By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
Ever since Media Watch host Paul Barry announced his impending retirement, the question of who would step up to deliver the public broadcaster’s solemn Monday night sermons on the state of journalism has been the hottest tea in the news business.
Now that we’re at the arse end of the year, with the ABC’s upfronts around the corner, Aunty still hasn’t locked in a new host for the high-profile role.
Media Watch frontrunner: ABC investigative journalist and former foreign correspondent Linton Besser.Credit: ABC/Four Corners
The show’s executive producer, Tim Latham, will also depart by the end of the year, and CBD hears the ABC’s top brass wanted to fill that role before settling on a host to ensure the chemistry and vibes were right.
That role has been filled, with investigative reporter Mario Christodoulou, currently with radio program Background Briefing, getting the nod.
As for hosting duties, CBD hears ABC investigative journalist and former foreign correspondent Linton Besser is firming as a frontrunner for the gig. Former Sky News host Janine Perrett, who filled in for Barry this year and was considered a favourite, is becoming a more remote shot.
But it’s still anyone’s guess because new ABC chair Kim Williams, who has done oh-so-much shaking at the public broadcaster since landing the top job in March, no doubt has very strongly held views on the matter.
The case of Palmer’s missing builder
When we brought you the exclusive that the 100 per cent Queenslander, billionaire mining magnate and perennial future prime minister Clive Palmer had forked out $4.5 million to nostalgically purchase his boyhood home in Melbourne’s Williamstown, the news softened our concrete hearts.
But the renovation project has the hiccups, with the mining magnate having already parted ways with one builder.
When CBD visited Williamstown last week, the onsite builder said he had just erected a fence around the home, which the boy Palmer lived in before his family relocated to the pineapple state.
But the builder, who was reluctant to be identified, also said he had only been on the job for four days and was unaware what had happened to his predecessor.
CBD was unable to ascertain the nature of the dispute that led to the previous builder severing ties with Palmer.
The renovation was also news to the local Hobsons Bay City Council. “There are currently no planning permits or registered building permits with council related to this address. Thank you for bringing this to council’s attention. We will investigate and if any action is required we will do so in line with our policies and procedures.”
Not that every renovation requires a local council permit, of course.
Regular readers will recall that Palmer was born in Melbourne’s hardscrabble suburb of Footscray. He grew up in the bayside Williamstown in the 1950s in the four-bedroom, two-bathroom family home until he was aged about nine, when his parents moved north, prompted by concerns over the impact of nearby industrial pollution on young asthmatic Clive.
Clive Palmer outside his old childhood home on the election trail in 2013.Credit: Jason South
Palmer doesn’t appear to have personally inspected his renovations, but he did visit his old family home in 2013, during his first national election campaign (the only time he won a seat for himself). Palmer showed up to visit the suburban house for a surprise doorknock. Alas, nobody answered.
A Palmer spokesman was unable to enlighten us by publication time.
To be fair, Palmer owns more than 100 properties plus his Palmer Coolum Resort, formerly the Hyatt Coolum Resort on the Sunshine Coast, which is undergoing a $150 million renovation a decade in the making.
Klan for copyright
We don’t expect many punters, even our dear readers, to feel too sorry for journalists. Even if, as former News Corp scribe-turned-independent investigative reporter Anthony Klan believes, journos could get a better deal when others use their work.
Klan, who founded his one-man news site The Klaxon, is running for a seat on the board of the Copyright Agency, the not-for-profit public company appointed by the government to administer royalties payments to creators, including journalists, on behalf of media monitoring companies, libraries and the like who might use their content.
Byron Bay-based Klan’s pitch takes on a bit of a shareholder activist rabble-rouser vibe – arguing the royalties paid to journalists and artists from this process are not what they used to be and could be higher.
“Some years ago it was not uncommon to receive payments in the thousands of dollars a year,” Klan wrote on his candidate statement. “Now, many of us would be lucky to receive $50.”
This is true, anecdotally at least. Your humble columnists are still waiting for their thousand-dollar novelty cheques.
Klan is running on a pitch “to get funds flowing again”.
According to the Copyright Agency’s most recent annual report, it distributed $143 million in the 2023 financial year to its almost 40,000 members, including $8.58 million to people working at newspapers. The report also details having paid out hundreds of members involved in “media publishing”.
Klan left The Australian before the 2019 election, later accusing the Murdoch-owned broadsheet of spiking stories of his that he believed would’ve stopped Scott Morrison’s miracle victory, and of being in the pocket of mining lobbyists.
Klan’s running for one of three author-director spots on the 11-person board, with voting to close in mid-November.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.