Eddie McGuire is off to a bad start in more ways than one at Channel
Nine. Attempting to rewrite history doesn’t work when too many
people know the truth.

“We’ve been challenged and I don’t know, we should ask Peter Meakin –
he was running the place when it started to go down”, Eddie Somewhere told the ABC. “So he’s over at Seven spruiking these days. I think maybe the eye was taken off the ball over the last five years.”

No, Eddie, John Alexander was running the place when it started to go
downhill – that’s why Meakin resigned. In fact, Alexander successfully
made Meakin’s position pretty much untenable, as good as forcing him to
resign.

We can’t expect Eddie to trash his boss – McGuire’s position is nowhere
near secure enough for that – but he only scores own goals trying to
blame the innocent. Channel Nine began to go wrong when Alexander started
interfering, working away at Kerry Packer until he eventually was given
the top job at Willoughby, riding in with a promise to slash $30
million for the budget and finding that he couldn’t.

The rot started with the numerous sackings, sidelinings or resignations
of most of the people who ran anything when Alexander took over.
I was one of the minor players to be flicked before Alexander gave the
hospital pass to David Gyngell. Nothing seems to have improved.

And one might wonder how far the hand of Alexander continues to reach
at Nine. Garry Linnell as the new boss of news and current affairs
appointment without broadcast experience? Sounds like something
Alexander would do.