You’ve got to hand it to Chris Kenny. He is a vocal supporter of the Indigenous voice to parliament and, as a presenter on Sky News Australia, he’s copping it. Not so much from his colleagues as from his viewers.
Kenny, an associate editor of the Australian, has argued that the voice is “not only about uplifting our Indigenous brothers and sisters but about binding us into a better nation”.
Without reference to prominent no case Sky commentators Andrew Bolt and Peta Credlin, Kenny has said the no case is “overwhelmingly based on fear”. On Chris Kenny Tonight he rejects claims made on other Sky shows, insisting for example that the Uluru statement consists of only one page.
A quick glance at the comments on his social media accounts shows some of his fans are not happy. A sample: “Have you rang the ABC for a job yet?”; “No Chris thanks but as a previous devotee it’s a no to watching you again!”; “Chris – I do hope you like egg … there’s going to be plenty of it on your face after October 14th”; “Sorry Chris, never again … Your show is an unwatchable vote yes advertisement … it’s actually pretty pathetic”.
But Kenny is not backing down. He told Weekly Beast: “I am proud to work for an organisation where a diversity of views can flourish in a respectful contest of ideas, free from the pernicious influence of groupthink, and I appreciate that most viewers and readers understand how important this is for a vibrant public square and healthy democracy.”
Nine reporter Chris O’Keefe, who hosts drive on 2GB, is in a similar position to Kenny. He has been open about supporting a voice to parliament, which puts him out of step with the rightwing tone of the station’s star presenter, Ben Fordham.
In an editorial on 2GB O’Keefe declared his support for the voice and pinned it on his Twitter profile, but he still interrogates both sides of the campaign.
Not just the facts
It’s been several days since News Corp accused a key factchecker of “breaking the law” after a Sky News Australia editorial on the Uluru statement by Credlin was labelled false. But the target of the accusation, RMIT FactLab, says it is yet to receive a notice of any legal proceedings and News Corp won’t say what law has allegedly been broken.
Since early August, the Australian and Sky News have targeted RMIT FactLab and its director, the former Age journalist Russell Skelton, after the label of “false” was slapped on Credlin’s editorial posted on Facebook.
The centrepiece of the News Corp campaign against FactLab was a 6,000-word “exposé”, The Fact Check Files, which alleged there was a campaign of “foreign-funded censorship” of Murdoch journalists involving Facebook and factcheckers.
“The university used the powers Facebook has given it to throttle Sky News Australia’s Facebook page with false factchecks multiple times this year,” the article said.
The foreign funding claim appears to refer to the fact that Facebook’s international headquarters are in Ireland.
The “powers” Facebook has given to RMIT refer to a commercial relationship Meta has with dozens of factchecking organisations around the world in an attempt to stop the spread of misinformation on Facebook and Instagram.
Sky alleges the program’s aim is to “silence news coverage of the voice to influence the referendum”. Credlin has gone further, calling it a “sinister use of so-called factchecking to deny legitimate debate”.
At issue is Credlin’s claim that an FOI had “forced” the government to release the “full” 26-page version of the Uluru statement, which she said contained policies that had been “hidden from voters”.
RMIT FactLab labelled the claim false information and put a grey block over the content saying “independent factcheckers say this information has no basis in fact. You can choose whether to see it.” It was a red rag to a bull.
TikTok drama
The ABC has announced its first show to premiere on TikTok will be a teen drama, The Disposables, which can be seen on the channel’s TikTok Live account next Friday at 4pm. The Disposables is a vertical action adventure series about a refugee, Priya, whose father goes missing.
It’s set in the western suburbs of Sydney, where Priya and her mates battle a “terrifying plastic-eating monster” to find her dad. Priya’s TikToks, texts, video calls and CCTV will all be seen by viewers as they help to solve the mystery.
The innovative show, funded by Screen Australia, will also play on ABC ME and iView, as well as in 32 two-minute episodes on TikTok.
Once more unto the breach
The Australian has had a bad run with the press council, landing another three breaches of general principles after an editorial about journalism standards was found to be inaccurate and unfair last week.
The Liberal National party senator Gerard Rennick complained about a 2022 article in the paper headed “Anti-vax Liberal senator Gerard Rennick refused briefings from Greg Hunt”. The Australian Press Council found no evidence Rennick “actively ‘refused’ or ‘turned down’ these offers” and said the paper “failed to take reasonable steps to be accurate and not misleading”; that the paper failed to take reasonable steps to provide a correction; and that the paper failed to take reasonable steps to present the material with the fairness and balance. That’s a win for Rennick then.
Some better news – with pictures
Back in May Guardian Australia’s Natasha May told you about a State Library of Victoria project to digitise the Sun News-Pictorial, which was the first daily newspaper to make photographs a significant part of its pages, accompanied by shorter, more digestible text. The project began after a donation of the microfilm masters and all editions from 1922 to 1954 will be available on the national online database Trove, once enough funds are raised. Beast is happy to announce the appeal raised more than $400,000, which was double what the library had hoped for, and the library says the story in the Guardian was invaluable. Work has already started on the digitisation.
