Media Diary: Virginia Trioli-Trevor Chappell-Barrie Cassidy on-air love in over new ABC arts show
ABC presenter Virginia Trioli has certainly been busy doing the rounds promoting her new arts show, Creative Types, popping up on an endless list of programs on the taxpayer-funded broadcaster to lure in viewers.
But her 11-minute interview on ABC Melbourne’s afternoons program with Trevor Chappell last week pricked up Diary’s ears … what more could you ask for from the taxpayer-funded broadcaster than the ABC interviewing the ABC and then getting a ringing endorsement by an ex-ABC host.
Not bad hey?
Enter none other than former Insiders’ host Barrie Cassidy, with the Trioli interview beginning with a glowing review of the program from the former ABC staffer.
“I think it was fabulous, some of these arts and creative programs can disappear up their own world sometimes,” he opined.
“The format of the program and the filmmaking was different and refreshingly different.
“I was thrilled with it and I think it will go very well.”
Then enter Trioli who was blown away to hear Cassidy’s stellar review.
“I am so thrilled to hear that … I didn’t know he said that, that’s really delightful to hear,” she told Chappell, sounding completely shocked.
She even noted that she owes Cassidy a bottle of vino for his kind words.
But Trioli wasn’t so glowing about her own employer, using the air time to have a crack at ABC for not broadcasting enough arts programs.
“It’s been a while since the ABC has had an arts program of this kind of stature (modesty, cough) I guess but also I don’t think you’ll have seen an arts program told in this way before, as Barrie picked up,” she said.
“Gee, I’ve got to buy him a bottle of wine to say thank you don’t I, I know he likes red,” she laughed.
Trioli said she’s been going on for a while about having an arts program to anyone who would listen at the ABC including managing director David Anderson, head of television Jennifer Collins andhead of arts Kath Earle.
The ABC started filming in December but she said four months was far too short to put together the series: “We’d like more time please,” she said.
Chappell then threw in a Dorothy Dixer: “Why do you think it is significant and important that the ABC does arts programs?”
And this was when Trioli decided to vent her frustrations with her employer: “Well apart from it being in our charter … it’s our obligation.”
She then rattled over the very relatable things inner city Melburnians would like to be doing if they could afford it, including visiting the National Gallery of Victoria or the Myer Music Bowl, “I think we as the ABC are more obliged than ever to bring that stuff to Australians, particularly when a lot of Australians can’t afford it.
“I think we need much more of it, not less.”
Where’s Lisa? Nowhere to be seen on Network Ten
Eyes are still on the Lehrmann versus Wilkinson/Network Ten defamation trial as Ten quashed stories circulating on the weekend that Lisa had been refused an appearance on the very show where she first aired Brittany Higgins’s story, that is, on The Project.
After Justice Michael Lee handed down his judgment in court last Monday that found Lehrmann did rape Higgins in Parliament House in 2019, Diary was informed there was interest in getting Wilkinson on the program but this was quickly quashed the minute she came outside court and gave her own address.
She made no mention of Ten, The Project or Higgins in the 75-second speech she gave outside the Federal Court, not bad given she’s still on the payroll at the TV network.
But on The Project hours later, co-host Waleed Aly highlighted to viewers in a news report about the case that the show and Wilkinson were criticised by Justice Lee, telling the audience: “While the judge accepted she was let down by Ten’s legal advice, Lisa Wilkinson was also criticised over that Logies speech”.
In The Project’s story the network also ran a particularly scathing grab from Justice Lee that said: “If she (Wilkinson) had thought the matter through as an experienced journalist she ought to have known the (Logies) speech was fraught with danger.”
Wilkinson posted on Instagram that night a family photo including with husband and Sydney Morning Herald columnist, bandana-wearing Peter FitzSimons, and wrote: “It’s been a huge day … and I sincerely hope that today’s judgment gives strength to women around the country.”
But perhaps not enough strength to get back on the TV screens given she was nowhere to be seen on her very own network.
It’s also worth noting that Higgins, in a lengthy post on X, formerly Twitter, on the weekend, also made no mention of Wilkinson or Ten.
The court heard during the defamation proceedings that Ten’s lawyer Tasha Smithies gave Wilkinson the green light to give the infamous Logies speech that derailed the first criminal trial involving Higgins and Lehrmann.
Despite this poor advice, Diary has been told Smithies is still working for Ten.
So the question still remains, will Wilkinson be back on air now the court case is over?
While many within Ten are remaining tight-lipped, sources told Diary internally her colleagues have moved on and doubt she will ever return to the network’s screens before her contract concludes on December 31.
Pep talk at Seven
There’s no denying the Seven Network has had a horror few weeks after claims were aired in court that the station reimbursed costs for sex workers and cocaine (which the channel vehemently denied) and then came the bungling of the biggest news story of the year – the naming of the wrong man as the Bondi Junction killer.
Staff at the station’s investigative program, 7News Spotlight, became embroiled in the Bruce Lehrmann and Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson defamation proceedings after the show’s former producer Taylor Auerbach unleashed in court against his former employer leaving some staff very concerned about the program’s future and if it would forge ahead.
But spies told Diary they can now rest a little easier after the station’s director of news and public affairs, Craig McPherson, gave staff a much-needed pep talk last week to assure them the only way is up for the program after a rough few weeks.
McPherson called Spotlight staff together last Tuesday at the network’s Eveleigh headquarters in Sydney’s inner south – the day after the network officially confirmed the show’s executive producer Mark Llewellyn had left the station (despite The Australian reporting it four days earlier) – to tell them it’s all okay.
It was described as a “positive” address to those working on the Spotlight program and included reassurances the show’s 2024 season will run in full this year with about 24 episodes to air in the prime time Sunday slot.
About 20 people gathered in the newsroom to listen to McPherson’s spiel and we’re told they walked away feeling chuffed that the show will go on.
McPherson was contacted by Diary about the address but did not respond.
Since Llewellyn’s exit Phil Goyen has been filing in as EP but Diary has been informed the hunt is on for a permanent appointment.
Producer Steve Jackson also finished up at Spotlight on Friday after he too made headlines when he was appointed NSW Police’s new media chief – which is no longer going ahead – and was the subject of testimony by his ex-mate Auerbach in the defamation proceedings after the pair had a bitter falling out after Auerbach left the network.
Spotlight’s first episode for the year aired on April 14 and focused on the pros and cons of wonder weight-loss drug Ozempic featuring former Biggest Loser host Ajay Rochester.
It came up against rival Nine program 60 Minutes led by Tara Brown which investigated shocking accusations about disability support workers.
But it wasn’t a good night for Seven – the official VOZ TV ratings showed 60 Minutes beat Spotlight, drawing a national average audience of 605,000 viewers versus Spotlight’s 548,000 viewers.
As for Seven’s management team it’s been a revolving door of exits – last week chief executive officer and managing director James Warburton finished up (he announced he was stepping down in December) and earlier this month chief commercial officer Bruce McWilliam also packed his suitcases.
But it was Seven’s chief marketing officer and audience officer Melissa Hopkins who caught Diary’s attention in a LinkedIn post that certainly hasn’t aged well.
Last weekend she posted: “After a horrific Saturday event, I am proud to be part of a team graciously presenting the facts and keeping Aussie’s up to date”.
This certainly doesn’t apply to Seven’s Weekend Sunrise program after it named Sydney university student Benjamin Cohen as the Bondi mass murderer hours before the NSW police revealed it was 40-year-old Queenslander Joel Cauchi who committed the killings.
Might be time to hit delete on that post.
ABC’s slip up
The ABC had a disastrous ratings result last week after its listenership fell in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, but that aside the broadcaster’s youth station has also been battling another problem involving some pretty vile language.
There’s a handful of words media organisations ensure never get published and it’s not hard to get which letters of the alphabet they start with.
But somebody at the ABC’s triple j unearthed station clearly wasn’t paying attention when they decided to play the two-minute song with the crude name, ‘Bring Wet C***’ by Australian artist Zheani.
The ‘c’ word was played 41 times in the lyrics among plenty of offensive language in the rap tune which incensed one male Triple J listener so much it prompted him to fire off a furious complaint to ABC ombudsman Fiona Cameron.
The disgruntled listener was not only irate by the lyrics but when the title of the crude song with the word ‘c***’ in it popped up in full on his DAB radio display he was even more incensed.
It prompted Cameron to launch a thorough investigation into the matter to see if the actions of triple j were a breach under the ABC’s editorial standards for harm and offence.
The listener argued that the song was ‘sexist, misogynist and foul’ and was not appropriate to air, but did Cameron agree?
Well it appears not, so triple j listeners, you might hear this song again sometime soon.
Cameron said the “language is justified in the context of a track by an Australian rapper” and the “content is not degrading to women” and listeners were given a heads up before it was played with the warning about ‘some coarse language’ coming their way.
But triple j staff aren’t completely off the hook – they have been given a rap over the knuckles by Cameron and told to update their DAB radio systems and processes across triple j, Double J and Unearthed’ to ensure the c*** word and other rude song titles are not visible to listeners when they turn on the radio.
Snowtown killer
Channel 9 Adelaide is certainly in the bad books with Parole Board chair Frances Nelson KC after she labelled their reporting on Snowtown killer accomplice Mark Ray Haydon – who was jailed for 25 years for helping dispose of bodies of seven people – as the worst journalism she had seen in 40 years.
“Channel 9 has just lied, straight out lied,” she told Diary.
Nelson’s grievances came after Nine News presenters Brenton Ragless and Kate Collins led with the exclusive story on Wednesday night’s 6pm news bulletin with a report by journalist Kelly Hughes that declared Haydon was “a free man” and “has been released on parole”, which Nelson said was wrong.
“I was annoyed that Channel 9 would make a statement that was palpably untrue because it’s caused concern with the victims,” Nelson told Diary.
“They understood he was going to the prerelease centre and the news bulletin suggested he had been released out into the community and was free which wasn’t the case at all.”
Despite this, Nine’s Adelaide news director Jeremy Pudney stood by the report and told Diary: “As part of his parole arrangements, Mark Haydon was released from prison and is now free to enter the community for the first time since his incarceration.
“From Ms Nelson’s February media conference until after Nine News’ reporting this week, the details of Haydon’s release into the community on parole had not been communicated to the public in any form.”
Rival network Seven seized on the criticism of its rival and in one report Nine had been “slammed” by the Parole Board over the story.
The head of the SA Parole Board has slammed a media outlet's report that Snowtown accomplice Mark Haydon is a free man housed in the community. 7NEWS Adelaide at 6pm | https://t.co/8ftPfGh39Y#7NEWSpic.twitter.com/APAc9cGq4y
— 7NEWS Adelaide (@7NewsAdelaide) April 18, 2024
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