Peter Costello's shoulder barge turns Nine's omnishambles into a shit show
Welcome to an end-of-week edition of Unmade after an extraordinary day in media where the boss of Australia’s biggest local media company assaulted a journalist from a rival publication and still seems to think he can keep his job. Further down, a bad day for Seven on the Unmade Index
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First rule of Chairman’s Club: Don’t fight on camera
For me, it’s not the dropped shoulder to put Liam Mendes on the ground that makes my blood boil. It’s the sneer afterwards, as Peter Costello looks at the journalist from a rival newspaper who has been asking impertinent questions, now lying at his feet.
Costello, employer of more than 800 journalists, then stalks off without checking whether the reporter he has just knocked over is okay. It’s not the way a normal human being behaves after an accidental collision. It’s the way that privileged occupants of the Chairman’s Lounge behave when they’re forced to interact with one of the impertinent little people.
There’s no recovering from that video. Every one of Nine’s staff will have seen it. Every one of Costello’s shareholders. And the rest of his divided board.
Like a dodgy tradie provoked by one of his A Current Affair camera crews, Costello lost his cool.
But unlike those tradies, Costello is chairman of the company that asks journalists to put themselves in harm’s way, and demands their safety. He no longer has the moral authority to do that.
Just as Nine appeared to have weathered the immediate storm over its handling of newsroom sexual harassment allegations, Costello demonstrated a total lack of judgement.
The worst fortnight of his post-political career has ended with this utter disaster.
To recap, Nine’s crisis began just 16 days ago, when The Daily Telegraph, published by the company’s biggest rival News Corp, splashed with claims about departed director of news and current affairs Darren Wick. Under the headline “Nine’s Wicked Ways”, it made allegations of lecherous and abusive behaviour.
But most damagingly for “Australia’s media company”, came allegations that management and the board were aware of the issue and had swept it under the carpet.
Last week CEO Mike Sneesby won a little breathing space with the board deciding to support him, alongside the commissioning of a report into the company newsroom culture. There’s nothing like announcing an inquiry to take the heat out of a situation.
And the came the Canberra incident, revealed by The Australian at 6pm.
With iPhone and GoPro both recording, Mendes was waiting for Costello as he headed down the airport escalators. The journalist began to pepper him with questions about the scandal.
It looked like an ambush: aggressive, confrontational journalism, albeit phrased politely. It was “Mr Costello”, not Peter. But it still wasn’t quite the done thing. Costello is the closest Nine has to a proprietor and there’s usually an unwritten rule that the moguls don’t get personal about each other.
The video shows Costello drop a shoulder and lean in. No punch is thrown, but there was no way Mendes wasn’t going to hit the deck.
Costello looks down, makes no effort to help, and stalks off. Mendes manages to catch up with Costello, asking the right question with admirable composure in the circumstances: ““Is that behaviour really appropriate, to a journalist who is working?”
Later Costello had to answer questions from his own journalists about the incident at the launch of Nine’s new Canberra office. He claimed the reporter tripped over. “It’s not assault. As I said before he was backing backwards. He hit an advertising placard. I did not lay a finger or a fist or anything else”.
I’ve watched the video several times and can’t spot an advertising placard. Nonetheless, I must check with QMS, who have the exclusive ad rights to Canberra Airport, whether they have indeed erected a dangerous trip hazard in the middle of the arrivals hall.
Costello told his journo that the suggestion he should resign is “rubbish”.
Nine also issued a statement: “After arriving at Canberra Airport, the Chairman was confronted by a journalist from The Australian. In the course of filming the Chairman while walking backwards, the journalist collided with an advertising placard and fell. At no point did the chairman strike the journalist.”
Watch the video and make up your own mind.
Nine is a key member of the Your Right To Know coalition. It campaigns for journalist safety. Even for the right to ask annoying questions of public figures in public places.
If he doesn’t resign immediately, the incident weakens Costello further in the face of what is by all accounts a divided and leaky board, and executive team.
In a weird way, resigning over this might be a more dignified exit for Costello. Better to go after a hot headed moment and claim it as a matter of principle, than dying by a thousand cuts as the Wick saga and questions about the wider management culture roll on.
I presume though that he’ll fight on. I hope he doesn’t come out swinging.
Unmade Index back on the up
The Unmade Index crept back towards its 500-point boundary on Thursday, rising 0.75% to 493.5 points.
Among the broadcast stocks, Seven West Media had the worst of it, falling another 2.7% to a market capitalisation of just $277m. Nine gained 1.06%; ARN Media gained 1.32% and Southern Cross Austereo lost 1.35%.
Time to leave you to it. We’ll be back with more on Saturday morning with Best of the Week. Among other things, I’ll explore the abrupt departure of Luke Girgis from Brag Media months after selling it to Vinyl Group.
Toodlepip…
Tim Burrowes
Publisher - Unmade
tim@unmade.media