Malcolm Turnbull’s final press conference as prime minister on Friday wasn’t the usual free-for-all when it came to questions. Turnbull allowed only a handful of reporters a question and, unsurprisingly, nearly none of them were from News Corp.
Instead of waiting for questions to be called out, Turnbull had a list and he directly asked for questions from his favoured journalists. The move upset at least one News Corp reporter, the Daily Telegraph‘s Sharri Markson who tweeted that there were “not too many tough questions in that mix”.
[Turnbull farewells public life with little bitterness]
Rupert Murdoch’s media group — its columnists, in particular — played into the push for Turnbull to step aside as prime minister, both in the newspaper and through Sky News in the evenings. All the journalists he called on were, however, veterans of the Canberra press gallery.
Laura Tingle
The ABC’s recent recruit as 7.30 chief political correspondent, Laura Tingle was offered the first question. She’d previously been at Fairfax’s Australian Financial Review since 2002, and has worked in the Canberra press gallery since 1986. Tingle regularly appears as a panellist on the ABC’s Insiders on Sunday mornings.
Phil Coorey
Coorey succeeded Tingle as political editor at the Fin (Fairfax), where he’s worked since 2012. He’s been covering federal politics for 20 years. Coorey is also a regular on Insiders.
Chris Uhlmann
Nine’s Chris Uhlmann wasn’t present when the PM called on him on Friday, but it’s no surprise that he was one of those chosen. The former ABC political editor’s rant on Today, the network’s breakfast program, was widely reported the day before. Uhlmann questioned the influence of News Corp columnists and 2GB broadcasters Alan Jones and Ray Hadley in agitating for Peter Dutton to replace Turnbull.
Katharine Murphy
Guardian Australia’s Katharine Murphy was also allowed one question. Murphy has been with the Guardian since it opened its Australian outpost, and has worked in the Canberra press gallery for 15 years. “Murpharoo” (the PM referred to her by her Twitter handle) is another Insiders regular.
Kieran Gilbert
In Uhlmann’s absence, Sky News was the closest to News Corp any questions got. The pay TV network is fully owned by News Corp, and its “after dark” rotation of commentators has been widely criticised for pushing Dutton to run. Chief political reporter Kieran Gilbert, however, works for the channel during the day, when its journalists break news daily, especially in politics.
David Crowe
Fairfax’s chief political correspondent David Crowe is only recently out of the News Corp stable, having moved across to The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald from The Australian at the beginning of the year. Before the Oz, Crowe was at the Australian Financial Review, another Fairfax paper.
Vanilla Sky News – pure science fiction.
Fantasy would be a closer category. Science Fiction has some basis on fact. Sky High News runs on seriously depleted oxygen breathers like Bolt & co.
Yes, the pattern was obvious: the biggest Turnbull suck-ups in the gallery. (I guess he couldn’t get to Mark Kenny and Hartcher since Crowe was there for Fairfax).
I’m gravely disappointed in the media playing this “News Corp bias against Turnbull!” story without even a hint of hey, News Corp are worse to the ALP and hey, there’s a bunch of journos who have given Turnbull an armchair ride for years, but I shouldn’t be. It’s the same media which told us for months that there was going to be a Labor leadership challenge (wrong) and that the Coalition was recovering (wrong) and that the NEG was Turnbull’s victory and way of putting the whole issue to bed (so, so, so wrong) and is en bloc refusing to undertake any self-examination of their coverage of the Turnbull government or the way they got blindsided by the #libspill.
At least News Corp is honest about who they hate.
Sharri Markson complaining about soft questioning, what a lightweight. Tony Abbott has never been asked a tough question by any Murdoch publication.