usa.bryanrite.com –

A rare fight between Rupert Murdoch’s Australian mastheads has been playing out in plain sight since news.com.au published an exclusive interview with a sexual assault survivor last week which was critical of the Australian’s podcast, Shadow of Doubt. The TikTok video accompanying the article has been watched 9.5m times.

A series of stories by Walkley award-winning investigative reporter Nina Funnell for news.com.au has been generating clicks The Australian can only dream of: 860,000 unique page views in just over a week. No doubt this only increased The Australian’s ire about the popular news site’s criticism of its podcast Shadow of Doubt and host Richard Guilliatt.

We won’t go into the distressing details of the case here, but Guilliatt interviewed the convicted child sex offenders from jail, which devastated the survivor.

The Australian appeared to target news.com.au with a lengthy rebuttal from Guilliatt and an editorial claiming the “articles were riddled with so many errors, omissions and misrepresentations that news.com.au has already revised them online.”

But that wasn’t enough cross-fire. An eagle-eyed observer would have noticed one of Funnell’s news.com.au articles was amended after publication to add additional comment by the Australian – even though it already included a lengthy response from Guilliatt.

A new article published on news.com.au on Tuesday scrubbed all mention of Guilliatt, Shadow of Doubt and the Australian, referring instead to “a public podcast” and the “journalist responsible”.

We asked the Australian’s editor-in-chief, Michelle Gunn, and news.com.au editor, Kerry Warren, what happened behind the scenes but they did not offer an explanation.

ABC strike fires up Sky

The ABC’s 24-hour strike has really fired up the folks at Sky News Australia, providing the rightwing news channel with colourful takes and juicy fodder for dozens of online stories and videos.

On Wednesday, as the strike began at 11am, Sky News reporters were dispatched to follow ABC employees into the pub, snap photos of what they were drinking and note the cost.

“After taking the day off work to beg the Australian taxpayer for more money, ABC staff have been spotted day drinking in a popular Sydney pub, where a pint of beer will set you back $15 a glass,” they wrote. “Earlier that day ABC staff were spotted holding signs suggesting they could not afford to pay their power bills.”

Chris Kenny, whose signature move at Sky has been to attack the ABC, was outraged his favourite shows were off air.

Although Kenny derides ABC content as “green left”, he was furious that the strike was “depriving us of our normal services”, and he called for presenters, who had told viewers they were going on strike to demand better pay and conditions, to be sacked.

Kenny also made sledges such as “they’ll probably never rate higher.”

For a 24-hour news channel that regularly calls for the ABC to be privatised or de-funded, Sky spent a lot of time talking about how much viewers would miss. One reporter told host Peter Stefanovic that “viewers wanted to tune in to watch the news at 7” but had to settle for Hard Quiz. One headline said “ABC viewers forced to watch comedy reruns”.

“And this morning when viewers wanted to tune in to the ABC Breakfast show, well, they instead had to watch the international coverage from ABC’s UK affiliates, BBC,” the reporter said.

Shadow communications minister Sarah Henderson was given a lot of airtime to say the strike was a “disgrace”, but also appeared to back the important work the ABC does: “There has never been a more important time in this country when we need ABC journalists and other content makers to be out in the field informing Australians.”

Union access curtailed

Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance members passed the following motion after returning to work on Thursday after a 24-hour strike: “MEAA members are deeply concerned by the statements made by Hugh Marks. These statements show that our managing director has either been misinformed by the people he employs to lead these negotiations, or is wilfully misrepresenting the conduct and status of bargaining.”

The motion followed an interview in which the managing director said staff had treated taking industrial action as “a bit of a game”.

Weekly Beast can reveal that tensions were running so high this week that the people and culture manager informed the unions of a major change in their access to union members on ABC properties.

At 5pm on Wednesday the MEAA and the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) received notice that union officials could no longer use a union member or delegate as an escort when they visit a work site. “The ABC has changed its process so that effective immediately, an escort will be provided by the ABC. This will be a member of the P&C team, a security team member or possibly another ABC representative.’

“The permit holder will be taken to the meal/break area of their choice, where they are to remain. Should they wish to change locations they must contact the representative (if they are not with them) and then be escorted to the next location or the exit. ROE permit holders are not to walk through the building, work stations or other areas unless escorted by the ABC representative.”

A spokesperson for the ABC said the change was necessary because union officials were disrupting staff while they were working and were accessing unauthorised areas.

Lateline headliner returns

It appears there is life after being made redundant by the ABC. Back in 2018, multi-award-winning journalist and foreign correspondent Ginny Stein was made redundant after the ABC axed Lateline. It was an ignominious end to a sparkling career in public broadcasting.

Stein went on to be managing editor for Radio Free Asia’s South Asia division based in Washington DC, until it was closed down by Donald Trump.

This week, UTS announced the veteran journo was now a professor of journalism: she had been appointed head of discipline for journalism at the School of Communication, Faculty of Design and Society.