Watch out, Waleed, Lisa and Carrie: “King” Kyle Sandilands has made his ruling on your show. The Project, he says, is not watchable anymore because it’s “too woke”.
In an epic spray, Sandilands unloaded on the Ten panel show by suggesting it is a big reason behind the entire network’s reduced ratings this year, because it has been pushing “political agendas down our throats”.
“When you’re running a TV network, and your lead in is The Project, and (the ratings have) eroded away to nothing, that’s a worry,” Sandilands said last week. “I like the people on The Project, I know some of them, nothing wrong with them. But they just push their political agendas down our throats.”
Sandilands, allegedly a friend of Ten after appearing on a number of its shows over the years, has claimed Ten had become the most politically correct commercial network in Australia, with The Project playing a leading role in its transformation.
“I thought Channel 9 were the wokest media organisation in the country. Or maybe not. (Channel 10 is), that’s right, because everyone’s stopped watching it for some reason because they’re too woke. That Project’s ruined everything.”
Sandilands also claimed The Project’s ratings were responsible for a notable fall this year in the ratings of one of Ten’s flagship shows, The Bachelor. “(They’re) the worst they’ve ever been in the history since The Project started. And that’s what damaged The Bachelor, and that’s why they’re worried,” he said.
Ten refused to engage with Sandilands’s suggestion The Project had become too woke, although a spokeswoman did say: “We love Kyle and we respect his opinions.”
But she dismissed any suggestion the show’s future was in question: “The Project has just celebrated its 12th birthday, and is here to stay.”
Sandilands’s claim The Project’s ratings are down is true, but Ten argues it doesn’t tell the full story. The show’s numbers are indeed down 10 per cent compared with the first 33 weeks of 2020. But the network claims the alarming first months of the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in record ratings for news programs across all networks, which couldn’t be sustained this year now lockdown fatigue has set in.
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Uhlmann lashes ‘boilerplate lefties’
Nine political editor Chris Uhlmann is up to mischief again. Six months ago, he caused a firestorm among the Twitterati when he dubbed them “sewer rats” for their role in championing explosive rape allegations against Christian Porter.
But last week, Uhlmann had the media’s Twitter faithful even more agitated, if that were possible, after writing a provocative column for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that lashed Australia’s lockdown obsession. But it was his claim a progressive media “cheer squad” played a leading role in “imprisoning” entire states that got perhaps the most attention.
When we reached him last week, Uhlmann was unapologetic, accusing some media outlets of perpetuating “boilerplate leftie outrage”. He even had a wry nod to the #IStandWithDan movement that has loudly supported Daniel Andrews. “If I’m trending on Twitter, it’s not people saying #IStandWithChris,” he told Diary.
In a column brimming with memorable lines, Uhlmann’s column claimed Australia’s “pursuit of the fool’s errand of Covid Zero has seen us level every liberty, destroy educations and livelihoods and shut ourselves off from the world”.
“The only countries persisting with a Covid elimination strategy are islands and dictatorships,” he wrote. “We are now both.”
Uhlmann also laid out his take on the current dystopian world of Australia, one where, he wrote, “freedoms are not rights, but gifts bestowed by premiers”, and where “the majority have learned to love Big Brother and hate dissenters”.
But it was his concerted attack on the progressive media that seemed to prompt the sharpest reaction.
He wrote: “Among the most depressing aspects of this supine acceptance of rank authoritarianism is the role of the media,” he wrote. “Much of it has become a cheer squad for the blunt instrument of lockdowns and a moral hall monitor that polices thought crimes. The same organs that ritually hyperventilate about the detention of asylum seekers are the loudest voices in advocating imprisoning entire states.”
Which media outlets was Uhlmann referring to? The Guardian? Ten’s The Project? Perhaps even some fellow columnists at the Nine papers themselves? When we rang him, he wasn’t about to name names. “They know who they are,” he said. “I’m not interested in having a fight with them. It’s boilerplate leftie outrage.”
But some media progressives were definitely keen for a fight with Uhlmann after his column. Former Age editor and co-founder of the New Daily, Bruce Guthrie, unloaded: “The Nine Network has to decide whether Chris Uhlmann is a reporter or a commentator. Given the strength of his views and how freely they’re expressed, anyone watching his reporting on COVID … will struggle to believe it’s balanced and objective. I know I will.”
Prominent ex-ABC presenter Quentin Dempster posted: “Get a grip Chris Uhlmann … So glad Mr Uhlmann is not running public health.”
Uhlmann is unmoved by the critiques. “They’re entitled to their opinion,” he tells us. “I genuinely accept that mine is a minority opinion. I’m absolutely delighted to be an outlier.”
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The ‘Clennell rule’: Gladys clamps down
Sydney press gallery members are calling it the “Clennell rule”. At the start of the Q&A section of Gladys Berejiklian’s momentous 11am press conference on Friday, the NSW Premier announced she would bring in a “one question at a time” rule for all journalists. The clue for the new rule appeared to have come 48 hours earlier, when Berejiklian snapped at Sky News’s political editor Andrew Clennell with the words: “Excuse me, it’s not your press conference.” That reproach came after he had pursued her from the outset of the Q&A with a run of brutal questions about her handling of the state’s escalating Delta crisis.
Clennell’s epic first question on Wednesday set the tone: “Premier, what is it going to take? Is it going to take 1000 (Covid-19) cases a day, 1200 cases a day, before you institute a proper stage 4 lockdown? This lockdown is not as hard as in New Zealand, as in Melbourne. It’s clear there’s this gap before the vaccination (kicks in). How many cases a day is it going to take?”
It was clear Berejiklian wasn’t a fan of either the question or the questioner, as she blamed rule-breakers. But Clennell kept going with several more questions disputing that answer, before she shot back at him with her “not your press conference” line.
Bad blood between the pair dates back to last October, when Clennell led the media pack in grilling Berejiklian over her affair with disgraced Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire.
Both parties haven’t forgotten. Berejiklian didn’t make eye contact with Clennell at any point of her press conference on Wednesday, and has referred to him in press briefings as “Mr Clennell”.
So was the new rule on Friday a bid by the Premier’s office to keep Clennell’s question count down?
Sources close to the NSW Premier deny it. They say the new rule is simply to stop journalists yelling at each other, and also to allow all reporters to get a turn.
As one government source puts it: “She’s not doing a Dan Andrews. She hasn’t got time to have media asking questions for two hours until every question is asked. She just doesn’t have the time – 50 minutes is enough.”
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Speers interrupts PM 26 times
Insiders host David Speers had a point to prove in his interview with Scott Morrison on Sunday, after copping a pile-on during the week for allegedly being a soft touch for the prime minister.
In a combative half-hour ABC interview about Afghanistan and Covid-19 — which frequently threatened to degenerate into outright hostility — Speers and the Prime Minister continually spoke over each other, with an exasperated Morrison telling his inquisitor on at least four occasions to “let me finish”.
A transcript prepared by the PM’s office for the media counted Speers as “interrupting” Morrison 26 times.
On the face of it, some clues to the combativeness of the interview may go back a few days. On Thursday, Speers became a nationally trending topic when it was announced that he had landed his first interview of 2021 with Morrison. But Speers’ coup was met with claims it would be a “love fest”, a “nice, safe interview” full of “belly rubs” for the PM.
It’s probably not surprising that on Sunday, a fired-up Speers was on the front foot and ready to interrupt any attempt from Morrison to waffle or avoid an answer.
One interjection that irritated Morrison urged him to be “straight with the people and say you should have got (Pfizer doses) earlier”.
The PM answered: “David, I’m trying to be, but you keep interrupting me. I’m trying to answer your question, so I’m just trying to answer it, so if you’d let me do that, I’d be very grateful.”
On Afghanistan, Speers continually interjected after claiming that ex-servicemen “deserve to know” whether the PM had fallen out with US President Joe Biden over the withdrawal.
Morrison ultimately demanded Speers let him answer: “David, let me finish. Please, David, I’m sorry, David, if you’d let me finish. I’m sorry, David, I’m going to insist on finishing my answer.”
It could be another year before Speers gets his next audience with the PM.
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Age features editor’s Palestinian advocacy
Journalist or activist? That is the question being asked internally by some at The Age about its features editor (and ex-foreign editor), Maher Mughrabi.
Diary hears Mughrabi will make a presentation on Wednesday night on behalf of The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, which proudly describes him as a “Palestinian journalist”.
The subject? In APAN’s words, it is about teaching Palestinian supporters to write “great letters to the editor – by (a) Palestinian journalist”.
The flyer for this week’s event goes on to say: “Maher is passionate about Palestinians and their supporters being able to have their voices heard by Australian media outlets.”
It isn’t the first time Mughrabi has facilitated such dedicated training for APAN, having run a similar session for the Palestinian advocacy group last year. Indeed, The Age’s features editor seems an excellent ally for a pro-Palestinian organisation to have in the engine room of one of Australia’s most venerable papers — as an advocate on the hotly-debated issue of Israel/Palestine relations.
We’re reliably informed Mughrabi has also been making plenty of judgments about some of his colleagues, on the Nine papers’ internal staff electronic messaging site, Slack. Age journalists tell Diary Mughrabi has been particularly willing to give frank and unsolicited assessments on Slack about the quality of his colleagues’ work on the Israel/Palestine issue.
No prizes for guessing which side of that debate Mughrabi has been on. But from the sound of things, his judgments haven’t gone down so well with some of his colleagues. When we reached The Age’s editor, Gay Alcorn, on Friday, she said: “There is nothing at all wrong with Maher or anyone else providing tips on writing letters to the editor.”
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‘Shitty choices’: Raf Epstein’s wild week
It has been quite the week for ABC Radio Melbourne’s drive host Raf Epstein.
On Monday, he had a front-row seat at Dan Andrews’s daily soap opera, Dan TV, grilling the Victorian Premier on his latest escalation of lockdown 6.0, including everything from the reintroduction of a curfew to forcing people to somehow drink cocktails through masks.
But by Tuesday morning, Epstein was facing a very different reality, caught up in the ever-growing mystery St Kilda cluster in Melbourne.
Unfortunately, Epstein’s household was forced into home isolation for 14 days, with Epstein using Andrews’ words to note his quarantine had been caused by other people’s “shitty choices”.
That forced Epstein to quickly assemble his emergency home studio to enable him to keep broadcasting until the end of his isolation. And running a radio show from his spare bedroom has already presented Epstein with his share of on-air complications.
Epstein has form in wrangling some wild interview subjects.
But it was his own beloved family pets that caused one of his biggest on-air dramas, when his cat Leo didn’t take kindly to affection from his listeners for his dog Sapphire in a “cat versus dog” segment.
The recalcitrant cat, offended by adulation from listeners for his canine nemesis, somehow managed to cut off Epstein’s broadcast system and took him off air.
Luckily, ABC Radio Melbourne’s afternoon host Jacinta Parsons was frantically scrambled by producers in the station’s Southbank studios to fill Epstein’s dead air time.
When Diary reached him on Friday, Epstein said the week’s momentous events had finally schooled him in the time-honoured rule of the media: not to work with children or animals.
He’ll even choose pesky politicians above pets as interview subjects in future: “Government ministers can be tricky to interview. But it’s much easier to get an answer from a minister than a cat,” he said.
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Jones just makes NSW surgery deadline
Timing, as they say, is everything. Alan Jones announced on his Sky News show last week he would be taking time off because of an operation on his knee, admitting he had been struggling to walk.
On Wednesday, Jones underwent a knee reconstruction in Sydney, less than 72 hours ahead of a decision by his declared public enemy number one, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, to effectively cancel all elective surgery in Sydney.
From his hospital bed, Jones was in typically combative form in relation to Berejiklian, as he told Diary he had been lucky to get his operation in just ahead of the NSW government’s elective surgery deadline.
“Sadly, as of Saturday, elective surgery (in NSW) is all but cancelled,” he says.
“I am grateful for my luck and my thoughts are with those who, because of government alarmism (in delaying elective surgery), will face an uncertain future.”
Jones says he has been in acute pain for some time.
“I couldn’t postpone the surgery any longer. The pain has been horrendous, but it will go away. The pain I had (before the operation) never would have” he says.
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