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Inside the drama at Nine and ABC · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Friday, May thirty one. Missing mum Bronwyn Winfield told
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  Speaker 1: a male friend she was being stalked and harassed by
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  Speaker 1: her estranged husband before she vanished. That's a revelation in
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  Speaker 1: the newest episode of The Australian's latest investigative podcast, It's
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  Speaker 1: called Bronwen and subscribers can hear episode three right now
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  Speaker 1: at Bronwen podcast dot com. Hi drama in the Australian
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  Speaker 1: media with allegations of misconduct at Channel nine and a
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  Speaker 1: senior ABC journalist rebuked by the boss in today's episode,
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  Speaker 1: The Real Life Soapy inside Australia's mainstream media. In the
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  Speaker 1: Folklore of Australian Media, the glory days of Channel nine
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  Speaker 1: from the nineteen eighties to the early two thousands were unrivaled.
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  Speaker 1: When you want news, nine hasn't covered booze, partying, office romance,
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  Speaker 1: boardroom machinations and newsroom stouchers. It was blokey and beery
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  Speaker 1: and famous for big executive pay packets and lots of
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  Speaker 1: great journalism. They spent millions on ads and they even
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  Speaker 1: had a theme song performed by John Simon. Nobody's having
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  Speaker 1: fun at nine, just at the moment, and it started
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  Speaker 1: with a story broken in Me Australian by media editor
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  Speaker 1: James Madden and reporter Sophie Ellsworth about allegations of sexual
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  Speaker 1: harassment against former News and Current Affairs boss Darren Wick.
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  Speaker 1: Now it's important to note Wick, who's always had a
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  Speaker 1: good reputation as a newsman, hasn't commented on the allegations
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  Speaker 1: and nothing has been proven against him. But there are
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  Speaker 1: claims of a toxic newsroom culture where speaking out just
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  Speaker 1: wasn't an option, a culture that hadn't changed since those
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  Speaker 1: so called glory days. I caught up with our media
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  Speaker 1: editor James Madden. It feels like what we're seeing now
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  Speaker 1: is the modern age looking back on a real throwback
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  Speaker 1: to that time, doesn't it James?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it does, in an era which most workplaces in
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  Speaker 2: Australia have left behind long ago. I suppose one of
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  Speaker 2: the saddest elements for me and pursuing this story was
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  Speaker 2: hearing from so many women who felt they had no
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  Speaker 2: recourse at nine, no one to trust, no one to
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  Speaker 2: lodge a complain with. They didn't have faith in the
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  Speaker 2: HR department, which is pretty damning in itself. You could
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  Speaker 2: probably argue that the test for any workplace in terms
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  Speaker 2: of staff management is the degree of support available to staff.
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  Speaker 2: The people I've spoken to have said there was no
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  Speaker 2: support available.
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  Speaker 1: It's emerged now that he left Nine with a million
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  Speaker 1: dollar payout. Now television's very famous for enormous salaries, that
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  Speaker 1: is still a huge amount of money to give someone
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  Speaker 1: who was pretty close to retirement age, isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, And it's infuriated Nine employees on the floor. It's
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  Speaker 2: certainly the case that nine has long celebrated its robust culture,
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  Speaker 2: but it seems the network and the wider media company
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  Speaker 2: perhaps has been slow to evolve, whereas the rest of
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  Speaker 2: corporate Australia has long moved past the era where harassment
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  Speaker 2: of women can be swept under the carpet.
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  Speaker 1: As I said, you broke this story. It was then
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  Speaker 1: widely covered in other media outlets, but it took several
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  Speaker 1: days Fort nine's own print publications, The Sydney Morning Herald,
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  Speaker 1: The Age and the Financial Review to get involved in
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  Speaker 1: that coverage. When they did, they went pretty hard, didn't they, James,
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  Speaker 1: Given that the person who's alleged to have overseen that
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  Speaker 1: one million dollar payout is still in charge of Nine.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it was certainly noticeable how strident the criticism was
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  Speaker 2: coming out of Nine's publishing division. Investigative reporter Cape mcclemont
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  Speaker 2: certainly wrote a fierce piece that was on the page
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  Speaker 2: one of the weekend edition on Saturday. But it's also
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  Speaker 2: interesting to note how unusual it was as the coverage developed,
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  Speaker 2: how critical they were of Mike sneeze Bee, and how
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  Speaker 2: open those master heads were just speculating about his likely demise.
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  Speaker 1: Nine's overall board met on Thursday. How does eruptive? Do
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  Speaker 1: you think this issue has been for the functioning of
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  Speaker 1: the business.
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  Speaker 2: Hugely disruptive and in fact Nine is admitting how damaging
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  Speaker 2: the past fortnight's revelations have been on the business. There's
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  Speaker 2: certainly been strong indications from inside nine that the CEO,
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  Speaker 2: Mike Sneezebe and the chair Peter Costello appear to be
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  Speaker 2: at cross purposes in how to handle the crisis, and
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  Speaker 2: perhaps more importantly, the five other members of the board
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  Speaker 2: are understood to be deeply upset and shocked in fact,
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  Speaker 2: at the way the matter has been handled.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think Mike Sneezebey can keep his job and
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  Speaker 1: Peter Costello can keep his job.
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  Speaker 2: I think mister Sneezeby faces an uphill battle to save
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  Speaker 2: his job. Not only is there talk that he's lost
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  Speaker 2: support of the board, it seems quite clear that journalists
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  Speaker 2: on the editorial flaws across nine are furious at the
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  Speaker 2: way nine's leadership have pursued this issue. One thing that
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  Speaker 2: might save mister Sneezby in the short term is his
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  Speaker 2: announcement earlier this week of a wide ranging internal investigation
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  Speaker 2: into the culture at nine. He argued that until that
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  Speaker 2: investigation has been completed, mister Sneezeby is safe at the top.
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  Speaker 1: And what about Peter Costello.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Peter Costllo has been nine chair men for close
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  Speaker 2: to thirteen years now, and he's been noticeably silent over
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  Speaker 2: the past ten days. His silence hasn't gone down too
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  Speaker 2: well inside nine either. Plenty of people I've spoken to
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  Speaker 2: have said, you would think at a moment like this,
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  Speaker 2: mister Costello would stand up and express regret at the
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  Speaker 2: toxic culture that has flourished under his leadership, and perhaps
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  Speaker 2: be more forthright about where nine will go in the future.
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  Speaker 2: To date, he hasn't spoken publicly following the revelation of
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  Speaker 2: the allegations against Darrenwick. Of course, the other major headache
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  Speaker 2: for nine at the moment is its share price. It's
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  Speaker 2: full of three point seven percent in the last five days,
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  Speaker 2: down to dollar forty two, which means in the three
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  Speaker 2: years since mister Sneezebe has been CEO, the share price
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  Speaker 2: has high coming up.
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  Speaker 1: Over at the ABC, there's a different kind of drama
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  Speaker 1: with a superstar journalist reprimanded by her bosses. All the
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  Speaker 1: big media stories including news corps restructure, Network ten's legal
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  Speaker 1: adventures and Channel seven's leadership eruptions are in The Australian,
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  Speaker 1: with our media team breaking all the big yarns each
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  Speaker 1: Monday and throughout the week. You can subscribe for a
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  Speaker 1: lot less than a CEO salary to get all our
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  Speaker 1: journalism twenty four to seven. We'll be back after this break.
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  Speaker 1: I know that.
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  Speaker 3: On the night of Paduttance address and replying to the budget,
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  Speaker 3: I was sitting there with this terrible chill running through me, thinking, okay,
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  Speaker 3: we're back into this territory.
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  Speaker 1: This is the ABC's Laura Tingle, who's previously worked at
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  Speaker 1: a number of other outlets, including The Australian. She was
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  Speaker 1: speaking at the Sydney Writers Festival last weekend. If you
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  Speaker 1: didn't catch it, Tingle said she felt a terrible chill
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  Speaker 1: when listening to Peter Dutton, the Opposition leader, making this speech.
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  Speaker 4: Amidst this housing crisis. Labor is bringing in one point
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  Speaker 4: sixty seven million migrants over five years, more than the
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  Speaker 4: population of Adelaide. We celebrate the contributions of migrants over
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  Speaker 4: many decades or a great country because of what they
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  Speaker 4: have helped to build, and the great Australian achievement of
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  Speaker 4: modern Australia is something that we celebrate every day. But
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  Speaker 4: by getting the migration policy settings right, the Coalition can
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  Speaker 4: free up more houses for Australians. The other impact Australians
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  Speaker 4: are feeling from the Albanesi government's poor management of the
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  Speaker 4: migration program is from congestion on our roads and pressure
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  Speaker 4: on our existing services which are stretched, like trying to
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  Speaker 4: get into see a GP.
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  Speaker 1: Tingle went on saying she had a sudden flash of
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  Speaker 1: people turning up to try to rent property or at
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  Speaker 1: auction and being abused for being different as.
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  Speaker 3: That basically he has given them license to be abused.
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  Speaker 1: Tingle said, I mean we are a racist country and
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  Speaker 1: it's very depressing.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, we are a racist capulet's face it. We
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  Speaker 3: always have been, and it's very depressing. But to give
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  Speaker 3: license like that I find profoundly depressing and a terrible
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  Speaker 3: prospect for the next election.
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  Speaker 1: Here's Coalition Senator Sarah Henderson at Senate Estimates on Thursday night,
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  Speaker 1: grilling ABC Managing director David Anderson.
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  Speaker 3: I'm mister Anderson, will you apologize to mister Dutton for
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  Speaker 3: the comments of Laura Tingle.
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  Speaker 1: Green's Senator Sarah Hanson Young chimes in, you don't want racism,
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  Speaker 1: don't peddle it or order, and Anderson replies.
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  Speaker 5: The Senator, I am. I am quite regretful that these
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  Speaker 5: statements were made without the usual qualification they would normally have,
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  Speaker 5: and therefore that actually hurt hurt the ABC. I think
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  Speaker 5: Mistingles suffered for it, and I think that it allowed
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  Speaker 5: that when these comments are put together sometimes it allows
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  Speaker 5: for other people to take a debate into a different direction.
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  Speaker 5: I am generally sorry that that happened. I wish it
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  Speaker 5: hadn't have happened.
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  Speaker 1: Jingle's remarks were broken by the Australians Media reporter Sophie Ellsworth.
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  Speaker 1: She's media editor James Madden.
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  Speaker 2: I was shocked, to be honest, Claire. It basically exposed
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  Speaker 2: the ABC to severe criticism given her obvious lack of impartiality. Firstly,
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  Speaker 2: she said unequivocally that Australia is a racist country. Secondly,
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  Speaker 2: she took aim at Peter Dutton specifically over his migration
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  Speaker 2: and housing policies, and suggested that his policies were so
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  Speaker 2: divisive that ordinary Australians would now have an understandable license
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  Speaker 2: to abuse migrants at events such as home inspections and auctions.
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  Speaker 1: The Australian has a lot of senior journalists who write
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  Speaker 1: news and they also make commentary. Why is it different
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  Speaker 1: for someone who works at the ABC.
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  Speaker 2: Well, put simply, journalists who work at the ABC are
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  Speaker 2: bound by the ABC Charter. The ABC Charter demands balance,
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  Speaker 2: fair mindedness and impartiality. That's a non negotiable. A lot
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  Speaker 2: of ABC journalists appear not necessarily to like those guidelines,
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  Speaker 2: but they're there in black and white, and they're there
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  Speaker 2: for a reason. The ABC is the public broadcaster, and
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  Speaker 2: without impartiality, it's reason for existence is no longer.
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  Speaker 1: It's a bit of a vicious circle, isn't it. James
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  Speaker 1: because every time a coalition government comes in, people at
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  Speaker 1: the ABC fear that there's going to be retribution that
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  Speaker 1: their budget will become Does the coalition punish the ABC
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  Speaker 1: when it has the opportunity.
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  Speaker 2: That's certainly opened for debate, And that's certainly a perception
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  Speaker 2: that has existed in the past, most recently under Tony
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  Speaker 2: Abbott when there was an argument or indeed a debate
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  Speaker 2: over the indexing of the ABC funding. But Peter Dutton,
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  Speaker 2: in comments on Ray Hadley's program, made it very clear
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  Speaker 2: that the ABC had nailed its political colors to the mast.
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  Speaker 2: Tingles comments on the Weekend were in no way balanced
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  Speaker 2: or fair minded. She has expressed regret that she only
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  Speaker 2: had a limited time frame in which to explain the
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  Speaker 2: nuance of her argument, but the bottom line is she
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  Speaker 2: said what she said, she didn't display any nuance and
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  Speaker 2: effectively said that Peter Dutton was fanning racism within Australia.
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  Speaker 1: Dingle has been formally reprimanded by News boss Justin Stevens,
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  Speaker 1: who released a statement saying Tingle's remarks would not have
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  Speaker 1: met babc's standards for on air balance. Babc's new chair
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  Speaker 1: Kim Williams, who used to run News Corps Australia has
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  Speaker 1: said anyone who doesn't want to be impartial shouldn't work
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  Speaker 1: at the ABC.
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  Speaker 2: It is a test for Williams. He made clear that
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  Speaker 2: he wasn't going to stand for any breach of the
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  Speaker 2: editorial guidelines and you can be assured that William's fingerprints
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  Speaker 2: were all over that statement released by Justin Stephens.
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  Speaker 1: James Madden is The Australian's Media editor and you can
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: check out all his journalism by subscribing at The Australian
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: dot com dot au. Thanks for joining us on the
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: front this week. Our team is Christian Amyot, Joshua Burton, Leotsammaglue,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Matthew Condon, Jasper League, Tiffany Dim Back and make Clare
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  Speaker 1: hobby