Media
ABC grilled over ‘selective reporting’
Boss Hugh Marks fronted Senate Estimates yesterday, during which Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price accused the national broadcaster of being “reluctant” to report stories that cast Indigenous Australians “in a bad light.”
According to The Australian’s James Madden reports, Marks said he stood behind the ABC’s reporting.
Meanwhile…
It turns out the Aussie taxpayer forked out $2.5 million in external costs to help fund the ABC’s defence to fight Antoinette Lattouf’s defamation trial.
Not that it helped.
As news.com.au’s Jessica Wang writes, Aunty had to pay Lattouf $220,000 in damages.
You can read Marks’ entire opening statement to the committee here.
SBS holds firm on Eurovision 2026
It was a busy day in Canberra.
Along with the ABC, the SBS also fronted Senate Estimates to answer questions about its planned participation in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest.
It’s contentious, given Israel’s involvement amid the ongoing Gaza conflict.
But as TV Tonight’s David Knox writes, acting managing director Jane Palfreyman said the broadcaster “intends to participate,” adding that impartiality “is a bedrock of who we are and our reason for being.”
Bari Weiss’s CBS move sparks debate
The question of whether legacy media can regain the public’s trust is at the centre of this Op-Ed by Zoe Booth in The Australian Financial Review.
Booth writes that Paramount’s $150 million buyout of Weiss’s outlet The Free Press proves there’s still an appetite for independent, values-driven journalism that doesn’t toe a party line.
DAZN’s billion-pound boost fuels Foxtel’s NRL push
Billionaire Sir Leonard Blavatnik has poured another $1.1 billion AUD into DAZN, taking his total investment to more than $13 billion and giving Foxtel fresh firepower ahead of its NRL rights battle with Channel 9.
As Kevin Perry reports in TV Blackbox, the cash boost lands as Foxtel looks to lock in both NRL and Formula One renewals – key to Kayo’s continued growth against Stan Sport in the tightening sports streaming race.
AI
OpenAI lands first Aussie government deal
OpenAI has quietly signed its first deal with the Australian government, as Treasury inked a $50,000 “software as a service” contract in June.
As Cam Wilson writes in Crikey the limited tender, first spotted by Pinery Capital, was handed exclusively to OpenAI, avoiding the $80,000 threshold that triggers public competition.
Legal
Musk settles with former Twitter bosses over payout dispute
Elon Musk and X have settled with four former Twitter executives, including ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, who claimed they were owed $128 million in severance after Musk’s 2022 takeover.
The Guardian details the executives accused Musk of fabricating misconduct claims to avoid payment, which he denied.
Radio
Hadley pledges 2GB comeback… on one condition
The Australian’s Steve Jackson writes the broadcaster said he’ll return to the airwaves if his longtime friend John Singleton buys back Nine’s talkback network.
His comments add weight to reports Singleton is eyeing a Nine Radio takeover.