Speaker 1: This is the Media Show with Jack Outing.
Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to the Media Show. Tonight we'll look
Speaker 2: at a major court victory for soldier Ben Roberts Smith,
Speaker 2: and then of course we'll sit down with media watchdog
Speaker 2: columnist Jared Henderson.
Speaker 1: But first, here.
Speaker 2: We are on the eve of another federal election, and
Speaker 2: now I could talk about how the Coalition has squandered
Speaker 2: an early polling lead with an absence of policy depth
Speaker 2: and a series of missteps, but you already know all
Speaker 2: of that, and this show is about the media. So
Speaker 2: we're going to take some time to look at the
Speaker 2: respective media strategies of each major party because there have
Speaker 2: been some shocking changes in the wake of AI.
Speaker 1: Chick and tracking your money or your life.
Speaker 3: You're a smarter than.
Speaker 1: You look, authorized by ew Strain, Labor Party Westpeth.
Speaker 2: Well, what you just watched there was a series of
Speaker 2: AI enhanced social media memes which are having a devastating
Speaker 2: impact on the coalition. Now these are official, authorized clips,
Speaker 2: which include dressing Peter dutten up as an evil sith
Speaker 2: lord uses a lightsaber to slash the healthcare system. And
Speaker 2: there's any of it true, not a word. It is
Speaker 2: brutal politics strategically targeting a young audience and people who
Speaker 2: don't have ours to spare in their busy lives to
Speaker 2: study politics. It is a scattergun approach, throw mud and
Speaker 2: see what sticks, and some of these clips are reaching
Speaker 2: hundreds and thousands of young voters. Now, we've been tracking
Speaker 2: Labour's new AI misinformation blits across social media very closely
Speaker 2: and worked out they spent three point eight million dollars
Speaker 2: on Google ads including YouTube between March twenty eight and
Speaker 2: April twenty six, and a further one point one million
Speaker 2: on meta platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, and that
Speaker 2: is more than double the amount of money the coalition
Speaker 2: assigned to social media. Make no mistake, this sort of
Speaker 2: disreperency kills campaigns. And what truly irks me about this
Speaker 2: new bold form of campaigning is that Labour has spent
Speaker 2: the last few years lecturing Australians about misinformation. Albanezi personally
Speaker 2: blamed his failed Voice referendum on misinformation and his parting
Speaker 2: even tried to outlaw it on social media, although politicians
Speaker 2: were going to be exempt from those laws.
Speaker 4: It is a lot of misinformation out there, but it's
Speaker 4: a very clear proposition continue to counter some of the
Speaker 4: misinformation which is out there. There will be misinformation out there,
Speaker 4: we say you all, sir, There's been a whole lot
Speaker 4: of misinformation out there. Some of the misinformation out there
Speaker 4: is extraordinary. People in public office and public life have
Speaker 4: a responsibility to not spread misinformation, to talk about the facts.
Speaker 1: How times have changed.
Speaker 2: And also, this was what Albanezi had to say back
Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen about fake political adverts.
Speaker 4: But what happens when it turns out that what politicians
Speaker 4: are allegedly saying isn't actually real at all? Facebook usually
Speaker 4: won't do anything at all about it. That happened to
Speaker 4: me just last week when men's rights activists Lead Erickson
Speaker 4: docted a social media image from my Facebook page.
Speaker 2: It looks like if you stay in politics long enough,
Speaker 2: you become the villain you once despised. Well, joining me
Speaker 2: on the panel this week a Sky News contributors James
Speaker 2: Bolt and Louise Roberts. Of course, Louise, what do you
Speaker 2: make of this? You pivot the use of AI and
Speaker 2: the willingness to lie to win an election?
Speaker 5: Well, the willingness to lie to win an election? Gee,
Speaker 5: that's not a new concept. I don't think and certainly
Speaker 5: in recent weeks has it been so I think, you know,
Speaker 5: this is the way to win our hearts and minds
Speaker 5: tomorrow ahead of the vote. I don't think so. And
Speaker 5: it's a very cynical way of them trying to attract
Speaker 5: or speak to young voters who will be turning off
Speaker 5: from this sort of messaging by the thousands because it
Speaker 5: is appalling and what an appalling waste money as well,
Speaker 5: millions of dollars spend on these stupid ads in making
Speaker 5: look like a sith lord, you know, photoshopping him into
Speaker 5: various things, which that are really struggling to understand the
Speaker 5: messaging behind these ads, despite all the money they're spent
Speaker 5: on it. So to me they're completely counterproductive.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean James that they're equal parts light and funny.
Speaker 2: So you've got him dressed up as Darth Maul with
Speaker 2: a lightsaber, but there is a brutality to it in
Speaker 2: that he's cutting through medicare and it does kind of work.
Speaker 2: And I see some of these clips have thirty thousand shares,
Speaker 2: you know, hundreds of comments in it, and they do
Speaker 2: permeate through the zeitgeist. I think of that demographic we'll
Speaker 2: have to see if it worked. But it looks like
Speaker 2: if you're looking at the polls now that it's definitely
Speaker 2: had an impact.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and we're talking about it, so therefore it is
Speaker 6: working a lot better than a lot of Liberal ads
Speaker 6: on it, and especially this medi scare thing.
Speaker 7: So you know when Anne Rustin talks.
Speaker 6: To ask a Godseeller wrote that article that we featured,
Speaker 6: and she goes, oh, this is just political games from Labor.
Speaker 6: It's just dir like first election campaign, where are your
Speaker 6: political games?
Speaker 7: I mean medi scare.
Speaker 6: Laby got to this quicker, meaner and louder than the
Speaker 6: Liberal Party, and dune't spent the whole campaign having to
Speaker 6: just say it, reject another narrative and rather than set
Speaker 6: his zones and no matter what happens on Saturday, major
Speaker 6: wake up call for the Liberal Party about not being
Speaker 6: fast enough on social media, not getting AI quick enough,
Speaker 6: and not being able to set an agenda from the start.
Speaker 2: The misinformation laws side of this, we were going to
Speaker 2: have to have I guess discourse policed by these laws. Now,
Speaker 2: in hindsight, when we've seen the strategies, when we've seen
Speaker 2: the way that that Labor is campaigning, it looks very hypocritical.
Speaker 5: Now it does completely because we I think as parents
Speaker 5: as well, we sort of expected these laws to protect
Speaker 5: our children's That's where really put out faith in for
Speaker 5: the government.
Speaker 1: Has targeted at children.
Speaker 5: That's right, that was the point I was going to
Speaker 5: make Exactly, it's going straight to young voters with you know,
Speaker 5: sort of saddled with dealing with and voting on issues
Speaker 5: which are not of their making. They haven't created the
Speaker 5: housing crisis, they haven't created the cost of living crisis.
Speaker 5: They're looking to the government or the future party to
Speaker 5: actually solve these issues for them. Instead, they're having to
Speaker 5: weigh through these social media means, which you know, yes,
Speaker 5: probably do come through to a certain extent, but they
Speaker 5: don't actually give them anything tangible to think how, how
Speaker 5: is a political party going to fix this for me?
Speaker 5: What's the change be for me as a young person
Speaker 5: living in Australia.
Speaker 6: I think that, but though, like how many young voters
Speaker 6: actually are out there going well, what's tangible for me?
Speaker 6: I mean, I really think every election comes down to
Speaker 6: who would you rather have a beer with? And when
Speaker 6: you've got the Labor Party, I mean, look, they're not
Speaker 6: adds for me, They're not adds for us, they don't
Speaker 6: speak in the language of the watpake.
Speaker 7: But for some people.
Speaker 6: That could just be the stuff like, Ah, this Labor party,
Speaker 6: they're kind of fun Like that could.
Speaker 7: Just be enough to win over a vote.
Speaker 1: Maybe.
Speaker 2: Well, there's another element to this social media campaigning which
Speaker 2: is also killing the coalition. Now, Labour's advertising team might
Speaker 2: be shameless liars, but the coalition's team is simply weird.
Speaker 2: How is the coalition fighting against the five million dollar
Speaker 2: labor blitz? Well with asenine clips like this, please vote
Speaker 2: for me.
Speaker 8: Screamed Dane bond Albanesi in a desperate attempt to clutch
Speaker 8: a dub in the last four days of the Fortnite election.
Speaker 8: Despite his best efforts to camp his way to victory
Speaker 8: the players in the lobby, Moses time was for the
Speaker 8: last three seasons of an easy had dramas the chief
Speaker 8: rightem sharp, but the price for the battle pass kept
Speaker 8: rising and causing many players to crash out. The rage
Speaker 8: continue this album as he hosted a mini event on
Speaker 8: the island where he spent four hundred and fifty million
Speaker 8: taxpayer v bucks on a voice referendum, and now with
Speaker 8: the storm closing in the choice is clear a camping
Speaker 8: default or dunten who will clutch up and get the
Speaker 8: dub for Aussies with cheaper.
Speaker 1: Petrol and energy authorized by a host liberal camera.
Speaker 2: If you publish that as an ad, you deserve to lose.
Speaker 2: There is no gray area here. The Coalition fumbled this
Speaker 2: campaign because it did not have a message. Instead, it
Speaker 2: employed a bunch of low IQ young liberals who are
Speaker 2: obsessed with Fortnite to produce this utter garbage. It reeks
Speaker 2: of an older audience desperately trying to attract Gen Z
Speaker 2: voters by throwing buzzwords at them. Ironically, this sort of
Speaker 2: thing quickly becomes toxic. No policy details, no plans, just memes,
Speaker 2: and it will cost them dearly. So Luise, you've got
Speaker 2: to give labor Alis some credit. There was at least
Speaker 2: some creativity there in the misinformation campaign, and when you
Speaker 2: compare it to some of the ads at the liberal parties,
Speaker 2: the way that they're trying to emulate that strategy very
Speaker 2: cringe worthy. And I think that you can see online
Speaker 2: it's getting mocked by a lot of that generation.
Speaker 5: Absolutely who it's meant to appeal to. It's almost like
Speaker 5: they got into a bunker and went, oh my god,
Speaker 5: we've got to quickly do an aiad who knows how
Speaker 5: to use chat GPT quickly, let's cobble something together. I
Speaker 5: don't think politicians should be allowed to use any type
Speaker 5: of AHI because clearly they've got no idea how it
Speaker 5: works or what the messaging is. But I mean, I
Speaker 5: agree with your point.
Speaker 1: I think James as well.
Speaker 2: It's the kids that maybe don't have real world experience,
Speaker 2: and the older members of Liberal Party maybe don't understand
Speaker 2: social media, and they have deferred to the younger generation
Speaker 2: and their party that don't.
Speaker 1: Have the experience.
Speaker 2: They're probably a little bit nerdy, they're probably not the
Speaker 2: most likable people you wouldn't want to go have a
Speaker 2: beer with. Yes, and we're getting this kind of advertising
Speaker 2: from people that really don't have anything interesting say or
Speaker 2: anything of substance, lots of things.
Speaker 6: So watching that ad, like, I've never played Fortnite, but
Speaker 6: I'm assuming it's just hitting buzzword after buzzword after buzzword
Speaker 6: about Fortnite. And the difference with the labor One that
Speaker 6: we just played was that it always came back to
Speaker 6: duttonmal Cup medicicare, Like there was a point to what
Speaker 6: it was saying exactly. Now, the other part of this ad,
Speaker 6: because like you can say it's terrible, and it is,
Speaker 6: and you guys have covered that. But the other part
Speaker 6: of it is it came out yesterday. Four million people
Speaker 6: had already voted by the time it came out. That
Speaker 6: is one in for nearly one in four people on
Speaker 6: the electoral role who can't change their minds, like not
Speaker 6: won't change their minds.
Speaker 7: They can't change their minds.
Speaker 6: So even if that ad were good, it's ultimately kind
Speaker 6: of useless. So I mean the Liberal campaign, they came out,
Speaker 6: they say, okay, well from the last week of the campaign,
Speaker 6: that's where now spending is going to really go up.
Speaker 7: We're really going to focus in on that last week.
Speaker 6: But so many people have either voted, they have completely
Speaker 6: made up their minds. They might have made up their
Speaker 6: minds three months ago. They're not people that you can
Speaker 6: get anymore. I just think that the Liberal Party has
Speaker 6: this whole Super Bowl mentality of like everything got to
Speaker 6: lead up to game day, It's all about that Saturday,
Speaker 6: and that is just not how people think.
Speaker 7: Getting more a great people just.
Speaker 6: Like they don't want to vote on Saturday because the
Speaker 6: lines are too long. It's not that they've just can't
Speaker 6: wait to vote. It's just the concept of election day.
Speaker 6: It's a political animal thing. It is not a regular
Speaker 6: person thing any.
Speaker 2: And we were talking before, we were before the show,
Speaker 2: and there might be some indication that people have switched off.
Speaker 2: They're going out to vote simply because they just don't
Speaker 2: care anymore. They want to get it done.
Speaker 1: It's true they have.
Speaker 5: To, they just don't want to get a fine if
Speaker 5: they ever get a fine in the post. But the
Speaker 5: whole atmosphere of the democracy sausage and going there and
Speaker 5: getting the hat to vote cards and taking kids along
Speaker 5: and all that community, I really feel is is on
Speaker 5: the decline, which is a real shame because democracy is
Speaker 5: such a part of our fabric and framework. And to
Speaker 5: your point, Jane's about the combalition leaving everything to the
Speaker 5: last minute, That show is a very bad understanding of
Speaker 5: how media now works and how we consume media as well,
Speaker 5: that we're not waiting to the last minute to sort
Speaker 5: of suddenly check who we're going to vote for.
Speaker 6: But also your own political momentum, because they had a
Speaker 6: lead this year, how do you not go even harder
Speaker 6: at that moment or rather than just like stepping back
Speaker 6: and going okay, well wait wait, wait, no, no, no, you
Speaker 6: have to attack when they're at their webs.
Speaker 2: They need a lot of help in terms of media strategy,
Speaker 2: and that's particularly where they've let them down.
Speaker 1: Also, they need to have a look at their policies.
Speaker 2: I think the policies really if they resonate, then it
Speaker 2: does the job for you. But they don't really have
Speaker 2: anything tangible to latch on rather than this abstract petrol
Speaker 2: thing that's going to disappear in a year anyway. Moving
Speaker 2: on now, media watchers, Linton Besser took aim at the
Speaker 2: ABC's chair Kim Williams this week, and it exposed a
Speaker 2: major fight brewing at the national broadcaster now. Besser revealed
Speaker 2: that Williams had personally intervened to get a washed up comic,
Speaker 2: Sandy Gutman, airtime so that he could sell tickets to
Speaker 2: ABC viewers.
Speaker 9: Ostentatious, whose real name is Sandy Goodman, has featured regularly
Speaker 9: on the ABC, celebrating his briefly famous monologue and sprooking
Speaker 9: his upcoming show.
Speaker 1: Across the country, these days.
Speaker 6: The crowds are much more receptive and I get far
Speaker 6: less alcohol thrown at me than I did back in
Speaker 6: the early days.
Speaker 9: Since July last year, Goodman has received more than ninety
Speaker 9: minutes of free publicity on the public broadcaster. There's no
Speaker 9: fewer than eleven segments, all of which promoted specific upcoming gigs.
Speaker 5: You can book your seat for dinner and then also
Speaker 5: the show if you jump onto the pub's website.
Speaker 2: Some ABC staff pushback against the idea of having a
Speaker 2: no name failed comic given a platform to sell tickets,
Speaker 2: and they were right to push back.
Speaker 9: But we've learned that not all of the ABC's radio
Speaker 9: staff loved the idea of Austin Tatious on their show
Speaker 9: and declined to put him to air. The comedian would
Speaker 9: have the last laugh, however, because, as these regional bureau
Speaker 9: soon learned, Sandy Goodman had a man on the inside,
Speaker 9: none other than Kim william chairman of the ABC.
Speaker 1: I'm friends with Kim.
Speaker 7: I would have known him for forty years. I asked
Speaker 7: him if he could get a couple of interviews.
Speaker 1: He did.
Speaker 9: Kim Williams denies the two of friends and describes Sandy
Speaker 9: Goodman as a mere acquaintance.
Speaker 10: We had a brief involvement some twenty seven years ago.
Speaker 9: Whatever the relationship, Sandy Goodman has used it to great success,
Speaker 9: beginning on August five last year.
Speaker 2: Williams used his slippery statement to dance around the issue,
Speaker 2: but the facts are clear. He had a connection to
Speaker 2: a professional comic and he pressured EBC journalists to help
Speaker 2: him sell tickets on air. Now, if that isn't a
Speaker 2: breach of the charter, then nothing is and Williams appears
Speaker 2: to be in trouble here. We reported after the fallout
Speaker 2: of the Media Watch episode that the MAAA Journalist Union
Speaker 2: was getting calls with similar complaints. They say there are
Speaker 2: more stories like this to come. And the ABC's new
Speaker 2: managing director, Hu Mar, who should be the person running
Speaker 2: the editorial content, not Williams, had some interesting words to
Speaker 2: say in the matter.
Speaker 10: Kim and I are very clear. Kim's responsibility is to
Speaker 10: run the board and to run and to be the
Speaker 10: advocate in chief for the ABC, and management needs to
Speaker 10: have the ability to run the organization. The board exists
Speaker 10: proper governance to review what management does. Kim does not
Speaker 10: have any question with that, That's very clear, James.
Speaker 2: Really interesting work by Linton Besser. There it's always a
Speaker 2: bit awkward when they're turning the microscope on their own employers.
Speaker 2: But in this situation, I can see why ABC journalists
Speaker 2: are incredibly angry. He is directly influencing it. And there
Speaker 2: was this one comment from a journalist that they played
Speaker 2: on Media watchual we didn't share was if he's focusing
Speaker 2: on something that's this petty and this irrelevant and what
Speaker 2: else is he doing?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I just can't believe Kim Williams is risking it
Speaker 6: all for ostentatious.
Speaker 7: That's the craziest fust You know what this person is
Speaker 7: I ever heard of it?
Speaker 6: Slightly aware of the how much King Kohalabev I've been
Speaker 6: producer here that clip every now and then get shown
Speaker 6: if you recognized if he came up to me on
Speaker 6: the street and hit me, I would not know who
Speaker 6: he is, but man ostentatious. But like so, the serious
Speaker 6: point of this it is just we pay for it.
Speaker 6: We pay for the ABC, We pay for these ego trips,
Speaker 6: We pay for everything. Like they're editorializing, they do away
Speaker 6: from the ostentatious stuff.
Speaker 2: And it's not him Williams personal broadcast.
Speaker 1: And he's not a good talent correct me. Do you
Speaker 1: know who he is?
Speaker 5: I know of the name, but he's of a different vintage.
Speaker 5: I mean, certainly nobody on the street would even be
Speaker 5: able to mention any of his jokes or these TV
Speaker 5: shows or anything like that as well, or we stand
Speaker 5: up routine. But the point I was going to make
Speaker 5: is how refreshing we now have an MD at the ABC.
Speaker 5: He's not afraid to push back and defend journalists. We
Speaker 5: haven't had that for a long time. So I think
Speaker 5: you know, full marks to Hugh Marks for that as well.
Speaker 2: Saying it publicly is publicly. I don't know how Williams
Speaker 2: will feel about that well.
Speaker 5: And we did say that would be his biggest hurdled,
Speaker 5: didn't we that when he took that job that had
Speaker 5: to deal with the Kim issue would be the biggest
Speaker 5: sort of hurdle for him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's already gone out racing. We can't have people
Speaker 2: selling commercial tickets on the ABC's completely inappropriate. But moving on,
Speaker 2: Soldier Ben Robert Smith won a major victory against nine
Speaker 2: this week when audio recording which was uncovered by Sky
Speaker 2: News was admitted into court as he seeks to overturn
Speaker 2: his damaging defamation loss.
Speaker 11: Victoria Cross recipient Ben Robert Smith has had a legal
Speaker 11: win in the Federal court today as he seeks to
Speaker 11: overturn his defamation loss. His lawyers successfully argued that a
Speaker 11: secretly recorded phone call should be admitted as evidence.
Speaker 12: Striding into court to try and clear his name, decorated
Speaker 12: Soldier Ben Roberts Smith is hoping to reopen the defamation
Speaker 12: appeal against the journalist and newspaper who accused him of
Speaker 12: war crimes because of this.
Speaker 1: I've just preached my doing that this is where like
Speaker 1: this is.
Speaker 12: A secretly recorded phone conversation between Nick mackenzie and a
Speaker 12: woman known as Person seventeen.
Speaker 1: James.
Speaker 2: A big win for Ben Robert Smith, but also Shari Markson,
Speaker 2: who broke that story. She uncovered that audio and now
Speaker 2: it appears it's going to be very central to this appeal.
Speaker 6: I mean it is explosive audio and what Nick mackenzie
Speaker 6: was saying yes at court yesterday was also very interesting.
Speaker 6: So this is definitely something to be watching very closely
Speaker 6: for the next couple of days and weeks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, louis your thoughts.
Speaker 5: I think if you're going to accuse someone of being
Speaker 5: a war criminal, you have to make sure every facet
Speaker 5: of your house is in order, So very interesting to
Speaker 5: see where this goes from.
Speaker 2: And his testimony, because Nick mackenzie obviously took the stand
Speaker 2: and he made some admissions that in certain situations he
Speaker 2: will act deceptively if he thinks the public interest argument
Speaker 2: is there. But it will be definitely one to watch,
Speaker 2: particularly for us on this show. Well, James Louise, thank
Speaker 2: you so much for the time quick break. When we return,
Speaker 2: Carmala Harris rise from the political grave. Welcome back to
Speaker 2: Stars and Gripes, where we revel in the absurdity of
Speaker 2: US media shenanigans. But big news tonight, Kamala's back rallying
Speaker 2: the resistance against the evil, democratically elected leader of her
Speaker 2: own country.
Speaker 13: Well, friends, that is called a constitutional crisis, and that
Speaker 13: is a crisis that will eventually impact everyone because it
Speaker 13: would mean that the rules that protect our fundamental rights
Speaker 13: and freedoms that ensure each of us has a say
Speaker 13: about how our government works will no longer matter. And
Speaker 13: if that happens, the one check, the one balance, the
Speaker 13: one power that must not fail is the voice of
Speaker 13: the people.
Speaker 2: It was good to see Kamala Harris take a break
Speaker 2: from selling time shares on the Gold Coast, and her
Speaker 2: resurgence appear to send shivers down the spine of the
Speaker 2: Trump administration.
Speaker 13: Just to add on the Kamala Harris point, I think
Speaker 13: I speak for everyone at the White House. We encourage
Speaker 13: Kamala Harris.
Speaker 6: To continue going out and speaking do speaking engagements.
Speaker 2: Well, joining me this week to discuss is the president
Speaker 2: of the Center of the American Experiment, John Heinderek. John,
Speaker 2: thank you so much as always for joining me at
Speaker 2: Kamala's back. They don't seem too perturbed by her resurgence though.
Speaker 3: No, that clip you just showed of Kamala Harris brings
Speaker 3: back a lot of bad memories, doesn't it. She talked
Speaker 3: there about the voice of the people. Well, the voice
Speaker 3: of the people told her, Kamala, it's time for you
Speaker 3: to retire, and we all hope that's what she will do.
Speaker 3: But I will say this, you know, to be fair,
Speaker 3: I think the position that she has in mind to
Speaker 3: run for is governor of California, and she could possibly
Speaker 3: get elected as governor of California in part because all
Speaker 3: of these sensible people have left that state.
Speaker 1: That's a very good point.
Speaker 2: Well, it's very funny for me to say, Kamala there
Speaker 2: because she's actually doing a conference on the Gold Coast
Speaker 2: talking about real estate, which is quite a fool from
Speaker 2: Grace when you're at one point the prospective leader of
Speaker 2: the free world and then you're on, you know, one
Speaker 2: of the mid sized cities in Australia talking to a
Speaker 2: real estate conference.
Speaker 3: I take it she was getting paid for that. You're right,
Speaker 3: it's kind of a cutdown. But one thing she was
Speaker 3: not doing was giving interviews. She doesn't like to give
Speaker 3: interviews to anybody if she can't count on them to
Speaker 3: edit the tape to make her sound a little more coherent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're going to have to send a reporter out anyway,
Speaker 2: whether whether she likes it or not.
Speaker 1: We might be able to get a grab.
Speaker 2: But moving on now to an interesting rare moment on
Speaker 2: television were sixteen minutes host Scott Pelley a tax paramount
Speaker 2: his parent company after the resignation of his boss, Bill Owens.
Speaker 2: The allegations are that paramount was interfering in news coverage
Speaker 2: so that Trump would approve a merger.
Speaker 14: Bill resigned Tuesday. It was hard on him and hard
Speaker 14: on us, but he did it for us, and you
Speaker 14: stories we pursued for fifty seven years are often controversial.
Speaker 14: Lately the Israel Gaza war and the Trump administration. Bill
Speaker 14: made sure they were accurate and fair. He was tough
Speaker 14: that way. But our parent company, Paramount is trying to
Speaker 14: complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it. Paramount
Speaker 14: began to supervise our content in new ways. None of
Speaker 14: our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he launch
Speaker 14: the independence that honest journalism requires.
Speaker 2: Now Pedley can try and act with moral superiority. But
Speaker 2: what they've failed to tell audiences is sixty Minutes adopted
Speaker 2: a Kamala Harris interview in the middle of the campaign
Speaker 2: to try and make her rambling answers look better.
Speaker 13: The work that we do diplomatically with the leadership of
Speaker 13: Israel is an ongoing pursuit around making clear our principles. Well,
Speaker 13: let's start with this on this subject. The aid that
Speaker 13: we have given Israel allowed Israel to defend itself against
Speaker 13: two hundred ballistic missiles.
Speaker 7: That were just.
Speaker 13: Meant to attack the Israelis and the people of Israel.
Speaker 13: And I think that is the most recent example of
Speaker 13: why what we do to assist in their defense around
Speaker 13: military aid is important. And when we think about the
Speaker 13: threat that Hamas Hezbela presents Iran, I think that it
Speaker 13: is without any question are imperative to do what we
Speaker 13: can to allow Israel to defend itself against those kinds
Speaker 13: of attacks. Now, the work that we do diplomatically with
Speaker 13: the leadership of Israel is an ongoing pursuit around making
Speaker 13: clear our principles, which include the need for humanitarian aid,
Speaker 13: the need for this war to end, the need for
Speaker 13: a deal to be done which would release the hostages
Speaker 13: and create a ceasefire.
Speaker 2: Well, John really interesting editing scandal there Karmala's clip and
Speaker 2: the one that went to where initially it was succinct,
Speaker 2: it was sharp, it was on point, it had a
Speaker 2: clear message. The one that actually the conversation actually took
Speaker 2: place with the reporter was rambling. She didn't get to
Speaker 2: the point, and that was one of the biggest criticisms
Speaker 2: against her. So I find it very hard to believe
Speaker 2: that the extra interference is about this conspiracy with Trump's
Speaker 2: going to approve the merger. And it appears to me
Speaker 2: to be more that management is taking a closer look
Speaker 2: at the editorial standards of a program that has triggered
Speaker 2: a twenty million dollar lawsuit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. I mean what Scott Pelley did was
Speaker 3: absolutely shocking. He refers to sixty minutes having a long
Speaker 3: history of being accurate and fair. Sixty minutes has never
Speaker 3: been either accurate or fair. My website got well known
Speaker 3: in two thousand and four when we helped to expose
Speaker 3: the fact that sixty minutes was putting out fake documents
Speaker 3: to try to impugne President George W. Bush's service in
Speaker 3: the Texas Air National Guard. They have a long history
Speaker 3: of propagating fake news on behalf of the Democratic Party,
Speaker 3: and so I agree with you. It's possible that Sherry Redstone,
Speaker 3: who controls Paramount, is concerned about the merger. I don't know,
Speaker 3: but I would say it's at least equally possible that
Speaker 3: she's generally appalled at the low journalistic standards at sixty minutes.
Speaker 2: Moving on now, Donald Trump sat down with ABC News
Speaker 2: this week to feel questions about the global perception of America,
Speaker 2: and it went about as well as you would expect.
Speaker 3: Do you think the reputation in the United States has
Speaker 3: gone down under your presidence?
Speaker 15: No, I think it's gone way up. And I think
Speaker 15: we're a respected country again, we were left at all
Speaker 15: over the world. We had a president that couldn't walk
Speaker 15: up a flight of stairs, couldn't walk down a flight
Speaker 15: of stairs, couldn't walk across the stage without falling. We
Speaker 15: had a president that was grossly incompetent. You knew it.
Speaker 15: I knew it, and everybody knew it, but you guys
Speaker 15: didn't want to write it because you're fake news.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you.
Speaker 15: By the way, ABC is one of the worst.
Speaker 7: I have to be honest.
Speaker 1: Okay, thank you, Josh.
Speaker 2: It's classic Trump, isn't it. I don't know why these
Speaker 2: journalists think if they're going to take a shot at him.
Speaker 1: They seemed patterned.
Speaker 2: They seemed to be taken aback by the fact that
Speaker 2: He's going to attack them personally. Have they not learnt
Speaker 2: their lesson?
Speaker 3: You know, Trump has got to be the most transparent
Speaker 3: president in history. In the first hundred days of his administration,
Speaker 3: he has given more interviews than Joe Biden did in
Speaker 3: four years. And he'll talk to anybody, you know, He'll
Speaker 3: talk to people who have made up fake stories about him.
Speaker 3: He'll talk to people like this guy Moran from ABC News.
Speaker 3: And he takes no grief from them, they ask him
Speaker 3: these unfair questions and he will just push back time
Speaker 3: after time. It's really fun to see, and frankly, it's
Speaker 3: one of the reasons why so many Americans really like Trump.
Speaker 2: It's a good point. And you can see when he
Speaker 2: does these big press conferences as well, that he's fielding
Speaker 2: questions in a way that Biden just wasn't able to
Speaker 2: do because he wasn't sentient in the same way or
Speaker 2: arguably at all. So it is a stark difference to
Speaker 2: the way that Trump is actually able to engage in
Speaker 2: the meet with the media.
Speaker 3: Well, poor Joe Biden. I mean, by the end he
Speaker 3: couldn't even read a teleper and even at the beginning,
Speaker 3: reading a talentprapt was all he was up to. And
Speaker 3: so how the contrast is really really striking.
Speaker 2: John Hundraka, thank you so much for joining me. Really
Speaker 2: appreciate it. We're going to take a quick break, but
Speaker 2: when we return we'll take a look at issues in
Speaker 2: the ABC with Jared Henderson.
Speaker 1: Welcome back.
Speaker 2: Joining me now as he does each and every week,
Speaker 2: is Sky News Australia's media watchdog columnist Jared Henderson. Jared,
Speaker 2: thank you so much for joining me as always, and
Speaker 2: you've got some cracker topics that you've come across, as
Speaker 2: you always provide us the first one Channel seven. Now
Speaker 2: we know it is difficult to get a panel of
Speaker 2: undecided voters, but let's take a look at how seven did.
Speaker 5: Let's head to a living room there political science students
Speaker 5: from Flinders University.
Speaker 7: Pretty strong and clear reaction.
Speaker 9: Have a listen.
Speaker 2: I think Done tells a lot of lies around nuclear energy,
Speaker 2: particularly around who's going to get these jobs. He'd done
Speaker 2: them just lies all the time about housing. Every single
Speaker 2: issue that he identifies with housing has the complete wrong
Speaker 2: meaning behind it. I don't think they've made their mind
Speaker 2: up yet. They seem very objectively undecided.
Speaker 16: You've got to share a share house of political science
Speaker 16: students in Adelaide and they're against dutn't I mean quell surprised.
Speaker 16: Who could have imagined it? And it went on. I
Speaker 16: mean there were four of them. Eventually I picked out
Speaker 16: two of them, but they all agreed with one another.
Speaker 16: Was like a little Marxist sell there, and that's fine.
Speaker 2: There's little mart Sells everywhere, particularly among political scientists. But
Speaker 2: I guess the problem is the media trying to pass
Speaker 2: this off as being oh, well, these are our objective.
Speaker 16: Well passed it off as the view of young Australians. Now,
Speaker 16: some young Australians hold those views, but if you went
Speaker 16: into other places, you'd find young Australians who don't know
Speaker 16: those views.
Speaker 3: And I could.
Speaker 16: Introduce them to some of them if Channel seven were interested,
Speaker 16: and I'm sure you could too.
Speaker 1: It's a bit lazy.
Speaker 2: They could have gone to multiple Marxist cells as well,
Speaker 2: Yes they good. I could have had a divergence of opinions.
Speaker 16: There and some Trotsky guards as well, different views.
Speaker 2: Now, John Lyons, you've been following him very close. Yes,
Speaker 2: he's taken on a big job in the US, so
Speaker 2: I guess he's over there working hard for the taxpace.
Speaker 16: Well, I've been tuning in to getting because he said,
Speaker 16: as you know, he said he was going to translate
Speaker 16: the Trump administration for people like me and you.
Speaker 5: We couldn't work it.
Speaker 1: Out, so silly we need him to say.
Speaker 16: They've sent John Lyons over there, And he was filmed
Speaker 16: in Washington saying he was going to do this, and
Speaker 16: we showed this on the show a month or so ago.
Speaker 16: But then he sort of gone missing, and I inquired
Speaker 16: of the ABC you know what might be the case,
Speaker 16: and they came back and said, no problem, really, and
Speaker 16: then they came back and said, oh, hang on, he's
Speaker 16: back in Australia. So I didn't write about a moment
Speaker 16: he watched. I could have been very courteous, and I
Speaker 16: thought I'd give it another week. And then lomberhold on
Speaker 16: Late Night Live the other night as I caught it
Speaker 16: Late Light Late Night Left on the ABZ with David
Speaker 16: matt Up jumps John Lyons. And he's back in Australia
Speaker 16: flogging his latest book. So there am I and I
Speaker 16: presumably you sort of waiting for a translation about not
Speaker 16: only what's happening with Trump in Washington, but also with
Speaker 16: the Canadians and the Canadian election. Because he's editor North,
Speaker 16: he's the Editor America, so he covers the Americas from
Speaker 16: the north to the south. And I can't get the
Speaker 16: translation because he's back in Auspegia.
Speaker 1: How am I going to know what to think? Now?
Speaker 1: Jared have no idea.
Speaker 2: It's just gibberish. It's a different language if it hasn't
Speaker 2: been translated.
Speaker 1: So there you go.
Speaker 16: So I've been watching it, but I imagine he will
Speaker 16: be flying back there soon once he's launched his book.
Speaker 2: I wonder if he's doing some election stuff here. He's
Speaker 2: a bit of a heavy hitter.
Speaker 16: Well, he's had a couple of things on online for
Speaker 16: the ABC, but nothing on the main programs on the ABC,
Speaker 16: and nothing on the main television or radio.
Speaker 1: Except plugging his book.
Speaker 16: Of course, I accept Late Nightline Marie Men's book which Love,
Speaker 16: which is on Ukraine, it's not on America.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, Also Nicky Sava, she wrote in Holum, I think
Speaker 2: she might have attributed a quote to Donald Trump that
Speaker 2: he probably wishes was his quote.
Speaker 16: Yes, he would, But the quote that she came up
Speaker 16: with is, you know, do you feel you're better off
Speaker 16: now than you were the last election is nearly half
Speaker 16: a century old, and it's a famous quote from Ronald Reagan,
Speaker 16: and it'd shown a lot on television clips are offer
Speaker 16: show and think I saw one recently on Sky News
Speaker 16: the other night. One of the programs had it on.
Speaker 16: So it's very well known. But Nicky Saba, writing in
Speaker 16: the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, says that Trump's
Speaker 16: talking about this, sorry, that Peter Dutton's talking about this,
Speaker 16: and that's because he's into trump Ism. That Peter Dunton
Speaker 16: got it from Trump, but Peter Dutton didn't get it
Speaker 16: from Trump. I mean it's very common. But if he
Speaker 16: got it from anyone, he got it from Ronald Reagan
Speaker 16: in nineteen eighty, which is nearly half a century ago.
Speaker 16: So there's Nicky Sava scribbling away. You know, Dutton's into Trump,
Speaker 16: he's just following trump Ism because he's making this comment
Speaker 16: when in fact it was made by Ronald Reagan when
Speaker 16: Trump was probably middle aged or younger.
Speaker 1: Well doesn't that just show their depth as well?
Speaker 2: But also I think is a mistake on the left
Speaker 2: of the media to attribute anything which is controversial or
Speaker 2: center right to that of Trump. And could it just
Speaker 2: potentially be that people in Australia are not better off
Speaker 2: than they were three years ago and it's an entirely appropriate,
Speaker 2: domestically organic talking point.
Speaker 1: Well that's quite possible.
Speaker 16: And also a metters like people say that Dutton's like
Speaker 16: Trump because of border interest, but Dutton was talking about
Speaker 16: border control before Trump became president.
Speaker 1: I mean the orders was twenty twelve, was it?
Speaker 16: He said the other way around that Trump's following Dutton
Speaker 16: or Duttonism, but of coause no one thinks of that.
Speaker 16: I mean, it's just it's sort of lazy journalism. I mean,
Speaker 16: Dutton is his own person.
Speaker 2: It's lazy boogeyman journal boogyman. It's here as someone who
Speaker 2: is i think statistically not liked in Australia, and that's
Speaker 2: fair enough for whatever reasons. He definitely caused people super
Speaker 2: annuation a bit of a hit, and you can understand
Speaker 2: people are angry, so they latch on that and then
Speaker 2: they connect it to Dutta and they know what they're doing.
Speaker 2: They know very much what they're doing. Dutan is taking
Speaker 2: Trump's playbook. Fortunately it was roll of Reagan's playbook.
Speaker 16: Yeah, and Trump is causing Dutton some problems, that's for sure,
Speaker 16: but it's not because Dutton's imitating Trump. I mean, in
Speaker 16: this instance had nothing to do with Trump. He's just
Speaker 16: got a good line. But Bill Clinton used the same line.
Speaker 16: I mean, there's a very since Ronald Reagan made that
Speaker 16: statement in nineteen eighty many politicians have used it. It's
Speaker 16: a very simple question, are you better off or not?
Speaker 16: I mean it's a very good line, good question, brilliant line.
Speaker 1: And probably how you should vote.
Speaker 2: Funny Jared Henderson Thank you so much, as always, really
Speaker 2: appreciate your insights. That's all we have for this evening,
Speaker 2: but up next is Newsnight.