At the Walkley Awards dinner in Sydney last Thursday night, following the presentation of the Gold Walkley Award, the editor-in-chief of Crikey, Peter Fray, heckled the stage and acted in a generally inappropriate manner. The events have been reported already by The Sydney Morning Herald.
As a result of those actions, Peter is now on indefinite leave from his role. His behaviour was unacceptable and does not reflect the standards we aspire to at our company. I would like to take the opportunity to apologise on behalf of Private Media, which owns Crikey, to journalists Anne Connolly, Ali Russell and Stephanie Zillman, and to the ABC, and congratulate them on their well-deserved win for their original reporting on an important matter.
Peter also released the below statement yesterday:
“I deeply regret my actions at the Walkley Awards and again apologise to the worthy Gold Walkley winners — Anne Connolly, Ali Russell and Stephanie Zillman — attendees on the night, the Walkley foundation’s staff and board members and all staff at Private Media. I will use the period of leave to deeply reflect on my actions and seek appropriate assistance. I can’t undo my actions on that evening, as much as I wish to do so. It was wrong for me to question the veracity and originality of the ABC’s work and the excellence of its journalism. For me to act the way I did was totally unwarranted, inappropriate and out of character.”
Here at Crikey, our journalists aim to hold the powerful to account for their actions and their mistakes, and we expect transparency. So it’s important we do the same when we make mistakes.
We apologise unconditionally and will try to do better in the future.
Drunken behaviour at the Walkleys is hardly new. What I want to know is, was there any substance to Frey’s apparent claim that Crikey was first with the Public Trustee story?
I have admired the way Crikey has featured stories that were at the least, not prominent in mainstream media; appointments to the AAT, and the Witness K and Collaery stories come to mind. Whether Crikey was first or not, congratulations for not letting these issues die.
Me too
Me too
Me too
Crikey was first. Look at investigations and note the dates of the series.
Nothing occurs in a vacuum and credit is due.
So, why the full retraction and apology?
I’ve been annoyed at seeing 4 courners pick up a couple of stories previously published in crikey & I bet it must be annoying for the journalists too – especially when the abc wins an award for it. This sort of thing appears to be rife in the industry – not sure what can be done about it but evidently interrupting an awards night is not it!
He’s not the editor, he’s just a very naughty boy.
But he did have a point, the ABC series on the public trustee came after Crkiey had done almost the exact same thing. Pity he didn’t express his displeasure in a more acceptable fashion.
The ABC is essentially a commercial outfit now and it’s acting more and more like a cartel of one. Massive egos and divas playing career games at the top end, both front and back end, while neoliberal shredding and outsourcing accelerates at the bottom workers’ coalface; multi-platform hoovering up of the mediascape, leveraging a wildly skewed budgetary advantage, economies-of-scale and access that’s very hard to compete with, even with murdoch’s deep pockets; all the ‘public broadcaster’ advantages yet deploying the strategies and ruthlessness of a commercial player.
Many of the senior rankest are in media terms commercially born and raised. The genuine ‘public interest’ media ethos of old has long died; when it’s trotted out now – see Sally neighbours speech – it’s purely as a panto stage prop for competitive media sparring-as-usual.
Fray was right to let his baser instincts off the reins, even if it was the booze talking. The ABC is becoming home to some very arrogant and very entitled media bullies.
Even assuming that “…the senior rankest…” was a typo. it could not but remind me of 50yrs ago when Gore Hill was synonymous with cutting edge…everything really.
From valveheads coming to terms with printed circuitry, through creatives free to wander the vast grounds leafy grounds to commune, to hard headed schmoozers and luvvies, shoe leather reporters with bent noses and political dyspeptics were a beacon of hope.
Then came PJK and Davi downHill – it’s a miracle that anything has survived the last half century of slash & burn.
Peak ABC Vanity Publishing: I’m told that Australian Story this week is all about Ita. I wonder if Leigh Sales will be introducing it yet?
Really. Gazing lovingly in the mirror, ‘Our’ ABC is in grave danger of disappearing up its own ar*se forever.
How? Pen a firm letter of complaint to the ABC??
I believe the preferred official channel now is via a Defamatory Tweet.
True, but the expressed displeasure successfully attracted necessary attention, ‘acceptable’ or not. Recently noticed at least two ABC articles of substance (rare from ABC these days) that were reproduced in entirety (with acknowledgement ) from The Conversation. Not sure that we pay our public broadcaster to nuture highly paid celebrities whilst lifting quality journalism from elsewhere.
I’m…speechless. (Literally – as in Modded.)
But figuratively, too. Really, Will? Really? This is where ‘independent Australian media’ is at, now? Then man are we in strife…
It’s dead, just hasn’t stopped writhing.
I don’t know which I find more unctuous, disingenuous and unedifying:
Granted, the thread so far does tend to support that bleak view of us. It’s a business model, I guess. But…geez. You wonder why you keep shelling out.
A thousand times this, minus a thousand times the ridiculous invocations of wokeness.
A small mistake in the scheme of things not worthy of significant sanction.