“God bless Sky News,” the former prime minister John Howard said at Sky News Australia’s antisemitism summit on Thursday, at which he was the first speaker.
The Sky News journalist Sharri Markson, who organised and hosted the event, was also effusive about her employer’s leadership in convening the gathering.
“I want to thank my employers – Sky News chief executive Paul Whittaker and head of programs, Mark Calvert, have shown unwavering commitment to this cause, going above and beyond to make today possible, and for putting, and I’m so proud of this, for putting our station at the forefront of tackling antisemitism,” Markson said.
“In a world that’s grown increasingly unrecognisable for so many of us, there’s only one media organisation that has consistently pushed back, leading with unparalleled moral clarity that is entirely thanks to Rupert, Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch’s incredible leadership.”
Addressing Sarah, who was the only Murdoch in the audience, she said: “There are no words to fully express our profound gratitude for the principled and heartfelt stance you and Lachlan have taken on this issue, because nothing could matter more than the safety and security of all of our children and grandchildren as Australians.”
United we stand
The words of another speaker, the federal attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, appeared to concern Markson, who wasted no time in addressing them.
Dreyfus said antisemitism “tears at the heart of our values as a nation” and said everyone had a role to play in combating it.
“Antisemitism cannot and must not be weaponised in the pursuit of votes,” he said. “It must not be weaponised in the pursuit of newspaper sales or TV ratings either. We all must take a stand together.”
Markson thanked him for his remarks, adding: “I hope that suggestion wasn’t that our newspapers or television stations are weaponising this because we certainly are not.”
A family at war
Earlier this week, while we were absorbing juicy details about the Murdoch family rift, the media mogul’s Australian editors were assiduously avoiding publishing anything about the story.
They were undoubtedly whispering about it as they met in Melbourne for an annual conference to discuss the upcoming federal election and the company’s priorities this year.
The Daily Telegraph’s editor, Ben English, travelled to Melbourne to meet his counterparts from the Australian, the Herald Sun, the Courier-Mail and news.com.au for the talkfest, leaving behind a disgruntled newsroom in the wake of the Cairo Cafe shame. English is said to be a favourite of Lachlan so is unlikely to face any consequences for the disastrous stunt, sources say.
Across two landmark articles, one in the US magazine the Atlantic and another in the New York Times, the dysfunctional family’s animosity towards each other was laid bare.
We didn’t hear a peep about it in the News Corp papers, apart from Andrew Bolt, who declared he was “disgusted” that James would “shop his resentments” and risk the disintegration of the Murdoch empire.
“Turning Murdoch outlets into clones of the ABC or Guardian would destroy their point of difference, and destroy the business,” the Sky News host wrote.
Assuring readers of his independence, Bolt added: “I should declare I did not warn Lachlan or his team I was writing this, and was not asked to.”
A Belle of a story
The passage of time can’t dampen the anger of a journo who feels they have not been sufficiently credited for their reporting.
Not even 10 years. There has been widespread publicity for the Netflix series Apple Cider Vinegar and the role played by two Age journalists, Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, who are fictionalised in the show. But a former journalist for the Australian, Richard Guilliatt, has seen red and returned to the pages of the Oz to express his anger at being left out by Netflix. To be fair to the streamer, the show is based on the book written eight years ago by the two reporters, and Guilliatt is credited in their book.
“I broke the Belle Gibson story,” says the headline in the Oz. “There is so much wrong with Netflix’s portrayal.”
Both the Oz and the Age were nominated in different categories of the Walkleys a decade ago and neither won.
“I have a pretty clear memory of how the Gibson cancer scam unravelled, back in the distant mists of 2015, and I’d swear it wasn’t the work of two young reporters at The Age in Melbourne but one middle-aged reporter at The Australian in Sydney,” Guilliatt wrote last week.
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“Actually, I’m pretty sure that guy was me because I recall a boozy night at the Walkley Awards for outstanding journalism, where I was shortlisted for Scoop of the Year for my work in exposing Gibson’s long history of medical mendacity.”
But all three reporters contributed to breaking the story. The Age published the first article which exposed Gibson’s charity fraud, then a story referencing followers online who were openly questioning her cancer diagnosis. These pieces spurred Guilliatt into publishing a story he had been working on for months, which included comments from Gibson saying her cancer may have been a “misdiagnosis” by a doctor she would not name.
Going dotty
The New York Times may have largely abandoned the Australia bureau set up in 2017 by Damien Cave but the august masthead still has its finger on the pulse of Australian culture.
It has published a detailed recipe for fairy bread, explaining that the children’s birthday party delicacy is “triangles of untoasted white bread covered with margarine or butter and ‘hundreds and thousands’”.
The treat is such a novelty to Americans that the recipe sets out how to spread the butter and how much butter to use, and recommends serving it on a “lipped plate” to prevent the sprinkles from falling. The important finishing touch of “cut in half on the diagonal” is thankfully included.
First impressions
The Sydney Morning Herald was quick off the mark with its review of The Eve Hotel, which opened on 13 February in Redfern offering rooms at the starting price of $549 a night.
The reviewer Ute Junker, who stayed courtesy of the hotel, gave it four and a half stars and described it as an inner-city oasis providing a “serene cloister”.
Seven photographs showed the 20-metre rooftop pool and lush garden setting, the vine-covered building and a ceiling mural by Dinosaur Designs’ Louise Olsen in the restaurant and bar.
But wait. On close examination all the photographs bar one were architectural renderings, or images created by software, to show what a building will look like when it’s completed.
Weekly Beast understands that the publication did not realise that the images supplied by the hotel were renders.
After we contacted the paper, the word “render” was added to all the images, then some were swapped out for actual photos.
“The story has been updated to make clear the images supplied are rendered,” a spokesperson said.
Sick note
Good luck to the bosses at the Courier-Mail who may have an empty newsroom after advising readers to take a day off to escape the Brisbane bus strike.
“Take the day off,” the Courier suggested, “While not entirely employer-friendly, pulling a ‘sickie’ is the best way to avoid travel disruptions.”
Too much is never enough
The election hasn’t even been called yet but we are being subjected to sit-down interviews with the alternative PM, Peter Dutton.
Both Nine’s 60 Minutes and Sky News Australia broadcast interviews with Dutton on Sunday, leading to a Sky News website almost entirely filled with stories and photographs of Dutton and his exclusive interview with Sky News Sunday Agenda.
Article by:Source: Amanda Meade
