curfew announcement.
The ABC reporter trolled the policy as: “Dog whistling at its worst,” tagging @DebFrecklington just in case anyone was in any doubt about who she was calling out. There was another similarity with Tingle’s tweet: it didn’t last long. By the end of the day, a message mysteriously popped up on Zillman’s Twitter handle: “This Tweet was deleted by the Tweet author.”
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Tingle tweet may lead to ABC ‘Twitter bans’
Laura Tingle’s now much-discussed “government bastardry” tweet about a “smug Scott Morrison” may have been short-lived, but it looks set to have a lasting impact on the ABC’s policies on Twitter use by its staff.
In an interview with Diary, Liberal senator Andrew Bragg has revealed he will work on the government’s behalf to push for standards of “impartiality” at the public broadcaster to be protected. “I’m going to stay on this,” he tells us.
The ABC’s own rules state it must “ensure” that its “presentation of news and information is impartial”.
Bragg is proposing to work “constructively” with ABC managing director David Anderson to bring new BBC rules to Australia that ensure staff show no bias on Twitter. The most striking feature of the BBC rules is that they will impose ‘Twitter bans’ on staff if they breach bias protocols.
As this column predicted last week, the now deleted tweet by Tingle, 7.30’s chief political correspondent, became the key focal point of the appearance by Aunty’s boss David Anderson in Senate Estimates on Wednesday.
Bragg, who grilled Anderson about Tingle at length at the hearing, tells Diary he will continue to pursue the issue of ABC Twitter impartiality in parliament. “It’s an important marker for the ABC to put in a proper enforcement regime on their impartiality,” he tells Diary.
Bragg intends to set himself up as someone from the government who “likes the ABC” and helps it to achieve its potential.
Of particular concern to the Liberal senator is the grey area in which people identify as ABC journalists on their personal Twitter handles — effectively using their tweets as an extension of their professional profiles — while failing ABC impartiality standards.
Bragg will push for the ABC to take its lead from the BBC’s “take people off Twitter” policy if impartiality rules are breached. BBC inspector-general Tim Davie says that apart from imposing Twitter bans, he’ll be able to take other disciplinary action if they show bias on social media.
Bragg tells Diary: “If David Anderson can get this right, I think it could be a very important event in the history of the ABC. I’m attracted to what the BBC director-general has said about impartiality. I think that is the model for the ABC as well.”
At one point on Thursday, Tingle — who unusually didn’t tweet at all last week — was Twitter’s top trending topic in Australia, with supporters posting the hashtag #IStandWithLaura and attacking the government for waging a “culture war” on the ABC.
But Bragg said: “I like the ABC. A lot of the rhetoric about the ABC over the years has been unhelpful, because it’s been focused on culture wars. I’m not interested in culture wars.”
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Behind the scenes on Laura’s ‘mistake’
David Anderson also provided an interesting detail on the ABC’s attitude to Laura Tingle’s Morrison tweet in Senate Estimates.
In essence, Anderson indicated that Tingle’s apparent decision to agree to a request to remove the tweet by 7.30 executive producer Justin Stevens allowed the ABC to abstain from taking “action”.
Asked if Tingle was “reprimanded” over her tweet, Anderson replied: “I think she was contacted by her EP and I am satisfied that no more action needs to be taken.”
But Anderson also hinted that if she’d not agreed to take the tweet down, it may indeed have led to action from the ABC, under what he described as a new “code of conduct that we’ve launched in recent months”.
“The matter’s resolved in that she did take it down,” he told Senate Estimates. “I think that had she not taken it down, I think certainly we would have looked into the matter further.”
Asked if the ABC would have forced the tweet to be taken down if it had not been removed, Anderson replied in part: “I think Laura would admit this, that doesn’t necessarily align with what … sits within our code of conduct. I think that Laura made a mistake, it was an error of judgment, and I think therefore she removed the tweet.”
Stevens could not be reached for comment.
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Please like me: Albo’s $10k Facebook spree
Anthony “Albo” Albanese used to be the guy every Aussie wanted to have a beer with. But these days, he has to fork out thousands of dollars just to get people to “like’’ him on Facebook.
Diary’s investigations have discovered a four-day spending blitz on ads by Albo last week, where in every ad he beseeched the Facebook crowd to “LIKE MY PAGE”. And Albo’s Facebook spending spree put every other major politician in the shade.
We’ve found from Facebook’s own numbers that Albo personally spent between $9100 and $10,800 on the image-softening ads on the platform, just from October 18 to 22.
And what did spending $10,000-odd in a few days buy him? Five Facebook ads featuring soft and cuddly images of him laughing with toddlers at childcare centres. The ads were a childcare call to arms, demanding Facebook fans “LIKE MY PAGE if you support making childcare cheaper”.
The ads were specifically targeted at women, with Facebook’s own data showing they were restricted to female users aged 25-54.
Albo’s spend last week dwarfed that of Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Victorian Premier Dan Andrews, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, PM Scott Morrison and Albo’s deputy, Richard Marles.
Last Tuesday alone, for example, Albo ($2400) spent about eight times what Palaszczuk ($323) outlaid on Facebook — despite the fact the Queensland Premier was in the middle of an election campaign. On the same day, Morrison spent $112 on Facebook, while Andrews and Marles spent nothing. It was a similar tale on other days last week.
Berejiklian, meanwhile, has given nothing to Facebook since measurements started earlier this year.
So how did Albo’s paid ‘likes’’ drive go? By Diary’s calculations, he got about 1335 extra ‘likes’ between when the campaign started and Friday morning. But at that rate, we calculate he paid between a chunky $6.82 and $8.09 for each new ‘like’.
Thank heavens for political party funding!
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Ten boss ‘sorry’ for Wick
Drink driving seems to be an occupational hazard when you head up news and current affairs for one of the major networks, after Nine news supremo Darren Wick’s shock disclosure to staff last Monday that he’d been caught out by cops on the previous Friday night.
But Wick isn’t the first news boss to score a drink-driving own goal.
Wick’s most famous predecessor, Peter Meakin, who has headed up news and current affairs at all three commercial networks, understands better than anyone the vicious cycle of working and drinking that goes with such high-pressure jobs.
He registered three drink driving offences between 2006 and 2007 — ultimately leaving him paying the heavy price of years-long licence suspensions and 250 hours of community service.
So when Diary caught him last week, a humble Meakin, now with Ten’s The Project, was the last person to engage in any schadenfreude about Wick’s problems.
“I don’t think I’m in a position to be advising anyone on that subject,” he told us. “And I certainly wouldn’t be making any cheap shots. I like Darren, and I’m sorry he’s in this predicament — because it’s not pleasant. It’s a shame.”
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Nine news chief’s ‘five TVs’
Meanwhile, on Monday morning Wick heads to a strict Sydney northern beaches rehabilitation clinic to start his long road back from last week’s shock news.
But Diary has learnt his detox diet won’t be limited to an alcohol ban. The Nine news supremo has told colleagues that the centre is so hard core, there are no mobile phones or TVs either.
That digital blackout could prove highly challenging for Wick. We’re reliably informed he normally has no less than five TVs blaring in his office all at once, with one of the TVs featuring six split screens.
That’s 10 TV feeds he normally has running at any one time.
We’re told it also means that Wick, a self-described US election junkie and rugby league tragic, will entirely miss the result of Trump vs Biden and the first two NRL State of Origin matches.
And there’s another omission Wick will struggle with: the absence of the ability to text his staff, on the mobile phone that Diary once thought was surgically attached to his wrist.
Nine producers are privately rejoicing that — for the next several weeks — they won’t get their regular 5am or 10pm texts from Wick, making helpful program suggestions.
All in all, that’s some digital detox!
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Ita goes into bat for Holgate
Beleaguered Australia Post boss Christine Holgate needed a friend last week, after being eviscerated both in Senate Estimates and in parliament last week.
She found that friend in the even higher-profile boss of another government-owned corporation: ABC chair Ita Buttrose.
Where nearly everyone else but Nine’s Eddie McGuire rushed to kick Holgate while she was down, Ita had a different perspective.
Taking not to her own media organisation, but her old hunting ground on Ten’s morning show Studio 10, Diary couldn’t help but note that Buttrose was in fine form. Not only did she heap praise on the Australia Post boss for her record as chief postie, but also claimed that a $20,000 spend on Cartier watches was “not unusual” in the corporate world from where Holgate originally came.
“In the commercial world, these kinds of ‘thank you’ gifts, if we can call them that, are not unusual — and Christine did come from Blackmores where she led the company very successfully.”
“She’s a very accomplished CEO, she’s done a great job with Australia Post, and we’ll have to see how this unfolds.”
Buttrose told Studio 10’s Sarah Harris she believed Holgate was unfairly being “a bit lumbered” with blame for the decision.
“The board and the previous chair under whom I think this happened should be called to explain how this occurred,” Ita opined. “As a rule, the CEO doesn’t just make this decision.”
The ABC chair did, however, add that: “I suppose from a government perspective, Cartier watches are a bit too much.”
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Ten’s ‘Survivors’ ... and casualties
Ten’s production line-up for 2021 is looking more and more like an episode of its popular reality show Survivor.
The axing of Dancing with the Stars and Bachelor in Paradise, and ongoing COVID-19 driven difficulties in making the Jonathan LaPaglia-hosted Survivor, previously filmed in Fiji, will leave its 2021 batting order looking very different to this year’s line-up.
Diary has learnt Ten will open the 2021 ratings year with a domestic version of one of the world’s oldest reality shows, The Amazing Race, which will go head-to-head with Nine’s ratings juggernaut Married At First Sight and Seven’s Holey Moley.
We’re also told that the bulk of I’m A Celebrity — which will be finished before the ratings year starts — will be prerecorded for the first time, with production starting in a bubble in Murwillumbah in northern NSW next month, on the same set previously used by the show’s British version.
Diary also hears gaps in its schedule will also necessitate Ten bringing forward one of its hit shows: The Masked Singer. Previously a late-year show, we’re now told it could run as early as the first half of the 2021 year.
But Ten staple MasterChef will run in the same spot it has always done: soon after the Easter break.
Looking forward to finally getting a haircut in 2021! #end2020already #2020sucksballs #SurvivorAU #10Upfronts2020 pic.twitter.com/LhaHWYhKyk
— Jonathan LaPaglia (@JLa_Paglia) October 16, 2020
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Seven’s Scientology squabble with US site
In July, Seven mysteriously spiked a 10-part 7 NEWS investigation titled “Scientology: Black Ops”, within days of when it was scheduled to air.
Three months later, the show suddenly and weirdly popped up on a US anti-Scientology website, before it was taken down last week after legal letters from both Seven and senior Scientology figures. Diary understands the mystery currently being investigated at Seven is how it made its way onto the internet in the first place.
We’ve learnt that in a strongly-worded letter, Seven’s lawyers Addisons told the US site in question, tonyortega.org, that “publication of the series” was a “serious infringement of its intellectual property rights”. Seven also said it had received “complaints by persons in the series threatening to sue for defamation”, and also that it was making inquiries about “how and by whom this series was provided to you”.
We’re told Seven’s original decision in July to take down the program, fronted by prominent Seven reporter Bryan Seymour, was also for legal reasons.
When the decision was taken at the time, it prompted a spray from one of the major talents in the documentary, prominent US actress and anti-Scientology campaigner Leah Remini, who dubbed Seven “spineless”. Seven dismisses that claim. Meanwhile, the mystery of how a spiked series somehow turned up in the US isn’t the only unlikely question being asked.
The other is what has happened to Seymour. The Seven reporter has deleted his personal Twitter account, and some of his colleagues whom Diary spoke to last week have no idea where he is.
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