Toilet readers
Oh dear. Noses are well and truly out of joint after our scoopette on the Liberal’s ex-deputy director in Victoria Tony Barry opining on social media that the ABC election night panel was “unwatchable drivel”, having spent the evening on, er, the ABC election night panel.
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When we contacted him on Sunday the pollster for Redbridge Group seemed fine, telling us that his account hadn’t been hacked.
Enter Nick Dyrenfurth, executive director of the John Curtin Research Centre, host of politics podcast Curtin’s Call, and the author of several scintillating page-turners on the Great Australian Labor Party.
In his latest pod Dyrenfurth had an almighty sook over our coverage as he introduced polling god Kos Samaras, who runs RedBridge with Barry, is a JCRC board member, and also appeared on the ABC’s election night coverage.
Dyrenfurth praised Samaras’ TV insights, when the ABC allowed him to speak, but then issued a warning.
“Just be careful, mate, because I don’t want you saying anything else and being written up in the gossip columns of Nine Media and News Corp,” Dyrenfurth said.
Oh. Does he mean us? Not to get into a definitional debate, but gossip is unverified personal information – and this was, well, fact.
“Well, gossip media are akin to basically, it’s an art form, isn’t it? It’s basically they become experts at reading graffiti in toilets,” Samaras said.
Dyrenfurth: “Just on that, I’m going to give a little swipe to someone just because it’s my podcast, I can do whatever I like.
“To whoever screenshotted Tony Barry’s messages, because you’re obviously a friend on Facebook of Tony Barry – you are an idiot, you are a goose, and you’re obviously not a mate of Tony’s, and I hope you’re happy with yourself.
“Tony will just go from strength to strength, as Redbridge will.”
Well, just like the great John Curtin, CBD is fully committed to the free and frank exchange of ideas. And whistle-blower protection policies, so the “goose” won’t be revealed.
CBD wot won it
Victory! After months of trying, CBD has succeeded in helping political commentator Niki Savva get her social media identity back.
After we went public with our column on Wednesday morning, the offending account on social media site X, @TheNikiSavva, hastily rebadged itself as “obviously a parody account”. Then it temporarily shut down while it renamed itself “Lorem Ipsum” and changed its account handle to @nothingtosee697. It also removed its posts imitating the columnist.
Fond farewell
A giant of the media legal landscape is leaving the stage.
Ian Philip, the News Corporation Australia chief general counsel, who has held the role since 1997 (yup 28 years, you read that right) is retiring in August and leaving behind his famous mountain ridge of manila folders in a fifth floor office of News Corp’s Holt Street headquarters in Sydney.
Philip’s longevity afforded him a status where his advice tended to be treated as gospel in the company, and he wasn’t beyond putting his body on the line for his company in court cases, no matter what the personal embarrassment.
Executive chairman Michael Miller lavished praise on Philip, also a one-time Foxtel board member, in a note to staff.
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“I am writing to let you know that after 28 years in his role our revered Chief General Counsel, Ian Philip has decided to retire,” Miller wrote.
In 2005 Philip was the subject of “I lied” headlines in reference to a handwritten fax he wrote to Telstra in the midst of a heated broadcasting rights deal in 2000 over the NRL.
Justice Ronald Sackville in the Federal Court said that Philip’s conduct towards Telstra was “disgraceful”. But News Corp won the case against Channel Seven.
Philip leaves in October, “so we will have the opportunity to properly celebrate his career and extraordinary contribution before then”, Miller told the troops.
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