Media
Ten makes a play while ACA sits out
With A Current Affair sidelined by the Australian Open, Ten is using the next fortnight as a high-stakes window to push 10News+ harder than ever.
As The Australian’s Steve Jackson reports, it’s a rare gap in the schedule, and Ten knows it.
Despite past insistence the show wouldn’t chase tabloid territory, insiders say producers have been quietly gearing up for weeks, hoping to pinch viewers while Nine is consumed by tennis.
Iranian Australians take aim at ABC coverage
The ABC is facing criticism from Iranian Australians who say its reporting on Iran’s anti-regime protests has downplayed the scale of deaths.
According to The Australian’s Marcus de Blonk Smith, the dispute centres on the numbers and whose account is being trusted.
About 200 protesters rallied outside the ABC’s Brisbane offices, arguing the broadcaster’s figures fall well short of what many Iranians believe is the real toll.
TV signals creep back to Bendigo after bushfire hit
TV Blackbox’s Kevin Perry reports that after weeks of static, free-to-air TV is slowly flickering back on in Bendigo, following bushfire damage to the Mount Alexander transmission site.
Viewers can expect partial returns first, not an instant switch back to normal.
The damaged site is the region’s main broadcast hub, taking ABC, SBS and all commercial channels off air across Bendigo and surrounding towns.
Trump White House warns CBS over interview edits
The temperature between Donald Trump’s White House and the media just ticked up again.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt was caught on audio bluntly warning CBS News to run a Trump interview in full or face legal trouble.
As Olivia Empson reports in The Guardian, according to the exchange, Trump personally instructed that the tape not be cut, with Leavitt relaying the message directly to CBS anchor Tony Dokoupil after the sit-down.
The warning was not exactly subtle.
Companies
Social media ban numbers raise eyebrows in Canberra
As The Australian Financial Review’s Amelia McGuire and Tess Bennett detail, the government is celebrating early wins from its under-16 social media ban, citing 4.7 million accounts removed from major platforms since December.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has framed it as kids logging off and heading outside.
Behind the scenes, the picture is messier. Industry sources say the tally includes inactive, duplicate, and already-deleted accounts across major platforms.
In other words, it’s not millions of teenagers suddenly logging off.