Michael Leunig’s storied half-century career as The Age’s best-known editorial page cartoonist has ended not with a bang, but a whimper.
A cryptic 39-word statement on its letters page last Monday said that the venerable Melbourne newspaper was “trialling new cartoonists” on the page.
Now Leunig has confirmed to Diary that he was axed from his prized Monday editorial page position by The Age, after it dumped a cartoon in which he compared Daniel Andrews’ threat of “vaccine mandates” for Victoria to the famous Tiananmen Square vision of “Tank Man”, the Beijing dissenter who defiantly faced off against the Chinese government’s tanks in 1989.
“ ‘Purge’ is a word that comes to mind,” he tells Diary of his axing. “Apparently, I’m out of touch with the readership.”
The cartoon never made it into the newspaper because The Age refused to publish it. But Leunig self-published on his own online site, earning angry criticism from #IStandWithDan supporters on social media. Leunig says The Age’s editor Gay Alcorn called him soon after she banned the offending cartoon to “break the news gently” that he was no longer wanted on the editorial page.
“Gay feels this type of cartoon is not in line with public sentiment, and The Age’s readership, who it does seem are largely in favour of the Andrews Covid narrative. But my job is to challenge the status quo, and that has always been the job of the cartoonist.”
Leunig has defended the offending cartoon: “The Tiananmen Square image is often used in cartoons around the world as a Charlie Chaplin-like metaphor for overwhelming force meeting the innocent powerless individual. In my view, it is a fair enough issue to raise in the most locked-down city in the world.” Alcorn’s message to him in the phone calls was that “I am too out of step with our readers” – even though, he says, a Michael Leunig Appreciation Page operated by The Age on Facebook currently has more than 213,000 followers.
“If what Gay says is right, I don’t much want to work for the sorts of readers who are so censorious. It seems that at The Age in particular, you can’t go near the Covid story except in a way that’s supportive of the Victorian government’s handling of it. And if you’re not supportive, that’s reason enough for you to be cancelled.”
Leunig has also let rip on how the news was revealed in The Age last Monday. “The way it was done was rude,” he said. “It was a pretty blunt, discourteous and frustrating way to have a half-century of editorial cartooning at The Age brought to an end.”
Leunig, who remains on the list of Australia’s 76 National Living Treasures, says that he has built “a reputation at The Age for being feral or a bit out of hand”. “But that’s the point of a cartoonist – not to be a wrecker, but also not to be too conventional or goodly,” he says. “My greatest dismay in all of this is the wretched state of cartooning and humour in The Age. It’s as if they want to destroy or subjugate cartooning.
“I do understand that a newspaper must be free to control its content and refuse to publish pieces as it reasonably sees fit. I have had cartoons censored during my 55 years of editorial cartooning and have always had the reasons for rejection explained to me by editors in intelligent, respectful ways. It is not rejection that bothers me. It’s the wokeism and the humourlessness, which seem without courage, good spirit or creative imagination.”
He also believes his perspective has increasingly diverged with The Age over time: “I come from an earthy working class perspective and values system, but that perspective increasingly seems out of touch with The Age’s cosy, inner-city mindset these days. The paper’s motto is ‘Independent. Always.’ But is it truly independent?”
Leunig now claims that he has had 12 cartoons censored this year, “all about Covid and/or Dan Andrews, with next to no explanation”.
When Diary reached Alcorn on Sunday, she maintained she still viewed Leunig as “quite brilliant” and noted that his lifestyle cartoons would “continue to be published” in its Saturday Spectrum section. “I’m not surprised Michael is upset,” she said. “He’s entitled to be upset if he wants to be.”
Alcorn confirmed she had censored a number of cartoons by Leunig this year: “I have pulled multiple cartoons by Leunig, almost entirely on the grounds that they expressed an anti-vaccination sentiment. We don’t mind cartoonists challenging the readers. We encourage diversity of thought, but I had a concern with cartoons perceived as anti-vaccination.”
Interestingly, The Age is already in full swing on a concerted marketing push for Leunig’s flagship annual calendar — a well-known money-spinner for Nine papers — and other Leunig merchandise. But Leunig’s comments to Diary today could make for an interesting dynamic.
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Coalition will confront ABC on complaints
The ABC’s internal complaints-handling process will be savaged by the Coalition this week in managing director David Anderson’s keenly-anticipated appearance before Senate estimates.
In an interview with Diary on Sunday, NSW senator Andrew Bragg – the man spearheading a sharpened approach by the Coalition to the ABC ahead of next year’s federal election – confirmed he would be grilling Anderson on why such a secretive process has been allowed to stay in place for so long. Bragg says the ABC keeping its complaints in-house has been “like Dracula being put in charge of the blood bank”.
The scrutiny of the ABC’s internal complaints process comes after criticisms of two of its flagship documentaries of 2021: Caro Meldrum-Hanna’s $2m ‘‘Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire’’, and ‘‘Juanita: A Family Mystery’’, which dealt with the disappearance of anti-corruption campaigner Juanita Nielsen.
An external review of Exposed by Chris Masters and Sydney University’s Rod Tiffen criticised its portrayal of former NSW premier Neville Wran.
In the Juanita series, serious doubts were raised about the veracity of the story of one of its key subjects, John Innes – who claimed he had gone “undercover” into Long Bay jail to gather information from one of the suspects in Nielsen’s murder, Kings Cross bar manager Eddie Trigg.
The flawed shows were the impetus behind the ABC’s announcement last week of a formal review of its complaints process, headed by ex-Commonwealth ombudsman John McMillan, and veteran ex-SBS news boss Jim Carroll. But the government questions whether that review will be enough. “The commissioning of the review is a concession that there are problems with the ABC complaints process,” Bragg says. “It’s a good moment to do a review, but I will be asking David Anderson about what happens next.”
Bragg, who chairs the Senate’s environment and communications legislation committee, says he reserves the right to initiate further action if he is not satisfied either with Anderson’s answers on Tuesday or the actual review itself. “I’m sceptical but open-minded,” he says. “The parliament will need to consider the outcome of the review, and whether the parliament itself does its own review of the ABC’s complaints process. I would hope the inquiry that the ABC has announced would look into other complaints models, particularly external models.”
Bragg cagily adds there will be questions about “prudent expenditure of taxpayer funds” in legal cases – believed to be a reference to an examination of a six-figure payment for legal costs incurred by Four Corners reporter Louise Milligan in a defamation dispute with Liberal MP Andrew Laming.
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Fitzy’s tricky tightrope over Lisa book
How do you keep a low profile when you’re 2m tall, never shy about jumping into the issue of the day, and one of the better-known media identities around town?
In the publicity storm over excerpts from Lisa Wilkinson’s soon-to-be-released book about her treatment by Nine and Karl Stefanovic, her towering husband and Nine commentator, Peter FitzSimons, is affected more than most.
But it’s a sensitive issue for FitzSimons, because unlike his wife, he still has plenty of skin in the game at her old organisation.
FitzSimons is not only one of the marquee columnists for the Nine-owned Sydney Morning Herald, but also has a separate paid gig as a commentator on Nine’s Sports Sunday program.
And perhaps not surprisingly, FitzSimons — normally his wife’s most vocal advocate publicly — has been keeping an uncharacteristically low profile about Wilkinson’s criticisms of Nine. References to the Wilkinson book excerpts about Nine have been conspicuously absent from his social media presence.
The debate is close to home. FitzSimons shares Wilkinson’s manager, Nick Fordham, who has overseen the departure from the network four years ago and the deal for the book.
Meanwhile, the Wilkinson camp is perplexed that the publicity about the book has been so negative.
The aspect of the book that caused most discussion was her claim that she had been treated coldly by Stefanovic during her last appearance on the show.
Diary understands that some Nine producers were responsible for the leaking of video from Wilkinson’s last Today show hosting appearance to news.com.au for a story to contradict the claim.
But the Wilkinson camp argues that focusing on this one aspect isn’t a fair representation of the book’s depiction of Stefanovic. As one insider claims: “Lisa has written lots of generous things about Karl. He was brilliant, and she was brilliant. What has come out so far is about 1 per cent of what she has written about Karl.”
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Hamish’s burnt bridge at Aunty
With Fran Kelly’s departure as host of RN Breakfast after 17 years, we’re told one person who may be kicking himself is The Project’s Hamish Macdonald.
During his time as host of the ABC’s Q+A, Macdonald was a frequent fill-in host on the show when Kelly was away, and saw the gig as one of his dream roles.
But Macdonald’s decision to walk out on Q+A in the middle of its run this year for his “homecoming” to The Project means that ship has sailed. Diary hears Macdonald burned bridges after ABC executives – most notably its outgoing news boss Gaven Morris – were furious that he was able to invoke a contract allowing him to walk out on Q+A mid-year at very short notice.
Macdonald didn’t enjoy his time with Q+A because of the relentless scrutiny of his performance amid tanking ratings. If he had ridden out the Q+A storm, he would now be in poll position to take over Kelly’s role on RN Breakfast.
But with Macdonald now at Ten, the word is that there would now be an outcry if Macdonald were to be drafted back to the ABC to be promoted above more loyal internal candidates.
And unfortunately for Macdonald, things haven’t been going so well for him at his new home at Ten. Since he arrived, ratings for the Sunday and Friday versions of The Project, which he co-hosts, have fallen.
At Ten’s upfronts event last week, Macdonald was a glaring omission from a new poster promoting the show’s “13th year” in 2022, which featured publicity shots of Waleed Aly, Carrie Bickmore, Pete Helliar and Lisa Wilkinson.
The Project will be returning in 2022, for its 13th year, and will continue to provide Australians with news delivered differently six nights a week #10Upfrontpic.twitter.com/5OODjzUr0V
— 10 News First (@10NewsFirst) October 20, 2021
When we asked Ten about that, they said his omission was only because “his publicity shot hasn’t been taken yet”.
Meanwhile, back at the ABC, Diary is told that RN Drive host Patricia Karvelas is the odds-on favourite to win Kelly’s prized gig.
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Palaszczuk’s war with Sunrise escalates
It was meant to be the triumphant return to breakfast television for Annastacia Palaszczuk, who has spent the past few months boycotting live TV interviews. But while plenty has been made lately of the growing similarities between warring breakfast shows Today and Sunrise, there was a big gulf in their approaches to the Queensland Premier last week.
Palaszczuk, of course, finally had some good news to announce: that she’d saved Christmas! Queensland’s border wall, she said, was coming down on December 17.
And at the Today show, Karl Stefanovic could barely contain his excitement throughout a bubbly interview with Palaszczuk. “Good Morning Premier, so I’ll see you at 12:01am at the Sunshine Beach Surf Club on the 17th,” Karl started.
“OK, I’ll see you there,” replied a laughing Palaszczuk as she breezed through the rest of the interview, playing to Karl’s proud Queenslander mentality.
But over at Sunrise, the Palaszczuk interview was far less convivial. David Koch started by demanding answers on behalf of the Queenslanders locked out due to a shortage of hotel quarantine rooms in Brisbane.
“No special privilege for them? They have to wait until December 17? Gee that’s a bit harsh don’t you think?” asked Koch.
Palaszczuk deflected that question, but it was just the start, with the grilling continuing on a range of topics from vaccines to exemptions.
Now aware she was in hostile territory, Palaszczuk reached peak agitation when Natalie Barr asked about whether hospitals could cope with an influx of Covid-19 patients when the borders reopen.
A visibly irritated Palaszczuk met questions with questions: “Is the NSW hospital system coping? Is the Victorian hospital system coping?”
Diary understands tensions have been building behind the scenes between Palaszczuk’s team and Sunrise ever since the show’s resident Queensland reporter Bianca Stone was dubbed “very rude” by Palaszczuk.
Stone dared to grill the Premier back in July about “publicity stunts” in which the state famously launched into a take-down of the AstraZeneca vaccine. For the three months since, Stone has been a constant thorn in Palaszczuk’s side.
So with the Queensland Premier visibly unimpressed about her unexpectedly tough run from Kochie and Nat last week, will Karl and Today be her only breakfast destination going forward?
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Names emerge for new SMH editor
After last week’s surprise departure of former Sydney Morning Herald editor Lisa Davies, attention has quickly tuned to the search for her replacement.
Diary is told two key internal candidates for the role at this point are the Herald’s deputy editor Cosima Marriner (who is acting as editor while the search continues) and European correspondent Bevan Shields.
But it’s externally where the action is just beginning, with some key female candidates emerging as possible fresh blood even before the job is advertised.
Diary hears one strong external tip for the SMH role is recently departed News Corp editorial executive Kathy Lipari, who had a highly regarded 20 year career in senior roles at News — including national head of the News network and senior roles at The Daily Telegraph and NewsLocal.
Also in the mix is ABC content executive Lee Glendinning. Guardian Australia editor Lenore Taylor’s name was also mooted last week, but insiders tell us she’s not considered a cultural fit.
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