On Monday Hugh Marks will arrive at Ultimo for his first day as managing director of the ABC, marking a fresh start for the broadcaster after a period of turmoil. While he faces a long list of challenges, at least the former Nine Entertainment chief is untouched by the damaging Antoinette Lattouf v the ABC court case. Similarly, the ABC chair, Kim Williams, whose appointment predated the incendiary incident, is a cleanskin when it comes to that issue.
The same can’t be said for Ita Buttrose, who may well regret taking on the role of ABC chair in the twilight of her career. She left the position a year ago but her role in the lead-up to Lattouf’s removal has been laid bare in the federal court, including that she forwarded six complaint emails in rapid succession to the broadcaster’s content chief, Chris Oliver-Taylor, and said of Lattouf: “Can’t she come down with flu or Covid or a stomach upset? We owe her nothing”.
Her cross-examination was not the end of it. A little over a week later a letter she wrote to the ABC’s lawyers emerged, revealing Buttrose believed there were “inconsistencies” in David Anderson’s affidavit about where and when the outgoing managing director told her Lattouf had been sacked.
Weekly Beast understands that after Buttrose found out her letter had made its way to journalists she briefed top silk Sue Chrysanthou should there be any legal repercussions.
Marks is replacing Anderson, a veteran of the ABC who resigned a year into his second term after the arrival of Williams. Similarly, Oliver-Taylor has now walked away from his role, having offered his resignation after his role was substantially downgraded by Williams. Lattouf’s barrister, Oshie Fagir, said in final submissions the court should give no heed to his evidence as he was a witness of “no credit”.
Leys leaves ABC
Also leaving the ABC on 31 March after serving as communications chief to three managing directors, Mark Scott, Michelle Guthrie and Anderson, is Nick Leys, a journalist who has worked for the ABC in various roles, including as a researcher on Media Watch, for more than a decade. Leys has been at the forefront of protecting Aunty from the culture wars, handling multiple media inquiries from a hostile Murdoch press, a job made more interesting considering he once worked for the company’s mastheads the Herald Sun, the Australian and the Sunday Telegraph. Leys has accepted a role as chief of staff to the lord mayor of Melbourne.
In a note to staff Leys said: “If I scrape in the few years I was at Media Watch, I have accumulated more than 12 years of my working life at the ABC. Not a lifer by any means, but enough to brag about in the bar. I’m still cranky ABC News rejected my application for a cadetship in Brisbane in 1998, but I’ll get over it. One day. Thank you.”
Pays to be curious
If you thought Daily Mail Australia was just a source of celebrity photos and reality TV gossip you may have missed a recent trend. The news website has branched out into straight-faced coverage of celestial matters and coverage of a certain 16th-century prophet.
One recent “exclusive”, which was behind the Mail’s new $1.99 paywall, reported how you know if you’ve been visited by an “ANGEL”. For the record, there will be “feathers, ladybugs and even coins contain subtle heaven-sent messages”.
“One night, as I started reading a book, a little feather fell out of it,” the DM said. “Instantly a light came into the room and I experienced an overwhelming feeling of being loved. The next morning when I woke up, there beside my bed was my guardian angel: a gigantic black presence, wearing armour. That was the day I committed myself to helping people connect with angels.”
For readers who prefer a darker subject there was a report on what the devil looks like. Hint: he does not have horns. “Ask most people to describe Satan and they will describe a red-skinned, horned devil, perhaps carrying a pitchfork, who lures humans into sin,” the DM said.
“A theologian told DailyMail.com it is completely wrong and not supported by scripture. In fact the truth is much more terrifying.”
Do the Daily Mail readers buy into this, you ask? Well, according to a poll on the site, 67% of readers believe the devil exists.
There are numerous stories about Nostradamus’ “terrifying” predictions. In his 1555 text Nostradamus “may have predicted the latest coronavirus strain, which virologists have discovered in China”.
“In ‘Prophet of Doom’ he wrote: ‘The ancient plague will be worse than enemies’.”
But in true Daily Mail style, the Nostradamus story was not original but a rip-off from the UK Mirror, which reported “Nostradamus’ chilling 2025 predictions from UK war threat to horror disease”.
Kick in the guts for AFL fans
This is the week AFL fans lose access to live Saturday matches in Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory unless they stump up $25 a month for the streaming service Kayo or have a Foxtel subscription.
The snub for fans is a result of the AFL’s 2022 $4.5bn broadcast deal with Seven and Foxtel.
Foxtel chief Patrick Delany believes Australians “see as normal paying for content these days … $25 a month is so cheap for a family to be entertained”.
Somehow we think not everyone will agree with him. A premium tier – offering streaming on two simultaneous devices and 4K picture quality – will increase in price from $35 to $40 in March.
Award axed
The Walkley’s midyear celebration of journalism, which has been renamed the Mid-Year Media Prizes, has quietly dumped the award for industrial relations reporting. So quietly that there was no mention of the change in the press release or on the website. But it did not go unnoticed by the journalists who were lining up to enter.
It’s a strange move given the Gold Walkley won by Nine Entertainment in November was an IR story.
The Building Bad investigation saw a team of journalists across the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes expose allegations of criminal and corrupt conduct in the CFMEU, resulting in the union being placed into administration.
The Building Bad Team is Nick McKenzie, David Marin-Guzman, Ben Schneiders, Garry McNab, Amelia Ballinger and Reid Butler.
Schneiders, who has won the IR award four times, has left the Age and now works for the ABC’s Four Corners.
Last year’s midyear IR category was won by the Australian’s Ewin Hannan, another prolific and award-winning IR reporter.
Schneiders, an investigative reporter who was a specialist IR roundsman at the Age between 2007 and 2011, told Weekly Beast it was a shortsighted and deeply disappointing decision.
“Good industrial relations journalism is vitally important in covering with depth issues including living standards, inequality, wages and the gender pay gap – some of the key themes of the upcoming federal election,” he said.
“Some of the most substantive journalism in recent years has been on IR including the work of specialists such as Ewin Hannan and David Marin-Guzman. There needs to be more of it and it needs to be encouraged.”
The Walkley Foundation board of directors told Weekly Beast it regularly reviews awards.
“For example, in 2024 a new midyear category, coverage of science and the environment was introduced,” a spokesperson said. “Journalists who traditionally enter the industrial relations categories are encouraged to enter the relevant Walkley awards categories. These include, but are not limited to, specialist and beat reporting, and business journalism as well as relevant news and features sections.”