On Monday night the ABC screens a must-watch post election program, The Battle for Warringah, a Four Corners investigation into the high-profile race in the former blue-ribbon Liberal seat. Reporter Sean Nicholls and crew began filming on Sydney’s northern beaches at the end of March, documenting the struggle between incumbent Tony Abbott and independent Zali Steggall. They have filmed behind the scenes with both candidates, but the former prime minister has so far refused a sit-down interview.

On Wednesday Nicholls was surprised to read in the Australian that Four Corners was “embedded” with the Steggall team. The claim came from the former ABC chairmain Maurice Newman, who has a weekly column in which he variously bashes the ABC for being a “campaigner for radical environmentalism and globalism” and spruiks his peculiar brand of climate denialism.

“For some time now, the ABC’s Four Corners has embedded a journalist within independent environmentalist Zali Steggall’s cam­paign team,” Newman wrote. “Steggall is looking to topple the incumbent member for Warringah, former prime minister Tony Abbott, who, for almost 25 years, has held the once safe Liberal seat. The national broadcaster is risking time and money to capture that surreal moment when Abbott may be out of the parliament.”

Tony Abbott is in the political fight of his life. Will he win or lose? 'The Battle for Warringah' is coming up next Monday on #4Corners #auspol2019 pic.twitter.com/jEBx3nOExq — Sally Neighbour (@neighbour_s) May 14, 2019

Nicholls called Newman and politely told him he was wrong, eliciting an immediate apology from the arch conservative.

Four Corners executive producer Sally Neighbour corrected the record on Twitter, saying Nicholls was not “embedded” with Steggall and the program had filmed with both candidates.

Despite the Newman apology, the Australian has not corrected the article.

Hunt in full cry

The language in Newman’s piece was echoed by Andrew Bolt the next day in a column which claimed Abbott felt “hunted”. Bolt warned the country would change dramatically if Abbott lost his seat.

“Global warming will become our dominant religion, the power of militant activists will soar, Liberal conservatives will be cowed and, given the swing needed, the Liberals will have lost the election,” Bolt wrote.

Abbott has relied on media mates like Newman and Bolt to campaign for him while largely shunning the mainstream media. He has declined interview requests and scuttled away from community appearances when the media turn up.

Picking up Newman’s theme, Bolt accused Sydney Morning Herald and ABC journalists of “openly barracking” for Steggall.

“The ABC’s hatred of Abbott – who as prime minister cut its budget and axed the carbon tax – is overwhelming,” he said, using the same term “embedded” about another ABC journalist.

“Now the ABC’s Four Corners is spending a lot of time on the Steggall campaign for a documentary on, obviously, how she beat Abbott. The ABC seems heavily invested in a Steggall win.”

Bolt clearly can’t see the irony in his final line, published in the News Corp tabloids which have campaigned so hard against Labor: “I have never seen activist groups and the media run such a ferocious campaign to destroy a Liberal candidate.”

Joyce loses bearings

Not to be outdone on getting facts wrong, Barnaby Joyce also attacked the ABC this week over what he thought was the broadcaster’s popular Vote Compass site. Except, it wasn’t Vote Compass at all, but an item on The Drum, a fact he later grudgingly acknowledged after it was pointed out to him.

Golly gosh wow wee ABC’s Vote Compass rates Labor as “provide detailed polices likely to make meaningful progress against issues” on? Everything!!! We are all so lucky that they are so balanced and funded by? All of us!!! Thank you ABC Vote Labor Compass pic.twitter.com/k6fxeXcS6u — Barnaby Joyce (@Barnaby_Joyce) May 14, 2019

Lego Masters of the Nine universe

Journalists on the Sydney Morning Herald were a little startled to see not one but two of their new overlords on the newsroom floor on Friday. Nine Entertainment’s chief executive, Hugh Marks, and chairman, former Liberal treasurer Peter Costello, walked around and chatted to journalists after a board meeting of the newly formed media giant at the Herald’s offices in Pyrmont. Marks may have been a more popular figure among scribes after announcing subediting was coming back in-house.

Newspapers aside, Marks is rubbing his hands with glee over Nine’s new hit TV show Lego Masters, which attracted 2.15m viewers to its finale this week. Audiences over one million are rare these days, never mind two million.

Star fades out

The Star Observer, Australia’s longest running LGBTI media outlet has entered voluntary administration, the board has announced.

Chairman Sebastian Rice said advertising clients had been slow to pay their bills resulting in a cash flow problem. “We needed to enter voluntary administration to protect our creditors and staff, and provide a chance for the Star Observer to survive,” Rice said.

Unease at News Corp

The Australian took a low key approach to accusations of bias last week by former News Corp journalist Tony Koch. The only mention of the explosive Koch column was by associate editor and Sky News commentator Chris Kenny. Kenny, who has quit Twitter (again) in a fit of pique, referred in passing to an “anti-News Corp rant last week by an award-winning former journalist on this newspaper, Tony Koch”.

But two other columnists for the Australian did share their views on the way the Oz has been covering the election campaign, albeit not in one of Rupert Murdoch’s publications.

Columnist and former Liberal adviser Niki Savva told ABC Radio’s the World Today there was no doubt “there are grounds for concern about the way that some of the coverage has been handled”.

“It’s not welcome, I don’t think, certainly by a lot of journalists who pride themselves on their work,” she said. “I think there has been, you know, a decision taken, at whatever level, and I do not believe in edicts being issued from the very top.

“I think these are decisions that are made by the people who are running the newspaper, and they don’t always make the right calls. Just like politicians, they make mistakes. And I think some very obvious mistakes have been made, and I think that’s a great shame.”

The Australian’s contributing editor Peter van Onselen said in his The Professor and the Hack podcast with Hugh Riminton that the Australian has been “considerably harder on Labor” in this election campaign. But PVO reserved his disdain for tabloids, in particular the Daily Telegraph’s front page on Bill Shorten’s mother.

“I understand Labor’s frustration … because if you’re a Labor politician you’d feel like they were coming at you pretty hard – because they are.”

PVO said he was surprised that every News Corp Sunday newspaper editorialised that Scott Morrison should be re-elected.

But the Daily Telegraph’s political editor, Sharri Markson, had a different take, posting a photograph of herself accepting a News Corp award from Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch on Twitter and Instagram. “I’m proud to work for a company deeply passionate about journalism,” she wrote. “I’m sick of rival outlets, who should be committed to free speech, trying to tear us down. The world is a better place for the journalism the thousands of people who work for News produce.”

The Australian is offering its subscribers tickets to an “unmissable subscribers-only Q&A event” after the election with “some of the country’s sharpest political minds” including editor-in-chief Christopher Dore, Van Onselen, Geoff Chambers, Kenny and former BuzzFeed reporter Alice Workman. It should be a barrel of laughs if Labor wins on Saturday.