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| A Current Affair tries to turn back Four Corners' exposé of life on Nauru | A Current Affair tries to turn back Four Corners' exposé of life on Nauru |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Since The Forgotten Children: The Young Refugees Stranded on Nauru aired on Four Corners on Monday night, the ABC has been under fire on several fronts – including by the government of Nauru, the Australian government and some Liberal senators at an estimates committee in Canberra. | Since The Forgotten Children: The Young Refugees Stranded on Nauru aired on Four Corners on Monday night, the ABC has been under fire on several fronts – including by the government of Nauru, the Australian government and some Liberal senators at an estimates committee in Canberra. |
| The Nauruan government said the report was “an embarrassment to journalism” and “denigrating, racist, false and pure political activism”. On Tuesday, the Australian continued the criticism with a front-page story that accused the public broadcaster of selective editing and using old footage. Not to forget Andrew Bolt, who said the report proved that the ABC had “become as honest as a Socialist Alternative activist”. | The Nauruan government said the report was “an embarrassment to journalism” and “denigrating, racist, false and pure political activism”. On Tuesday, the Australian continued the criticism with a front-page story that accused the public broadcaster of selective editing and using old footage. Not to forget Andrew Bolt, who said the report proved that the ABC had “become as honest as a Socialist Alternative activist”. |
| Now Channel Nine’s A Current Affair has joined the fray with a report on Wednesday’s program. ACA is apparently upset because Four Corners didn’t pay due deference to its own investigation earlier this year. ACA was the second media outlet given access to the tiny island since the Australian’s Chris Kenny reported from there with government sanction last year. The Nauruan government has routinely denied access to everyone else, demanding a non-refundable $8,000 fee just to process the application. | |
| “Everyone knows that A Current Affair was granted unrestricted access,” said the host of ACA, Tracy Grimshaw, before going on to complain that the ABC didn’t use ACA’s material or even acknowledge it. | |
| Reporter Caroline Marcus – who said in her June story that the refugees on Nauru were “well-fed, most live in relative comfort and they’re free to move around” – was furious her “groundbreaking” reporting had been overlooked by the ABC. Marcus contrasted claims made on the ABC with those made on ACA. For example, while the teachers on Nauru told Four Corners it was unsafe for children, the Nauruan officials told ACA it was a very safe community with a lower crime rate than Australia. | Reporter Caroline Marcus – who said in her June story that the refugees on Nauru were “well-fed, most live in relative comfort and they’re free to move around” – was furious her “groundbreaking” reporting had been overlooked by the ABC. Marcus contrasted claims made on the ABC with those made on ACA. For example, while the teachers on Nauru told Four Corners it was unsafe for children, the Nauruan officials told ACA it was a very safe community with a lower crime rate than Australia. |
| We got plenty of footage and refugee accounts when we went to Nauru 4 mths ago but @4corners didn't bother to acknowledge it. @bairdjulia https://t.co/3m5Zqayy2n | We got plenty of footage and refugee accounts when we went to Nauru 4 mths ago but @4corners didn't bother to acknowledge it. @bairdjulia https://t.co/3m5Zqayy2n |
| The ABC has returned fire, telling senators the program would not be investigated because “we don’t launch inquiries into excellent pieces of journalism”. | The ABC has returned fire, telling senators the program would not be investigated because “we don’t launch inquiries into excellent pieces of journalism”. |
| The director of news, Gaven Morris, said claims by critics of inaccurate reporting were wrong and issued a detailed statement rebutting them. “As the Nauruan government routinely refuses journalists access to report on offshore processing, and charges prohibitive fees for media visas which are not refunded if the applications are refused, Four Corners relied on a range of sources for footage.” | The director of news, Gaven Morris, said claims by critics of inaccurate reporting were wrong and issued a detailed statement rebutting them. “As the Nauruan government routinely refuses journalists access to report on offshore processing, and charges prohibitive fees for media visas which are not refunded if the applications are refused, Four Corners relied on a range of sources for footage.” |
| Herald Sun climate contrarians | Herald Sun climate contrarians |
| Bolt and Mike Sheahan are both very popular Herald Sun columnists but they also hold opposing views on climate change. | Bolt and Mike Sheahan are both very popular Herald Sun columnists but they also hold opposing views on climate change. |
| This week the AFL commentator used a column to make a gentle plea to Bolt to change his mind on climate change. “Bolt has greater reach than any current affairs commentator of my time,” Sheahan wrote. | This week the AFL commentator used a column to make a gentle plea to Bolt to change his mind on climate change. “Bolt has greater reach than any current affairs commentator of my time,” Sheahan wrote. |
| “He is one of the few people politicians seem to read and listen to and he is bold enough to take on the heavyweights, from the prime minister down, and to lead causes, no matter how unpopular. I just wish he were as committed to the future of the reef – perhaps the planet – as he is to the downfall of Malcolm Turnbull … Come on, Andrew, jump on board. What’s the downside? Only that more and more of us will like you. You will learn to live with that irritation. You might even grow to like it. Give it a try.” | “He is one of the few people politicians seem to read and listen to and he is bold enough to take on the heavyweights, from the prime minister down, and to lead causes, no matter how unpopular. I just wish he were as committed to the future of the reef – perhaps the planet – as he is to the downfall of Malcolm Turnbull … Come on, Andrew, jump on board. What’s the downside? Only that more and more of us will like you. You will learn to live with that irritation. You might even grow to like it. Give it a try.” |
| Courier-Mail’s chunder club | Courier-Mail’s chunder club |
| Journalists are well known for being able to handle a few drinks so we were a little disappointed to hear about the performance of a couple of journalists from the Courier-Mail in Queensland who clearly had too much to drink too quickly. | |
| Weekly Beast heard about one young chap who unloaded the contents of his stomach in a ministerial office at an after-work party a few months back. Now this would be unremarkable were it not for the fact that a second Courier-Mail journalist has repeated the performance, leaving a big mess for the parliamentary cleaners to mop up. | |
| ABC’s title deed undone | ABC’s title deed undone |
| When the ABC restructured its five radio networks in April and added a layer of “preposterously named executives”, we loved the ridiculous names so much we created a quiz that asked readers to pick the ABC job title from a random set of words. New titles included “ideas network lead”, “capital local lead”, “head spoken” and “classical lead”. Weekly Beast is happy to report that, after our gentle ribbing of radio management, the worst offenders have been changed to something resembling an actual job title. That is good news indeed for the Sydney Morning Herald editor, Judith Whelan, who would have been referred to as “Head Spoken” when she joined the ABC on 7 November had the title remained intact. The new recruit will now be known as the head of spoken content. Capital local lead has been changed to manager, capital city radio and ideas network lead has been changed to manager ideas network. A small win for language. | |
| This means Warby | This means Warby |
| We reported in August that SBS’s dedicated women’s sport site had been dumped after just eight months, disappointing sports fans who were crying out for a serious treatment of women’s sport. But when the managing director of SBS, Michael Ebeid, was questioned about it at Senate estimates this week he downplayed Zela’s significance. He said the closure was not related to a funding cut, the site was poorly performing and women’s sport had been incorporated into the main sports site again. What he didn’t anticipate was that the former managing editor of Zela, Danielle Warby, would answer back. Warby disagreed with many of his comments and took to Twitter and later her blog to call him out. | We reported in August that SBS’s dedicated women’s sport site had been dumped after just eight months, disappointing sports fans who were crying out for a serious treatment of women’s sport. But when the managing director of SBS, Michael Ebeid, was questioned about it at Senate estimates this week he downplayed Zela’s significance. He said the closure was not related to a funding cut, the site was poorly performing and women’s sport had been incorporated into the main sports site again. What he didn’t anticipate was that the former managing editor of Zela, Danielle Warby, would answer back. Warby disagreed with many of his comments and took to Twitter and later her blog to call him out. |
| “There was funding allocated to Zela – approximately $125,000. It was obtained through an in-house ‘shark tank’-style process and given to the sports department to set up and run the site for six months. We stretched it to eight. That funding has since been exhausted.” | |
| SBS refused to comment on the matter further when approached by Beast. | SBS refused to comment on the matter further when approached by Beast. |
| Ad industry’s stubborn gender gap | Ad industry’s stubborn gender gap |
| A survey of the country’s top advertising agencies – including Leo Burnett, Marketforce, M&C Saatchi Group, McCann and Clemenger BBDO – has revealed that, at entry level, there is an even split between men and women but, by the time you reach the executive level in advertising, there is a ratio of 82 men to just 18 women. The inequality and lack of diversity in the industry is now being tackled by a national voluntary body committed to addressing the imbalance, the Agency Circle, which is made up of people from these agencies. Michele O’Neill, the strategy director at agency VCCP and the cofounder of the Agency Circle, told Beast she was sick of all the talk and wanted to see action. “We have to stop hiring in our image,” O’Neil said. “It’s what perpetuates this white, tight, straight, middle-class view of Australia because it’s driven by ad agency people.” |