It’s me, hello, I’m the issue, it’s me
NSW Police commissioner Karen Webb loves quoting Taylor Swift, and judging from the very fact she’s burnt by three of the 4 chief spinners which have suggested the commissioner since 2006 in her two-year stint, a mirrored image within the phrases of the refrain of Swift’s “Anti-Hero” is perhaps acceptable.
Webb’s latest appointee has already begun with controversy, not least for his resumé. Steve Jackson, described as a “cowboy” by 2GB host Ben Fordham this week, will depart Seven’s Highlight to hitch the drive, after a greater than tumultuous yr. Jackson was a finalist for a 2023 Walkley Award for Highlight’s interview with Bruce Lehrmann, who was accused of raping fellow Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins in Parliament Home in 2019 (which he denies). The interview was later disqualified after it emerged Highlight had paid the hire on a house in Sydney’s northern seashores for Lehrmann, with out disclosing the cost within the entry.
The Sydney Morning Herald stories Jackson is a private acquaintance of Ross Neilson, Police Minister Yasmin Catley’s chief of employees, and that Neilson put Jackson’s identify ahead for the function, which is on a “momentary foundation for six months”, in accordance with the minister’s workplace.
It comes after Webb dismissed her earlier chief media adviser, former Sunday Mail editor and Sunday Telegraph deputy editor Liz Deegan. Webb got here below fireplace over her dealing with of the alleged murders of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies by serving officer Beau Lamarre-Condon of their Paddington residence earlier this month. Deegan had served within the function for slightly below a yr, changing former Seven and 9 journalist Alexandra Hodgkinson.
Hodgkinson herself was employed a month into Webb’s tenure, changing Grant Williams, who had served for almost all of earlier commissioner Mick Fuller’s time period. The final media head to not lose their job below Webb was Strath Gordon, the present head of public affairs and communication for the Australian Olympic Committee. Gordon served for greater than a decade as chief spinner for NSW Police, starting in September 2006.
Gordon’s tenure as media head will be the purpose for Webb’s unusual try at a light-hearted popular culture reference, with Gordon accountable for the drive’s flip to extra relatable social media content material within the mid-2010s.
A timeline of employees anger at Aunty
This week, union employees on the ABC registered one other vote of no confidence in managing director David Anderson, as round 75 employees voted to cross a movement calling on content material chief Chris Oliver-Taylor to resign. A collective assertion from employees mentioned they have been “outraged by the revelations of how ABC executives have disregarded the independence of the ABC [and] broken the general public’s belief in our capability to report with out worry or favour”, over Oliver-Taylor’s proof given throughout the ongoing Antoinette Lattouf Honest Work case in opposition to the ABC.
It’s the newest in a collection of ABC employees actions over the Lattouf case, which noticed her not full a week-long fill-in contract in December on ABC Radio Sydney after posting a Human Rights Watch report about Gaza on her Instagram story.
In January the ABC’s federal politics reporter Nour Haydar left the nationwide broadcaster over its Gaza protection, becoming a member of Guardian Australia’s Full Story workforce.
“Dedication to variety within the media can’t be pores and skin deep,” Haydar mentioned on her departure.
“Culturally numerous employees needs to be revered and supported even after they problem the established order. Loss of life and destruction on the size we now have seen over latest months has made me reassess my priorities.”
Round 190 ABC employees downed instruments in January to demand that Anderson return from holidays and clarify Lattouf’s alleged dismissal, whereas ABC administration declined interviews on Radio Nationwide.
Strikes
- 9’s nationwide director of stories and present affairs Darren Wick has resigned after greater than 13 years within the function. It comes after constant hypothesis within the Information Corp papers over Wick’s whereabouts.
- Paramount’s government vice chairman and chief content material officer Beverley McGarvey has been promoted to president of Community 10, with oversight of each the printed and streaming companies.
- Immediately presenter Brooke Boney will depart the present after 5 years on this system. After the Paris Olympics, for which 9 is a rights-holder, she is going to start finding out on the College of Oxford.
- Seven West government Bruce McWilliam will depart the corporate to give attention to his media advisory and property portfolio, having labored as an government at Seven for 21 years.
