Australian Media Buzz: Sandilands' Comeback, Rinehart Controversy, ABC Scrutiny, and Industry Disputes

“Crushed but not broken.” “He’s back.” “I don’t miss Jackie.” Kyle Sandilands was front-page news for two days running at News Corp’s Daily Telegraph last weekend, as a “Sandilands special” breathily detailed his return to the limelight after being axed from Kiis FM.

On Wednesday, the Tele reported “what the shock jock is really like”. The answers were glowing: “interesting”, “so funny”, “inherently charming” and a “man of the people” were just a few of the descriptors.

The Tele’s website has run 16 articles on Sandilands in the past week, including a 33-minute video interview. It coincides with the launch of the former radio host’s new venture, an app and website named “Kyle Sandilands Live”.

For a flat annual rate of $99, subscribers gain access to daily four-hour live shows, starting on 10 August, and a four-part documentary, At Home With Kyle, which largely consists of Sandilands sitting on his couch in a tracksuit talking about how he’s totally fine. “Here I am, fuckin’ fired!” he cries at one point with a laugh.

It’s an interesting move while his former co-host, Jackie “O” Henderson, is still in court, particularly given the subscription grants users access to a community forum where they can air their views at leisure.

‘I’ll take that one’

Unsurprisingly, Henderson won’t be appearing on Kyle Sandilands Live, but he’s moved on from his messy work breakup into a new partnership with a news.com.au reporter who has extensively covered him.

Wealth and culture reporter Mary Madigan, 31, was revealed in a news.com.au exclusive to be joining Sandilands on the program as a newsreader.

“I will present the show and Mary will be like the second tier and then there’s also the other ensemble cast as well,” Sandilands told News Corp. He became aware of Madigan after viewing her vox pops and morning TV appearances, he said.

“She was great on the air. It was just a nice, electric, high energy feel and she was funny,” he said. “I thought, ‘Well, that’s it. Tick, tick, tick. I’ll take that one.’”

Madigan has reported extensively on Sandilands and Henderson, including his court case, and made regular appearances on The Kyle and Jackie O Show. We asked News Corp how she would manage the potential conflict of interest, given she continues to contribute to news.com.au, but we didn’t hear back.

‘Jokes do not land with everyone’

Gina Rinehart’s stake in the West Australian does not buy influence, the West Australian has assured readers in an editorial expressing outrage at treatment towards the mining magnate on an ABC show.

The piece was attacking a four-minute film that aired on the Race Around the World program on 12 July, titled A Very Relaxing Video, which concluded with the film-maker, Kate McGuinness, making crude and offensive comments about Rinehart.

“When the revolution comes will you hide under the bed or will you know exactly how to shove a stick right up Gina Rinehart’s butthole, stirring it round, mixing her guts up nice and smooth, to make one big sausage roll to make something out of nothing.”

The West Australian’s editor, Christopher Dore, was quick to come out swinging against the ABC, joining a chorus of outrage on Sky News and in The Australian, which also re-printed the comments.

“The ABC mob from inner-city Sydney and Melbourne have no comprehension of how the Australian economy works or what people like Mrs Rinehart do to contribute to it,” Dore wrote. “This editorial itself will be laughably used by the ABC and its likeminded knuckleheads as absolute indelible proof that a 10 per cent stake in this publisher’s parent company buys influence.”

On Thursday, McGuinness apologised and said it wasn’t her intention to promote violence. “My writing is cartoonish and always satirical. Unfortunately, jokes do not land with everyone. Its purpose was never to be taken literally,” she said. The film has been referred to the ABC’s internal ombudsman.

Mark of change

The rebrand of Sky News Australia as News24 has given Pauline Hanson plenty of airtime. Weekly Beast understands the One Nation leader is a particular favourite of News24 boss Paul Whittaker, who gave her an opinion piece on Monday and followed it up with an hour-long Paul Murray Live “Please Explain” special in which Hanson answered questions from invited guests.

“Congratulations to News24 as it embarks on a new chapter in its story,” Hanson wrote for the Murdoch network. “For 30 years, we’ve both been making headlines! Who knows what the next 30 years hold for us?”

Hanson was thrilled to congratulate News24 on giving “a fair hearing to opponents of net zero”.

News24 still has one hurdle to get over, according to IP Australia. The name News24 “does not currently meet one or more requirements for registration under the Trade Marks Act 1995”, a spokesperson told Weekly Beast. The name is still legally owned by the ABC until 2030 and was subject to an adverse examination report which has delayed approval. The ABC dropped ABC News 24 in 2017, replacing it with ABC News Channel.

News24 can operate legally without a registered trademark, although once granted it will provide statutory rights that give additional protection to the owner, the bureaucracy told us.

ABC turmoil

The former bikie turned journalist Mahmood Fazal has told Guardian Australia he stands by his reporting after the ABC removed two Four Corners programs, Meth Highway (2024) and Cocaine Nation (2023), from its digital platforms last Friday over concerns about the “veracity” of sources.

Fazal was terminated by the public broadcaster in May after an investigation into his involvement in a podcast sponsored by an online casino. But the media stories have continued, with a former executive producer of Four Corners, Sally Neighbour, alleging in a piece for the Monthly (which landed the same day the episodes were pulled) that “an associate of Fazal played different roles in different stories, disguised behind a mask”. Her claims were later echoed on the ABC’s Media Watch.

Neighbour alleged former staff were concerned about Fazal’s way of working on the program, with one claiming there was “no process for verifying confidential sources” and another saying people struggled to criticise his work “out of concern they’d be seen as not supporting a young brown man”.

On Instagram, Fazal said he had been “reduced to a fucking diversity hire” by a press who “keep on attacking me, my work, my sources”. He told Guardian Australia: “I stand by the reporting and the journalistic processes that underpinned it.

“The issues now being debated publicly were debated internally years ago before these programs went to air.

“The difficulty is that many of the demands now being made of me can only be answered by revealing confidential contributors, sensitive news-gathering methods or private editorial processes.

“I won’t do that. Not because those matters weren’t scrutinised, but because they were. Throughout my career, my aim has always been to get as close to the truth as possible while reporting responsibly in the public interest.”

An ABC spokesperson said the corporation had nothing to add beyond a statement released earlier this week.

Trading insults

An ongoing industry stoush has escalated after the chief executive of Vinyl Group, Josh Simons, penned a 1,700-word statement calling out the reporting of its direct competitor, trade media outlet Mumbrella.

Vinyl Group has expanded from music technology to media in recent years, acquiring The Brag Media and Mediaweek in 2024. Since then, Mumbrella, led editorially by its founder, Tim Burrowes, has published dozens of articles and podcasts questioning its rapid acquisition strategy, financial health and Simons’ capability as CEO. Things escalated in recent weeks with a wave of coverage describing Vinyl’s strategy and journalism as “verging-on-delusional” and “bombastic”.

Simons’ statement, published to Mediaweek on Tuesday, accused Mumbrella of a “sustained pattern of inaccurate reporting, unsupported speculation, personal abuse and commercial denigration”. He said the “repeated publication of false statements concerning Vinyl’s business is now causing identifiable commercial harm”, and Vinyl was “preserving all legal rights available to the company”.

On 6 July, Vinyl Group lodged a formal complaint against Mumbrella with the Australian Press Council, which was dismissed as Mumbrella is not a constituent body. Simons is now seeking a discussion with the managing director of Mumbrella’s parent company, Intermedia Group. Burrowes’ statement to Guardian Australia came in at significantly less than 1,700 words: “We stand by our story.”