In the year since, Ibrahim has not uttered a single word about the incident. But now the ABC presenter has finally made her first public comment about her near-career death experience.
If you recall, Ibrahim’s highly-entertaining lists were published at the most sensitive time imaginable for the public broadcaster, in the midst of an election campaign ultimately won by Anthony Albanese and Labor.
Ibrahim suddenly disappeared from the show soon after the lists were published, with Planet America host John Barron suddenly materialising to appear with co-host Johanna Nicholson on weekend News Breakfast in her place.
After your diarist noticed her absence from the show in this column last April, the ABC came out with a statement to reveal it was indeed “reviewing” Ibrahim’s social media activity, and that Ibrahim was taking “a break from on-camera duties” while the review took place.
The episode caused a media storm at the time, with one prominent Labor figure, former senator Doug Cameron, accusing Ibrahim of being anti-Labor, as he took to Twitter to out himself as one of Ibrahim’s alleged “lobotomised shitheads”.
Without any fanfare, Ibrahim was quietly reintroduced to ABC News Breakfast’s weekend edition on May 28 last year. The timing was itself interesting, as it was the first Saturday after the May 21 federal election, suggesting Ibrahim was made to sit out the entire campaign because of her controversial Twitter lists.
But now, a year on, even Ibrahim is now able to see the funny side of what was clearly a difficult time in her ABC career. During a ‘Tech Talk’ segment on weekend ABC News Breakfast last weekend, Ibrahim couldn’t resist making a dust dry observation when the subject of Twitter came up from the show’s technology correspondent.
She told the correspondent: “One piece of advice: don’t make lists on Twitter. Let’s move on.”
Ibrahim is certainly practising what she preaches. Her once-prolific Twitter handle, @Fauziah_Ibrahim, these days has zero tweets and just seven followers.
ABC Ombudsman’s ruling: Paul Barry 1, Nine papers 0
Paul Barry has been given the green light to make his own judgments on reporting in the print and broadcast media on Media Watch without being required to go to journalists for comment, after a landmark ruling by the ABC Ombudsman last week.
Nine’s four top print editors fired off a complaint letter to the ABC last month over Barry’s criticism of its ‘Red Alert’ series about the threat of China. The Media Watch host had described the series – which was authored by the Nine papers’ political and international editor, Peter Hartcher, and foreign affairs and national security correspondent Matthew Knott – as ‘alarmist’.
But the Nine editors – Tory Maguire, editor-in-chief of the Herald and The Age; David King, national editor of the two papers; The Age editor Patrick Elligett, and The Sydney Morning Herald’s Bevan Shields – complained Barry had not come to them for comment before passing judgment on the series. They argued that he had therefore breached section 5.3 of the ABC’s Editorial Policies, which deals with seeking comment. The section states “where allegations are made about a person or organisation, make reasonable efforts in the circumstances to provide a fair opportunity to respond”.
Barry claimed he didn’t need to seek comment from the Nine papers’ editors, because “they have their own megaphone” in the form of their own editorial pages. He also pointed out to Diary late last month that the Nine papers had “already presented their defence in an editorial”, which he had summarised at length during the Media Watch segment.
However, this response didn’t appease Nine, which claimed that Barry should directly have come to them for comment. The four editors went right to the top of the ABC, sending their complaint letters to both ABC chair Ita Buttrose and managing director David Anderson.
The letter to Buttrose and Anderson formed the basis of one of the first major judgment calls by recently-installed ABC Ombudsman, Fiona Cameron.
Now, finally, the results are in. Cameron issued a ruling to all interested parties last week, and it is clear the ruling reaffirms Media Watch’s right to be a program of comment and opinion.
The ABC Ombudsman came down firmly on the side of Barry’s right to criticise the ‘Red Alert’ series without obtaining comment, stating that “it is not considered that there was an editorial requirement for the program to seek an additional response on this occasion in order to meet the ABC’s standard for fair and honest dealing”.
Cameron hinted at the fact that Media Watch is classed as an entertainment program, not governed by the stricter rules of the ABC’s news and current affairs division. “Taking into consideration that Media Watch is a program of comment, analysis and criticism and that the Red Alert series did prompt considerable public comment …. the Ombudsman is satisfied that the program made reasonable efforts in the circumstances to fairly convey the complainant’s strong defence of the series,” Cameron noted.
She also ruled it was well known that Media Watch “examines perceived failings by journalists and others in the media, and it prominently features the perspective of the presenter. It is a long-running program and the Ombudsman considers that the Media Watch audience is likely to be familiar with its established format and the fact that the host expresses a viewpoint on the matters covered.”
When Diary reached Barry on Friday, he said: “If we’re making allegations about improper conduct or breaches of professional ethics, we absolutely have to go to parties for comment, and in most cases, we do exactly that. But in this case, they had published their defence in an editorial, and we thought that was adequate.”
Political rivals cash in on Lidia Thorpe’s run-in
The late, great Barry Humphries would have had a field day with the shenanigans of Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe outside a strip club.
But with Humphries and his alter-egos Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson now sadly departed this mortal realm, some of Thorpe’s political rivals have seized the opportunity provided by her potty-mouthed attack on some of the strip club’s patrons.
In Pauline Hanson’s case, she’s even using Thorpe’s comments to sell merchandise to raise money for political campaigns. At the top of Hanson’s One Nation online shop on Sunday was a four-pack of stickers for $12, featuring caricatures of Thorpe and some of her more memorable comments to the strip club patrons, including: ‘You stole my land’ and ‘You are marked’.
Thorpe claimed her comments came after she was “harassed by racists”. But Hanson’s new merchandise takes on an interesting slant, with the revelation Thorpe’s father, Roy Illingworth – who has English and Irish heritage – is a fully paid-up member of One Nation. Oddly, he popped up on Andrew Bolt’s show on Sky News last week to accuse his daughter as being “racist” against whites.
Illingworth told Diary on Sunday his appearance on the show was meant as a “wake-up” call. “The whole point of that interview was to help Lidia,” he said.
“It might wake her up and stop her being so racist. She needs to acknowledge she’s half-white. She can’t play the racist card all the time. She has to realise she comes from a white background as well as Indigenous.”
Confirming his membership of One Nation, Illingworth told us he was happy to see Hanson’s party take the mickey out of his daughter to raise money: “It doesn’t worry me, mate – it’s funny. It’s only saying the truth.”
Clive Palmer’s Titanic European yacht party
Last week, we revealed Australia’s biggest political advertiser, Clive Palmer, is planning another deluge of election ad spending next year, as he prepares to make Annastacia Palaszczuk’s life difficult at the 2024 Queensland state election.
But Diary’s sources in the well-heeled yachting world have revealed Palmer is planning an almighty boat party in the upcoming European summer before he embarks on his big political and media comeback, after sitting out the recent NSW state election.
No, it won’t be on Titanic II, the so-far theoretical cruise ship Palmer famously proposed more than a decade ago. Instead, Diary’s yachtie mates have revealed the mining billionaire’s recently-acquired 180 foot superyacht – named what else but Australia – is already embarking on a long journey from the Southport Yacht Club to some of Europe’s most fashionable ports.
Our sources say the Italian-made Australia, for which Palmer outlaid around $50m a couple of years back, will play host to a bunch of Palmer’s nearest and dearest during the northern summer, as part of what we’re told is a big ‘family event’.
Palmer’s gin palace features all the trimmings, including an ‘owner’s suite’, a split-level space with an observation lounge, a ‘VIP suite’ which boasts huge windows overlooking the bridge deck, and various ‘staterooms’.
But Palmer, who The Australian’s The List recently valued as Australia’s fifth-richest person with a fortune put at $20.4bn, won’t be captaining his own yacht during its lengthy voyage to Europe. The billionaire has apparently outsourced that role to full-time sailors, and is instead anticipated to fly to Europe later in the year to meet his beloved boat. What better way for the United Australia Party boss to ready himself for his upcoming big-spending return to political and media life?
Meanwhile, the word is Palmer’s oversized wallet will get a considerable workout in next year’s Queensland state election. The billionaire’s political spending power has, of course, influenced elections in the past, with Bill Shorten copping his wrath in the ‘unlosable’ federal election of 2019, and the billionaire’s campaign against Campbell Newman in 2015, which first helped to vault Palaszczuk into power.
Jess Irvine joins a bunch of bankers
In the end, there was no press release or other fanfare about the shock recent departure of noted financial over-sharer Jessica Irvine from the Nine newspapers to the Commonwealth Bank.
Instead, it was left to Nine’s Australian Financial Review to go online around midday on Friday to baldly reveal Irvine had “quit journalism and joined the Commonwealth Bank after her editors became aware she’d recorded a YouTube video for the bank”. Coincidentally, Diary had been making discreet inquiries to the Nine papers about that very same issue earlier last week.
The video in question which featured Irvine was posted to a ‘Cost of Living’ page on the CBA website in December. The problem was it was included on the site with a still shot of Irvine next to the CBA logo.
Diary has been told Irvine did not seek prior permission from Nine papers’ management to appear in the video. But a spokesman for CBA has told us her video for the bank definitely wasn’t a paid gig for Irvine. “Jessica Irvine did a cost of living video for us as part of the information we provide to our customers,” the spokesman said. “She was unpaid as an independent commentator. It wasn’t an ad for CBA, but an explainer about hip pocket issues.”
However, we hear the matter was brought up with Irvine by Nine papers’ management last month. But apparently at that point, Irvine had already decided to leave the Nine papers for CBA.
With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, there were clues Irvine’s time at Nine may have been coming to an end. Irvine’s last commentary piece as the papers’ “senior economics writer” appeared more than a month ago on March 11 under the headline: “Sixteen ways to slash your grocery bill and beat rising prices.”
Then, last week, the Nine papers’ Money Editor Dom Powell revealed in place of her “Money with Jess” blog that he was “filling in for Jess while she’s away”. Seems he’ll be filling in for a while yet! Meanwhile, on Irvine’s Instagram page – also under the moniker #moneywithjess – her previous reference to working for the Nine papers at the top of the page recently disappeared.
Her readers will hope now Irvine is off to CBA, she won’t stop her financial over-sharing any time soon. Her recent disclosures on Instagram say she is clearing a net income of around $9000 a month, or $108,000 a year – hinting her gross annual salary could be around $170,000 including super.
But now she has presumably received a pay bump and is earning serious bank money, Irvine might have to add even more categories to her popular monthly ‘money diary’.
Diary’s calls and texts to Irvine’s phone weren’t returned by the time of going to print.
2GB’s big decision on Ray Hadley
Nine Radio has some big decisions to make over the next year or so, after the stellar performance of Ray Hadley in the latest ratings survey.
Not only did $4m a year man Hadley record his 148th consecutive Sydney ratings win for the morning slot on 2GB, but he also became by far Nine Radio’s highest-rating prime time host on Brisbane’s 4BC, and was only narrowly pipped by KIIS FM for top spot on the morning shift for that city. Not bad for someone who networks the show out of Sydney to the famously parochial Brisbane market.
But Nine insiders tell Diary while there have apparently been some preliminary chats, Hadley – whose contract expires at the end of June next year – remains mysteriously unsigned. We reached out to the normally talkative Hadley last week, but he said he was “unavailable” for comment.
With no obvious replacement in sight, Nine Radio bosses – led by managing director Tom Malone, could be concerned Hadley, 68, is thinking of pulling the pin.
But Malone may have one ace up his sleeve. Next year’s Paris Olympics will be held in August, just after the end of the ratings king’s contract. Hadley has a well-known soft spot for the Olympics, and maybe, just maybe, he’d like to be sent off to cover his seventh Games.
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Time, it seems, can heal all wounds. It’s exactly a year since ABC News Breakfast weekend host Fauziah Ibrahim was abruptly suspended from air by the ABC for a month over two now-notorious lists she published on Twitter: one featuring a list of “Labor Trolls/Thugs” and the other labelled “Lobotomised Shitheads”.