The Weekend Australian had a day out on Saturday, eagerly delivering its verdict on ABC News 24 just 24-hours after the station launched. In a triple-bylined front-page ‘Inside Story’ piece, and an accompanying editorial, the paper screamed ‘bias!’ because News 24 failed to cover a Tony Abbott press conference on border protection live, while the PM’s climate change prognostications were shown as they happened.

Luckily, the white knights at Sky News, who share a part-owner in News Limited with The Oz and are currently embroiled in a battle with the ABC to run the federal government’s $100 million Asia-Pacific television service, were on hand to assist with extensive coverage of both events.

But the problem for The Australian was that the 1,500-word yarn, written by Media editor Geoff Elliott, China correspondent Michael Sainsbury and former investigative reporter Caroline Overington, had to be worked up less than 24 hours after ABC News 24 launched. It commissioned Media Monitors to recount ABC TV’s fleeting references to Mark Latham’s criticisms of Labor that week compared with the more extensive coverage afforded to Malcolm Fraser’s resignation from the Libs in May.

It lined up critics of the ABC, including Sydney Institute director Gerard Henderson and Crikey media writer Margaret Simons, and chided The 7:30 Report‘s Kerry O’Brien for his “tone” in an interview with shadow treasurer Joe Hockey. It also quoted ABC Chairman Maurice Newman “on the night of ABC’s new station launch” in Beijing, suggesting the ABC still needed to live up to the fair and balanced provisions in its charter.

Overington was at it again yesterday, writing the station had also ignored a weekend press conference in favour of a report on AFL, while an Abbott immigration sound-grab was apparently shunted for a piece on menopause.

Of course, absent from the reports was any disclosure of News’ joint-ownership of Sky through BSkyB (whose most powerful non-executive director and chairman is James Murdoch, the next in line for his father’s throne). Or, indeed, last week’s debut of a new Sky News media segment fronted by Overington and Elliott.

Or, perhaps more importantly, any reference to the battle for supremacy in Asia, which formally kicked off last week when competing submissions from Sky and the ABC on the future of the Australia Network were sent to foreign minister Stephen Smith.

As The Australian itself pointed out yesterday in a separate article: “The battle of Australia Network comes at a particularly tense time for the ABC and Sky, which is owned by Seven, Nine and BSkyB (part-owned by News Corporation, publisher of The Australian). The two broadcasters are now direct competitors following the launch of the ABC’s 24-hour news channel.”

The Weekend Australian‘s editorial went on to sledge the ABC and its managing director Mark Scott over everything from Q&A host Tony Jones’ interviewing style to the various agendas of morning radio hosts:

“The Weekend Australian wants to welcome it [ABC News 24] as a tough competitor for breaking stories and objective analysis. But we wonder whether we will be able to, with the opening days dominated by oft-repeated soft stories and journalists interviewing their peers. This is par for the course for Mr Scott. When it comes to managing news and current affairs, he is less marvel than magician, creating only the illusion of enormous amounts of hard news.”

The paper branded ABC 774 Melbourne host Jon Faine (whose name it misspelled) a “1960s socialist” but at least commended him as “a serious journalist who asks tough questions” compared with the “deep-green” Deborah Cameron and the “irrelevant” Madonna King.

A source inside the paper’s Surry Hills bunker says Saturday editor Nick Cater is “obsessed” with pursuing the ABC, along with editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell. “It’s not their story,” the source says, referring to Elliott and Overington.

Crikey understands Sky News CEO Angelos Frangopolous has been a key player in the rash of stories that have appeared in The Oz. On Monday The Australian ran a facetious letter in its media section from Frangopoulos to ABC chief Mark Scott. “Best wishes to everyone at ABC News 24 on your big day,” he wrote.

But the geniality belies the outright hostility Frangopoulos has levelled at the new channel. He’s issued legal threats over the name ‘News 24’ and is said to have placed numerous calls to Australian journalists, bagging everything about the channel from its place under the ABC charter to its political editor Chris Uhlmann.

Crikey understands Frangopoulos has suggested that Uhlmann should have resigned once his wife Gai Brodtmann became a candidate for the Labor Party (Uhlmann publicly discloses the potential for conflict and told Crikey it’s manageable) and even suggested he has no charisma on television. (Frangopoulos denied the claim to Crikey this morning and says Uhlmann is an “outstanding political journalist”.)

Eyebrows have also been raised by Newman again speaking outside official channels. Last week the ABC chairman was in Beijing to sign an agreement on behalf of Aunty with the Shanghai Media Group. But he used the opportunity to talk to Sainsbury about the ABC, in addition to benign quotes on the Chinese economy which popped up the paper’s business section.

Meanwhile, Simons is puzzled why a newspaper that has criticised her coverage of The Australian‘s vendetta against the Victorian Police commissioner Simon Overland was suddenly putting her forward as a voice of reason. As she wrote on her blog:

“The Australian is a campaigning newspaper, and that can be a fine thing. Recently, though, it seems to be blind to its own contradictions and conflicts. Reality shifts and warps in its pages, depending on its cause of the week. When I criticise the ABC, I am a commentator who should be listened to. When I criticise The Australian, or its stablemates, I am beneath contempt.”

Frangopolous rejected the claims of nefarious influence when contacted by Crikey: “My absolute focus has been on working on Sky News’ coverage of the federal election. I have a good relationship with Mark Scott and have the greatest respect for him. The fact that we do not agree on the ‘big picture’ does not mean that there is any personal animosity, that is false.”

He rejected the claims of “white anting”, saying Sky News had provided ABC News 24 with a live satellite feed of the prime minister’s Brisbane address because their broadband connection failed and that ABC News Radio ran the audio from Sky News in its entirety.

“The ABC is a big organisation — Sky News has 110 journalists and the ABC has 1000,” Frangopoulos added, a point also reported on the front page of Saturday’s Australian.