Sky splits with Latham, once more with feeling

Sky News dumps Mark Latham, The Australian, yesterday:

The former federal Labor leader had his contract termin­ated after a string of on-air attacks directed at Sky News colleague Kristina Keneally, ABC presenter Wendy Harmer and a Sydney schoolboy Latham said was “gay” for appearing in an International Women’s Day video.

Sky News chief Angelos Frangopoulos says, “It’s not me, it’s him.” Twitter, Wednesday:

While we support strong opinions and robust arguments we pride ourselves in doing so in a civil and respectful manner.

Angelos knew that boy was trouble. Frangopoulos on the first time he sacked Latham, The Australian’s Media Diary, Aug­ust 24, 2015:

Mark could have forged a great career providing his strong and incisive commentary on the political landscape, but as we found out at Sky, too, things just go off the rails.

Those comments came after The Australian Financial Review dumped Latham. The Australian’s Media Diary, August 24, 2015:

Mr Latham resigned as a columnist with the AFR amid controversy about his commentary on issues such as domestic violence and a Twitter account linked to him.

Latham last split with Sky News because he couldn’t handle hard questions from The Australian’s Chris Kenny. Kenny writing in The Spectator Australia, April 6. 2013:

I turned to his latest column … that included an aside about shadow finance minister Andrew Robb (who took leave to battle depression) being a “troubled character”. I invited Latham to apologise … “Does he need to apologise to himself?” demanded Latham … the former Labor leader was back on air after the commercial break, snickering in my absence: “I thought he’d resigned.” Less than a week later … it was Latham who quit.

Latham also had a torrid affair with The Spectator. The Australian’s Media Diary, November 24, 2014:

Latham wrote a column saying he was going to use the space to scrutinise, among others at News Corp, this diarist (Sharri Markson). In the style of a true gentleman, Rowan Dean asked Latham to refile his copy … Latham said no … And that was the end of their relationship and of Latham’s column in The Spectator.

Latham left the Speccietwice, too. Media Diary, November 5, 2012:

Diary understands there has been a falling out of late between Biff and the editor of that journal, Tom Switzer, over the latter’s recent comments on an ABC Radio National panel.

The Age dumped Latham before he even wrote a word. Crikey, January 28 last year:

Mark Latham’s new gig as a columnist at The Age is over before it even began, with news filtering out to Age journos on Thursday that the column would not be going ahead.

Don’t worry, Angelos. Everyone falls for Latham. ABC News online, November 29, 2003:

Federal Opposition Immigration Minister Julia Gillard has signalled her support for Mark Latham ahead of Tuesday’s ALP leadership ballot.

And he always breaks their heart. ABC’s Q&A, August 9, 2010:

Audience member: I’d be interested in your thoughts on a scale of 1 to 10 …

how big of a tool is Mark Latham?

Julia Gillard: There are some things that can’t be measured.