Uhlmann v Hadley: brawlers to be stablemates

Relationship between soon-to-be-stablemates looks far from stable as 2GB’s Ray Hadley issues warning to Nine’s Chris Uhlmann.

Chris Uhlmann, Nine’s political editor, attacked media ‘bullies’. Picture: Kym Smith

On a June night in Canberra back in 2010, two ABC TV journalists in the Canberra press gallery, Chris Uhlmann and Mark Simkin, joined forces to break a massive news story in the network’s 7pm bulletin: that the ALP partyroom was preparing to roll then prime minister Kevin Rudd. It was a strong piece of straight news reporting, and a defining scoop about the ­extraordinary dumping of Rudd that won the pair a Walkley Award nomination.

Last week, more than eight years on from the Julia Gillard coup that deposed Rudd, Uhlmann and Simkin were still significant players during yet another partyroom coup in Canberra — but this time around, the two one-time ABC journalists were in very different positions.

Simkin was furiously working the phones on the opposite side of the story, in what turned out to be his last days as Malcolm Turnbull’s senior media adviser.

Uhlmann was busy this time around becoming the story, or at least part of it, during the momentous events that were unfolding in Canberra.

Ten months into filling the shoes of Laurie Oakes as the Nine Network’s political editor, Uhlmann used an interview on Nine’s Today show last Thursday to launch an extraordinary spray against what he saw as “bullies” in both the media and the party who had been, in his words, “waging a war” against Turnbull.

Ray Hadley in his radio studio in Sydney. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

Uhlmann singled out media parties he described as “players” in Turnbull’s downfall, including Sydney radio station 2GB, “led by Alan Jones and Ray Hadley”, and “News Corporation”, including The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and tabloid newspapers around the country.

He said he was “tired of the bullying that comes out of that ­organisation (Sky News), I’m tired of the bullying that comes out of 2GB, and again, I don’t really care what they say about me”. The claim was similar to Turnbull’s ­assertion on his way out that there had been an “insurgency” from people in the partyroom, “backed by voices, powerful voices in the media”.

It did not take long for some of those singled out by Uhlmann to respond. The fiercest reaction came from Hadley, who upped the ante. On his 2GB show the same morning, he said of Uhlmann: “I thought he was a journalist and his job was to report the news but I am confused. I am a commentator. You (Uhlmann) are supposed to be a journalist so you are better off creeping back to the ABC and staying there.”

Hadley also dubbed Uhlmann “a sycophant of the Labor Party because of your very well-known Labor Party connections” — an apparent reference to his marriage to ALP MP Gai Brodtmann — and questioned how Uhlmann could “appear on a network with any objectivity”.

"News Corp ...are waging a war against the Prime Minister of Australia" - @CUhlmann #9Today pic.twitter.com/OBHOHOTzon

— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) August 25, 2018

Uhlmann’s outburst and the furious blowback it attracted from Hadley and others created a potential staff-relations headache for Nine’s bosses.

With last month’s news that Nine is proposing to merge with Fairfax Media, Uhlmann will now almost certainly be in the same stable as both Hadley and Jones, who work for the Macquarie Media radio network, currently controlled by Fairfax. And Hadley is already collecting a pay cheque from Uhlmann’s employer, Nine, by calling the network’s Thursday night NRL matches.

Contacted by Media, Hadley seems more than willing to go another round in the war of words, saying he will give Uhlmann “another spray” if called out again.

But he also says the stoush could actually benefit Nine in its conversations with regulators over its takeover of Fairfax and its radio division, because it proves the independence of the various divisions.

“The ACCC are a bit concerned about Channel 9 owning Macquarie Media,” Hadley said. “I think we allayed their fears, no matter who owns us. We’ve been owned by John Singleton, Fairfax and we might now be owned by Channel 9. We’ve been No 1 for 14 years, and not too much is going to change.”

Meanwhile, the two men who will be most responsible for managing the big media personalities in the Nine/Fairfax tent were keeping up a brave face about the Uhlmann-Hadley clash.

Nine’s chief executive, Hugh Marks, supports Uhlmann’s right to have an opinion. “Chris Uhlmann made a statement of ­opinion which triggered debate around the media, and I’m really comfortable with that,” Marks told Media. “In fact, I feel it is important in an independent media environment that a range of opinions are heard and challenged.”

Nine’s head of news and current affairs, Darren Wick, says he had contacted both Hadley and Uhlmann since Thursday’s blow-up.

“They both had their views, and they had their comments to make,” Wick said. “No-one knows his audience better than Ray Hadley. I’ve spoken with both Chris and Ray. They’ve both had their say, they’re both fine, and everyone’s happy to move on. Frankly, I think it’s important we have a diversity of viewpoints. Let’s put it down to a crazy week in politics.”

Hadley is more succinct about what he said to Wick, telling Media: “If Chris Uhlmann opens his gob about me again, he’ll cop another spray. I said to Darren, ‘I didn’t start this, but I’ll finish it.’ ”

Nine News National director Darren Wick. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

When Hadley’s account of his conversation with Wick is relayed to the Nine news and current affairs boss, he quips: “What can I say? We’re one big happy family.”

In light of the very public fight, where is the line between journalism and commentary?

Veteran political operator Ian Kortlang says that while Uhlmann had made his reputation as a straight reporter, “I have seen him for some time as a commentator.”

Kortlang, a one-time chief of staff to both former federal opposition leader Andrew Peacock and ex-NSW Premier Nick Greiner, dates Uhlmann’s transformation to commentator to July last year, when he launched into a savage diatribe against US President Donald Trump’s performance at the G20. It went viral, with millions of hits on social media.

“At that moment, he changed,” Kortlang says. “And as he made the transition to commercial TV from being on the ABC, I think he swapped over. He became more of a ­celebrity political journalist. When he does what he has done in the last few days, it gets written about. It seems like he’ll now do one or two of those editorials every 12 months, and keep that celebrity political journalist glitter around him.”

But Kortlang said the role of radio show hosts was more clear-cut: “I once worked for John Laws, and I remember he told me: ‘I’m an entertainer.’ It’s the same with Jones and Hadley. They are entertainers. People know where Jones is at, and where Hadley is at. It’s up to you whether you agree with their views.”

Kortlang said that Uhlmann’s predecessor, Laurie Oakes, was not known as much for editorialising on TV, because he generally let his scoops for Nine do the talking.

But he points out that Oakes’s columns in both The Daily Telegraph and Kerry Packer’s now-defunct The Bulletin magazine often editorialised, and had huge impact on the political scene.

“They were opinion, and they dictated political opinion,” Kortlang says. “The CEOs of companies used to read Laurie Oakes, and they chatted about what he talked about. You had to listen to what he was saying, or you couldn’t converse properly. You needed to know what he was thinking.”

And what of Oakes himself? When Media tracked him down seeking a reaction to Uhlmann’s comments late last week, he was staying well out of it: “I’m going to keep my head down.”

The retired Canberra press gallery legend made it clear he wasn’t engaged with the latest political bloodletting in the Canberra bubble.

“I’m not that interested,” Oakes said. “I don’t miss it. I don’t miss it in the least.”