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Media Watch Dog laments loss of comedy gold after Q+A axing, while Nine praises Niki Savva despite foreshadowing Albanese election defeat
It was 6.29 pm on 19 June that Matt Kean put out this post on X under the byline 'The Hon. Matt Kean @Matt_KeanMP'. Odd, don't you think? After all, the former NSW Liberal Party treasurer is no longer an MP – so how to explain his X username? Rather, his part-time job is chair of the Climate Change Authority, to which he was appointed by the Albanese Government in June 2024. And his full-time position is with Wollemi Capital, a specialist climate investor which advocates that 'the need to advance decarbonisation is most critical and the prospective returns are greatest'. The purpose of your man Kean's post was to draw attention to his article in The Canberra Times on 19 June titled 'National hazards are becoming unnatural risks. Climate is not static, nor should we be'. Now your man Kean has a degree in business – not in science or engineering. His article was that of an eco-catastrophist warning about cyclones, bushfires, floods, rising sea levels and so on. The Climate Change Authority/Wollemi Capital guy eventually got around to saying this: The Australian government can lead on a national adaptation agenda which coordinates and amplifies necessary efforts by all levels of government, businesses and communities. And there are real benefits to taking adaptation seriously. Every dollar invested in reducing climate risks pays for itself 10 times over in reduced recovery costs, according to the CSIRO. It makes sense – and always has – for Australia to adapt to changing weather. But what was missing from Mr Kean's article is a recognition that Australia produces just over one per cent of global emissions and cannot change the world's climate. CAN YOU BEAR IT? As avid Media Watch Dog readers will recall, when former BBC journalist Nick Bryant presented his inaugural ABC Radio National Saturday Extra program on Saturday 25 January 2025 he had this to say: We're committing to bringing you a diversity of voices, some of whom you'll agree with, some of whom you won't, but hopefully all of them will be insightful and make more sense of our world. And we will try to abide by one of the first rules in journalism, never be boring. I hope you'll enjoy the new Saturday Extra . Alas, it hasn't worked out this way. After a promising start, Saturday Extra has become a bit like RN's Late Night Live aka 'Late Night Left'. With occasional exceptions, the left-of-centre Nick Bryant interviews left-of-centre talent. In short, there is an evident lack of viewpoint diversity. Moreover, judging by listener feedback on text and so on – Saturday Extra's audience consists primarily of inner-city leftist luvvies who only want to hear individuals with whom they agree. On Saturday 14 June, this is how the ABC referred to the segment titled 'Trump's militarisation of America' which topped the program. A military parade in Washington this week will mark the 250th anniversary of the US army, and it will coincide with President Trump's 79th birthday. The fanfare follows a week of civil unrest, with President Trump deploying US Marines and the National Guard in Los Angeles, against the wishes of California's Governor Newsom. Are President Trump's moves to send the National Guard into Los Angeles an act of authoritarian overreach or a political winner? Guest: Professor Jason Stanley, Yale University, and author of Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future . Credits: Siobhan Moylan, Producer. Now, MWD believes that Professor Jason Stanley is entitled to be heard on Radio National – and elsewhere. But Comrade Stanley is on record as saying that the United States may become a 'fascist dictatorship'. This is an extremist view – especially for someone who is on record as saying that his grandparents fled Berlin with his father in 1939 – see The Guardian 26 March 2025. With a couple of exceptions, Comrade Bryant essentially fed Comrade Stanley with soft questions – as the transcript demonstrates: Nick Bryant: Now presidents can federalise State National Guard units although it does normally happen with the cooperation of the state governor. The last time it happened without that was 1965, when Lyndon Johnson federalised the National Guard in Alabama to protect civil rights protesters there – in Selma. Presidents can also deploy troops to quell civil unrest in extremis if they invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act . Donald Trump has not invoked that act yet – so has anything he's done so far breached the law or violated the Constitution? Jason Stanley: He has – so you're absolutely right. The facts you've laid out are exactly right. He has not invoked the Insurrection Act, so I'm not clear what legal authority he has to send Marines into Los Angeles. He is always threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act. If he does threaten – invoke the Insurrection Act. Then we have a kind of, Hitler, Nazi Enabling Act, kind of, moment – where – after the Reichstag fire, that's what we authoritarianism scholars have always been looking for that, you know, declared emergency that will allow sort of military power – the president to take military powers. Nick Bryant: Yeah…. What a load of absolute tosh – which Nick Bryant did not challenge. Can you believe that the learned professor saw fit to compare Donald J. Trump using federal power to send the National Guard to protect federal property and federal employees in Los Angeles with Adolf Hitler and the 1933 Reichstag Fire? This was followed by the Enabling Act which, in time, led to the murder of six million Jews. Apart from asking whether you believe this rant – the more relevant question is: Can You Bear It? [No. Not at all. And thanks for asking. I note that in his rant against (alleged) authoritarianism Comrade Stanley described President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln as 'great American presidents'. Stanley did not mention that in his 12 years in office, FDR issued some 3,721 executive orders – that is about 310 per year. Which makes President Trump's tendency to issue executive orders as, well, wimpish. Nor did the learned professor mention that over 100,000 Japanese Americans were interned in the United States following an executive order issued by President Roosevelt in February 1942. Their only 'crime' was that they were of Japanese heritage. Sounds somewhat authoritarian, don't you think? – MWD Editor.] At Hangover Time from Mondays to Fridays, Ellie's (male) co-owner invariably glances at Nine Newspapers' CBD section. Not that it focuses on anything of much importance in the Central Business District of Melbourne or Sydney of interest to, respectively, readers of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald . It's just that he just loves to find out just what is going on in high fee Sydney private schools – which seems something of an obsession with the Sydney end of CBD. This is invariably written by Kishor Napier-Raman (he of what Paul Keating used to call the Hyphenated-Name-Set). Moreover, Stephen Brook (at the Melbourne end of CBD) is a MWD fave from his days at The Australian. But MWD digresses – not for the first time. On Monday 16 June, CBD led with this: The events of May 3 hit Australia like an earthquake and the Coalition is still picking through the rubble of its election disaster for a glimmer of hope. But another earthquake is set to hit the political establishment later this year. We're talking about the publication of a tell-all book on the 2025 poll penned by formidable political commentator Niki Savva, rather appropriately titled Earthquake: Signposts to the election that shook Australia . CBD can reveal Savva has been beavering away on the book, which will be on shelves in late November – just in time to line the Christmas stockings of politicos, hacks, flacks and Insiders tragics across the country. Well, at least the title for Comrade Savva's latest tome is locked in. Unlike 2019 where the book's draft titled 'Highway to Hell: The Coup that Destroyed Malcolm Turnbull and Left the Liberals in Ruins' had to have a new cover. It was retitled Plots and Prayers: Malcolm Turnbull's Demise and Scott Morrison's Ascension . It was drafted, you see, on the assumption that the Coalition would lose the May 2019 election since it had dumped Liberal Party leader Malcolm Turnbull for Scott Morrison. Ms Savva is one of those Canberra media types who believes it is okay for the Liberal Party to govern for a while – provided it is led by someone like Malcolm Turnbull. But not anyone like Tony Abbott or Scott Morrison or Peter Dutton. This despite the fact that Turnbull lost 14 seats in the 2016 election – his first, and only, election as prime minister. From which the Liberal Party has never recovered. These days Comrade Savva writes an occasional column for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald . This is what CBD had to say about this: Savva's regular columns for this masthead have a touch of the seismic about them, sending aftershocks reverberating through the Canberra bubble. Her upcoming book on the election, published by Scribe, which combines those highly prescient columns with a series of new reported chapters, will doubtless be hotly anticipated…. 'I'm doing my best to try and explain why Labor did so well, how they came to do so well, and why the Liberal Party was taken to the brink of extinction,' she said, adding that it was a question many Liberals were also seeking answers to. Well, fancy that. Which leads Ellie's (male) co-owner to wonder whether Comrade Savva will acknowledge that 'why Labor did so well' might turn on the fact that Labor MPs did not take much notice of her 'prescient columns'. MWD has in mind Comrade Savva's oh-so-prescient column of 5 December 2024 where the following comment about Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was made: If Anthony Albanese wins the next election to govern either in majority or minority, he should, after a decent interval, retire so Labor can regenerate. Albanese succeeded brilliantly, certainly beyond his wildest imaginings and that of his friends, to become leader then prime minister. He should count his blessings, then gracefully relinquish the job. This is a benign view. The more drastic, which has been bubbling away inside the wider Labor family, is that he has lost his mojo, his judgment has deserted him and if he can't summon the discipline to shape up, he should ship out before the election to allow someone else to take on a rampant Peter Dutton. How prescient was this advice? On 4 December 2024 Comrade Savva was foreshadowing Prime Minister Albanese's political demise. However, on 3 May 2025 Anthony Albanese led the Labor Party to one of its greatest election victories. And Comrade Savva is presenting herself to CBD readers as a mastermind of the Canberra (Media) Bubble. Can You Bear It? While on the topic of the Sydney Morning Herald, this is how it reported the decision of the Liberal Party's federal executive meeting on 17 June. The executive revamped the membership of its inquiry into the party's NSW branch. It extended the committee's membership from 3 to 7 and dropped two members of the committee. On 18 June Alexandra Smith and Natassia Chrysanthos wrote a story about the meeting which commenced as follows: Federal Liberal Leader Sussan Ley and her NSW counterpart Mark Speakman have secured a major win in determining who will run the beleaguered state party, appointing a new committee headed by former premier Nick Greiner and ending the term of two octogenarian men from Victoria. That was the first paragraph. The 'two octogenarian men from Victoria' were not named until the sixth (Alan Stockdale) and ninth paragraphs (Richard Alston). So, it was in with the youth (Greiner) and out with the 'very old men' (Stockdale and Alston). The only problem here, which the comrades at the SMH failed to pick up, is the respective birth dates. Alston was born in 1941, Stockdale in 1945 and Greiner – wait for it – in 1947. And there is another point here. Do the SMH's editors believe it is clever to run a discourteous 'very old men' heading – in view of the fact that some 'very old men' – and 'very old women' – pay $4.80 each day to purchase a copy of the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper in print form? Can You Bear It? The SMH's 'Very old men ousted from NSW' headline over its story about 'two octogenarian men from Victoria' – May not appeal to readers of a certain age (as the saying goes) On 19 June CNN's Christiane Amanpour was interviewed by Sally Sara on RN Breakfast . Amanpour declared in her The Ex Files podcast on 4 June that she recently travelled to the US 'as if I was going to North Korea'. Ms Sara did not raise this with Ms Amanpour when they spoke on RN Breakfast. Let's go to the transcript: Sally Sara: It's been a deadly 12 months for journalists. Scores of journalists have been killed in Gaza. And we also saw that Iranian state television came under attack. How do you reflect on this time for your profession, and how do you see that attack in Iran?.... Christiane Amanpour: Well, that's correct. Generally, these are civilian targets, whether it's state or not. Many, you know, authoritarian regimes have increasingly tried to kill the messenger. The fact is that the Iranian media is dominated by the Iranian theocracy. It's only a 'messenger' for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. What's more, Amanpour made no reference to civilian victims of Iran's missile attacks on Israel. Can You Bear It? A BRAND NEW CAMPAIGN MWD CALLS FOR THE RETURN OF Q+A WHICH ALWAYS PROVIDED GREAT MATERIAL It is Media Watch Dog's melancholy duty to acknowledge that our various campaigns initiated by the canine Nancy and followed by the canine Jackie have been failures. Total failures. However, as G.K. Chesterton is alleged to have said, anything worth doing is worth doing badly. So MWD is initiating a new campaign this time fronted by canine Ellie. Ellie's (male) co-owner was devastated to read The Diary section in The Australian's 'Media' segment last Monday. Steve Jackson had this to say concerning ABC's decision to junk the Q+A program, effective immediately: Diary hears the show was scrapped because the new double-act running things in at Aunty, chair Kim Williams and managing director 'Hollywood' Hugh Marks, want to put the 'broad' back in broadcasting and ensure the ABC's content appeals to all Australians, not just the inner-city set. Finally! Somebody gets it! Gerard Henderson met former ABC managing director and editor-in-chief David Anderson only once. In 2019. Hendo wished Ando all the very best in reforming the taxpayer funded public broadcaster. But asked him not to do too much reform too soon – since the ABC provided lotsa copy for Media Watch Dog . For instance, how could MWD bang on about the ABC as a Conservative Free Zone if it employed some conservatives? Likewise, how could MWD condemn the ABC as lacking viewpoint diversity if it started to hear the views of other than inner-city leftist types? Hence this campaign – fronted by Ellie. Avid MWD readers are urged to 'Occupy Ultimo! (circa the ABC Headquarters) Restore Q+A !'. The aim of the demonstration is to ensure the return of Q+A – which over the years has provided lotsa material for MWD. What will MWD do without Q+A's left-of-centre presenters, panels stacked with leftists and the occasional appearance of Malcolm Turnbull in a leather jacket? Q+A always welcomed Liberals like Turnbull. That is, current and former Liberal Party members who are into criticising the current Liberal Party. The likes of the late Malcolm Fraser, Malcolm Turnbull and Matt Kean come immediately to mind. And then there were the stacked panels. As MWD reported ad nauseam – an easy way to be part of a Q+A audience at Ultimo was to discard your Che Guevara tee-shirt along with roman sandals in exchange for a shirt and sensible shoes. Then enter the ABC studio posing as a conservative and throw a shoe at panellist John Howard. Bad for the ABC – but great for MWD. So MWD says: 'Occupy Ultimo!. Give the Inner-City Left a (Second) Chance!' and so on. Avid readers are asked to assemble outside the ABC's Ultimo H.Q. at Gin & Tonic Time on the feast day of St Cyril of Alexandria. See you there. [Here's hoping this campaign works. I note that in a previous campaign you failed to get Amy Remeikis a pay increase when she was one of The Guardian Australia's wage slaves. I see that Comrade Remeikis has moved to the avowedly leftist The Australia Institute. It would be great for MWD is she continues as one of the panellists on ABC TV Insiders . – MWD Editor.] Ellie Waiting for Fellow MWD Readers to Join the 'Occupy Ultimo! Restore Q+A!' campaign on the (forthcoming) Feast Day of St Cyril of Alexandria circa Gin & Tonic Time. THE ABC/AUSTRALIA INSTITUTE ENTENTE As Media Watch Dog readers know, this blog has been monitoring the ABC/Guardian Axis and the ABC/Australia Institute Entente. That is, the ready access that journalists from the left-wing The Guardian Australia and political operatives from the avowedly leftist Australia Institute (which is based in the Canberra Bubble) get on the ABC. Meanwhile, political operatives from the conservative Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne, Robert Menzies Institute in Melbourne and the Menzies Centre in Sydney have been de-platformed by the taxpayer funded public broadcaster. [Don't you mean censored? MWD Editor.] THE AUSTRALIA INSTITUTE'S DEPUTY DIRECTOR GETS A SOFT RUN ON ABC TV NEWS BREAKFAST Wasn't it great to see the entente between the taxpayer funded public broadcaster and the avowedly leftist The Australia Institute back in action on Thursday 19 June? It took the form of Ebony Bennett, The Australia Institute's deputy director doing the 'Newspapers' segment on ABC News Breakfast . First up, Comrade Bennett defended the Albanese government's decision to tax unrealised profits from superannuation funds. Let's go to the transcript: Ebony Bennett: And it [the Treasurer's talk] comes, of course, on the back of tax reforms that the Labor government is already trying to implement, including its plans to reduce the generosity of superannuation tax concessions for the very wealthy. For those with super balances over $3,000,000, earnings of $3,000,000. And of course, Australia Institute research shows that those reforms are proving quite popular, with almost twice as many Australians supporting those changes as opposed them. Clever, eh? The Australia Institute's deputy director got in a plug for The Australia Institute. And then Comrade Bennett had this to say about the Middle East, in response to a soft question: James Glenday: One of our top stories, Ebony, unsurprisingly, is of course, what's happening in the Middle East and what is happening in Washington as Donald Trump weighs whether or not he is going to get involved in that conflict and actually bomb Iran. It's a bit of an interesting one because he obviously ran as a president who was gonna get out of Middle East wars and there's a lot of people in his camp are horrified at this idea that he might wade in. Ebony Bennett: Yeah, that's right. So, Donald Trump has warned Iran that he wants an unconditional surrender. And a lot of news reports today and overnight about those tensions within his own administration between essentially MAGA Republicans – people who really support Donald Trump above the party or ideology, who really think it should be Donald Trump staying out of this conflict and not getting America into the middle of another war in the Middle East – who are in direct conflict with, I guess, the more traditional Republicans, the hawkish types who are really encouraging the president to get America engaged in this conflict that Israel began with a pre-emptive strike against Iran and to use some of its massive ordnance, its bunker busters deployed in Iran against its nuclear weapons program. So, who knows where this will end up. But it's a very perilous moment, obviously, for world security and prompting a lot of concerns about the safety of the civilians in Iran. Emma Rebellato: Ebony a question without notice before you go just quickly. We've been talking about how to beat the winter blues. I reckon wearing colour is one way of doing it. How do you do it in Canberra? What a load of absolute tosh. Before Israel attacked Iran on 12 June targeting Iran's nuclear program, the Iranian theocracy had sent hundreds of missiles into Israel aimed randomly at civilian targets. Newsbreak presenter Emma Rebellato did not challenge this assertion. But rather asked Comrade Bennett about whether she chose colourful clothing to cope with the Canberra winter. Really. A NORMAN SWAN MOMENT IN WHICH DOCTOR SWAN TALKS ABOUT PRACTISING MEDICINE IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS Avid Media Watch Dog readers have been asking this question of late – Where's Dr Swan these days? Good question – as the saying goes. Well, this is what the ABC says: Dr Norman Swan is a multi-award-winning producer and broadcaster who created Radio National's long-running Health Report and also co-hosts the popular podcast, What's That Rash? During the pandemic, he co-hosted Coronacast, a daily podcast which at its peak had millions of downloads each month. On ABC Television he is a reporter on 7.30 and a guest reporter on 4 Corners . And then there is more. As a glance at the back issues of Media Watch Dog will reveal, your man Swan made a number of false predictions about Covid during the pandemic of recent memory. Those were the days when, on the taxpayer funded public broadcaster, Swan was commonly referred to as 'Australia's most trusted doctor'. As avid readers will recall, MWD pointed out ad nauseam that he had not practised medicine for, er, decades. It so happened that Ellie's (male) co-owner turned on RN at around Hangover Time on Saturday 14 June – it was 9.06 am in fact – and happened to tune into RN's Health Report which the learned (medical) doctor co-presents with Preeya Alexander – and heard this exchange: Norman Swan: So, Preeya, you know, a long time since I've practised, there was no such thing as Telehealth in those ancient days. Preeya Alexander: Back in the day. Were there telephones? Just joking. This did not surprise MWD – which had been banging on about this since Moses was in short pants. During this time, MWD noticed that the description of your man Swan was undergoing changes. The cover of Swan's 2021 book What's Good for You referred to the author as 'Australia's most trusted doctor'. Likewise in his 2022 tome Live Younger Longer. However, by the publication of his 2024 work What's Good for your Kids , the description of the doctor in the ABC's house had been changed. He was now described as 'one of Australia's most trusted doctors'. And now Dr Norman Swan has told listeners of The Health Report (if listeners there are) that it is 'a long time' since he 'practised' medicine. Well, you learnt this first in MWD due to the (obsessive) reporting of Ellie's (male) co-owner. Verily, A Dr Swan Moment. THE ABC's DR NORMAN SWAN WHO TRANSITIONED FROM AUSTRALIA'S MOST TRUSTED DOCTOR TO ONE OF AUSTRALIA'S MOST TRUSTED DOCTORS – TOLD ABC RN LISTENERS THAT IT IS A LONG TIME SINCE HE'S PRACTISED Photo credit: ABC Online
Sky News AU
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Media Watch Dog: ABC host infantilises Liberal Michael Sukkar with 'what would your mother say' rebuke, SMH's letters page compares Peter Dutton to Judas
It started off badly. And then it got worse – or 'better' – in the saying attributed to Josef Stalin that 'worse is better'. In any event, it has taken Media Watch Dog a week to recover from the occasion. Now Ellie's (male) co-owner regards the British philosopher A.C. (Anthony Clifford) Grayling as a septuagenarian in search of a (Marxist) hairdresser. He is, in English language terminology, a ' Guardian Reader' with orthodox leftist views. And he has an avowed faith in atheism, of the sneering secularist kind. No surprise, then, that A.C. Grayling is on the speakers' list at the forthcoming leftist stack that is the 2025 Sydney Writers' Festival. But MWD digresses, not for the first time. It so happened that your man Grayling was interviewed on the ABC Radio National Saturday Extra program. The date was 12 April 2025 – and Barbara Miller was standing in for the usual presenter Nick Bryant. This is how the Saturday Extra producer foreshadowed the occasion. The rise of social media appears inextricably linked to the fuelling of today's culture wars. People expressing views deemed offensive, dangerous and out of date run the risk of being cancelled. Those who are cancelled meanwhile hit back at so-called 'wokeness' with accusations of censorship. It's the messy politics of the culture wars. Well, that's pretty clear then. Comrade Grayling was expected to run the line that people expressing views with which he disagreed should be cancelled. But those expressing views that he agreed with should be heard. He did this, sort of. But the, er, loquacious philosopher threw the switch to verbosity. Let's go to the transcript: A.C. Grayling: There are two different kinds of cancelling endeavours. One is a protective cancelling. That is where you try to stop people using a position of influence or power which allows them, or has allowed them, to do harm to people. Then there is negative cancelling, or discriminatory cancelling, which is what, of course, historical, has happened to those groups now seeking a fairer place in society. And discriminatory cancelling is the thing that wokeism and political correctness and the civil rights movement in the 60s and so on have been fighting against. The Trump administration pushback against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is a major example of cancellation. Barbara Miller: Let's fast forward to Trump a little bit later. You take a history perspective here and you say that Adam and Eve, for example, were cancelled. Is that where the history of cancelling begins? A.C. Grayling: I mean since there were no Adam and Eve – it's a figurative way of pointing out that history is about cancelling. It's about conflicts and competition of interests…. Let's stop there. A.C. Grayling is all for protective cancelling (i.e. the silencing of his political enemies) but hostile to negative or discriminatory cancelling (since this allegedly favours his ideological comrades). And then Comrade Grayling returned to the ABC's favourite topic. To wit, President Donald J. Trump. Barbara Miller: What does your study of the history of cancel culture tell us about where that current culture war might go – might end? A.C. Grayling: Well, I think and hope at the same time that the general trend of history – if we survive the Trumps and Putins of today – is towards a greater sense of justice in society. A much fairer dissemination of the goods and opportunities that society offers. It's just that if you thought of a situation in which every individual respected fully individual human rights of all other people there would be no discrimination. How about that? Your man A.C. sees President Donald J. Trump as much the same as President Vladimir Putin, the one-time KGB operative who runs what is effectively an elected dictatorship in Moscow and murders his opponents inside and outside Russia. As Dr Grayling (for a doctor he is) spoke to Ms Miller equating Trump to Putin, the president of Russia was directing Russian forces to indiscriminately shell civilians in Ukraine by means of missiles and drones. But Barbara Miller did not contest Grayling's view. Can You Bear It? SARAH FERGUSON ASKS THE 'WHAT WOULD YOUR MOTHER SAY?' QUESTION ABOUT MICHAEL SUKKAR'S INTERJECTIONS – OVERLOOKING THE FACT THAT SHE HERSELF INTERRUPTED HIM ON 16 OCCASIONS A media highlight of the year occurred on ABC TV's 7.30 on April 17 when there was a debate between Housing Minister Clare O'Neil and Shadow Housing Minister Michael Sukkar. Let's go to the transcript: Sarah Ferguson: ..By how much and how many houses will you build? Michael Sukkar: We'll continue Housing Australia, we'll continue the Affordable Housing Bond aggregator, and we'll find ways of just directly funding social – Sarah Ferguson: No one's heard a number from you Michael Sukkar. You say you're going to do it. We know how many houses you've built while you were in government in that area, it was a few thousand. Clare O'Neil: No it wasn't a few thousand. Sorry, Sarah, I will correct the record on that. Sarah Ferguson: Let me just get – I'm going to ask you one more time, and everyone is listening to me ask this question, how many social and affordable houses will you build? Michael Sukkar: Well, we will fund social and affordable housing. Sarah Ferguson: Alright, that's it. You're not answering. Clare O'Neil? Clare O'Neil: You're not getting an answer. You'll get an answer out of me. Michael Sukkar: How many have you built? Sarah Ferguson: Wait a minute, wait a minute. Clare O'Neil: We've got an acute shortage of housing around our country, but particularly in the social and affordable housing space, for those of you at home who are wondering why there is growing homelessness around your suburb and your town, why we have an acute problem with women not being able to leave violent relationships, why we have an extraordinary issue with older women being our biggest growing group going into homelessness. All this comes back to an acute undersupply of social and affordable homes. Now our government has come into office. We are building 55,000 social and affordable homes over five years. 28,000 – Michael Sukkar: Currently being built? Sarah Ferguson: What would your mother say? Hearing you interrupt her? Just – Clare O'Neil: It's okay. I'm unflappable Sarah. I've done, this is my third run at this this week. How about that? Clare O'Neil had spoken some 103 words when Sukkar politely asked whether the number of houses, to which O'Neil referred, were currently being built. And Sarah Ferguson responded in anger: 'What would your mother say? Hearing you [Sukkar] interrupt her [O'Neil]?' Over the Easter Weekend, Ellie's (male) co-owner decided to view the debate again and count the interjections. Here's his report: Sarah Ferguson's interruptions: Of Sukkar: 16 interruptions Of O'Neil: eight interruptions Interruptions of each other: O'Neil interrupted Sukkar: nine interruptions Sukkar interrupted O'Neil: seven interruptions In other words, Sarah ('What would your mother say?') Ferguson was the interrupter-in-chief during the 7.30 debate. But she dressed Michael Sukkar down – despite the fact that he interrupted the least during the debate. Can You Bear It? ALLEGEDLY CASH-STRAPPED ABC FLIES REPORTERS TO ROME TO REPORT ON POPE FRANCIS' DEATH The taxpayer funded public broadcaster's chair Kim Williams AM AB (aka Always Begging) is invariably asking for more taxpayer funds for the ABC. He calls it an 'investment'. Really. In view of this, it might be expected that the ABC would be frugal with expenses. But this appears not to be the case. Media Watch Dog happened to watch ABC TV's News Breakfast on Monday 21 April. Lo and behold, Ellie's (male) co-owner noticed that the Melbourne-based News Breakfast co-presenter Emma Rebellato was in Rome to cover the death of Pope Francis. She happened to be talking to the ABC European correspondent Kathryn Diss at the Holy See. Now MWD just loves it when ABC journalists interview other ABC journalists. But, in view of the fact that the ABC is always crying poor, it seems odd that it should fly a Melbourne-based reporter to talk with a London-based reporter in the Holy City to report the fact that the ailing Pope has died – which was hardly news on the morning of Monday 21 April. Can You Bear It? When in Rome do what the ABC does: Melbourne-based Emma Rebellato discusses Pope Francis' death in the Holy See with London-based Kathryn Diss. SNEERING LEFTIST RICHARD DENNISS GETS FREE KICK FOR THE TEALS/GREENS TEAM ON RN BREAKFAST As Media Watch Dog has reported, there are considerable examples of the ABC giving special coverage to individuals and organisations whose policies are in line with the Teals and the Greens. On Thursday 24 April, ABC Radio National Breakfast (producer Rob Kelly) interviewed Richard Denniss, the executive director of The Australia Institute. Here's how the interview commenced – with Sally Sara in the presenter's chair – with this introduction and first response. Dr Denniss (for a doctor he is) used the occasion to fang the Defence Policy of both the Coalition and Labor – from a sneering leftist perspective, including mock laughter. Let's go to the transcript: Sally Sara: Joining me to discuss these figures and the language being used to sell them, is executive director of The Australia Institute, economist Richard Denniss. Richard, welcome back to Radio National Breakfast. Richard Denniss: Good morning. Sally Sara: Both sides are looking to increase defence spending, at the same time, they're pitching themselves as responsible economic managers looking to reduce debt and deficit. Are all of those things possible at the same time? Richard Denniss: [Laughs] No. I mean, when it comes to defence, we have entirely different rules for economics, it seems…. So there you have it. Comrade Sara did not mention that Comrade Richard Denniss is a committed leftist close to the Teals/Greens ideology. And Comrade Denniss used the occasion to mainly bag the Coalition's defence policy with a side swipe at Labor's policy. All done with occasional mocking laughter of a leftist kind. Can You Bear It? THE NINE NEWSPAPERS' UPDATE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD LETTERS EDITOR FIRES AT PETER DUTTON WITH RANTS, CLICHÉS, HYPERBOLE AND AN EASTER COMPARISON WITH JUDAS There was enormous interest in this segment last week which focused on Letters to the Editor published in Nine's Sydney Morning Herald on 8 April 2025 and 14 April 2025. They were 100 per cent antagonistic to Opposition leader Peter Dutton. Media Watch Dog was not so concerned about the fact that these two editions of the newspapers were hostile to Peter Dutton and the Coalition. After all, Nine Newspapers are written by the left, for the left, and are unlikely to be read by swinging voters. However, MWD focused on the written clichés, low-quality puns and abuse which the Letters Editor saw fit to print. It was much the same on Monday 21 April. Here we go: The heading of the Letters Page was 'The Voice was only ever about politics for Dutton' – and related to a profile by Deborah Snow in Nine Newspapers on 19 April. Gary Stone (of fashionable Springwood) declared that Peter Dutton's opposition to The Voice referendum was 'a political exercise' and added: 'Says it all, really'. Then Bruce Wright (Latham, ACT) commenced his rant as follows: 'One thing I detest about Dutton is….' Enough said. Then Mukul Desai (from fashionable Hunters Hill) declared that 'it seems that the Coalition and its media allies had only one bullet to win the election and that was Trumpism'. Overlooking the fact that Peter Dutton, unlike Donald Trump, is not a high tariff advocate. Your man from Hunters Hill then threw the switch to cliché and wrote that the Opposition leader's 'chickens have come home to roost'. Groan. Then Maurice Critchley (Mangrove Mountain) picked up the cliché movement and referred to Peter Dutton as 'a man who sees life in black and white and is not warm to those who are not in the 'white camp''. A cliché-driven accusation of racism. Then Geoff Nilon (Mascot) suggested that Dutton was a 'pariah' and declared that Dutton's (alleged) attempt to distance himself from Donald Trump is 'reminiscent of Judas' betrayal of Jesus'. Really. The SMH Letters Editor chose to publish this hyperbolic sludge. On Easter Monday, no less. Letters Editor chose to publish this hyperbolic sludge. On Easter Monday, no less. Then Paul Casey (Callala Bay) attempted to score a point against Peter Dutton by quoting from Don Schlitz's song 'The Gambler'. And then Peter Miniutti (Ashbury) commenced his rant as follows: 'Dutton, the Trump wannabe, would do anything from spraying his face orange to sacrificing a chicken if he thought he would win the election.' What a collection of literary sludge. The intellectual level of this abuse posing as letters is woeful. And the SMH claims to be 'Independent. Always.' DOCUMENTATION DAN ILIC RETURNS FOR ANOTHER CRACK AT THE BEGGING BOWL Avid MWD readers may be aware of Dan Ilic. For those who do not recall, Ilic – who self-identifies as an investigative humourist (yes, really) – has had the typical career of an Australian comedian of leftist bent. That is, bouncing around various TV projects, none of which ever attract much of an audience and many of which are paid for by the taxpayer at either the ABC or SBS. Comrade Ilic also has a long history of crowdfunding campaigns, putting out the begging bowl asking members of the public to fund various Coalition-bashing projects. Dan Ilic's It's Not a Race in no comment mode about Climate 200 finance On Monday 21 April it was reported in The Daily Telegraph that one of Ilic's operations, It's Not a Race, received $588,000 from the Teal political operation Climate 200 in the lead up to the 2022 Federal Election. Both Ilic and Climate 200 declined to comment on whether It's Not a Race had received any additional funding for the current election. Ilic later deleted a number of 2022 posts by It's Not a Race after being asked by The Daily Telegraph why they did not feature authorisations. Your man Dan is apparently quite frustrated by having to follow election laws. The current fundraiser for It's Not a Race features a whiny message about having to disclose the names of large donors and not being able to accept foreign donations 'Because the Australian Government doesn't like criticism'. Given his previous employment by Al Jazeera perhaps Comrade Ilic was hoping for a generous donation from the Qatari royal family? Though since he was fired by Al Jazeera for apparently using company equipment to film an audition for The Daily Show, so maybe not. Not content with the largesse received from the Climate 200 donors including multi-millionaire Simon Holmes à Court, Ilic still crowdfunded for It's Not a Race in 2022 (and is doing so again in 2025). By the way, this was all in addition to the $228,171 he raised for his Jokekeeper campaign in 2021. Oh, and the ongoing crowdfunding for his podcast A Rational Fear . Investigative humourism sure is expensive. So, what do donors receive for all this cash funnelled to Ilic and his mates? Well in the case of It's Not a Race the answer seems to mostly be a bunch of memes and short videos posted to moderately successful social media accounts. This seems like the kind of thing a politically motivated public figure could do free of charge during election campaigns. But perhaps the rate of posting would be lower if Ilic had to seek gainful employment to pay the rent. For those confused by the name ' It's Not a Race ', it is a reference to a comment made by Scott Morrison about Australia's vaccine rollout in 2021. Not bothering to update it to a more current political reference is typical of the lack of effort on display in all of Ilic's output. As covered by MWD at the time, his Jokekeeper campaign was not much better. It started with Ilic paying for anti-Coalition billboards to be displayed in New York and Glasgow in the lead up to the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference. This at least attracted a lot of attention to Dan Ilic, who got on CNN to bizarrely proclaim he had forced Scott Morrison into attending the conference. Which allowed him to raise more money for more billboards for the 2022 election. Alas, despite all the money raised, the output by Jokekeeper for the election was a bit pathetic. Ultimately, it devolved into awkwardly-worded roadside signs referencing faecal – and false – rumours about Scott Morrison and leftist fantasies about future climate prosecutors punishing 'politicans' [sic]. Perhaps if he'd just raised another couple of hundred thousand, Ilic could have paid himself to proofread. Dan Ilic's Self-Proclaimed 'Investigative Humour' in Action in a 2022 Billboard Rant Against the Coalition Enter Julia Zemiro The quality of Ilic's efforts has not improved much in 2025. A recent video posted by It's Not a Race featured another leftist comedian (and ABC and SBS stalwart) Julia Zemiro lecturing viewers on the benefits of 'strategic voting'. Here's how Zemiro explained it: Julia Zemiro: If you don't want this man [Peter Dutton] to become Prime Minister, vote 1 for your local Independent candidate. Here's how it works. In your electorate the Labor and Greens candidates may never get enough votes to win. But you're lucky to have a community-backed Independent running, who can win. All we need to do is add enough of that Labor and Greens vote to the Independent vote. Then the Liberals lose a seat in Parliament that Dutton needs to form government, and that's it. By voting strategically, you too can keep Peter Dutton out of power. This is a very strange message to be sending out to voters. This kind of strategic voting can matter a great deal in countries without preferential voting but, in Australia, who you give your first preference to only matters in certain unusual scenarios where more than two candidates have a chance of winning. Specifically, it could come into play in a seat where the Coalition candidate finished first without attaining an absolute majority. And also, where the Teal independent candidate and Labor candidate were competing to finish second after the exclusion of the minor parties. Then whoever finishes in second would move on to the final allocation of preferences against the Coalition candidate, while the candidate who finishes third would be eliminated. If the Teal candidate would receive a stronger preference flow from Labor than the other way around, whoever finishes second could determine whether or not the Coalition wins the seat. Obviously, this is not the case in the vast majority of seats. For instance, the Zemiro video shows someone marking a '1' next to the Independent in Peter Dutton's seat of Dickson. Although Dickson is a marginal seat, it is not one where more than two of the candidates are likely to receive a significant proportion of the vote, instead being a typical Labor vs Coalition seat. Of the seats contested by a Teal at the last election, only the (since abolished) seat of North Sydney featured a somewhat close contest for second place between Labor and the Teal. And as for the mention of The Greens, there is very unlikely to be any three-way Coalition vs Teal vs Greens seats, so their inclusion in the ad is just bizarre. By far the most likely seats where this sort of strategic voting could make sense are the LNP vs Labor vs Greens seats in Brisbane (where there are not even going to be any Teals on the ballot). Will Comrade Ilic's 'Investigative Humourist' career outlast AI? It's Not a Race's other efforts mostly involve juvenile memes. These seem designed more to amuse the kinds of people who donate money to Dan Ilic than to persuade voters in marginal seats. So, it would seem whoever is footing the bill for the 2025 iteration of It's Not a Race is not getting much bang for their buck. However, this has never stopped Dan Ilic before and – MWD looks forward to covering his 2028 crowdfunding campaigns, assuming the made-up job of investigative humourist hasn't been replaced by AI by then. CORRESPONDENCE This overwhelmingly popular segment of Media Watch Dog usually works like this. Someone or other thinks it would be a you-beaut idea to write to Gerard Henderson AC (Always Courteous) about something or other. And Hendo, being a courteous and well-brought-up kind of guy, replies. Then, hey presto, the correspondence is published in MWD – much to the delight of its avid readers. There are occasions, however, when (the late) Jackie's (male) co-owner decides to write a polite note to someone or other – who, in turn, believes that a reply is in order. Publication in MWD invariably follows. There are, alas, some occasions where the well brought up Henderson sends a polite missive – but does not receive the courtesy of a reply. Nevertheless, publication of this one-sided correspondence still takes place. For the record – and in the public interest, of course. All (RELATIVELY) QUIET ON THE JOHN LYONS TRUMP-TRANSLATION FRONT It was not so long ago – 18 March, in fact – that the ABC announced that John Lyons, then its global affairs editor, had been appointed to the position of Editor Americas in Washington DC – in spite of the fact that the taxpayer funded public broadcaster already had three journalists based there. It would seem that Comrade Lyons has replaced Virginia Miller, who returned to Australia from the United States recently. Now here is Ellie's (male) co-owner's essential problem. On 18 March John Lyons told ABC TV Breakfast viewers that 'It's great to be trying to translate the Trump presidency to an Australian audience'. This was open to the interpretation that the ABC trio then in Washington DC could not do this so well as your man Lyons. The appointment of John Lyons to Washington DC implied that he needed to be based there in order to put together his translations of President Trump and his team. But now he is back in Sydney, MWD has had lotsa trouble working out what's going on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. So, Media Watch Dog hopes for Mr Lyons' quick return – since 'translating' the Trump administration from Sydney is not quite the same as doing so from Washington DC. Or so the taxpayer funded public broadcaster appears to believe. Here is Gerard Henderson's correspondence with ABC Communications. Read on s'il vous plait. Gerard Henderson to ABC Communications – 14 April 2025 at 2.32 pm I am wondering what has happened to John Lyons. As you know he was recently appointed as Americas Editor – or some such title – and said that he would be covering US politics for the next three years. However, he has said little since then. I plan to mention this in my Media Watch Dog on Friday. But I do not want to draw attention to this if John is unwell or if there is another reason for his small contribution in covering the big news from the US in recent times. Your response would be appreciated. Cheers Gerard + + + + ABC Communications to Gerard Henderson – 14 April 2025 at 6 pm Hi Gerard. To the contrary, John Lyons has been an integral part of our coverage with reporting and analysis across the website, TV and radio, including being a key driver of our coverage of the Trump tariffs and their impacts on Australia. This is in addition to carrying out his role leading the Washington bureau. He is currently in Australia for a short period and will resume the role in Washington soon. Cheers. + + + + And later the same day at 7.08 pm, there was this. ABC Communications to Gerard Henderson – 14 April 2025 at 7.08 pm Hi again. Just to give you one example, in case it's useful, John's analysis of the Trump-China tariffs was the second most-read story on the ABC website last week, and ABC NEWS is the most-read Australian news website. + + + + To which the following response was sent on 15 April. Gerard Henderson to ABC Communications – 15 April 2025 at 10.30 am Thanks for your prompt response. I always like to check the facts. The problem I had was that the ABC proclaimed that John Lyons had been appointed the ABC's Americas Editor and he said that he was in Washington DC to 'translate' the Trump administration to Australia. However, in recent weeks I have not seen/heard John on such key ABC news/current affairs programs as News Breakfast , 7.30 , AM , PM , etc. And now I find that, after being introduced from Washington on 18 March as the ABC's lead in Washington, John is 'back in Australia for a brief period and will resume the role in Washington soon'. No wonder I was confused. Cheers Gerard + + + + Meanwhile MWD hopes that Comrade Lyons' return to Washington DC will not be long delayed. After all, MWD needs his 'translations' from the US each and every week. * * * * * Until next time. * * * * *
