Media Diary: many backstories about Burke

Several journalists over the years tried to write the Don Burke story.

Cartoon: Johannes Leak.

Several journalists over the years tried to write the Don Burke story. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Richard Glover wrote a piece in the Good Weekend magazine in the 1990s when Burke was a huge TV star, which contained bullying but no sexual harassment allegations. And a feature by late Elisabeth Wynhausen and Vanessa Walker ran in The Australian in 2004. Glover said on Facebook that his piece ran in April 1991, “so people saying ‘we didn’t know’ — at least about the bullying — don’t really have much excuse”. Wynhausen worked on a magazine piece over months in 2002 (which often meant her loudly reading select passages to anyone who happened to he passing to show off her turn of phrase). But the piece never ran. In 2004 she ran a different version, written with Walker, which contained this line: “No one questions Burke’s prodigious talent as a presenter. Yet three days after this newspaper first began researching a profile on Burke, in late 2002, and asked former employees about him, his lawyers fired off the first of a barrage of letters in an attempt to stop inquiries”. But it was not just the lawyers making the story hard for journalists. Diary hears of another reporter who had a source willing to speak on the record about Burke’s behaviour in the 1990s, but then suddenly, and understandably, rescinded permission to use the ­material. Now the story of sexual harassment is widening into the arts world: The Daily Telegraph has published accusations against Geoffrey Rush. Some criticised the Telegraph, saying the story did not have on-the-record complainants as Fairfax and the ABC did for Burke, but the paper did have a statement from the Sydney Theatre Company, which Rush and his lawyers have damned for issuing. On Saturday, Rush stepped down as Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts president. Does he, as scheduled, attend the AACTA awards on Wednesday and face the music, or does he withdraw? AACTA hasn’t told us.

Seven minus two

Two enormously significant ­departures from top-rated Seven Network. First Brad Lyons, who steered so many television programs to success, resigned last week. Then Margin Call broke the news that chief spinner Simon Francis is departing after two decades. Francis plans to extend his Christmas break by travelling before saddling up to do “something interesting” next year. It can’t be ignored that these departures represent a real changing of the old guard at Seven West Media. Tim Worner and Bruce McWilliam remain. But for how long?

In merger news …

Ticky Fullerton. Picture: Richard Dobson

The luckiest man at the Walkleys in Brisbane on Wednesday was The Australian Financial Review editor-in-chief Michael Stutchbury. He and his partner, Sky News Business presenter Ticky Fullerton, had just decided to get married. “First time for me at 54,” Fullerton tells Diary, before happily musing that the joys of a wedding next year shouldn’t be confined to royals and same-sex couples, and then adding, “OMG be kind”. Never fear, Ticky. Diary hears that the romance was a joint matchmaking enterprise by none other than investigative journos Marian Wilkinson and Pamela Williams. If only every media marriage could be masterminded by such an impressive joint byline. Ever since the media reform laws passed, commentators have predicted a wave of media mergers. How ­delightful that we have all been proved right.

Silent night

In the end, what always saves the Walkleys are the winners. And their speeches. So it’s a shame that last week’s ceremony at the Brisbane Convention Centre banned most hacks from speaking so it could finish at 10pm. There was time for an opening number, from composer and performer David Bridie, accompanied on giant screens by a truly bizarre music video, a kind of All The President’s Men but for right now, with a very Scandi noir feel with lots of pained looking civil servants shuffling ring binders marked Nauru (or was it Manus Island) until one of them fell to his knees and spontaneously combusted. That ac­tually happened. Bemused hacks paused momentarily from their gossiping and drinking. Poor Lisa Wilkinson hosted the event but it was hard to regain the interest of the room after that. The ceremony was later marred by presentation mistakes. Even Quentin Dempster, chairman of the Walkley Foundation board of trustees, was heard as he swept into the gents to say: “You’d think they could have at least spelt In Memoriam correctly.” Alas, it flashed up in giant letters “In Memorium”. And the awards celebrating the best in journalism managed to misspell the name of The Australian’s late music writer, Iain Shedden, who died a month ago, as Iain Sheddon in the same segment, and advisory board member ­Lenore Taylor, the Guardian Australia editor-in-chief, was captioned as working for The Daily Telegraph. The actual ceremony was curiously anonymous as at first winners didn’t even turn to face the audience for applause, until Wilkinson asked them to. It was wonderful to see Michael Gordon, who had a long career at The Age, become so emotional as he accepted the outstanding contribution to journalism award, saying he was overwhelmed, humbled. Louise Milligan, who arrived at The Australian in the 1990s as a law graduate cadet (and former Dolly magazine cover model), received the Walkley book award for Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell. “I want everyone to know what I know,” she said of her book, before acknowledging the abuse victims. “I am so very pleased but also sad.” Former ABC journalist Liz Jackson was the subject and storyteller of the documentary about her descent into Parkinson’s disease, told in the winning documentary A Sense of Self, shown on the ABC. “If we were going to make it, we would have to be as open as we could be,” said Jackson, who thanked fellow winners Bentley Dean and Tania Nehme. And her husband, filmmaker Martin Butler, “who has to live with me”. Standing ovations are very rare in the Walkleys, but the room stood as one for Jackson.

Bad week for Bourke

For more than 130 years, The Western Herald was the voice of the community in the far western NSW city of Bourke. But no more. Last week the independent newspaper’s owner issued termination notices for the three staff on the paper, which had a circulation of about 1600. The final issue comes out later this month. The Western Herald was once the home of the writings of a young Henry Lawson when he was cutting his teeth in the print game as well as publishing the poems of Harry “Breaker” Morant.

Huff out of puff

Why did Fairfax pull the plug on HuffPost, axing the joint venture with the loss of about 30 staff? The answer is it didn’t. The decision to can the joint venture was made by US parent Verizon, which owns Huffington Post, AOL and Yahoo! Its global retreat was instigated by new editor-in-chief Lydia Polgreen, who replaced the publisher’s namesake and co-founder Arianna Huffington last year. The site’s editor Tory Maguire and chief executive JJ Eastwood have lost their jobs. Some other staff will be redeployed in Fairfax and three will remain as HuffPost continues. HuffPost editor-at-large Lisa Wilkinson will also lose her contract. The local site was meeting readership targets, but some observers tip HuffPost will tear up all its international agreements.