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“Apologies for being a bit of a sook,” he said later.
And yes we got another hit out for key Williams phrase “grandiloquent” – but only once.
Williams is the only person in history to have run News Corp and been chair of the ABC.
His jabs at the US were only eclipsed by his reaction to a recent series that ran in News Corporation papers attacking the ABC.
“Generally I do not believe in responding to News Corporation commentary on the ABC because it was fairly unhinged.
“Nevertheless in that instance I saw the necessity of issuing a three-page rebuttal.”
He ensured it went to every MP.
Academics mixed with journalists like oil and water to hear the thoughts of chairman Kim about a year after he was appointed to the top job at the ABC. Former ABC luminaries Jon Faine, now a vice-chancellors fellow, and Maxine McKew, now an honorary professorial fellow at Melbourne Press Club sponsor the University of Melbourne, sat at the top table accompanied by that institution’s newish vice chancellor, Emma Johnston, and billionaire philanthropist chancellor Jane Hansen.
Journalistic Melebrities included the ABC News Breakfast’s Tyson Shine, James Glenday, Bridget Brennan and Catherine Murphy, Nine’s Heidi Murphy and Hugh Nailon, as well as The Age’s David King and Orietta Guerrera. Also present, that rarest of creatures, a senior ABC figure who doesn’t live in Sydney, in this case, board member of Melbourne Arts Precinct Co, Katrina Sedgwick, who’s been hustling to fill Federation Square with the likes of Robbie Williams and Kneecap. Sedgwick was appointed as a non-executive director to the ABC board last year.
A bout for Costello
Since leaving Channel Nine, former A Current Affair reporter Seb Costello has been busy times two.
Project one is a podcast with man about town journalist Allan Raskall, a former colleague at Nine, called, wait for it, Raskall & Costello.
“Alan and I recently entered the Guinness World Records as the first two TV journos in history who actually like each other,” Costello said.
“A lot of people talk to me around town, and I’m looking forward to telling Melbourne what’s really going on.”
The podcast launches on Sunday.
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Costello resigned from Nine last month while the network was reviewing an incident reported by CBD where the reporter chased an Oak Capital executive into the women’s toilet in the Intercontinental Hotel on Collins Street, spraying him with questions about what some allege is the company’s ruthless loans policy.
Regulator ASIC is suing Oak Capital for unconscionable conduct. The company denies the allegations.
The other Costello project is boxing. On August 23, promoter Team Ellis will present Costello in a bout at Melbourne Pavilion.
“I’ve always valued truth and boxing is a very honest sport. It’s not easy and I want to prove to myself that I can do it.”
In preparation for the bout, Costello has lost 19 kilograms.
Fly Bridget
Spotted: Nationals senator, Coalition frontbencher and Qantas tormentor Bridget McKenzie getting her campaign miles up aboard a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Perth on Wednesday.
Ensconced in the comfort and security of Qantas business class, McKenzie spent the trip to Perth audibly discussing Coalition battle plans with a staffer seated in the row behind, handing draft press releases back and forth.
“In the middle of a campaign on a five-hour trip, there’s not a lot of time to watch movies!” McKenzie told CBD.
It’s been a chaotic start to the campaign from the shadow minister. On Tuesday, McKenzie, Peter Dutton and Liberal candidates held a pit-stop to spruik the Coalition’s plans to scrap Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop and redirect funding to building a train line to the airport. But the photo-op went ahead way north of where the line would actually run because, as McKenzie told journalists “that’s what our advancers told us to do”.
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