Latest / The Front / Reality check: The Karl Stefanovic-Piers Morgan lovefest
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
- 0:06Speaker 1: It's Monday, July sixth, twenty twenty six. Hold the line
- 0:13Speaker 1: on supporting multiculturalism, lowering energy prices and backing coal fired power.
- 0:19Speaker 1: That's the rallying cry for liberals from Queensland Premier David
- 0:23Speaker 1: chris a fully, who says the Coalition can win again
- 0:26Speaker 1: if it resists taking one nation's ideological bait. The unions
- 0:33Speaker 1: are pushing labor to adopt tough regulation of artificial intelligence
- 0:37Speaker 1: with a powerful say for workers in negotiations with business.
- 0:41Speaker 1: That's an exclusive in The Australian Today by Greg Brown.
- 0:45Speaker 1: And you can check out all our political scoops at
- 0:48Speaker 1: the Australian dot com dot au. It's Monday. So our
- 0:54Speaker 1: media diarist Steve Jackson is here and we're breaking down
- 0:58Speaker 1: the interview. Everyone's watching Carl Stefanovic and British journalist turned
- 1:03Speaker 1: YouTube sensation Piers Morgan their creations of the mainstream media
- 1:08Speaker 1: now in furious agreement that the mainstream media is dead.
- 1:12Speaker 1: But does that stack up? Jacko's here In just a moment,
- 1:20Speaker 1: Steve Jackson edits The Australian's media Dary and like me,
- 1:23Speaker 1: he's been watching and rewatching Karl Stefanovic's interview with Piers
- 1:27Speaker 1: Morgan on YouTube. Jacko YouTube. Apparently it's the future broadcast media.
- 1:31Speaker 1: We can forget about it.
- 1:32Speaker 2: Oh well this is on YouTube, isn't it.
- 1:34Speaker 1: Oh this is on YouTube?
- 1:35Speaker 2: Oh thank god?
- 1:36Speaker 1: They we're on everything.
- 1:37Speaker 2: We shouldn't be on anything but YouTube. Apparently network TV's gone.
- 1:41Speaker 2: But weren't there fireworks for Get Married At first sight?
- 1:43Speaker 2: This was the best reality television nine to produce this
- 1:46Speaker 2: year and they weren't even in on it. Welcome to
- 1:48Speaker 2: My Life, yacht, My god, I love.
- 1:52Speaker 1: The little flex by Peers Morgan of inviting Karl stefanovicks.
- 1:55Speaker 1: So this is Carl hosting this interview, but Peers invites
- 1:58Speaker 1: him to his turf, which happened to be a super jacko.
- 2:01Speaker 3: Well.
- 2:02Speaker 2: As it turned out, Carl had already lined up to
- 2:04Speaker 2: interview Piers Morgan. He was flying to the south of
- 2:07Speaker 2: France when he found out he was, in his own words,
- 2:10Speaker 2: had just gotten the ass and sits down with Peers
- 2:14Speaker 2: and Peers goes, now, am I interviewing you? You've just
- 2:17Speaker 2: been fired?
- 2:19Speaker 3: Thank you, Piers, sugar coach. No, thank you for reminding.
- 2:24Speaker 2: Me, how's it going to work? And in the end,
- 2:26Speaker 2: it was two friends having a chat. But wasn't it entertaining?
- 2:29Speaker 1: Yeah, Peers actually did most of the interviewing. I think
- 2:32Speaker 1: we learned a little bit more about Carl Stefanovic's interviewing style.
- 2:35Speaker 2: We've talked Jacko.
- 2:36Speaker 1: Before about how Karl doesn't really ask any questions. He
- 2:40Speaker 1: did the same in the interview with Peers. I mean,
- 2:42Speaker 1: Pears is a giant personality. He interviewed Carl at the
- 2:45Speaker 1: start of it, but then when it was Carl's turn
- 2:48Speaker 1: to do the interviewing, Carl's style is really just to
- 2:51Speaker 1: kind of keep the monologue rolling. He just lets Peers
- 2:54Speaker 1: keep talking, and that's what I try to do with you.
- 2:56Speaker 1: But unfortunately you keep asking me questions.
- 2:58Speaker 2: I was going to say, normally, there's no issue with
- 3:01Speaker 2: getting me to keep talking. But the thing with Karl
- 3:03Speaker 2: and anyone who's watched his style that he's developed in
- 3:06Speaker 2: sixty minutes, he's very good at and look, as I
- 3:09Speaker 2: revealed in Diary, I produced half a dozen stories for Carl,
- 3:13Speaker 2: and he's very good at coaxing information out of people.
- 3:16Speaker 2: I remember once doing a story with Carl and we're
- 3:18Speaker 2: walking through the people's house and he turns to me
- 3:20Speaker 2: and goes, Jaco, what is this story about? And I go, oh,
- 3:24Speaker 2: he hasn't read the forty page brief I've prepared. Hey, Carl,
- 3:27Speaker 2: it's about don't worry, just let me do it. And
- 3:31Speaker 2: he sat down. He goes, so, just tell me everything
- 3:33Speaker 2: from when it started up until this moment right now.
- 3:36Speaker 2: And Carl very good at just coaxing it out of
- 3:38Speaker 2: him and going hmm, all right, I know, how do
- 3:41Speaker 2: you feel then? And he's not prosecuting, but he lets
- 3:44Speaker 2: them tell the story. It's a great way to conduct
- 3:46Speaker 2: an interview because he gets out of the way.
- 3:55Speaker 1: As Pins Morgan took over this episode of The Carl
- 3:58Speaker 1: Steffan Novik Show and Kerl started conducting the interview himself.
- 4:01Speaker 1: He then turned it into a business masterclass for Carl
- 4:04Speaker 1: and how to make yourself massive on YouTube. They have
- 4:07Speaker 1: a similar story and that Pears was punted from Breakfast
- 4:09Speaker 1: Television in the United Kingdom after calling Megan Markle essentially
- 4:13Speaker 1: a liar and then refusing to apologize. Peers is extremely combative.
- 4:18Speaker 1: In fact, you watched Piers Morgan to see him tear
- 4:21Speaker 1: someone to shreds. He mentioned his Russell Brand interview, where
- 4:25Speaker 1: it was an excruciating really takedown of Russell Brand.
- 4:29Speaker 2: I mean some we've described it as a grief take
- 4:32Speaker 2: doubt on Russell, you change your mind about stuff on
- 4:35Speaker 2: six boos, right, and now that's what they say about you. Actually,
- 4:39Speaker 2: well sure, but I'm interviewing you, right. So my point is,
- 4:42Speaker 2: so you think that you can command saying I believe this.
- 4:46Speaker 3: I'm saying you know.
- 4:47Speaker 1: That Russell Brand kind of did it himself too, didn't
- 4:49Speaker 1: he He's rifling through the pages of a Bible trying
- 4:51Speaker 1: to find an inspirational quote that he says that he
- 4:54Speaker 1: used in court, and they can't find the passages.
- 4:57Speaker 3: What were the relevant passages for you?
- 4:58Speaker 2: All right? Thank you for asking me.
- 5:00Speaker 1: Thank you.
- 5:01Speaker 3: I didn't know that, but a little bit. It was
- 5:09Speaker 3: this from Asia.
- 5:12Speaker 1: It's this. No, I'm not going to mind that before.
- 5:27Speaker 2: That was the highlight of the interview for me. You know,
- 5:29Speaker 2: he's talking about Yeah, when Russell's trying to find and
- 5:32Speaker 2: it was a Zia you know, chapter forty eight, verse
- 5:34Speaker 2: eighteen to thirty six. I think, yeah, we know, well
- 5:38Speaker 2: how I was reading it just earlier.
- 5:39Speaker 1: But really the lesson that Peers I suppose could teach
- 5:42Speaker 1: Karl is that if you have big, strong opinions and
- 5:44Speaker 1: you're prepared to say them boldly, you will go Well.
- 5:47Speaker 1: I don't know if that is what Karl is going
- 5:49Speaker 1: to do, though, I mean Carl wants to let other
- 5:51Speaker 1: people have big, strong opinions. Does Carl have strong opinions?
- 5:55Speaker 1: Apart from that, freedom of speech is good?
- 5:58Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think most people would agree freedom of
- 6:01Speaker 2: speech is good. I mean that's why it's one of
- 6:03Speaker 2: those one of those arguments that you love to put
- 6:05Speaker 2: out there and go, you know, I believe in freedom
- 6:07Speaker 2: of speech. Who's going to disagree with that? But Pierce said,
- 6:10Speaker 2: I don't like Tommy Robinson. I tried to get him
- 6:12Speaker 2: on my show and he won't come on. And that's
- 6:15Speaker 2: the difference is if you've got someone like Peers going on,
- 6:18Speaker 2: I keep calling Tommy come on because he is part
- 6:21Speaker 2: of a cultural movement in the UK. He is relevant,
- 6:24Speaker 2: he is newsworthy. You know, we always talk. Would you
- 6:26Speaker 2: interview you know the worst dictators in history? Yeah, of
- 6:29Speaker 2: course you would, because you know you want to prosecute
- 6:32Speaker 2: that story and you want to get the information and
- 6:35Speaker 2: learn more about their worldview. But Peace is calling Tommy
- 6:38Speaker 2: come on the show, and Tommy's gone, no way am
- 6:40Speaker 2: I going on with him. He's going to tear me
- 6:42Speaker 2: a new one. And then Carl calls and go, hey,
- 6:45Speaker 2: do you want to come on my show? Yeah, you've
- 6:46Speaker 2: heard it. When can we catch up?
- 6:48Speaker 1: What else did we learn?
- 6:49Speaker 3: Oh?
- 6:50Speaker 2: Well, look, the fireworks started before the actual sit down began.
- 6:53Speaker 2: It started with Carl talking about the reaction, and then
- 6:57Speaker 2: he immediately did a smash upon The Guardian, accusing them of,
- 7:01Speaker 2: you know, basically telling a one sided story and clipping
- 7:04Speaker 2: up all the headlines, which is nice. They've got a
- 7:06Speaker 2: couple of clicks from Carl there. He's at least read
- 7:08Speaker 2: what they've written.
- 7:10Speaker 3: And my good friends at the Guardian, they've been whipped
- 7:12Speaker 3: into a frenzy this week. Interestingly though, they covered it
- 7:16Speaker 3: in their socials too. But they turned all the comments off.
- 7:21Speaker 3: Hey you free speech lovers, you guys.
- 7:25Speaker 2: But then he said they turned off the comments on
- 7:28Speaker 2: their stories about him, so they were impinging on free
- 7:31Speaker 2: speech because you know, they weren't able to see that
- 7:33Speaker 2: a lot of people agree with Carl, and he obviously
- 7:36Speaker 2: thinks that even the Guardian readers are with him.
- 7:38Speaker 1: I thought that that was a moment where Carl revealed
- 7:40Speaker 1: himself to not really get the media though. I mean,
- 7:42Speaker 1: the comments are turned off because you don't want people
- 7:44Speaker 1: to be defaming Carl or Tommy Robinson or anyone else
- 7:48Speaker 1: in the comments on your story, which you are the
- 7:49Speaker 1: publisher of, as the Guardian like, you know, that was silly.
- 7:53Speaker 1: Of course they turned the comments off. You have to do. Yes,
- 7:57Speaker 1: we turn the comments off all the time when we
- 7:59Speaker 1: fear that are very carefully calibrated and legal article is
- 8:04Speaker 1: going to be blown up by JACKO one two four
- 8:08Speaker 1: sitting in his living room saying Karl Stiffanovic, you know
- 8:11Speaker 1: skins cats in his spare time, Like that is the
- 8:14Speaker 1: basics of defamation law. The Guardian is the publisher of
- 8:16Speaker 1: that article. They're the publisher also of any comments that
- 8:19Speaker 1: appear underneath it. If they allow comments on, there's a
- 8:22Speaker 1: free for all for everyone to defame anyone. I thought
- 8:25Speaker 1: that was naive.
- 8:26Speaker 2: It's a shame though, because I do enjoy reading the comments.
- 8:29Speaker 1: Oh, the comments is great. They are often a whole
- 8:31Speaker 1: of the story in themselves. The Australian is one of
- 8:33Speaker 1: the few publishers that continues to allow comments and in
- 8:36Speaker 1: fact encourage our audience to comment in a respectful and
- 8:40Speaker 1: healthy debate, but we moderate them and then we have
- 8:43Speaker 1: to of course, that's the responsibility that you have. The
- 8:45Speaker 1: Guardian doesn't charge for people to read their content. Maybe
- 8:49Speaker 1: they can't afford.
- 8:49Speaker 2: Moderated well, they're always sending me emails every day panhandling
- 8:52Speaker 2: for donations. The other thing that we learned in the
- 8:55Speaker 2: prelude to them, even sitting down and seeing that they're
- 8:58Speaker 2: in the South of France together, was that Carl seems
- 9:01Speaker 2: to have just a little bit of a chip on
- 9:03Speaker 2: his shoulder about Elbow, weighing in in the days leading
- 9:06Speaker 2: up to the interview and saying, you know, if you
- 9:08Speaker 2: go out and interview the fringes of political society and
- 9:10Speaker 2: political debate, have a look at what happens. So he
- 9:13Speaker 2: then fired back at Albow, going.
- 9:15Speaker 3: Just to remind I did an interview and he lied
- 9:20Speaker 3: to the country and still has his job.
- 9:23Speaker 2: You're like, look at Albow, and you know, let's not
- 9:26Speaker 2: forget that just five months ago he was one of
- 9:28Speaker 2: the people that Carl had it on his show and
- 9:30Speaker 2: did the same sort of interview. In fact, Carl was
- 9:33Speaker 2: smashed then by his own listeners and viewers saying you
- 9:36Speaker 2: didn't give Albow enough of the go and you didn't
- 9:38Speaker 2: challenge him enough.
- 9:51Speaker 1: Peers, as we said, is famously combat even. I thought
- 9:53Speaker 1: there was an opportunity for peers to say to Carl, okay,
- 9:57Speaker 1: so you've been sacked, is there a grain of truth
- 10:00Speaker 1: the reasons why nine has got rid of you. It
- 10:03Speaker 1: turned into the pair of them just kind of winging
- 10:04Speaker 1: about mainstream media, you know, not understanding the revolution that's coming,
- 10:08Speaker 1: and not seizing the opportunity to have someone who's brilliant
- 10:11Speaker 1: as Carl on their platform.
- 10:14Speaker 2: I just don't understand what Channel nine are thinking.
- 10:16Speaker 3: Well, for me, piss One element of that the audience, right,
- 10:21Speaker 3: I have had an intimate audience, yeah, for twenty one years.
- 10:26Speaker 3: And I say intimate weirdly in a television sense. It's
- 10:29Speaker 3: so intimate breakfast TV, as you know. But I don't
- 10:32Speaker 3: get to say goodbye to them.
- 10:34Speaker 1: I thought there was a moment to go, well, you know,
- 10:36Speaker 1: could you have supported their journalism a little better? They
- 10:39Speaker 1: are trying to make money out of actual journalism, not
- 10:42Speaker 1: just people having opinions.
- 10:44Speaker 2: Well, instead, what they segued into is, you know, TV
- 10:48Speaker 2: so beige and it's one of those moments, Carl obviously
- 10:52Speaker 2: breaking down in tears and choking back tears at several points,
- 10:56Speaker 2: but then abrarstly laughing when they're saying, how beigemmercial TV
- 11:00Speaker 2: has become a mainstream media if we're mainstream media, just
- 11:04Speaker 2: the stuff people watches at mainstream media.
- 11:06Speaker 1: At one point, Carl presented his departure from nine is
- 11:10Speaker 1: something he had precipitated.
- 11:12Speaker 3: I told Nine that I was leaving the Today Show
- 11:15Speaker 3: two or three months ago, and they said, can you
- 11:18Speaker 3: give us time to you know, get someone in, you know,
- 11:22Speaker 3: to test the waters on who is going to be
- 11:23Speaker 3: your replacement? So I gave them, you know, a huge
- 11:26Speaker 3: chunk of time and I don't know when they were
- 11:28Speaker 3: going to announce who was going to be my replacement.
- 11:31Speaker 3: So at the end of the year, I was, you know,
- 11:34Speaker 3: I was going to sail off into the sunset.
- 11:36Speaker 2: But it would have been an enormous moment in Australian television.
- 11:40Speaker 2: Left yeah, saying, you know I told him two or
- 11:44Speaker 2: three months ago. Well tell you what, Carl, I told
- 11:46Speaker 2: him five months ago. I said, You're not going to
- 11:49Speaker 2: last the year, you know, And I think I've been
- 11:52Speaker 2: warning every other week, Hey, this was untenable. He's thumbing
- 11:55Speaker 2: his nose at the network. But he officially went and said, yeah,
- 11:59Speaker 2: you know, two or three month ago, I told nine,
- 12:01Speaker 2: I'm not going to renew his contract.
- 12:03Speaker 3: You know.
- 12:03Speaker 2: Obviously he'd been telling the rest of the town since
- 12:06Speaker 2: about December he wasn't interested in renewing his contract. But
- 12:08Speaker 2: it was quite clear, and I think it was obvious
- 12:12Speaker 2: to everyone by the time he had doctor Charlie TiO
- 12:15Speaker 2: on his show. But then his support for Ben Roberts Smith. Now,
- 12:19Speaker 2: for all our viewers and for the readers of the
- 12:22Speaker 2: Media Diary, they go, yeah, why shouldn't he do that?
- 12:25Speaker 2: In his contract he was allowed to do that. He's
- 12:28Speaker 2: got a difference of opinion, but it shows you that
- 12:31Speaker 2: there is a disconnect between the television arm of nine
- 12:34Speaker 2: and the publishing arm of nine. And Carl's a guy
- 12:38Speaker 2: that brings in a lot of money, but he has
- 12:40Speaker 2: felt he has not been able to say what he
- 12:43Speaker 2: believes for a long long time, and he has felt
- 12:47Speaker 2: and I think quite genuinely silenced. Within nine.
- 12:51Speaker 1: He spoke about missing the studio crew today and the
- 12:56Speaker 1: closeborn that you form with those people who you get
- 12:58Speaker 1: up at three Am and hang out with every morning.
- 13:01Speaker 3: These guys who do steady cam on the show every
- 13:04Speaker 3: single morning. When I come in, they like stand up
- 13:07Speaker 3: and they do the right whatever it is the yoga
- 13:10Speaker 3: pos and it's like Hatos and Isaac and they're like
- 13:15Speaker 3: mister Stefanovic welcome and I go sure no.
- 13:18Speaker 1: But I mean there's nothing stopping Carl having them around
- 13:20Speaker 1: for a barbie? Is it?
- 13:23Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's it's it's it's a weird thing.
- 13:27Speaker 2: I worked with Carl a fair bit. I can count
- 13:29Speaker 2: on one hand or one finger the number of times
- 13:32Speaker 2: I've been to his place once. I think I was
- 13:34Speaker 2: picking something up or dropping something off.
- 13:36Speaker 1: You didn't get invited back? What did you do?
- 13:38Speaker 2: I don't think that my paypacket has enough zeros at
- 13:40Speaker 2: the end for me to move in the circles that
- 13:43Speaker 2: he moves in.
- 13:44Speaker 1: Well, he said though, that he can walk into any
- 13:46Speaker 1: pub in Australia and someone will go, Carlos.
- 13:51Speaker 2: I've seen it happens like being you.
- 13:53Speaker 1: What happens to you?
- 13:54Speaker 2: Yeah? No, I think they do JACKO pay your tab.
- 13:57Speaker 2: But look I've seen that his brother gets it, Stephano.
- 14:00Speaker 2: It gets the same treatment. I did a story with Peter.
- 14:02Speaker 2: We walked into a bar in Mackay and they're like, hey, Peter,
- 14:07Speaker 2: beers on the house. Wow, fancy being you? How good
- 14:10Speaker 2: is this?
- 14:11Speaker 1: So? Yeah?
- 14:11Speaker 2: That happens all the time. Yeah, can we hang out all?
- 14:15Speaker 3: You know.
- 14:16Speaker 1: He has cultivated a reputation as Alarican, and this is
- 14:19Speaker 1: something we've talked about before on the front Jacko. He
- 14:21Speaker 1: has never seemed like someone who wasn't allowed to say
- 14:23Speaker 1: what he thinks. I mean, if he had gone to
- 14:25Speaker 1: the bosses at Today and said, listen, I love Charlie Teo,
- 14:29Speaker 1: I really want to defend him. Can I do a
- 14:31Speaker 1: piece of journalism where we give Charlie fairgo? Would they
- 14:34Speaker 1: really have said no? Absolutely not.
- 14:35Speaker 2: Hey, I'll tell you what. I know for a fact
- 14:37Speaker 2: that they said yes, you can do this, and they
- 14:40Speaker 2: were fine with it. But then some people from this
- 14:43Speaker 2: Sinning Morning Herald and I know specifically who came up
- 14:46Speaker 2: and said, we don't think we're going to work with
- 14:48Speaker 2: you anymore. We're not going to do any more joint
- 14:50Speaker 2: sixty minutes investigations because he disagreed. And as I say,
- 14:53Speaker 2: I think that's something that's stuck with him. There's that
- 14:56Speaker 2: since then, since that merge. He has felt that he
- 15:00Speaker 2: he hasn't been able to express his views.
- 15:12Speaker 1: So do you think we're going to see Carl on
- 15:14Speaker 1: his own super yacht sometimes? Thing?
- 15:15Speaker 2: Well, I think and tell me if you disagree. It's
- 15:20Speaker 2: weird because Peers is on this super yacht. At can
- 15:22Speaker 2: going look at all the riches that I've got with
- 15:25Speaker 2: my YouTube channel. But I think I think you might
- 15:27Speaker 2: find some of that yacht money his network television money
- 15:31Speaker 2: from when he was on Britain's Got Talent, America's Got
- 15:33Speaker 2: Talent CNN. So I'm not sure how much of that
- 15:36Speaker 2: is written to YouTube, but he obviously does have a
- 15:39Speaker 2: massive following. Carl Sing is he would have to go global,
- 15:43Speaker 2: interviewing Barnaby, Pauline Barnaby, Pauline Barnaby, Pauline, Tommy Robinson, Barnaby, Pauline,
- 15:49Speaker 2: Piers Morgan. He would have to do something to appeal
- 15:53Speaker 2: to a global audience.
- 15:54Speaker 1: You'd have to get into American politics, I think. I
- 15:56Speaker 1: mean that's been part of Peers's success too. He's got
- 15:58Speaker 1: very much into the kind of cultural war and deep
- 16:01Speaker 1: into American politics. I mean, can cargo there.
- 16:05Speaker 2: Well, he'd have to have stronger opinions right, he's portraying
- 16:07Speaker 2: himself as a journalist who's now free to unleash the
- 16:11Speaker 2: beast and explore whatever tickles is. That beast has got
- 16:16Speaker 2: to unleash its own beast and go, hey, I've got
- 16:18Speaker 2: to challenge you, because otherwise, what's he's selling? Nothing short
- 16:21Speaker 2: of what Tommy Robinson can't put up on his own
- 16:23Speaker 2: social media.
- 16:24Speaker 1: Well, I'll look forward to an invite to your superyot.
- 16:26Speaker 2: Thanks JACKO, thank you, Claire.
- 16:37Speaker 1: Steve Jackson, writes The Australian's media diary. It's live right
- 16:41Speaker 1: now at Viaustralian dot com dot auslash Media