Roundup: Tucker Carlson, Disney sues DeSantis, Stan Grant
Business of Media
Carlson's vulgar messages helped seal fall from grace
Several weeks ago, as Fox News lawyers prepared for a courtroom showdown with Dominion Voting Systems, they presented Tucker Carlson with what they thought was good news: They had persuaded the court to redact from a legal filing the time he called a senior Fox News executive the c-word, according to people familiar with the matter, reports Dow Jones' Keach Hagey and Joe Flint. Carlson, Fox News's most-watched prime-time host, wasn't impressed. He told his colleagues that he wanted the world to know what he had said about the executive in a private message, the people said Carlson said comments he made about former President Donald Trump - "I hate him passionately" - that were in the court documents were said during a momentary spasm of anger, while his dislike of this executive was deep and enduring.
The messages were part of a trove of emails and texts from Fox executives and hosts that were made public as a result of Dominion's defamation lawsuit. The voting-machine company accused Fox networks of airing false claims by hosts and guests that Dominion helped rig the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election in favour of Joe Biden. Fox News parent Fox Corp. last week agreed to pay £US787.5 million to settle the dispute.
On Monday, Carlson's famously combative stance toward members of Fox News management and other colleagues caught up with him, as the network abruptly announced it was parting ways with him, just minutes after informing Carlson of the change. [Read More]
Ousted stars Tucker Carlson, Don Lemon steel for legal battle
Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon have hired the same lawyer, one known for his work on some of the most contentious media lawsuits in recent years, to represent them following their unexpected ousters from Fox and CNN - a sign that the high-profile anchors could be gearing up for a legal battle with their former networks, reports The Washington Post's Annabelle Timsit. Los Angeles-based attorney Bryan Freedman is known as a combative litigator who takes on cases pitting media personalities against major television networks, including for Megyn Kelly and Chris Cuomo.
Neither Carlson nor Lemon have mentioned the reasons for their firing, and it is not clear if they plan to take any legal action. Carlson's ouster comes after the release of his private communications about former president Donald Trump and Fox's internal management. Lemon suggested he was unaware that he was going to be fired.
CNN and Fox did not respond to a request for comment, along with Carlson, while a representative for Lemon could not be reached for comment. Freedman, who co-founded a small legal practice to provide the same "expertise and aggressiveness" as large firms, has a track record of negotiating favourable exit packages for controversial media personalities. [Read More]
See Also: Superstar TV news hosts out: Tucker Carlson gone at Fox, Don Lemon fired by CNN
Piers Morgan encouraged illegal targeting of Diana, says Prince Harry
Prince Harry has claimed Piers Morgan "knew about, encouraged and concealed" illegal targeting of Diana, Princess of Wales when he was editor of the News of the World, reports The Guardian's Jim Waterson. Harry alleges that his mother's private text messages and phone calls were obtained by journalists working for Rupert Murdoch's tabloid newspapers before she died, with the information used as the basis for multiple stories in the Sun and the News of the World. Harry alleged in court documents that this illegal targeting of Diana - as well as Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles - was known about and hidden by Morgan and other editors in the mid-1990s.
Morgan, who now hosts a nightly show on Murdoch's TalkTV channel, has always denied any direct knowledge of phone hacking during his time as a tabloid newspaper editor. The television presenter has had repeated run-ins with Harry. In 2021, Morgan quit ITV's Good Morning Britain after making comments about the prince's wife, Meghan.
Harry lists a number of articles that were published during Morgan's time as News of the World editor between January 1994 and August 1995. The prince alleges that all were the result of illegal information-gathering. [Read More]
Disney sues DeSantis over control of its Florida resort
Last year, under pressure from its employees, Disney criticized a Florida education law prohibiting classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity for young students.
Almost instantly, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida started calling the company "Woke Disney" and vowing to show it who was boss, reports The New York Times' Brooks Barnes. "If Disney wants to pick a fight, they chose the wrong guy," DeSantis wrote in a fund-raising email at the time. Since then, Florida legislators, at the urging of DeSantis, have targeted Disney -- the state's largest taxpayer -- with a variety of hostile measures.
In February, they ended Disney's long-held ability to self-govern its 25,000-acre resort as if it were a county. Last week, DeSantis announced plans to subject Disney to new ride inspection regulations. Disney has quietly maneuvered to protect itself, enraging the governor and his allies.
On Wednesday, however, the company decided enough was enough: Disney filed a First Amendment lawsuit against DeSantis and a five-member board that oversees government services at Disney World in federal court, claiming "a targeted campaign of government retaliation." [Read More]
News Brands
Hundreds of SBS staff write to bosses over pay, conditions
More than 200 SBS staff have written to the broadcaster's executives demanding better wages and conditions, as the media union escalates its campaign after success securing a new deal at the ABC, reports Nine Publishing's Sam Buckingham-Jones. Weeks after the ABC held its first strike in 17 years, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) has been asking staff to hand-write notes venting their frustrations to SBS management.
The union is in the middle of negotiating a new enterprise bargaining agreement with SBS executives, who have offered a 9.5 per cent pay rise over the three-year term to February 2026 - annual rises of 4 per cent, 3 per cent and 2.5 per cent. A new agreement is expected to go to a staff vote in coming days. The union has demanded more transparency over wages, more pay grades, access to overtime when working more than five days in a week, and for roles to be advertised internally before going out to market.
Retaining talent has been an ongoing battle at public broadcasters - after prolonged pay disputes, some high-profile ABC talent have recently been leaving for more well-paid communications or corporate roles. In a statement, an SBS spokesperson said: "We have been holding constructive discussions with both MEAA and the CPSU over an extended period and this includes taking on feedback from our employees.
"SBS has put an offer on the table which we believe is fair and which has the highest increase front loaded into the first year. The offer recognises and seeks to balance current cost-of-living pressures on our people, with the broader cost and revenue pressures being experienced by SBS." "SBS is a hybrid funded public broadcaster and the Enterprise Agreement pay offer reflects this funding base.
SBS receives one third of its funding from commercial revenue which makes us more susceptible to shifts in the advertising market." [Read More]
ABC employees given 11 per cent pay rise over three years and £1500 bonus
Thousands of ABC employees will receive an 11 per cent pay rise and £1500 bonus after a majority of staff voted in favour of the new pay deal, reports The Australian's Sophie Elsworth. After several months of negotiations between ABC management, human resources officials and union representatives, the proposed agreement was put to staff for a vote this month and was passed comfortably, with 94.4 per cent voting in favour of the new pay offer.
The nation's largest journalists' union, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, issued a note to its members on Wednesday morning confirming the new enterprise agreement had been successful. ABC staff will receive an 11 per cent pay rise over three years, a £1500 bonus, an audit of gender, race and regional pay gaps and also improved access to progress through pay grades. The pay rise will be backdated to October 1 last year.
Q+A host Stan Grant has reveales his anger at the ABC over its coverage of the Queen's death
ABC presenter Stan Grant has revealed his betrayal by his employer and colleagues in the days after Queen Elizabeth II's death and conceded the upcoming voice referendum had resulted in "deeply wounding" judgment on Indigenous Australians, reports The Australian's Sophie Elsworth. Speaking on ABC's Radio National breakfast program on Monday, Grant - a Wiradjuri, Gurrawin and Dharawal man - conceded he had "visceral anger" following the Queen's death on September 8 last year, which prompted him to spend the next eight weeks writing his new book, The Queen is Dead, which looks into his Indigenous past and faith following her death. "How dare the Queen just die and this country go into mourning, what about my own people who continue to be the most impoverished and imprisoned people," the 59-year-old told ABC host Patricia Karvelas.
"I felt in my own organisation ... a sense of betrayal because the ABC, everyone donned black suits, everyone took on a reverential tone. "We know that the Prime Minister said, 'now is not the time to talk about empire and colonisation, this is not the time to talk about the republic', well it is always the time. "We saw Aboriginal people being attacked because they voice another view and an angry view and they are entitled to our anger, it was time I thought to open it all up and we didn't."
Radio
Brisbane radio ratings: History of 40 years of sackings, slumps and success
They're invited into our homes and cars each day - but there has always been a battle going on behind the scenes with Brisbane's radio crews, reports News Corp. From shock slumps to dramatic sackings, these are the stories - as told at the time - of more than four decades of fighting for bragging rights in the city's radio wars. Rock station FM104 - later to become TripleM - dominated the airwaves in the 1980s before B105 became the dominant force in the 1990s.
Since then the mantle has changed hands as often as radio station's tweak on-air teams, all in the battle for our attention. This is how 40 years of Brisbane's radio wars unfolded. [Read More]
Television
I make a living mocking MasterChef, but can I survive a pressure test?
As I stand at my bench, blood flowing liberally from my finger, on-set nurse applying a blue Band-Aid, with a camera lovingly capturing every moment, I feel a swell of pride.
I think the fact that I managed to cut my finger within 30 seconds of beginning my pressure test is something of a badge of honour. There have been many better cooks than I who've stood in Kitchen HQ - and almost none worse - but I am actually confident I hold the record for the quickest self-maiming in MasterChef history, reports Nine Publishing's Ben Pobjie. Of course, this is not a real MasterChef episode.
I am on this hallowed ground with 11 fellow media professionals, invited along to participate in an authentic pressure test, to experience life on the kitchen floor, to know the frantic desperation of cooking to a tight deadline with cameras tracking your every move. There are no prizes or eliminations at stake, but the exercise is run exactly as it is on TV. Seventy-five minutes - at least eight hours less than I need - to recreate the daunting MasterChef Brownie.
I had hoped it wouldn't be a dessert. I had hoped we would get to make a curry, or a hamburger, or microwave some popcorn. Something in my wheelhouse, so to speak.
For the fact is - and it's a fact I hadn't previously thought about much but which came crashing violently down upon my head as soon as the cloche was lifted to reveal that brownie - I have never baked anything in my life. Like ... ever. Not a cake.
Not a cookie. And certainly not a brownie that, despite its elegantly simple appearance, was revealed by the recipe to be only marginally less complex than the average military weapons system. [Read More]
Karl Stefanovic left cackling after live cross to nudist beach goes wrong
Karl Stefanovic has succumbed to a fit of giggles on air after it was pointed out that a reporter, on scene at a Queensland nudist beach, opted to wear a trench coat, reports News Corp's Elena Couper.
Reporter Mia Glover was reporting live for the Today show from Alexandria Bay on the Sunshine Coast, an "unofficial nudist beach" for the best part of several decades. She took to the sandy shores on Wednesday to report on a crackdown on nudity after police fined several people for wilful exposure in early April. "It even hosted the nude Olympics for six decades, can you believe it?" Glover said.
Stefanovic was left in tears after Glover awkwardly attempted to relay an incident at the beach in family-friendly language. "There was also one gentleman who was there ... who was, I don't know how to say this on air ... maybe giving himself a bit of a treat nearby to some other people on the beach," she said. "He was fined as well."