From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …

Tom Elliott does not like this talk of socialism. The 3AW presenter took to his Herald Sun column last week to lambast new New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern for saying that capitalism had failed New Zealanders.

“Unlike the new Kiwi PM, I’ve experienced genuine socialism up close” the mid-afternoon drivetime exponent asserts. He continues:

“In 1987 my father and I visited the Soviet Union — a truly awful place. Russian men drank huge quantities of vodka …”  Well thanks Solzhenitsyn, that sounds like an instructive ordeal. The father in question? That would be one-time multi-millionaire John Elliott would it? Thank god for a free enterprise society where people like Tom can work their way up by their own initiative. Mind you, though opposed to socialism, Tom is no fan of democracy. Like many he greeted the 2010 return of Julia Gillard with a call for democracy to be replaced by a dictatorship of experts. Excellent stuff. 

Look out for O’Reilly. It should be very interesting analysts briefing this week. On Thursday morning Sydney time Lachlan and James Murdoch face analysts (and listening media) to see if there are any more revelations about the sacking of Fox News’ biggest star, Bill O’Reilly and the shock New York Times story that Fox bosses knew about an even bigger settlement, but rehired him to a higher US$100 million contract over four years. That contract was terminated in April after the New York Times reported O’Reilly had settled five harassment cases for US$13 million.

21st Century Fox CEO, James Murdcoch said the on Friday night the $32 million sexual harassment settlement paid by former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly was “news to me”. Speaking in New York at a media function (the Paley Center for Media International Council Summit) Murdoch said, “It was news to me when we saw that number the other day”.

Fox said last weekend (after the NYT reported the settlement and the figure) that at the time of the contract renewal, 21st Century: “knew that a sexual harassment lawsuit had been threatened against him … but was informed by Mr. O’Reilly that he had settled the matter personally, on financial terms that he and Ms Wiehl had agreed were confidential and not disclosed to the company.”

James Murdoch added that the settlement was paid by O’Reilly, not by the company. He also said it is a given that some Fox employees are going to “behave badly at times,” though his priority is to make sure that when the company does discover evidence of misdeeds, “we can react to that information. We can be decisive about it, as we were with Roger Ailes, as we were with Bill O’Reilly.” Fired by Fox News in April, O’Reilly was back on the channel with host Sean Hannity for a guest appearance without any objection from the parent company or James Murdoch. His father, Rupert is chairman of Fox News.

Beginning of the end? A small despatch from Melbourne’s north-eastern suburbs, where former Denis Napthine staffer Eddy Gisonda was elected chair of the Menzies Liberal Annual General Meeting last night. With 124 votes to 108, he was the victor over Kevin Andrews’ ally Andrew Asten, who is chief of staff to Human Services minister Alan Tudge. We’ll be watching Andrews’ fates closely.

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