‘Offensive’: Why Parky comes with an ABC health warning

Talk show host Michael Parkinson.

It’s exactly two years since the BBC temporarily took down the legendary ‘‘The Germans’’ episode of Fawlty Towers from its own version of iview, BBC iPlayer. The episode was reinstated a few days later with a blunt ‘‘health warning’’ for viewers wanting to watch it: that they needed to be aware the episode contained “offensive content and language”.

Now the ABC has imposed a similar health warning for viewers of a number of classic episodes of Michael Parkinson’s Australian talk show from 1979 onwards, stating that the episodes could “offend” because they express attitudes that are “not consistent with current standards”.

Why? ABC insiders tell us that, as with the Fawlty Towers episode, it’s because community “values have changed since 1979 when these interviews were first ­recorded”.

The majority of episodes of Parkinson in Australia – which, as noted by 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Friday, are currently being screened late at night and also available on iview – start with the warning: “The following program expresses attitudes that are not consistent with current standards and may offend some viewers.”

Michael Parkinson with Dame Edna Everage in 2007.

The Parky episodes feature everything from a particularly lively interview with Sir Les Patterson to Paul Hogan, Kerry Packer and Bob Hawke, although by the standards of what regularly airs on Netflix these days, there didn’t seem to be anything outlandishly offensive to us.

Interestingly, the very first ­episode from the Parky series – which also carries the warning – includes an interview with the now-ABC chair Ita Buttrose. However, Diary is told the disclaimer relates not to the Buttrose interview but one with Australian Ballet legend Sir Robert Helpmann, who in the Parky chat uses some terms that are now taboo about same-sex relationships.

The ABC’s current editorial policies cover content that could cause viewers “harm and offence”, stating that Aunty must “make reasonable efforts” to alert viewers through “classification labels or other warnings or ­advice”.

ABC insiders tell us that the term “harm and offence” – in the context of the offending Parkinson episodes – covers everything from “racist language and attitudes” to “casual misogyny”, “casual homophobia”, and other “outdated attitudes”.

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Kean makes his media move

For a humble state government minister, it sure has been hard to avoid NSW Treasurer Matt Kean in the media on the national stage recently.

Whether it be publicly warring with political figures on his own side of politics, from Queensland Nationals senator Matt Canavan to NSW Transport Minister David Elliott, blasting ex-PM Scott Morrison before the election over his energy policies, or attracting ­Coalition fury for allegedly texting political journalists about the controversial preselection of Katherine Deves in Warringah during the campaign, Kean has struggled to stay out of the headlines.

As one prominent federal political journalist tells Diary: “Kean has quickly become prominent on the national stage, because he’s now the dominant moderate in the biggest state, and now it’s the only place on the mainland in which the Liberals are in power. He’s increasingly a maverick in the Coalition, because after the rise of the teals at the federal election, he’s one of the last moderates standing.

“And he’s only likely to get louder, not quieter.”

Media monitoring research conducted for Diary shows conclusively just how “loud” Kean has been in the lead-up to, and aftermath of, the federal election campaign. The statistics show that Kean’s media presence has more than doubled, when compared with the period before the federal election was called – across TV, print, radio and online.

For the six weeks prior to the election campaign, Kean was mentioned in just 711 items across the media. But the election campaign itself – a period during which the NSW Treasurer made very public criticisms of the federal Coalition over the Deves preselection – became a launching pad for Kean’s national profile. During the six weeks of the campaign, his media mentions jumped to 1342 items, even with syndications removed.

However, it is in the month or so since the federal election that Kean’s profile has really accelerated. There were 1693 items across the media that mentioned Kean up until last Thursday, putting him well above the likes of fellow Liberal maverick Malcolm Turnbull and many of Kean’s federal colleagues, as well as even nipping at the heels of his boss, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, in terms of media mentions.

Indeed, it has been very hard to avoid Kean in the media since the federal election, as he has got into public stoushes with fellow senior Coalition figures at the same time as (with his additional portfolio as energy minister) trying to handle the NSW end of a national electricity crisis.

Finally, after Kean and Elliott publicly exchanged words last week over the claims that the NSW Treasurer had egged on journalists to grill Morrison on the Deves preselection, Perrottet pointedly told Ray Hadley: “My expectation of every one of my members in the team is that they are focused on the people of our state. It is a distraction when I read in newspapers issues that are not focused on that.”

But even that intervention didn’t deter Kean, with an at-times fiery 2GB interview following on Thursday, when Ben Fordham at one point asked Kean of the power crisis: “If you’re such a genius, why are we in this mess?” But don’t expect Kean to be dodging the media any time soon. On Tuesday, he delivers his first Budget as NSW Treasurer – and with plenty more media interviews afterwards, there’ll be plenty of opportunity for him to ruffle some more political feathers.

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No lettuce shortages at Ita’s Olle lecture

You wouldn’t have known there was a national lettuce crisis in Australia when Ita Buttrose delivered the annual Andrew Olle media lecture at Sydney’s Ivy Ballroom on Friday night.

Diary witnessed literally thousands of dollars-worth of pricey leaves being consigned to the bins by waiters at the end of the night. Full bowls of fancy cos and radicchio (meant to go with the main course of lamb rump with spiced black eggplant) ended up back in the Ivy’s kitchen, unloved by most of the 400-odd media and political glitterati present.

ABC chair Ita Buttrose.

Shocked by this display of ‘‘last days of Rome’’ excess, your diarist made a point of loading up his plate with what must have been, on current values, at least $30 worth of lettuce. It was the least we could do to stop the waste.

The ABC presence was headed up by new-ish head of news and current affairs, Justin Stevens, Insiders host David Speers, RN Breakfast presenter Patricia Karvelas and Annabel Crabb.

From a political perspective, the night was very much a Labor, Greens and teal independents affair, with a dramatically diminished Coalition post-election presence. On the Labor side, new Communications Minister Michelle Rowland – in her first big media outing in her new role — was joined by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, sitting for most of the night with Speers, and Assistant Climate Change Minister Jenny McAllister.

Meanwhile, the teal and green presence was loaded onto one table, with new teal MP Allegra Spender joined byDavid Pocock and Sarah Hanson-Young. Here’s hoping that those noted climate change warriors at least did their bit on the night for halting environmental waste … and eating their lettuce.

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‘Worst Premier in our history’: Mitchell turns on Andrews

Five years of antipathy between 3AW’s morning host Neil Mitchell and Dan Andrews have finally bubbled over, with Melbourne’s top-rating morning radio host provocatively dubbing the Victorian leader “the worst Premier in our history”.

In an extraordinary rant on Friday, Mitchell pleaded with “decent people” in Andrews’ cabinet to start standing up to him: “It’s time to end the cult of Daniel Andrews … He seems to run this dictatorial style of government, a one-man band where his cabinet falls at his feet.”

Mitchell said he had not seen anyone like Andrews in 50 years of watching Victorian politics.

Neil Mitchell. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

“I believe that what’s happening now is we’re seeing a man (who is) arguably the worst premier in our history, because he will stop at nothing. Nothing! He puts politics and political life ahead of Victorians.”

He then pleaded at length to Andrews’ cabinet.

“This is a point for the decent people in the government, and there are some. I know some. I know the decent ones. Stand up. Please look around you and stand up for decency. Stand up for honesty in government. Stand up for the people of Victoria before it’s too late.”

Mitchell refused to name those “decent” ministers, because it would be the “kiss of death” for them. But he claimed that “if they don’t stand up right now (to Andrews), they’ll be also judged by history as complicit in one of the greatest tricks on the people of Victoria.”

The rant prompted predictably furious defences of the Premier from the #IStandWithDan crowd on Twitter, but, perhaps surprisingly, also a fair few responses in favour of Mitchell.

An angry Mitchell tells Diary he was pushed over the edge when Andrews showed “no humanity” in media questioning about a Stawell brick business that had closed because of the spiralling price of gas.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Andrews replied that the “best thing we can do for every business across our state … is to have more renewables. That puts downward pressure on prices.”

Mitchell described the Premier’s response as “tokenistic”, with “no empathy, no compassion, no humanity, no real concern, no help”, adding: “This company is closing and we’re getting a lecture on green energy. It was robotic.”

He also referenced a headline-making incident when Andrews forensically audited his ministers’ phones to establish who had leaked a “police numbers” announcement to Mitchell: “That’s his style, his strategy. Intimidation,” Mitchell said.

In a classic case of wishful thinking, Mitchell concluded his lengthy spray by saying: “It remains the case, as it has for more than four years, that I invite the Premier on the program at any time – any time – to respond to what I have had to say.”

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Karl and Lisa’s careful seating arrangements

There was plenty of effort made behind the scenes ahead of Sunday night’s Logies to make sure that Lisa Wilkinson wasn’t sitting too close to her former Today show on-air partner Karl Stefanovic, Diary hears.

The pair had a much-publicised surprise catch-up at the announcement of the Logies nominees on the Gold Coast in May, for the first time since she abruptly left Today in 2017 for Ten’s The Project.

Lisa Wilkinson.

We’ve learnt that Stefanovic had an inkling that he was about to be reunited with his former on-air partner at the nominations announcement. But mysteriously, it seems Wilkinson wasn’t made aware ahead of time.

Despite the pair presenting their biggest smiles for the cameras at the nominations launch, last month’s encounter between Wilkinson and Stefanovic must have been awkward, given that media headlines from her autobiography last year were dominated by her claim of a huge ‘‘gender pay gap’’ between the pair.

So ahead of the actual Logies main event on Sunday, we’re told care was taken with the seating arrangements to ensure Wilkinson was given plenty of distance from Stefanovic. The Ten main table was positioned in the second row at the Logies venue, the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre – away from Nine’s scheduled table in the front row.

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The Logies, with a side of nip and tuck

Plastic surgery and Australian TV personalities have always had a symbiotic relationship. So it seemed highly serendipitous to Diary that the country’s biggest events for the cosmetic surgery and TV industries bumped up against each other at the same venue, the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition centre, over the weekend.

Until Saturday, it was the three-day annual mecca for nip and tuck merchants, the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons’ annual congress. But after a frantic turnaround on Saturday night, the venue was transformed by Sunday into Australia’s latest venue for TV’s night of nights.

For lucky TV personalities already on the Gold Coast to attend the Logies, it was the perfect outcome. Find out the latest trends on staying surgically ageless on Saturday – then back up on Sunday for the Logies.

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Whoopi dubs SMH a ‘tabloid’ after Rebel

Of all the stinging international commentary that came out last week over The Sydney Morning Herald’s stories about Rebel Wilson, it was the use by US comedian Whoopi Goldberg of one particularly unloved T-word to describe the SMH that may have hurt the most. Speaking on the US ABC network’s female panel show The View, Goldberg editorialised to the program’s millions of viewers about why Wilson chose to break the story of her new same-sex relationship on Instagram: “There’s a lot of speculation she did it to get ahead of a tabloid story in (the) Sydney Morning Herald about her relationship.”

Whoopi Goldberg. Picture: AFP

‘‘Tabloid’’ is one term that SMH management have always despised. Never was this better illustrated than when both the SMH and The Age switched from their traditional broadsheet formats all the way back in 2013 to a “compact” version, while making it clear they could never be described as tabloids.

The headline of a February 2013 story in the SMH to announce the move said it all: “Fairfax mastheads go ‘compact’, not ‘tabloid’.”

The-then editorial director of Fairfax Metro Media, Garry Linnell, made it clear that ‘tabloid’ would always be a dirty word.

“One of the reasons we haven’t used the ‘T-word’ – tabloid – is that people associate tabloid not just with a shape or size but the tone,’’ Linnell wrote at the time. ‘‘They see it as one of those red-top UK tabloids. We (won’t) go anywhere near there.’’

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Patrick pulls a Turnbull surprise

The flyers for this week’s launch of AFR journalist Aaron Patrick’s new book, Ego: Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal Party’s Civil War, went out this week. And let’s just say that the person Patrick has teed up to launch the book is a surprise, to say the least.

Apparently, it’s … Malcolm Turnbull. “Please join Malcolm Turnbull at the official launch of Aaron Patrick’s new book,” the blurb for the launch says.

Who would have thought that Turnbull himself would want to launch a book that has as its core thesis that the ex-PM had played a pivotal role in the destruction of the Morrison Government? Either Patrick is an irrational optimist – or he’s pulled off the book-launching coup of the year.