The Oz’s Twiggy apology. It took almost a year, but The Weekend Australian has apologised to mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest for a feature run in its magazine in May last year. The piece, titled “Sorry Business” was by The Oz’s WA chief reporter and Forrest biographer Andrew Burrell, and canvassed a deal Forrest did in WA’s Goldfields in the 1990s. But on Saturday, the paper published a carefully-worded apology in its print edition, and gave it a prominent place outside the usual story links on its homepage on Saturday. The Oz had no comment, but in its apology said: “If any readers of The Australian considered the article meant that Mr Forrest mistreated Aboriginal people of the Western Australian Goldfields or that he took advantage of this community, The Australian and Andrew Burrell apologise.” The apology also noted Forrest’s “significant philanthropic contributions … including, specifically to the overcoming of indigenous disadvantage” and he and wife Nicola’s $400 million last year — the largest single philanthropic gift by a living person in Australian history.

Burrell’s book, Twiggy: The High-Stakes Life of Andrew Forrest, was an unauthorised biography published in 2014 and won the 2014 Ashurst Business Literature Prize.

Kate who? Over at Fairfax, the glossy weekend magazine Good Weekend made a less consequential misstep on Saturday when illustrating a profile of Instagram star Celeste Barber with an image of actor Kate Hudson, but subtitled Kate Upton. Spotted by news.com.au’s Rebecca Sullivan on Twitter, the online version has now been corrected.

Sky’s newest ex-pollie host. Former NT Chief Minister Adam Giles has made his debut as Sky News’ newest evening show host. Giles now lives in country Victoria with his partner Phoebe Stewart — a former NT News and ABC journalist, and former NT government staffer — and their children, and started worked for Hancock Prospecting when his Country Liberal Party lost government in 2016. Giles launched into his first show last night by saying he wouldn’t be swayed by his former political allegiances, and took a thinly-veiled swipe at political commentary from other ex-politicians: “Too many former pollies can’t let go,” he said.

Media Watch Dog’s gotcha. When an old dog catches a dead bird, and staggers inside with it in his mouth, you gotta give him credit. So to Gerard “Gollum” Henderson, whose “Media Watch Dog” is the Mad Magazine of the prostate right. Gollum thinks he has found plagiarism in your Crikey:

And what about the piece in Eric Beecher’s Crikey by Guy Rundle, Hendo’s favourite Marxist comedian? As viewers of the Sky News’ Outsiders program will be aware, co-presenter Rowan Dean has maintained for eons that he watches certain ABC TV programs so that Outsiders viewers don’t have to.

Guess what? Comrade Rundle pinched your man Dean’s line in a piece in Crikey on 23 April which was attributed to Crikey‘s correspondent-at-large titled “Guy Rundle reads the Oz so that you don’t have to“. The piece, by Comrade Rundle, concluded: “I read the Oz so you don’t have to.”

In fact, the phrase “I read X, so you don’t have to” has been around for a decade or more, a classic of the Gawker-era net. The earliest use I can find is in 2006 on a blog — a blog! that’s how old it is! — called “Green Gabbro”, heading an excoriating review of (former Australian contributor) Susan Maushart’s book Wifework, headed, er; “I read Wifework so you don’t have to“. By 2008 it was taking off: “I read Lynne Spears so you dont have to‘; ‘I read Twilight so you don’t have to“, “We read the Economist so you don’t have to.
The joke itself is a variant on the old advertising slogan “we do the work so you don’t have to” which has again been around for decades. No gotcha Hendo. The trick here is believing that wet, inverted ugg boot Rowan Dean could come up with anything interesting except an edition of the Spectator Australia containing a half-million dollar libel by Nick Cater. I read Media Watch Dog SYDHT. — Guy Rundle

Glenn Dyer’s TV Ratings. MKR finished last night, so Seven won. MKR managed 2.22 million for the winners’ announcement (2.15 million for the 2017 announcement). The lead-up averaged 1.96 million (down from 2.022 million a year ago). In the metros the winners’ announcement rose on a year ago to 1.54 million from 1.48 million, while the lead-up dipped to 1.36 million from 1.39 million. The regional audience for the winner’s announcement averaged 679,000, up 9,000 on 2017. The Voice did well with 1.47 million, but there seems to be a singing shortfall at times. A lot of chat from the judges.

In the regions the MKR winner was tops with 679,000, followed by the MKR lead-up with 600,000. Seven News was third with 499,000, then The Voice with 451,000 and Nine News with 436,000. Read the rest at Glenn Dyer’s TV Ratings.