Howson made the courageous decision a few days back to give his very public backing to Queensland’s chief health officer Jeannette Young in the days after her highly-controversial “do not take the AstraZeneca vaccine if you’re under 40” diatribes. And it’s fair to say Hadley was paying attention.
Howson, the 4BC weekend host who only joined Nine Radio this year, took issue with a furious talkback caller who was “really angry” about both Young’s AstraZeneca remarks and her imminent elevation to the role of Queensland governor.
He replied: “I disagree, I disagree. Simple as that. When her name was mentioned as being the next governor, I thought ‘well, yeah’.”
But Hadley and his audience were not amused. When he came on after Howson, he didn’t hesitate to sledge his on-air colleague about the comments.
First, he read out an email, from one of his listeners, pleading with him to counsel Howson about the comments: “Ray, Spencer Howson must think he’s still on the ABC after defending Dr Young and her bizarre claims about AstraZeneca. As the elder statesman on the network, can you have a word with him?,” the listener asked.
Hadley responded in his own words to the listener’s email: “Thankfully, Spencer’s only there for another week. Neil Breen will then return. We don’t get to pick our replacements here, although Mark Levy, who replaces me, has my full confidence. It would seem strange that anyone, let alone a prominent broadcaster in Brisbane, could possibly agree with the stupidity of the comments.”
Unfortunately for Howson, there was apparently plenty more correspondence to 4BC critical of his views on Young.
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Fordham told to ‘fire up’ at Gladys
For the past year since taking over the 2GB breakfast shift, Ben Fordham, unlike his predecessor Alan Jones, has been one of NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s biggest public supporters.
Ben and Gladys have formed something of an on-air mutual admiration society, during a period where Fordham has described Berejiklian as the “best premier we’ve had”.
But a first-time-in-17-year breakfast ratings loss can change perspectives pretty quickly.
Diary has now learnt senior Nine radio figures staged an intervention last Tuesday afternoon, hours after 2GB lost its breakfast radio crown for the first time since 2004 to KIIS FM’s Kyle Sandilands & Jackie ‘O’ Henderson. We’re told their message to Fordham was unambiguous: the on-air love affair with Gladys had to end.
As one insider puts it: “You can’t have a friendship with a Premier while you’re holding her to account.”
We’re told a less adamant but similar pep talk to ‘fire up’ at the NSW government had already been given to Fordham after the previous ratings survey, when he had only just held on to the No.1 spot at that moment.
It didn’t take long for a notable change in Fordham’s on-air persona after last week’s chats. The next morning, he rained down attack after attack on Berejiklian, describing her decision to extend Sydney’s lockdown by a week as “red hot”, among other insults.
Fordham lectured Berejiklian on air: “Can I remind the Premier you said a few months ago we had to learn to live with the virus? You said NSW should remain open to give business confidence. So what’s changed?”
By Thursday, he was sharpening his attack on the Premier: “The virus hasn’t killed anyone this year, but the lockdowns, the extensions, the excuses, the mistakes, the missed opportunities, they are killing this city fast. And stop telling us it’s about the health advice!”
They’re the sort of editorials that could have come straight from the mouth of his predecessor (and now Sky News host) Jones, perhaps Berejiklian’s most vocal critic, and a clear departure from Fordham’s previous stance on Gladys.
When Berejiklian was publicly humiliated last October by the shock revelations of her affair with disgraced Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire at ICAC in NSW, it was Fordham who played a big role in helping her ride out the storm.
The 2GB breakfast host gave her a very welcome public backing when she most needed it, after the NSW Premier had to give explosive evidence to ICAC over her relationship with Maguire.
Berejiklian rewarded Fordham with the big scoop of her first radio or TV interview after the firestorm about the Maguire relationship. Fordham concluded the interview by saying NSW would be “mad to sacrifice the best Premier we’ve had in so long” and telling Berejiklian: “Hang in there (and) stay strong.”
A senior Nine source last week didn’t deny Fordham had been encouraged to adopt a more combative approach to the NSW government, but maintained any on-air anger from him had to be authentic.
“It wasn’t that Ben flicked a switch on Wednesday. His audience was genuinely pissed off with the extended lockdown, and Ben was genuinely pissed off,” the source said.
“It’s not about creating outrage every day. It has to be real.”
Still, expect “Tough Ben” to become a permanent fixture of 2GB breakfast going forward.
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‘Racist’: Ten reporter unloads on Today
Ten reporter and high-profile diversity advocate Antoinette Lattouf isn’t shy about making very public take-downs of her fellow journalists.
In a spectacular Twitter flurry on Friday, Lattouf accused Today show of being “racist”, “classist” and xenophobic in its coverage of Sydney’s Covid-19 crisis. She also dobbed on a
Today reporter to Media Watch for “bullshit journalism”, and accused a senior producer of 2GB’s Ben Fordham show of “trying to mansplain racism” to her.
The confrontation was sparked by a seemingly innocuous 8am tweet from Today show reporter Lara Vella, which made no overt mention of race but called out a perceived lack of Covid-19 testing in southwest Sydney.
“We’ve been to 3 Covid testing sites in the (Sydney) southwest this morning, and not a single person is here. Not so long ago there were cars queuing before they opened. What happened?”
Enter Lattouf, who immediately launched into a sarcastic attack on Vella and the racial politics of Nine’s flagship breakfast show. “I wake up with (xenophobia) Today. I mean how dare brown people in the southwest not be getting tested at 7am when it’s 7 degrees?!”
I wake up with (xenophobia) Today.
— Antoinette Lattouf (@antoinette_news) July 8, 2021
I mean how dare brown people in the southwest not be getting tested at 7am when it’s 7 degrees ?! https://t.co/qX4FkXrlnv
A quickfire exchange of tweets followed, before Lattouf doubled down, accusing Today of trying to “pretend racism and classism” wasn’t a factor in its reporting.
“It sounds like you’re trying to stir up hysteria about a community with high ethnic concentration … I know bullshit journalism when I see it. I’ve pinged your tweet to @ABCMediaWatch.”
Vella replied: “Hysteria and racism? Are you serious?”
It’s not the first time Lattouf has attacked her competitors for a lack of diversity. A few weeks back, she publicly attacked Nine’s “get the jab” campaign for “only having white faces”.
Her accusations against Today had plenty of support from her Twitterati fan club. But senior 2GB producer and sports anchor James Willis dared to stick his head above the parapet in opposition, claiming she was playing “the race card” by “falsely claiming racism is behind … police presence in the southwest”.
That prompted Lattouf to tag Willis’s employer, 2GB, in a very public shaming: “Do you realise one of your sports reporters is trying to mansplain racism to me?”
Willis refused to back down: “Lol. Gender card also. Can you please prove the racism?”
Lattouf’s combativeness won’t hurt the promotion of her upcoming book, How to Lose Friends and Influence White People.
If you’re looking for the worst ever take on coronavirus- read this from Antoinette Lattouf. Falsely claiming racism is behind the testing push and police presence in the south west. Irresponsible alarmism from @10NewsFirstSyd#COVID19#covidnswhttps://t.co/Im4qVgoB1W
— James Willis (@JamesWillis873) July 9, 2021
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Triple M’s brave Hadley axing backfires
The early signs are that a decision by seven Triple M stations in regional NSW and Queensland to ditch Hadley from its airwaves may be causing a listener exodus.
A spirited on-air campaign by Hadley before the stations made the move on July 1 actively encouraged his listeners to download the 2GB and 4BC radio streaming app to allow them to continue to listen to the morning radio king. Hadley even craftily got technology expert Trevor Long on his show several times before the cut-off date to teach some of his less tech-savvy Triple M listeners in regional areas how to do it.
Now the numbers are in, and Hadley’s campaign is working.
During April and May, before Hadley listeners became aware of the change, there was an average of just 43 downloads of the 2GB app per day.
But by July 1, the day of the switch off, that figure had risen by a whopping 1150 per cent to 498 downloads. A week either side of the switch-off of Hadley, downloads of the app had risen by an average of 410 per cent.
That’s probably not surprising, as Hadley – whose show has a strong regional focus – has a big following in certain NSW and Queensland regional areas. For example, it is understood on Triple M’s stations in Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, Maryborough and Griffith, Hadley has at times attracted a market share in excess of 40 per cent.
The pressure is now on for the new national show helmed by Hadley’s Triple M replacement Steve Price and ex-Ten newsreader Natarsha Belling to hold that type of audience.
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Labor takes over Ten’s reality shows
What is it about Ten’s big reality shows and the Labor Party?
With little better to do in locked-down Sydney, Diary has done the hard yards of putting together a list of political figures who have appeared on MasterChef, The Bachelor, Survivor and I’m a Celebrity. And to our shock, it turns out Ten’s big franchises have all leaned to the left when it comes to on-air political talent.
Former Queensland Premier Anna Bligh (Celebrity MasterChef), ex-NT Labor senator Nova Peris (Survivor) and former NSW Labor Senator “Slamming” Sam Dastyari (I’m a Celebrity) have all made big name appearances across Ten’s big shows.
What’s more, former Bill Shorten staffer Alisha Aitken-Radburn has been a breakout star on no less than three different series of Ten’s The Bachelor franchise: Nick “The Honey Badger” Cummins’s series of The Bachelor, plus two seasons of Bachelor in Paradise.
And now, the new series of Survivor: Brains vs Brawn that starts next week is once more turning to the ALP for its talent, with a former NSW “faceless man”, George Mladenov, heavily promoted by Ten as the most Machiavellian character of the season starting next Sunday.
When we reached Mladenov last week, he claimed there were plenty of similarities between the dirty worlds of Survivor and politics. “Just like in politics, there are two tribes competing to win,” he told us.
Spot on George – and that’s just in the Labor Party!
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Speers to be reunited with Sky mates
You heard it here first: David Speers is coming back to Sky News.
Okay, in the interests of full disclosure, Speers will only be back for one night, with his return involving the popping of champagne corks to celebrate Sky’s 25th anniversary in a gala function at Peter Gilmore’s Bennelong restaurant at the Sydney Opera House on August 17.
Speers, of course, is now the host of the ABC’s Insiders, but played a key role in putting Sky on the map as its Canberra bureau chief and the news network’s best-known face in its early years when John Howard was still prime minister.
Clearly relations between Speers and Sky are still cordial. When Diary reached the Insiders host on Friday, he confirmed he had been invited, and said: “As long as the borders allow, I’ll try and get along to the dinner.”
Covid-19 issues permitting, the function — to be hosted by Foxtel executive chair Siobhan McKenna and Sky CEO Paul Whittaker — will be attended by a who’s who of political and media luminaries, with invitations sent out last week.
Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese have both given a preliminary nod, while News Corp co-chair Lachlan Murdoch and most of Sky’s high-profile on air line-up, including Alan Jones, Peta Credlin, Paul Murray, Peter Stefanovic, Peter Gleeson, Kieran Gilbert and Laura Jayes are also set to attend.
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Seven’s six week Olympic commitment
With Ash Barty’s Wimbledon dream now realised, the patriotic attention of Australian fans now turns to the Tokyo Olympics.
But for host broadcaster Seven, it is the logistics operation of getting around its on-and off-air staff to Japan in the time of Covid-19 that has occupied its sharpest minds.
This week, most of Seven’s 40-strong Tokyo Olympics contingent heads off to Tokyo as part of a complex logistic operation. “Mr Olympics” Bruce McAvaney will broadcast from Australia, as with pre-existing medical conditions, it’s deemed he was safer to stay away from Tokyo where the Olympics could become another Covid-19 super-spreading event.
But Diary is reliably informed this Saturday other Seven staff who have received two Pfizer vaccine doses will be heading off to the Games to embark on a five-and-a-half week adventure just for two weeks in Tokyo.
This is roughly how it will work. The lucky Seven staff will spend two weeks in “soft” quarantine in a bubble with the people they are working with on the telecast. They will remain in that bubble until about eight days into the Games at the end of July, the end of the first week of the event, in a period during which they will be restricted to travelling straight from their hotel to Olympic venues.
By August 1, and for the duration of the last week of Games events leading up to the closing ceremony on August 8, Seven staff will finally be free to move around Tokyo, because they will by then deemed to be no longer a Covid-19 risk.
After the closing ceremony, around August 9, most staff will jet back to Australia to embark on two weeks of hotel quarantine. Essential Seven staff have received a written guarantee of a flight back into the country, to ensure they don’t get stuck in Japan because of reduced Australian passenger caps. It won’t be until about August 24 that the Seven Olympics team will finally be back to “normal” life in their home country. July 17 to August 24: it’s an expensive commitment for Seven in a two-week event.
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Making the news
News flash: Editor caught naked on camera
The national editor of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age performed an inadvertent strip tease during the mastheads’ news conference this week … before releasing his camera was still rolling.
Clemenger Group CEO steps down as buyout deal looms
Clemenger Group CEO Les Timar is the latest executive to depart the business as it prepares to be bought out by BBDO Worldwide and Omnicom.
Long-time Brisbane ABC breakfast radio host Spencer Howson has put a powerful nose out of joint at his odd new home of the Nine Radio’s stable: that of Australia’s highest paid radio announcer, Ray Hadley.