Every Monday afternoon the Daily Telegraph’s head of digital, Peter Brown, sends out an email to all staff asking them to tune into Miranda Live, an internet radio program hosted by the paper’s columnist Miranda Devine on Mondays through Wednesdays.
Hi All, Miranda Live is Live on dailytelegraph.com.au. Please tune in to the show and have a listen. Cheers Browny.
The show, designed to increase traffic to the Sydney tabloid’s website and showcase the multimedia talents of Devine, is also usually the lead item on the website, which pumps out stories and podcasts from the show.
All the Tele’s marketing resources have been applied to raising the profile of Miranda Live, including sending the star Tele headliner to the US to record a show, where she talked to Joe Hockey, Australia’s US ambassador, the billionaire Anthony Pratt and the media magnate Kerry Stokes.
Much to the chagrin of some journos who spoke to Beast, Miranda Live is also live streamed into the Tele newsroom at Holt Street over the loudspeakers in a faintly East German manner. “There is no escape,” one jaded hack said.
When Beast clicked on to Miranda Live this week we were one of between 11 and 15 people listening.
To be fair, you can also listen to Miranda Live on Facebook, but that was also low, hovering between nine and 17 listeners. “We are extremely pleased with the results from Miranda Live so far,” a News Corp spokeswoman said. “After 12 shows, three per week for a month here are our numbers: 207,403 total streams from the DT; 24,097 podcast downloads; 62,655 Facebook live views.”
On Wednesday the Tele’s website promoted an interview with the Walkley award-winning journalist and advocate against sexual assault Nina Funnell, but when the show started Devine was scathing of news reports about hazing at Sydney University colleges, saying the campus rape crisis was a discredited “fad” imported from the US.
Despite Funnell’s photo being pasted all over the website she never appeared, and according to her she had never agreed to appear. Instead another student told Devine that St Andrew’s College, where she lived, was terrific.
Cover up
Pauline Hanson has a book coming out this month titled Pauline, In Her Own Words, with the cover showing her apparently lifting up a burqa – a none-too-subtle reference to her offensive Senate stunt. The ghost writer, whose name is on the cover under “in her own words”, is Tom Ravlic.
“Pauline is often misquoted and misunderstood but is now setting the record straight with her first book in 11 years “PAULINE, IN HER OWN WORDS”, said her publicist, Max Markson, who you may remember was the publicist for Milo Yiannopoulos’s speaking tour of Australia.
Hanson said: “In recent years, Australians have become disappointed with the quality of their political representatives, and I understand that. I hope that in publishing a selection of my speeches that Australians will better know who I am and can be better informed when they cast their vote. We have one people, one flag and we are one nation.”
Tweet elite
When you think about social media stars, do the News Corp personalities Rita Panahi, Chris Kenny and Caroline Marcus come to mind? How about @Monster_Dome and Tim Smith?
According to one rightwing thinktank, the Menzies Research Centre, these characters are “winning on Twitter” and if you listen to these Twitter warriors you could be winning too. According to the Menzies thesis, Twitter is dominated by the left because people on the right are so polite and respectful that they shun the mobs on social media.
“Join us for after-work for drinks and canapes in Sydney on March 6 or Melbourne on March 13 to discuss how to win Twitter,” an invitation says. “Twitter is a convenient conduit to millions of followers, a platform for instant comment on breaking news and a free service for public announcements So why is it dominated by leftists? The rules of engagement – or lack thereof – are mostly to blame.
“People from the right of centre, schooled in the centuries-old tradition of respectful debate, tend to shun social media, where mobs roam and emotion trumps reason. But Twitter’s size and increasing influence mean it can no longer be ignored. The Menzies Research Centre has assembled a panel of Twitter warriors who will share with you how to amass a large following and win debates using the persuasive powers of knowledge, civility, humour and humility.”
Nothing’s sacred
With ABC management’s failure to defend or express confidence in Emma Alberici this week it has been left to the chief economics correspondent herself to remind us of her credentials.
In 1990 I was hired by News Corp in Melb one of 9 among a field of close to 1000 candidates. At 22 I was appointed Personal Finance Editor under the tutelage of Terry McCrann. He was a great mentor https://t.co/FkMl0ou4pf
— Emma Alberici (@albericie) February 26, 2018
At Senate estimates Michelle Guthrie pointedly refused to express confidence in Alberici when asked directly by the new Labor senator Kristina Keneally. Earlier on Tuesday an official ABC statement about one of the many attack pieces in News Corp papers did not mention Alberici or how she was the subject of the very personal attacks.
Alan Sunderland, head of editorial policy, joined Guthrie for the testy Senate battle, where he was described by Bernard Keane in Crikey as talking “like a man who’d swallowed a management textbook”.
On Friday he sent “an important message to all staff” which included a possibly misjudged three-minute video from him in which he discusses editorial policies. Acknowledging it was a “sensitive time” for the ABC, Sunderland said:
There are plenty of suggestions floating around at the moment that the ABC is bowing to government pressure and failing to do its job. You’ve probably read some of the stories and a few of you may even be thinking the same thing. These articles talk about pre-emptive buckle, that we self-censor to make sure we don’t annoy the government, and that we’re cowering the face of threats of budget cuts. With all of that going on, some people are wondering if the ABC is pulling its head in for a little while.
Sunderland then goes on:
It’s time to come clean … I want to be honest with you … from my own perspective, and in the view of the managing director, the chairman, the board and the whole leadership team, what precisely we intend to do things differently. What has to change? This is what needs to change about our editorial approach during these risky and sensitive times.
At which point a graphic comes up that says “Nothing” and then “ABSOLUTELY NOTHING”.
Shaun Micallef, eat your heart out.
Comment is free
The award-winning writer Maxine Beneba Clarke, who won the Victorian premier’s award for her poetry collection Carrying the World, was asked to be regular contributor to Stan Grant’s new show Matter of Fact, which airs Monday through Thursday nights on the ABC news channel.
“In every program, Grant, an award-winning journalist, author and commentator, will take a deep dive into a major story,” the ABC PR blurb says. “The program will also feature regular contributors covering the economy, technology, history, music and the arts.”
Clarke was the literary contributor, appearing once a fortnight to discuss books with Grant, a not unsubstantial task as she had to read all those books first. After two appearances Clarke dropped out, announcing it on her Twitter feed.
I won't be reviewing on ABC's Matter of Fact this evening. The books segment will move toward having a rotation of reviewers, but I may still make an appearance from time to time. Apologies to anyone who's disappointed about this.
— Maxine Beneba Clarke (@slamup) February 27, 2018
While she declined to comment, Weekly Beast understands Matter of Fact producers told her there was no budget to pay her for her work, forcing her to reconsider her options as she cannot afford to work for free. An ABC spokeswoman confirmed that none of the Matter of Fact contributors are paid.