Reinstate Daily Mail journo: union. The journalists’ union wants Daily Mail Australia to reinstate the journalist who was sacked for calling reality TV stars “vapid cunts” in an apparently un-subedited piece published to the website on Sunday. The MEAA has written to management, calling for April Glover to be given her job back. MEAA media director Katelin McInerney said in a statement that the decision was “incredibly harsh and unfair”. “(It) points to failings in the Daily Mail Australia’s editorial processes that should have been in place to prevent the publication of errors,” she said. McInerney said the incident showed the pressures that journalists face working for digital publications, where there are often large workloads, little training for young staff and an absence of editorial oversight.
McInerney wouldn’t confirm how many union members are in the Daily Mail Australia newsroom, but said they had been in touch with Glover. The Daily Mail Australia apologised for the offensive language, but would not comment earlier this week further on its editorial processes.
Sales v Comey. ABC 7.30 host and former US correspondent Leigh Sales has flown to New York to conduct a sit-down interview with former FBI director James Comey, who is currently promoting his book. The Australian exclusive interview will air tomorrow on the program. In a statement, the ABC said the interview wasn’t conducted by any of its staff based in the US (including US bureau chief Zoe Daniel, Stephanie March and Connor Duffy) because Sales and the program had been chasing the interview “for some time”. “Because 7.30 secured the interview, and Leigh is the anchor of 7.30, it was logical she would do it,” the statement said. “Leigh and 7.30 have a tradition of doing the big extended news interviews on the program, for instance Hillary Clinton, Condoleeza Rice and Henry Kissinger.”
Front page of the day. Fox host Sean Hannity has been outed as a client (which he’s kind-of denied) of Michael Cohen, a long-serving Donald Trump lawyer whose office, home and hotel room were raided by the FBI, relating to payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, both of whom say they had an affair with Trump. Hannity had not previously disclosed his relationship with Cohen, including when he interviewed him as a guest on his program and separately ranted about the raids. Vanity Fair reports the revelation has prompted widespread discontent at Fox, even among loyalists.
And the New York Daily News has taken its usual subtle approach on the story:
Why 1968 Matters. Our very own Helen Razer will be speaking in Sydney at the first of a series of forums on the year 1968, about the “cultural turn and the neoliberal era that placed politics beyond the reach of the people”. The event, to be hosted by Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon, will be held on May 16. Register here.
Glenn Dyer’s TV Ratings. My Kitchen Rules (1.93 million) enjoyed its highest audience so far this season. Tonight is the night when two contestants will be expelled from the competition for doing what they were put on TV to do — being obstreperous, argumentative and at times offensive.
Interview, the new Seven program hosted by Andrew Denton for his return to mainstream TV worked nicely, won its 9pm timeslot with 871,000 national viewers. The success of Interview and its wider appeal was underlined by the utter failure of Nine’s new program, Date Night at 9pm, which could only manage 322,000 national viewers (yes, 322,000). The Voice averaged 1.15 million nationally last night — more than 20% down on the Sunday return figure of 1.49 million.
In regional markets, Seven’s night with MKR on top with 614,000, followed by Seven News with 546,000. Seven News/Today Tonight was third with 471,000, then Home and Away with 437,000 and ACA was fourth with 354,000. Read the rest on the Crikey website.
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