Amanda Meade 

Royal reverse as Nine’s 60 Minutes goes from ‘scandal’ to sympathy for Princess of Wales

Original story scrutinised ‘Catherine’s photoshopping blunder’ but its replacement heaped praise on ‘a courageous woman’. Plus: David McBride v the ABC
  
  

The Princess of Wales seen during a video message where she reveals she is having treatment for cancer
60 Minutes’ negative story on the royals was dropped and replaced with one completely different after Catherine revealed she was undergoing cancer treatment. Photograph: EyePress News/Rex/Shutterstock

Nine’s 60 Minutes did a reverse ferret on its story about the Princess of Wales, titled Crown and Out, which it had slated for Sunday.

After the promotional material had gone out spruiking the “scandal of Princess Catherine’s photoshopping blunder” and “the fact the star royal hadn’t been seen in public for so long” came Kate’s announcement she had cancer.

Crown and Out was to be the second week London reporter Adam Hegarty had asked royal insiders “what’s really going on” and “which member of the family might be competent enough to restore the shine to the crown?”

The negative story about the royals was quickly dropped and replaced with one completely different in tone.

When it went to air the show opened with the words: “Devastating. Frightening. Overwhelming. For anyone, a diagnosis of cancer is tough to comprehend. But it’s even more so when you’re one of the most recognised people on the planet.”

“In little more than 36 hours though, Catherine, Princess of Wales has shown what a courageous woman she is,” the voiceover says. “She’s also, inadvertently, taught the world a valuable lesson. That gossip and rumour are more often than not, the furthest things from the truth.”

Not a word about the program’s role in airing the “endless speculation” of course.

Sending Adelaide’s best

Meanwhile, Murdoch’s South Australian tabloid, the Advertiser, devoted six pages of reader messages to Kate, which we are sure will warm the princess’s heart when she gets a copy of the Tiser.

“Australians have opened their hearts to the Princess of Wales after her shock cancer diagnosis, with messages to be sent to London,” the editorial said.

“The Advertiser today publishes reader messages praising the mother of three’s grace and courage. Every reader who left a note is named. Governor Frances Adamson will now pass on the outpourings directly to Kensington Palace.”

McBride v ABC

David McBride’s legal team has accused the ABC of breaching an undertaking not to broadcast a Four Corners program about the former army lawyer until after he was sentenced.

McBride’s lawyer, the former Gold Walkley-winning journalist Mark Davis, told the Weekly Beast he and his team eventually agreed to be filmed behind the scenes after the ABC repeatedly assured him the program would not go to air until after McBride was sentenced.

“That undertaking effectively resolved our concerns about revealing any element of David’s defence during the trial,” Davis said.

But after the sentencing, initially due on 12 March, was delayed until May, Four Corners told Davis by text they had scheduled the program for Monday 25 March. He said he was furious and made it known to the program.

“To see a respected program trash court reporting conventions, burn sources and subjects and project an air of untrustworthiness just can’t be ignored,” Davis said.

The ABC initially told Weekly Beast that McBride was comfortable with the date of the broadcast and did not deny they had given Davis an undertaking not to broadcast before the sentencing date.

“Throughout the five months of filming the Four Corners team had ongoing discussions with David McBride, his PR representative and members of his legal team about the possible broadcast date, which changed due to the changing court dates,” an ABC spokesperson told Weekly Beast.

“This included discussing with each of McBride, his PR and Mark Davis the options of broadcasting either before or after sentencing submissions. Mr McBride made it clear to Four Corners he was comfortable with the program running on 25 March. Mr Davis was kept informed.”

Subsequently, after Weekly Beast was published, a spokesperson said the ABC rejected the allegation by Davis and insisted “we didn’t give Davis an undertaking”.

Eau de Alone

The Weekly Beast thought SBS had hit send too early on an April Fools’ Day joke when an announcement arrived that the multicultural broadcaster had created a limited edition, unisex fragrance called Alone Cologne. Designed to mark season two of its hit show Alone Australia, it is “a fragrance capturing the essence of being alone in the wilderness with an ‘an ode to odour’”.

Alone Cologne is described as “stale notes of campfire soot, rain-soaked dampness and earthy moss”.

Having received a box containing Alone Cologne in the Guardian Australia office, we can confirm it has “overwhelming notes of rotten game flesh, which sing in harmony with smoked fish skin, unwashed skin and greasy hair”. It’s a mixture of sweat, halitosis and bodily fluids in the New Zealand wilderness.

It wasn’t until we read the fine print we realised it was not a crazy promotional spin-off product from SBS’s marketing department, it was a crazy social media influencer campaign to spread the message about the show, which debuted on Wednesday.

The clue: “This limited-edition fragrance has been released into the wild to celebrate the premiere of Alone Australia Season 2. It is not available for sale.”

Meta about-face

Some guests at the 22nd annual IT Journalism awards at Doltone House in Sydney on Friday night thought it was a little odd that Meta was one of the major sponsors.

After all, hadn’t Facebook’s parent company declared it would not enter into new deals to fund journalism, kicking off a fight with the Albanese government that could see the company designated under the news media bargaining code.

Presenting an award at the event, Meta’s head of communications, Joanna Stevens, acknowledged the elephant in the room.

“I just want to say it’s really a great privilege to be part of tonight,” Stevens said. “Despite what you may have read recently we really do value great journalism. And we’re really proud to be associated with tonight and we really do think that everyone here does a fantastic job.”

Her glowing assessment of the relationship between Facebook and the media certainly isn’t reflected in most of the coverage of late. The Australian and the Australian Financial Review have declared Meta is at war with the media and the Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is a “tech tyrant”.

Another major sponsor, Optus, also acknowledged that its 2022 data breach and November 2023 national outage, while bad news for the company, had been a great source of news for tech reporters.

Guardian Australia’s investigations reporter Ariel Bogle picked up two awards for her reporting, including best news journalist and best technology issues journalist.

 

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