Category Archives: Nine Entertainment

Tracy Grimshaw to depart A Current Affair after 17 years as host

Posted on by

Grimshaw says decision is hers alone and she’s ‘not being shoved out the door by the boys club because I’m too old’

After 17 years in a prime time spot and 40 years on television, Tracy Grimshaw will step down from hosting Nine’s A Current Affair in November.

Grimshaw broke the news live on the program, telling viewers it was her decision to quit and to ignore the gossip magazines if they “start telling you rubbish”.

Continue reading...

Nine publisher says he was not contacted by Peter Costello over Nine’s Crown coverage

Posted on by

James Chessell sends email to staff after both he and the Nine chairman were the subject of an email attack by James Packer

The Sydney Morning Herald and the Age’s publisher,James Chessell, has told staff at the Nine newspapers that he was not contacted by the Nine chairman, Peter Costello, in relation to the group’s award-winning coverage of money laundering at Crown casino.

“I never heard a word from Peter Costello about Crown Unmasked before, during or after publication/broadcast,” Chessell said in an email to staff on Monday morning, after both he and the Nine chairman were the subject of an email attack by billionaire James Packer.

Continue reading...

Whoopi Goldberg joins international backlash over Sydney Morning Herald’s treatment of Rebel Wilson

Posted on by

Editor Bevan Shields has now accepted full responsibility for the paper’s coverage and apologised for the delay in acknowledging mistakes were made

The international backlash against the Sydney Morning Herald over its reporting of Rebel Wilson’s new relationship with fashion designer Ramona Agruma has intensified, with celebrities including Whoopi Goldberg now criticising the masthead.

Columnist Andrew Hornery and Herald editor Bevan Shields have this week apologised after Wilson was given a two-day deadline to respond to plans to write about the relationship.

Continue reading...

‘Our reputation is trashed’: anonymous staffer criticises SMH management over Rebel Wilson coverage

Posted on by

Email sent to all reporters states ‘our newsroom has become the story’ but editor Bevan Shields insists ‘we are a great masthead’

Anger about the Sydney Morning Herald’s reporting of Rebel Wilson’s new relationship has boiled over into the newsroom, with an anonymous staffer sending an email to colleagues claiming the paper’s reputation was being “trashed”.

“Here we are again – our newsroom has become the story,” the email sent on Monday afternoon stated. It referenced a February controversy when the editor, Bevan Shields, wrongly insisted a train network shutdown ordered by the state government was a strike.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Rebel Wilson: Sydney Morning Herald removes column and apologises over reporting of actor’s new relationship

Posted on by

SMH columnist admits mistakes after complaining about being gazumped on story about Wilson’s new girlfriend Ramona Agruma

Sydney Morning Herald columnist Andrew Hornery has admitted he made mistakes in his approach to Australian actor Rebel Wilson’s new relationship, her first with a woman.

After complaining on Saturday about being gazumped on a story about Wilson’s new partner, Ramona Agruma, Hornery has written a new column apologising for his reaction and saying he will take a different approach from now on. Saturday’s column has been removed and replaced with the new one.

Continue reading...

Nine airs 60 minutes investigation that Sydney cosmetic surgeon tried to block in court

Posted on by

NSW supreme court dismisses Dr Joseph Ajaka’s application to force Nine Entertainment to hand over draft story by journalist Adele Ferguson

Nine has broadcast its 60 Minutes investigation into a prominent cosmetic surgeon on Thursday night after Dr Joseph Ajaka lost his second legal attempt to have the program hand over draft copies before it aired.

The New South Wales supreme court dismissed a second application from Ajaka for Nine Entertainment to hand over copies of its investigation by the award-winning journalist Adele Ferguson.

Continue reading...

Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial: witness expected to deny wrongdoing in killing of Afghan villager

Posted on by

Person 11 to give evidence on allegation by newspapers that Roberts-Smith kicked handcuffed man off cliff before ordering him shot

An Australian soldier alleged by three newspapers to have participated with Ben Roberts-Smith in the “joint criminal enterprise” of murdering an Afghan villager named Ali Jan is set to appear in the federal court this week as a witness for Roberts-Smith in his defamation action against the newspapers.

Anonymised before the court as Person 11, the SAS’s soldier evidence will be critical to Roberts-Smith’s case over the events in the village of Darwan on 11 September 2012, when Roberts-Smith is alleged, by the newspapers in their defence, to have kicked a handcuffed Ali Jan off a cliff before ordering him shot.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Seven paid legal fees for witness in Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial until arrangement was revealed in court

Posted on by

Request for reimbursement from Kerry Stokes’s private company not made until after court told of network’s legal financing

The Seven Network was paying the legal fees of several SAS witnesses for Ben Roberts-Smith in his defamation trial until one of them revealed the payments in the federal court, contradicting Seven’s claim last week that the former soldier’s evidence about the source of the payments was “not correct”.

When the former SAS soldier, known as Person 5, told the court last week that his solicitor and barrister are being paid for by Seven, the network said another arm of the empire owned by Seven West Media chair, Kerry Stokes, was footing the bill.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

NSW health minister condemns media for naming Sydney ‘barbecue man’ at centre of Covid outbreak

Posted on by

Brad Hazzard says AFR story that identified man was ‘appalling’, and warned it would undermine public health

• NSW restrictions: what you can and can’t do under new coronavirus rules
• NSW Covid hotspots: list and map of Sydney case locations
• Follow the Australia live blog

The New South Wales health minister has said a newspaper’s decision to name the man who visited numerous barbecue shops in Sydney while infected with Covid-19 was “appalling” and would undermine public health.

Brad Hazzard said the Australian Financial Review’s story identifying a patient “stinks” because it may discourage the public from cooperating fully with the contact tracers in the future and the man had not consented to have his identity revealed.

Continue reading...

Google and Facebook: the landmark Australian law that will make them pay for news content

Posted on by

Despite protestations from both companies, the Australian parliament is set to pass legislation it says is needed to boost public interest journalism

The Australian parliament is poised to pass a landmark media law that would make Google and Facebook pay news publishers for displaying their content.

The Australian law is separate to a deal Facebook made to pay mainstream UK news outlets millions of pounds a year to license their articles, but has a similar motivation.

Continue reading...

Pell contempt case: journalists under scrutiny after 27 charged over verdict’s coverage

Posted on by

Two journalists with decades of experience gave evidence this week in the supreme court trial of 27 media companies, reporters and editors

It did not take long for word to reach Australian newsrooms: at 3.44pm on 11 December 2018, a jury found George Pell guilty of child sexual abuse.

But the verdict was treated quite differently to other significant breaking news stories, which would usually spark a fevered rush to publish.

Continue reading...

Today show dumps Pauline Hanson for ‘divisive’ remarks about Melbourne public housing residents

Posted on by

Channel Nine initially promoted One Nation leader’s comments describing people locked down due to coronavirus as ‘drug addicts’ who ‘cannot speak English’

• Follow live updates in Monday’s Australia coronavirus blog
• Sign up for Guardian Australia’s coronavirus email
• Download the free Guardian app to get the most important news notifications

Channel Nine’s Today show has dropped One Nation leader Pauline Hanson as a “regular contributor”, after she described residents of public housing in Melbourne who are locked down due to Covid-19 as “drug addicts” who “cannot speak English”.

In a statement, the channel described her comments as “ill-informed and divisive”, and said “she will no longer be appearing on our program as a regular contributor”.

Continue reading...

One Nation’s Steve Dickson resigns over strip club footage

Posted on by

Pauline Hanson calls Senate candidate’s behaviour in leaked al-Jazeera footage broadcast on Nine’s A Current Affair ‘unacceptable’

The One Nation Australian senate candidate Steve Dickson has resigned after footage emerged of him groping dancers and making disparaging comments about a woman in a Washington DC strip club.

Dickson said he was “deeply remorseful for my disrespectful comments towards women” and his wife was standing by him. “I found the footage difficult to watch as my words and actions under intoxication and in that environment, are not a true reflection of myself,” he said in a statement.

Continue reading...

Daily Telegraph’s attempt at humour tanks with Nauru v Auschwitz graphic | Weekly Beast

Posted on by

Tabloid misses target with tasteless triviality. Plus: ABC and Fairfax HQs get a makeover

The Daily Telegraph gave the paediatrician Paul Bauert a huge slap for likening asylum seekers on Nauru to Jews at Auschwitz – but the tabloid made a rather tasteless comparison itself along the way.

“The main problem these people have is a lack of meaning, a lack of any end to what’s going on, a lack of certainty,” Bauert had said about the asylum seekers on Nauru. “Even those that finally knew they were about to be condemned to the gas chamber at least found some sense of relief in knowing what was happening.” The medico later apologised.

Continue reading...