Fact-checking has certainly been given a bad name of late after RMIT’s FactLab was suspended by tech giant Meta over concerns about its lapsed International Fact-Checking Network certification and complaints about political bias which, it would be fair to say, leans well and truly towards the Yes camp.
But don’t despair.
The Guardian is doing its own “Voice claims factcheck” videos to clear up any falsehoods being pushed out about the referendum. But if the recent performances of its politics reporter Amy Remeikis are anything to go by, the so-called fact checks should be entertaining if nothing else.
On the weekend, The Guardian published a six-minute video featuring Remeikis assessing voice claims made by Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, and you can take a guess at how that went.
Just last week Remeikis used her Instagram account, dubbed @pyjamapolitics, to ask her 15,000 followers why the Coalition was pushing so hard for a No vote. Let’s insert the Instagram disclaimer first.
“You can have your reasons for voting any way that you want to, this is not about telling you how to vote, this is just looking objectively at the campaign that the Coalition are running against the Voice,” Remeikis told her followers.
Then she launched into her own explanation of what is really happening.
“Why is the Coalition and Peter Dutton going so hard on this?” Remeikis asked her followers.
“I can’t answer that, but I can tell you I think a lot of it has to do with politics and not the idea itself … it’s a way of trying to activate people who may have turned away from the Liberal Party to try and bring them back; it’s a way to stay relevant,” she said.
It appears Remeikis is no great fan of Dutton, telling her followers, “While it’s said Peter Dutton is a really nice guy in private, you just have to say, ‘Well, what does he do in power?’, because that’s the true mark of somebody.”
Ouch. She said to hold tight, the online publication will be “watching and fact checking along the way” as we head towards October 14.
AWOL sponsorships
Journalists are increasingly blurring the lines by using their social media accounts to shamelessly plug products and tag businesses in return for freebies.
These can include anything from driving around in the latest SUV, to powdering their noses with the hottest make-up lines and even showing off their newly whitened teeth.
High-profile presenters and broadcasters are usually the ones who score lucrative deals with brands that deliver them nice perks in return for spruiking the goods.
While Diary isn’t saying the journalists or broadcasters are breaking any rules, it’s important that those who are receiving help to boost their bank balances with sponsorship deals make sure they declare them.
In fact, for radio broadcasters the strict disclosure rules are laid out in the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s disclosure standards.
Then it’s up to viewers to decide whether they think it’s a problem or not.
Anyone familiar with 3AW broadcaster Jacqui Felgate, who was recently appointed the station’s new drive host to replace Tom Elliott (who will replace veteran host Neil Mitchell when he departs at the end of the year), knows product plugs are commonplace.
Her Instagram account is filled with sponsorship deals and the hashtagging of freebies received, with her partnerships disclosed in her posts.
Felgate has been filling in across various 3AW programs for more than a year but these lucrative arrangements need to be disclosed by someone who is on air for more than three hours a week over a four-week period. There is a recent ad promoting Coles Supermarkets, her role as a BMW ambassador for the German brand’s luxury electric cars, her amazing experiences with Smile Solutions, and her sharing of how she improved her skin courtesy of a paid ad with Maybelline – the list goes on.
There’s even a paid partnership with Virgin Australia, one worth knowing about if the troubled Qantas pops up in on-air conversation.
Felgate joined the station in 2022 in various roles including food reviews, football commentary and as a fill in host for weekday programs, however on 3AW’s commercial agreements web page there was no mention of any of her sponsorship deals online as yet.
When Diary contacted Nine to find out when Felgate’s long list of deals would be declared, the response was “no comment”.
Watch this space to whether 3AW updates its commercial agreements page to ensure it abides by ACMA’s rules.
ACMA was asked about the matter on Friday but was unable to respond in time.
Ita’s replacement
ABC chair Ita Buttrose’s tenure at the public broadcaster is nearing its end and there’s no doubt all eyes will be on who replaces her.
She gave a powerful address at the Women in Media national conference in Sydney on Friday, and the 81-year-old urged women to push themselves and not to give up on careers in media, which received a standing ovation.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland also addressed the Sydney event on a panel called “advancing gender equality” where she spoke of the importance of having females in leadership roles around the country, noting the CEOs of Telstra (Vicki Brady), Optus (Kelly Bayer Rosmarin), NBN Co (Kate McKenzie), Buttrose and media regulator, ACMA chair (Nerida O’Loughlin) are some women in top jobs in the media industry.
Catherine Fox, award-winning journalist and moderator of the panel featuring Minister Rowland, then asked the question on everybody’s lips.
“Cheeky question Michelle, just watching Ita … are we going to see another woman as chair of the ABC?”
But Minister Rowland was quick to respond carefully in front of a room filled with hundreds of women, with many hoping it will be a female. “As you’ll be aware Catherine, there’s an independent nomination process set out in the ABC Act and that is now being advertised,” she replied.
With the crowd laughing at the minister giving nothing away about who will replace Buttrose in March next year, Fox replied: “Thank you, beautifully answered.”
Minister’s retreat
Queensland’s Energy, Renewables and Hydrogen, Public Works and Procurement Minister Mick de Brenni, (what a mouthful that is), took an ill-advised swipe at the latest Newspoll survey that was published in The Australian last Monday.
Tweeting while out of the country about polling results shows some serious dedication to the cause, so perhaps it was jet lag that caused the Labor minister to share his angst, based on what turned out to be an inaccurate understanding.
The results published in this masthead showed the Coalition had leapt ahead of Labor on primary votes (37 to 35 per cent) and support for an Indigenous voice to parliament and executive government was falling (38 per cent Yes, 53 per cent No.)
But Mr de Brenni wasn’t too thrilled about the findings, taking to social media to reveal he doesn’t read polls in this masthead and wrongly said they were done via landline polling.
If he’d bothered to read the Newspoll methodology – which is published each time results come out – it states the polling is done online. The last time Newspoll was conducted entirely by landlines was in 2015 and it stopped using landlines altogether in 2019.
But de Brenni was having none of it, having yet another swipe at the research.
When Diary contacted his office on Saturday to find out if he realised his claims about landline polling on X, formerly Twitter, three days earlier, were wrong, the minister decided – within hours – to “clear up some factual inaccuracies”.
“Since 2015, Newspoll has conducted polling online through YouGov, rather than via phone as stated,” he wrote.
I want to clear up some factual inaccuracies with this statement. Since 2015, Newspoll has conducted polling online through YouGov, rather than via phone as stated.
— Mick de Brenni (@MickdeBrenni) September 9, 2023
Better late than never.
No longer welcome
When Yes campaigner and Indigenous academic professor Marcia Langton took to the stage at the National Press Club on Wednesday, she had a good dig at the media, telling them to “lift their game”.
Referring to the treatment of former Sydney Swans star Adam Goodes and ex-ABC Q+A host Stan Grant – both Indigenous men – Langton told the audience they were unfair targets of the media and the Yes camp had been on the receiving end of death threats and insults, and it needed to stop.
The event’s moderator, Sydney Morning Herald’s chief political correspondent, David Crowe, concurred about the media’s behaviour.
“Thank you for the applause there and thank you for that remark,” he said.
“I think there’s almost another whole run of questions we could ask about what you just said but I want to continue.”
But when Langton was questioned by ABC 7.30 reporter James Elton about what the future would be for truth telling if the Yes vote failed on October 14 – polls are repeatedly showing Yes support on a downward trajectory – she used the opportunity to make another point.
In April, The Weekend Australian Magazine ran a lengthy interview with Langton with the headline, “Vote ‘no’ and you won’t get a welcome to country again” – which referred to her comments in the piece – and resonated with a section of the community.
“What I said to a journalist at The Australian was that I would not give another welcome to country and then social media lit up with cuckoos saying, ‘Oh good, we won’t have any more welcomes to country’,” the University of Melbourne professor told the National Press Club. Well, that’s not what I said.
“Other Aboriginal people are entitled to do whatever they like, and if they want to continue to welcome people to their country, their specific country like this Ngunnawal country or Ngambri country, fine by me.
“I said: ‘My country’. That’s the point that they don’t understand, isn’t it?”
It’s worth rewinding to see exactly what Langton did say when she spoke to The Australian five months ago.
“I imagine that most Australians who are non-Indigenous, if we lose the referendum, will not be able to look me in the eye,” Langton said.
“How are they going to ever ask an Indigenous person, a traditional owner, for a welcome to country? How are they ever going to be able to ask me to come and speak at their conference?
“If they have the temerity to do it, of course the answer is going to be no.”
To avoid any confusion, Diary thought it would be best to contact Langton to see if welcome to country addresses are off the table if the No vote does get up.
But she certainly wasn’t thrilled to hear from Diary.
“I think I was very clear and I’m sick of your filthy games,” Langton said before promptly hanging up.
Perhaps she missed Indigenous leader Noel Pearson’s recent memo where he said the Yes camp will “maintain the love, there’s no rage for us”.
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