Speaker 1: Vice is the Media Show, with Jack outing Hello and
Speaker 1: welcome to the Media Show. Tonight we have the fallout
Speaker 1: from the federal election, and later on in the show
Speaker 1: we discuss CNN sitting down with cartel members in a
Speaker 1: wild attempt to humanize them. But first to the hush
Speaker 1: money scandal engulfing the Nine network amid revelations of witness
Speaker 1: and the Ben Roberts Smith defamation case, was paid seven
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars to stop her for publicly accusing Nine
Speaker 1: of having access to the soldier's privileged legal strategy. Now
Speaker 1: Shari Markson, who broke the story, also aired this development
Speaker 1: on Wednesday.
Speaker 2: Nine paid seven hundred thousand dollars hush money to silence
Speaker 2: a witness who threatened to telecot judge that the media
Speaker 2: company had been given unauthorized access to Ben Roberts Smith's
Speaker 2: emails during the war crimes trial. Well, tonight I can
Speaker 2: reveal that reported Nick mackenzie told this Weekness that she
Speaker 2: was causing him anxiety and he said he had to
Speaker 2: cut her off. This is a woman nineclaimed had been
Speaker 2: a victim of domestic violence, and they pressed her to
Speaker 2: testify for them against Robert Smith.
Speaker 1: And Somehow, this gets even stranger when you read Mackenzie's
Speaker 1: letter to the witness.
Speaker 2: In a formal letter that we've obtained, Mackenzie said he
Speaker 2: wasn't trying a victim blame, but said that her trauma
Speaker 2: had caused him anxiety. He wrote, I also want to
Speaker 2: explain why I no longer have contact with you due
Speaker 2: to the deep distress you suffered. You contacted me very
Speaker 2: often for a long time. I saw it as my
Speaker 2: job to try to manage your stress and trauma. It
Speaker 2: was very challenging. There were times I was so worried
Speaker 2: I notified your husband of concerns you might self harm.
Speaker 2: In time, I began to seek help about how to
Speaker 2: manage dealing with a victim survive. I'm not blaming you
Speaker 2: for a moment. I'm just explaining that it began to
Speaker 2: take a significant.
Speaker 3: Toll on me.
Speaker 1: Well, none of this is a great look for Nick McKenzie,
Speaker 1: whose ethics and cavalier methods of dealing with sources have
Speaker 1: been called into question during this sordid saga. Now, working
Speaker 1: a contact and building trust is one thing, but for
Speaker 1: nine to pay her to hide pertinent information is completely unacceptable,
Speaker 1: and this goes far beyond McKenzie because Nine won't answer
Speaker 1: questions on this, and they won't say who authorized the payment,
Speaker 1: whether the board knew, and whether the newly minted Channel
Speaker 1: nine chair Catherine West had personally signed off on the
Speaker 1: extremely large payment. For Nine to dodge questions on this
Speaker 1: is unethical and for an organization which sends people tough
Speaker 1: questions every single day, it is very problematic. Now Channel
Speaker 1: seven had the same thoughts, so they sent cameras to
Speaker 1: ask West in person, which created this damaging scene.
Speaker 4: So far, the chair of the nation's biggest media company,
Speaker 4: Nine Entertainments, Catherine West, continues to dodge the media.
Speaker 5: Did you sign off on the seven hundred thousand hush
Speaker 5: money payments?
Speaker 6: And it's clear now silence is nine strategy.
Speaker 1: Why would anyone respect this organization enough to answer questions
Speaker 1: from them?
Speaker 6: Ever?
Speaker 1: Again, the cowardly chair is completely in over her head
Speaker 1: and nine's large collection of newspapers and TV channels have
Speaker 1: run dead on this story. No mention that we could
Speaker 1: see of the hush money payment, and no coverage of
Speaker 1: an incompetent chair hiding from cameras and refusing to answer
Speaker 1: any questions. Now, keep in mind the City Morning Herald
Speaker 1: and the Age carry the OsO arrogant slogan independent always.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 1: Joining me this week to discuss is managing editor at
Speaker 1: The Australian, Darren Davidson and two Double C host Stephen Senateempo.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me, gentlemen. Well Darren, why don't we
Speaker 1: start with you? Quite an incredible story and Shari Markson
Speaker 1: has done some brilliant, quite ferocious reporting on this Channel
Speaker 1: Nine seems to have an issue with its chairs when
Speaker 1: there's scrutiny, dodging some of those questions, and I know
Speaker 1: your newspaper has had a bit of history with that.
Speaker 7: We certainly have. This is I mean, it's turned into
Speaker 7: Australia's most expensive defamation trial and it's not journalism. It
Speaker 7: looks like it's you know, corporate crisis style management dressed
Speaker 7: up as kind of check book journalism.
Speaker 6: Great story by Shari.
Speaker 7: Well done to Shari for breaking this story. A very
Speaker 7: significant development. It's very embarrassing for nine. As you've said,
Speaker 7: they claim nitorial independence, but this kind of think sort
Speaker 7: of kind of legal interference and you know, allegedly it
Speaker 7: looks like they try to sort of rig this in
Speaker 7: the background somehow, I think The other point I would
Speaker 7: make is you mentioned there that the coverage from Channel
Speaker 7: nine has been a bit muted. I would probably say
Speaker 7: the same about the ABC. They haven't covered this, in
Speaker 7: my opinion, in the way that they probably should, And
Speaker 7: had this been Sky News or News Court, they would
Speaker 7: have been calling for a royal commission by lunchtime. And
Speaker 7: so it's but it's a very different approach when it's
Speaker 7: Channel nine for some reason.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's a good point, Steven.
Speaker 1: Let's bring you in very awkward scenes I think for
Speaker 1: Kaftra and West when she's come out of her house
Speaker 1: and you know, for the record, this is something that
Speaker 1: her network does quite often. So my opinion fairs fair.
Speaker 1: If you're going to be the chair of that organization
Speaker 1: and you've got those kind of current affairs shows doing
Speaker 1: the same sort of thing. It's awfully different when you're
Speaker 1: on the other side of those cameras, though, isn't it.
Speaker 6: Yeah it is.
Speaker 5: Look, I'm on the record of saying I don't like
Speaker 5: this kind of journalism. I don't like the chasing people
Speaker 5: down the street stuff. I don't like it in Channel nine.
Speaker 5: I don't like it when people do to them. But
Speaker 5: you're right, you know if the shoe fits, wear it,
Speaker 5: But this is just a bad look in general. I mean,
Speaker 5: at what point do we get back to the stage
Speaker 5: where journalists tell the story in front of them, not
Speaker 5: the story they want to tell. Now, it's all well
Speaker 5: and good some of us, and I'm one of these people.
Speaker 5: My job is to tell people what I think about
Speaker 5: the news. But if you're going to report news, then
Speaker 5: report it straight down the line. Don't try and create
Speaker 5: a story around something that you've decided has to be
Speaker 5: delivered to the general public. Because that's what this sounds
Speaker 5: like now.
Speaker 6: It's just the way the.
Speaker 5: Media has treated some of our military personnel in recent
Speaker 5: years has been nothing short of appalling. And if Ben
Speaker 5: Robert Smith has done something wrong and has a case
Speaker 5: to answer, so be it.
Speaker 6: But that's to be played out.
Speaker 5: In criminal courts, not in the court of public opinion
Speaker 5: based on what a particular journalist or a particular news
Speaker 5: outlet wants to push as the agenda. And that's what
Speaker 5: really annoys me about this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I guess the other side to it as well, Darren,
Speaker 1: is it's not even just you know, telling one side
Speaker 1: of the story, it's paying someone so that one side
Speaker 1: of the story doesn't surface, and that brings a whole
Speaker 1: other ethical Now, yes, there is the legal implications, because
Speaker 1: I think the court probably would want to know that
Speaker 1: they allegedly had access to, or had the potential to
Speaker 1: access the Ben Roberts Smith legal legally privileged strategy. But
Speaker 1: then to pay someone so that that can't become public,
Speaker 1: that's a whole different game.
Speaker 6: Totally agree.
Speaker 7: It really does stink, and there are some big serious
Speaker 7: questions now that need to be answered by Channel nine.
Speaker 7: I mean, he signed off on that payment, who authorized it,
Speaker 7: and as you said at the beginning of the segment,
Speaker 7: I mean the char of Channel nine, Catherine West, she
Speaker 7: really does need to suffront this up and answer some
Speaker 7: big tough questions on this because the public and the
Speaker 7: Channel nine viewers and the Channel nine newspaper readers and
Speaker 7: subscribers that pay for that newspaper deserve to know completely.
Speaker 1: And it's one of those things it's how could she
Speaker 1: not have known? If she didn't, and if she did know,
Speaker 1: what's the explanation, what is the shareholder obligation there to
Speaker 1: talking about this sort of thing. But moving on now
Speaker 1: to the election fallout, which has become the ultimate Russhack test,
Speaker 1: where so called experts see exactly what they want to
Speaker 1: in the labor win. For labor loyalists, the thirty four
Speaker 1: percent primary was seen as a validation that they had
Speaker 1: won the culture wars.
Speaker 8: And from the oldest continuing civilization on that planet. And
Speaker 8: I acknowledge the traditional owners, and I.
Speaker 9: Acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we make,
Speaker 9: and I pay my respects to elders past, present and
Speaker 9: emerging today.
Speaker 6: And every day and on seven.
Speaker 1: It was Dutton's alleged links to Donald Trump that killed
Speaker 1: his political career.
Speaker 10: Links to Donald Trump cost him not only the federal
Speaker 10: election but his own seat.
Speaker 1: And for some wet blanket and the Liberal Party, the
Speaker 1: fault was with this network labeling us a puritanical litmus test.
Speaker 10: A couple of former colleagues of mine say, you just
Speaker 10: get what's on sky after dark quoted at you at
Speaker 10: branch meetings.
Speaker 6: Why aren't you doing this?
Speaker 10: So and so in certain name of commentator says we're
Speaker 10: not being hardline enough on ABC or D And the
Speaker 10: Liberal Party is going to have to learn that is
Speaker 10: not representative of where the electorate is and following down
Speaker 10: that path will not lead you to will not lead
Speaker 10: the Liberal Party to electoral success.
Speaker 1: Maybe, but I think right now that out network, which
Speaker 1: reaches millions and millions of Australians every single month, is
Speaker 1: a tad more representative of Australia than your dying political party,
Speaker 1: Scott Ryan. And the mistake that Scott Ryan makes is
Speaker 1: a common one. Journalists are not there to sycophantically support
Speaker 1: political parties. I'm proud of the fact that we point
Speaker 1: out policy absurdities within the opposition which made it an
Speaker 1: impotent nothing option to voters. And I'd challenge Ryan or
Speaker 1: any expert to name these so called right wing policies
Speaker 1: that Sky News forced the Liberals to take to the election.
Speaker 6: Mean.
Speaker 1: Was it slightly cheaper petrol is filling up your car
Speaker 1: now an activityological resistance? Was it right wing to propose
Speaker 1: giving a one off, one two hundred dollars tax offset
Speaker 1: to low and middlecome income earners, or was it the
Speaker 1: proposition that Australian should pay a higher personal income tax now?
Speaker 1: None of those headline policies seem inherently conservative or right
Speaker 1: wing to me, and you can see how absurd this
Speaker 1: whole debate has truly become. People see in it what
Speaker 1: they want to see. And it is hilarious that anyone
Speaker 1: at the Liberal Party would blame the media for their
Speaker 1: humiliating loss when this is the sort of advertising they
Speaker 1: were running at the time.
Speaker 6: Please vote for.
Speaker 11: Me, screamed Dame bard Albanesi in a desperate attempt Clutcher
Speaker 11: dub in the last four days of the Fortnite election.
Speaker 11: Despite his best efforts to cap his way to victory,
Speaker 11: the players in the lobby knew his time was for
Speaker 11: the last three seasons of an easy at promised the
Speaker 11: cheaper item shop, but the price for the battle pass
Speaker 11: kept rising and causing many players to crash out. The
Speaker 11: rage continue this album as he hosted a mini event
Speaker 11: on the island where he spent four hundred and fifty
Speaker 11: million taxpayer v bucks on a voice referendum. And now
Speaker 11: with the storm closing in, the choice is clear, a
Speaker 11: capping default or duntan who will clutch up and get
Speaker 11: the dub for ossis.
Speaker 6: Well.
Speaker 1: As I said last week, if you publish that sort
Speaker 1: of garbage, you deserve to lose everything. And it has
Speaker 1: absolutely nothing to do with ideology. Well, Steven, let's bring
Speaker 1: you in here, really interesting debate. I think that's breaking
Speaker 1: out in the media, and I use example of a
Speaker 1: rawshacked test because what I'm seeing is everybody, for their
Speaker 1: own game, is dissecting this loss with the prone spin
Speaker 1: for their own narrative. So the left is looking at
Speaker 1: it through the prism of how the left does, and
Speaker 1: then conservatives are looking at it through that lens. But
Speaker 1: in reality, it was just a poorly run election and
Speaker 1: the advertising was terrible. There's all these other features that
Speaker 1: I think the media is missing.
Speaker 6: What's your take, though, Yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker 5: Well, look, there's a bit to unpack at her that
Speaker 5: the media is no doubt complicit in some of the
Speaker 5: way this election campaign went. But you can only, as
Speaker 5: I was talking about with the Channel nine story, you
Speaker 5: can only report what's in front of you. And when
Speaker 5: you talk about I think we're going to stop using
Speaker 5: the words conservative and progressive altogether because it's pretty clear
Speaker 5: nobody understands what they mean anymore, and particularly people on
Speaker 5: the conservative side who think they're conservative and they're not.
Speaker 5: They're a right lunatics in a lot of cases. But
Speaker 5: the reality is that what went wrong here was the
Speaker 5: Liberal Party didn't have a platform and they didn't prosecute
Speaker 5: what little platform they did have. And then when the
Speaker 5: Labor Party came out and used a scare campaigneries of lies,
Speaker 5: they didn't call them out. And speaking of blaming the media, here,
Speaker 5: I saw David Little proud do that saying, well, why
Speaker 5: aren't you calling out the lies? And my question is
Speaker 5: why aren't you calling out the lies? You know, at
Speaker 5: some point somebody's got to take responsibility for their own actions,
Speaker 5: and whether that's us in the media or the politicians themselves,
Speaker 5: we're all responsible for our own actions. So look, it's
Speaker 5: a very very big problem. Yes, the media is part
Speaker 5: of the problem. Yes, some people on Sky are part
Speaker 5: of the problem. I'm happy to admit that too. But
Speaker 5: at the end of the day, as you say, and look,
Speaker 5: and I don't buy into the liberal parties dying. I
Speaker 5: think the pendulum will swing back the other way because
Speaker 5: Labor only got thirty four percent of the primary vote.
Speaker 5: And I was only looking at the seat count earlier
Speaker 5: this morning, and there's probably twenty six seats that are
Speaker 5: in striking distance at the next election. Now that's not
Speaker 5: enough to get the coalition back into power, but it's
Speaker 5: going to make it a very very different situation. But
Speaker 5: we need to start calling out talking about facts rather
Speaker 5: than just trying to push our own, whether they're ideological, philosophical,
Speaker 5: or per and the legenders, because that's what's happened all
Speaker 5: the way through this campaign, not only from media commentators
Speaker 5: but also from the politicians themselves about how bad they
Speaker 5: handled their own part of the problem.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, I guess when I say that it's dying,
Speaker 1: I'm saying it's dead for three to six years, and
Speaker 1: it is dead. They can't do anything, they can't block anything.
Speaker 1: They're going to have to rethink their policy platform.
Speaker 6: Darren.
Speaker 1: One of the points that I find it hilarious, you know,
Speaker 1: the likes of you know, Amy Ramikus, who's now kind
Speaker 1: of a lobbyist in her own way writing for the
Speaker 1: new Daily blaming Sky News. I'm struggling to figure out
Speaker 1: what these evil right wing policies are that Dutton took
Speaker 1: to the election.
Speaker 6: I can't think of one.
Speaker 1: I can maybe see some credence in nuclear but if
Speaker 1: you look globally, that doesn't seem to be an ideological issue.
Speaker 1: It just seems to be a mechanical and engineering issue.
Speaker 1: Can you think of anything that these journalists are correct
Speaker 1: in that it was this left v right contest.
Speaker 7: No, look, I agree with what you've said there. I
Speaker 7: sort of slightly agree with disagree with Steve and I
Speaker 7: you didn't come up with those rubbish policies around tax
Speaker 7: and fuel that the Liberals were running that failed to
Speaker 7: gain any traction. I think Stephen is right about the seats.
Speaker 7: I mean they were helped by the Greens as well
Speaker 7: and the collapse of that party Labor. I think the
Speaker 7: Trump factor is massively overstated. Personally, I think the Liberals
Speaker 7: campaign was badly conceived, badly executed. I don't think Labour
Speaker 7: did win the culture War. I think the Liberals just
Speaker 7: failed to kind of contest it with any real conviction
Speaker 7: and stay true to their values and the broad Church.
Speaker 7: As Paul Kelly wrote in The Australian this week, brilliant
Speaker 7: piece and brilliant video as well, if if you've got
Speaker 7: a moment to watch that. I think he summed it
Speaker 7: up quite well and ultimately Labor didn't you know, their
Speaker 7: campaign was scarcely brilliant and Alberniz he has hardly got
Speaker 7: the charisma of Bob Porp, So you know, I think
Speaker 7: there's a lot of post Wartem stuff going on here.
Speaker 7: That's not quite right, but I certainly don't believe that
Speaker 7: made the media is to blame. It's funny how it's
Speaker 7: you know, the failing MPs always blame the media and
Speaker 7: not themselves, and I think pine Lange media did pretty
Speaker 7: good job of covering what was a challenging election and
Speaker 7: at times a slightly uninspired election as well.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well hang on, can I got to cut in
Speaker 5: there because I mean we saw, you know, questions asked
Speaker 5: of the Prime Minister about his football team, about it,
Speaker 5: you know, whether or how much Veggie might he puts
Speaker 5: on his toast, these kind of things. The media is
Speaker 5: complicit in that when there were fair income questions that
Speaker 5: needed to be asked, there was a lot of very
Speaker 5: very soft press conferences that the Prime Minister got to
Speaker 5: stand in front of. Peter Dutton didn't get that same opportunity.
Speaker 5: So in that case, we do need to we need
Speaker 5: to take a look at a hard look at ourselves
Speaker 5: for not calling out a lot of this stuff when
Speaker 5: it happened.
Speaker 1: Stephen Darren, thank you so much for your time and
Speaker 1: your insights. I really appreciate it. We're going to take
Speaker 1: a quick break, but up next, Bernie Sanders defends his
Speaker 1: use of a private jet to campaign against the rich
Speaker 1: and see and then sits down with the Mexican cartel
Speaker 1: in a wild interview. Welcome to Stars and Gripes, and
Speaker 1: Joe Biden is back in the media, this time sitting
Speaker 1: down with the BBC to remind the world just how
Speaker 1: successful he was.
Speaker 12: Did you leave it too late? Should you have withdrawn earlier?
Speaker 12: Given someone else a big a job?
Speaker 13: I don't think it would have mattered and become so
Speaker 13: successful our agenda. It was hard to say now I'm
Speaker 13: going to stop now. Things move so quickly that it
Speaker 13: made it difficult to walk away ticket. And it was a.
Speaker 12: It was a hard decision, but regrets.
Speaker 13: No.
Speaker 12: I think it was the right decision. I think that
Speaker 12: the well, it was just a difficult decision.
Speaker 1: Biden struggled in this interview, but I genuinely believe he
Speaker 1: thinks the campaign was going well up until that infamous debate.
Speaker 1: That's because journalists and his own team told him it
Speaker 1: was going well. There was a collective lie being told,
Speaker 1: and it didn't disappear until these journalists realized it was
Speaker 1: no longer advantageous to lie, and that must really have
Speaker 1: confused Biden. When the entire machine turned on him overnight. Well,
Speaker 1: joining me now for more on this is author and
Speaker 1: commentator Shamika. Michelle Shamika, thank you so much for joining
Speaker 1: me for your first time on this show. Really interesting
Speaker 1: interview with the BBC, and obviously we saw the same
Speaker 1: hallmarks of a Joe Biden who was a bit sluggish
Speaker 1: and not quite there. But as we played in that clip,
Speaker 1: the thing that was really interesting was that he seemed
Speaker 1: to think everything was going well up until it wasn't.
Speaker 14: Yes, it was hilarious, by the way, thanks for having
Speaker 14: me on. I thought it was hilarious when he said
Speaker 14: it was hard to walk away. Well, we know it
Speaker 14: was hard for him to walk away because we saw
Speaker 14: how much he fell. You know, I think that Joe
Speaker 14: Biden should really just take this time out to retire.
Speaker 14: The fact that he actually believes things were going well
Speaker 14: at any point just shows us that he's not quite
Speaker 14: with us.
Speaker 3: He's not completely.
Speaker 14: There, and it's really sad that they're continuing to put
Speaker 14: him in front of the camera. Listen, He's served his time.
Speaker 14: He was in political office for decades. It's time for
Speaker 14: him to just rest and relax and stop having to
Speaker 14: go through the daily grind of being the so called,
Speaker 14: you know, former president. It's time for Joe to relax
Speaker 14: because this isn't looking good. A lot of us here
Speaker 14: believe that his wife is behind all of this, doctor
Speaker 14: Gill Biden, and she constantly keeps putting him in front
Speaker 14: of the camera.
Speaker 3: It is not a good look.
Speaker 14: And we saw exactly what happened on the stage when
Speaker 14: he had to debate Trump, and they could no longer
Speaker 14: hide it anymore. They continue to try and lie to
Speaker 14: the American people until they just couldn't lie.
Speaker 6: Anymore, well said.
Speaker 1: Moving on Champagne, socialist Bernie Sanders has given an awkward
Speaker 1: interview to Fox News. Now he's doing this stunt called
Speaker 1: fighting Oligaky, which is essentially him flying around America on
Speaker 1: a private jet to protest to the rich and what
Speaker 1: he calls the corporate oligaky.
Speaker 15: Whence the last time you saw Donald Trump during a
Speaker 15: campaign mode at National Airport?
Speaker 6: No, no, no, it doesn't. But he's also not fighting
Speaker 6: the oligarchy.
Speaker 16: No.
Speaker 15: And you run a campaign and you do three or
Speaker 15: four or five rallies in a week, the only way
Speaker 15: you can go around to talk to thirty thousand people,
Speaker 15: think I'm going to be sitting on a wedding line
Speaker 15: at United waiting. You know what, thirty thousand people are waiting.
Speaker 15: That's the only way you can get around. No apologies
Speaker 15: for that. That's what campaign travel is about. We've done
Speaker 15: it in the past, We're going to do it in
Speaker 15: the future.
Speaker 1: So Bernie, man of the People, thinks he is too
Speaker 1: special to sit in line at an airport. Now he
Speaker 1: says this with a straight face. Now this stuff isn't cheap.
Speaker 1: And don't even get me started on the climate change
Speaker 1: talking points these people spew when they're willing to do this.
Speaker 1: But in the first quarter of the year, Bernie's campaign
Speaker 1: spent more than two hundred and twenty one thousand dollars
Speaker 1: on private jet travel. Let's bring Shamikha back in. Now,
Speaker 1: this is I mean that figure, two hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: one thousand dollars for somebody who's taking on the oligarchy
Speaker 1: and the rich and the you know, the whatever he
Speaker 1: wants to call his kind of propaganda tour. The thing
Speaker 1: that was really telling for me in that in that
Speaker 1: interview was that he just sees it so beneath him
Speaker 1: to travel domestically, to travel the normal way that everyone
Speaker 1: else has to travel. He just scenes that's so far
Speaker 1: beneath him from a class perspective.
Speaker 14: Yeah, it's clear that the only person Bernie Sanders has
Speaker 14: ever lifted out of poverty was himself spending that.
Speaker 3: Type of money. And we're only in May.
Speaker 14: That is absolutely ridiculous, And it's He's funny to me
Speaker 14: because he reminds me. I'm not sure if you're familiar
Speaker 14: with the Muppet Show, but he reminds me of the
Speaker 14: characters Statler and Waldorf. It's like they come to life,
Speaker 14: and we're so over Bernie Sanders. He's another one that
Speaker 14: it's time for him to retire. I don't understand why
Speaker 14: these people stay in position until they absolutely just can't
Speaker 14: do any other thing.
Speaker 3: He's another one that.
Speaker 14: Needs to just clock out and go enjoy his retirement.
Speaker 1: I love Howard's defense is, well, Donald Trump did it,
Speaker 1: so therefore be able to do it, which seems like
Speaker 1: that should be against his whole talking point. But moving on,
Speaker 1: MSNBC is regularly featured on this program for some of
Speaker 1: the ridiculous content that it puts to air, but this
Speaker 1: week they broadcast an absolute shoka.
Speaker 6: What do you make of that?
Speaker 17: That he's just been a little less visible than I
Speaker 17: think a lot of people Trump observers expected he would be.
Speaker 11: Yeah.
Speaker 18: Well, reportedly he's been visible at nightclubs far more than
Speaker 18: he has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover Building,
Speaker 18: and there are reports that daily briefings to him have
Speaker 18: been changed from every day to maybe twice weekly.
Speaker 17: Frankfurt Glusey was on that morning during this hour discussing
Speaker 17: the work of administration officials.
Speaker 6: At the end of that.
Speaker 17: Segment, for Glucy said that FBI Director Cash Bettel has
Speaker 17: reportedly been more visible at nightclubs than at his office
Speaker 17: at FBI headquarters.
Speaker 6: This was a misstatement. We have not verified that claim.
Speaker 6: We will be right back.
Speaker 1: Well, the slur by former FBIS system director should have
Speaker 1: been pushed back on hard immediately, and in my opinion,
Speaker 1: the vague disclaim a backstep after the fact was insufficient
Speaker 1: when you have no evidence to back up the assertion. Now, Schmikh,
Speaker 1: let's get your opinion on this, because yes, television is
Speaker 1: particularly live television.
Speaker 6: It's fast and you're moving quickly.
Speaker 1: But I feel the most networks if there was an
Speaker 1: allegation that basically somebody's a drunk at a nightclub and
Speaker 1: they're not rocking up to work. And that person is
Speaker 1: the FBI, the head of the FBI. You would think
Speaker 1: that a journalist would challenge that, but at MSNBC, they
Speaker 1: just they let these people just go on with these slurs.
Speaker 14: This is why Trump referred to them as ms DNC
Speaker 14: because we know that they only work for the Democrat.
Speaker 14: This is what they do, and they get on TV
Speaker 14: every chance they get and just tell things that are
Speaker 14: not true, and we will never see them push back.
Speaker 3: And of course it's always easier.
Speaker 14: To come back and say, oh, you know, this wasn't
Speaker 14: true or this wasn't verified, because the lie has already.
Speaker 3: Gotten out there and people are running with it.
Speaker 14: They're not going to come back to say, oh, let's
Speaker 14: see if ms d n C retracted their statement.
Speaker 3: That just usually doesn't happen.
Speaker 14: But this, this is who they are, this is the network.
Speaker 1: Well, moving on, because there was an extraordinary moment of
Speaker 1: television which went to air on CNN, which is being
Speaker 1: described as an attempt to humanize the cartel.
Speaker 16: According to the Trump administration, you are a terrorist. The
Speaker 16: cartils have been labeled foreign terrorist organization.
Speaker 12: What do you make of that.
Speaker 16: What's your message to Donald Trump if he's watching.
Speaker 6: This, sais coming, Shamika.
Speaker 1: Everybody is always thinking about these families ravaged by drugs,
Speaker 1: but no one is thinking about the poor cartel members.
Speaker 1: No one's thinking that they too have to wait. It's
Speaker 1: seeing an entre winner here.
Speaker 14: This was the wildest thing I have ever seen. I
Speaker 14: can't believe that someone would want to own Trump so
Speaker 14: bad that they would stoop to such low levels.
Speaker 3: I was actually shocked. Even for CNN.
Speaker 14: This was really bad television and I'm appalled and.
Speaker 3: I can't believe this. This is where we are that.
Speaker 14: People hate Trump so much that they would do something
Speaker 14: like this to to try and bring empathy or sympathy
Speaker 14: for a drug cartel.
Speaker 3: This is low even for CNN.
Speaker 1: Yeah, really weird stuff now, Shamikha Michelle, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining us.
Speaker 6: Really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: We're going to take a quick break, but when we return,
Speaker 1: we speak to Jared Henderson about some new appointments the ABC.
Speaker 1: Welcome back and joining me as he does each and
Speaker 1: every week as Sky News Australia's media watchdog columnists. Jared Henderson, Jared,
Speaker 1: thank you so much, pleasure joining us. Now there's been
Speaker 1: some developments at the ABC and there's been some high
Speaker 1: profile movements.
Speaker 6: Tell me a little bit about Laura Tingle.
Speaker 19: Well, Laura Tingle announced the other day that she's stepping
Speaker 19: down from their role at seven thirty. And she did
Speaker 19: become Global Affairs Editor, which is a terrific job because
Speaker 19: you can travel large parts of the world. She won't
Speaker 19: be overseas all the time. She'll be ABC's a fair
Speaker 19: bit of the time. Great perks, big a big job.
Speaker 19: But in a sense, I mean, has she earned it.
Speaker 19: I mean, it's not so long ago that she was
Speaker 19: counseled by ABC management for calling Australia racist country. She's
Speaker 19: on record as having said that the Coalition government under
Speaker 19: Scott Morrison was into ideological bastardree. So if you behave
Speaker 19: unprofessionally and she's also on the ABC board, but if
Speaker 19: you behave unprofessionally like that and you get canceled, you
Speaker 19: get a big promotion.
Speaker 6: I forgot that she was also on the board, but.
Speaker 19: Also with John Lyon to see because he was criticized
Speaker 19: by a former ABC board member for his for his
Speaker 19: reporting on Israel and his hostility to part large parts
Speaker 19: of the Jewish community in Australia, So what happened. He
Speaker 19: was then Global Affairs editor, but they probably wanted to
Speaker 19: get him away from Israel, so then he went off
Speaker 19: to Washington as Editor Americas. So the two very senior
Speaker 19: journalists at the ABC who have been causing management problems
Speaker 19: have got substantial promotions and great gigs overseas for a
Speaker 19: large part of the year.
Speaker 1: And I just kind of help but think that surely
Speaker 1: has to be somebody that's better qualified than somebody that
Speaker 1: was reprimanded only twelve months ago.
Speaker 19: And there are a lot of young people who give
Speaker 19: a go to as well. I mean, Laura Ting's been
Speaker 19: around for a long time. John Lyons has been around
Speaker 19: for a long time. The ABC's always banging on about
Speaker 19: giving young people to go even in comedy, for example,
Speaker 19: but they never do. I mean some of their comedians
Speaker 19: are sort of sort of heading towards Methusel's age, you know.
Speaker 19: I mean, I shouldn't talk, but then I'm not employed
Speaker 19: by the ABC, you see.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think they would be considering us for
Speaker 1: the role. Now you've got another one for us. Sarah
Speaker 1: ferguson interviewing just into Nepuchin for price. Now let's have
Speaker 1: a listen to the grab.
Speaker 20: Peter Dutton tonight has lost his seat with your embrace
Speaker 20: of Donald Trump make Australia great again. Are you part
Speaker 20: of the reason for that loss?
Speaker 16: Oh that's a big call, don't you think. I mean,
Speaker 16: you sling enough mud in an election, it sticks. And
Speaker 16: we did see a prime minister who absolutely misled the
Speaker 16: Australian people all the way through and was rarely called
Speaker 16: out for his conduct. And I think that's absolutely deceitful.
Speaker 20: Let's just talk about this. Let's just talk about this seriously.
Speaker 20: At a time when Donald Trump was sending shop.
Speaker 16: I'm around your worst seriously you.
Speaker 20: Well, it's not a smear campaign. I just want I
Speaker 20: want you to address him seriously, dissenter at the time
Speaker 20: that Donald Trump was sending shock waves around the world disturbing,
Speaker 20: so disturbing.
Speaker 16: Don't think if you don't think that I'm if you
Speaker 16: don't think that I'm addressing this seriously, I am addressing
Speaker 16: this deadly seriously.
Speaker 6: Now that is extraordinary.
Speaker 19: Well, when Michael Suker was on and we discussed it
Speaker 19: here with Sarah Ferguson, she said to him, when you
Speaker 19: did one interjection to Clara O'Neil. She said to him,
Speaker 19: what would your mother say? So you wonder looking at that,
Speaker 19: The first thing I thought was what would Sarah Ferguson's
Speaker 19: late mother say? I mean, what what what would she says?
Speaker 19: But so there's one test. I mean, there's a mother
Speaker 19: test for someone that you don't particularly like, like Michael Suka.
Speaker 19: And there's another, but it doesn't apply with disinenterprises.
Speaker 6: Dog get anger to it as well.
Speaker 1: And I think you can have a disagreement and have it,
Speaker 1: you know, professionally, and be courtious with it. But she's
Speaker 1: really no, you answer this story. I mean she is answering,
Speaker 1: just not in the exact way that Sarah Ferguson wants it.
Speaker 19: And what she's saying, which is the Senator Price picked
Speaker 19: it up. What she's saying is the Senator Price isn't serious. Now,
Speaker 19: whatever you say about Senator Price, she's certainly serious. But
Speaker 19: to Sarah Ferguson, because she doesn't agree with her, therefore
Speaker 19: she can't be serious. So she interrupts her and tell it,
Speaker 19: tells her to get serious.
Speaker 1: I mean, really, they're also the editorial assertions. They're observations
Speaker 1: that Sarah's making she's not reporting or having a conversation.
Speaker 1: She is asserting to her, and she's not asserting to
Speaker 1: her with the hypothetical of someone else's perspective. She stated
Speaker 1: that she was pro Donald Trump and then asked her
Speaker 1: to explain why that had cost the coalition the election.
Speaker 19: And there's no evidence that it did. I mean, the
Speaker 19: many other factors. But even today on ABC online, they're
Speaker 19: calling Senator Price for Us a firebrand. Now that's an opinion.
Speaker 19: There's not a fact. She has a title, she's a senator,
Speaker 19: she has a first name and a second name. They
Speaker 19: call her a firebrand. You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well that's incredibly inappropriate as well, and that is
Speaker 1: going to hurt the ABC if they don't.
Speaker 6: Fix that sort. So I have to fix it.
Speaker 1: That's something that chu Mars is going to have to
Speaker 1: come in there and look at and say that it's
Speaker 1: not a professional way to conduct it. Now, David mar
Speaker 1: calls a younger man rather aged.
Speaker 6: Should we have a listen to this.
Speaker 4: Grace, Well, they do tend to be white men, and
Speaker 4: they do tend to be rather aged, but some of
Speaker 4: them can write terrific rhetoric. Laura, and you mustn't you
Speaker 4: mustn't disparage them for that. I mean, there was Alexander
Speaker 4: Dhana condemning the fantasy of changing the weather.
Speaker 19: Unpacked this one for me, Jared Well, David Marr's four
Speaker 19: years older than Alexander Downer. There's David Maher, with the
Speaker 19: support of Laura Tingle, worrying about people who are rather
Speaker 19: aged on his program I reckon The average age on
Speaker 19: that program that night among Laura Tingle, Nicki Saba, David Mara.
Speaker 19: It was a sort of a left wing hangout group
Speaker 19: and Nola Green with each other. The average age was
Speaker 19: seventy four. But we don't actually know Nikki Saba's age
Speaker 19: because it's apparently is a state secret. But I first
Speaker 19: met her in Parliament House in January nineteen seventy six,
Speaker 19: which would give you some idea. She was a journalist then,
Speaker 19: so she's not particularly young. So there's David mah banging
Speaker 19: on about people at a certain age and suggesting a
Speaker 19: negative way, in a negative way, and sort of laughing
Speaker 19: the saying that talking about climate change in a negative
Speaker 19: way to Darner, But he didn't sort of notice that
Speaker 19: he's older than him.
Speaker 1: Perhaps he's only as old as he feels.
Speaker 19: Well, our money as old as I feel, and I
Speaker 19: feel one hundred and seventeen.
Speaker 7: So there you go.
Speaker 6: Well I think we all are now.
Speaker 1: Jared Henderson, thank you so much, really appreciate it as always.
Speaker 1: Now that's all the time we have for this evening,
Speaker 1: but up next is Newsnight.