From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …
2GB employee: think of the staff. We hear a prominent employee of besieged radio station 2GB has been direct messaging women on Twitter who are voicing support for a boycott over Alan Jones. The women, unsurprisingly, are not impressed. Crikey has seen two messages, which read:
“Just a private thought.. #boycott2gb will only lead to job losses involving innocent and junior members of station. Big names are protected.”
“I wanted you to be aware of that. Boycotting a whole station harms many innocent people instead of the targets of the protest.”
Alan Jones and his chaff jacket. Two tipsters insist it was Alan Jones who purchased the “chaff bag jacket”, which as we pointed out yesterday was donated to the now-infamous Young Liberal fund-raiser by Woolworths spinner Simon Berger. We desperately hope it’s true. And we’d love to see Jones resplendent in his new duds. Drop us a line with a photo, AJ.
Thanks, meanwhile, to the Crikey reader who responded to our plea yesterday for people to try to buy a chaff bag at Woolies (the Fresh Food People’s PR department is tied up with Jones and the Coalition, as detailed in Tips yesterday). As our intrepid mystery shopper tells it:
“At Woolworths’ Kellyville branch (a showcase store where new ideas are trialled) I asked the young girl at the checkout where the chaff bags were — the ones no longer needed by one of their executives. She looked completely blank and said she did not know what a chaff bag was and did not think they stocked them.”
She would say that, wouldn’t she?
Newman launches an ALP witch-hunt? … We’ve heard a claim that Campbell Newman’s government has sent out a request for Directors-General in the public service and in government-owned corporations to flush out bureaucrats who may be a former or current ALP member, who worked in ALP ministerial offices, or who has ALP family links. Our George Street insider reckons:
“Calls from staff have already been made to the Anti-Discrimination Commission in Queensland to seek advice. Given it’s been six months since the election and there are still plenty of ALP staffers out of work, the edict has stretched to the private sector around Brisbane with some major corporates warned not to even entertain the idea of hiring ex-ALP staffers, effectively running families out of town in search of work.”
… as the ex-Nats grumble. A tipster north of the border reckons there’s disquiet on the Newman backbench that the Nats are missing from the LNP equation:
“The slash and burn actions of Newman, Seeney and Nichols is not going down well. Some on the backbench are apparently feeling so put out that they might opt for the crossbenches or even the Katter Party in the hope that somebody will notice them. With support for the Katter Party growing in the bush, jumping sooner may let them hold the seat in Parliament. Stay tuned for some interesting defections or early retirements before the election due in early 2015.”
ACP staff hear from Bauer head. With the sale of ACP to German group Bauer complete, staff were dispatched an internal letter from secretive publisher Yvonne Bauer — the fifth generation of the still family-owned empire — “in order to promote our understanding of each other”. Bauer says ACP has “great potential” in print and “future activity in the digital market” and the company will develop the brands further. She vows:
“… it is with this energy and expertise that our company has achieved the success it is traditionally associated with. And maintaining this success is something that I, as the publisher of this family-run business, am wholeheartedly dedicated to. The decision to enter the Australian media market is therefore very much based on a long-term vision.”
In a separate note to staff, ACP chief executive Matt Stanton said it was a “wonderful outcome” for the company. Still, questions are being asked at Park Street about which struggling magazines might get the chop once Bauer really digs into the books.
Commonsense is dead. Cory “the Beast” Bernardi has vanished! Crikey is a huge fan of his personal YouTube channel (motto: “common sense lives here”) but it has not been updated since September 18 — just before he made his infamous comments linking gay marriage to bestiality. Normally Cory provides a televised address about once a week, and Crikey is desolate that the supply has dried up. Come on Cory, do it for commonsense.
*Do you know more? Send your tips to boss@crikey.com.au or use our guaranteed anonymous form.
It seems Cory has posted a new video this afternoon. His common sense tip for today? The left are just as mean as the Right, but they’re allowed to get away with it. I “disliked”.
The first comment about 2GB staffers raises an interesting question. Of course no one wants to see someone lose their livelihood, but it does raise the question of where does one draw the line. Does the receptionist, cleaner, mail room worker etc have an influence and therefore responsiblity for the issue? No, not really. Does Jones himself, absolutley. Where in the middle then. How about the radio technician who lets the comments etc. go to air? Probably not. The producer who vets the calls and puts only the favourable ones to air, probably so. How sorry should we feel for the latter of these people.
And on the topic, should we keep smoking so we can keep the factory workers at BAT and Philip Morris in employment (OK probably a bad example as some at Crikey may say yes!). So to the worker at 2GB, no I don’t want to see you lose your job, but then again, you do work at 2GB. I must say I am a little torn.
I hope you are joking about Crikey being a “huge fan of Cory Bernardi’s website”. If not, I’ll have to do a 2GB advertiser’s dummy spit, and boycott Crikey!!
Can’t stand that Bernardi creep. As bad, if not worse than, Alan Jones, I reckon.
Re. the notorious jacket: a report I saw had AJ claiming that he had paid for the jacket (motivated by a desire to boost the funds raised, was the suggested justification), but that he had handed it back to the organisers. Obviously this is third- or fourth-hand knowledge, at best, with all the caveats for reporting errors and statements of varying levels of truthfulness etc.
If it’s true, one assumes that some-one from the organising committee has souvenired the jacket, and it will probably materialise at some future date.