You couldn’t make it up

It’s been a rough week for the Daily Telegraph which has had to publish not one but two apologies for gossip items. We told you in February that iron woman and model Candice Falzon had taken legal action against the Daily Telegraph after it published a column by gossip writer Annette Sharp headlined “The evolution of the shotgun marriage: a modern Sydney princess story”. Sharp discussed Falzon’s pregnancy and marriage to cricketer David Warner in highly unflattering terms. Well, Falzon’s action was settled and she was awarded a substantial payment, sources say. Terms included the removal of the offending story from all the News Corp websites and a prominent apology.

Mis-typed

The second apology concerned the host of Ten’s The Bachelor, Osher Gunsberg, who the Tele claimed was “dating exotic dancer Audrey Douglass”. “He most definitely has a type”, the Tele said next to a photo of a scantily clad woman. On The Osher Günsberg Podcast this week the former Australian Idol host said he felt “flat-out bullied” and that “it was really, really tough on me, my girlfriend and my family”. Tough because the woman named and pictured was not his girlfriend at all (and appears not to be an “exotic dancer” either). He had never met her in fact. The apology appeared in the paper and online: “We published an article on April 20, 2015 about Osher Gunsberg (also known as Andrew G) and his current relationship. The article included allegations that were false and defamatory. We acknowledge that Mr Gunsberg is in an exclusive relationship with make-up artist Audrey Griffen. We unreservedly apologise to Mr Gunsberg, Ms Griffen as well as their families for any hurt and distress caused by those allegations.”

News Corp columnist Miranda Devine apologises for accusing rugby union player David Pocock of doing ‘jazz hands’ after scoring a try

Sign off in style

Rugby union player David Pocock is not exactly News Corp columnist Miranda Devine’s pin-up boy. He was arrested last year for chaining himself to machinery while protesting against a coalmine in New South Wales, he recently complained to the referee about hearing homophobic slurs on the football field and he is an advocate for marriage equality. So when the conservative commentator saw Pocock waving his hands about after scoring a try, she took to Twitter in disgust. Devine accused the sportsman of being a “tosser” for “doing jazz hands”. But, ever the nice guy, Pocock didn’t fire back in anger. He explained on Twitter that he was actually doing the sign language equivalent for clapping for a friend whose first language is Auslan. Ouch. Devine apologised to Pocock. But frustrated by the jibes she’d received for her jazz hands tweet, she took to Twitter the next day and complained about all “vitriole” (sic) she was being subjected to.

Back story

We told you earlier this month about Brendan Byron, the co-editor of the University of New South Wales student newspaper, Tharunka, who admitted to deleting several historical articles. When he won an election as co-editor he removed from the Tharunka archives stories about him that he didn’t like. They were published by previous editors, who happened to be his political foes. An open letter condemning his actions was signed by dozens of editors of Tharunka and other student newspapers. It read in part: “Tharunka has been an independent paper run by students since 1953. It has a long and proud history of pushing boundaries and resisting political censorship. The idea that an individual editor, appointed by students to serve for a term of one year, believes they have the right to trawl through the paper’s archives and delete articles they disagree with is anathema to the principles Tharunka has stood for.”

Now, the publisher of Tharunka, Arc@UNSW, has suspended Byron pending an investigation into whether he breached the code of ethics, which is based on the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance’s code of ethics. “No editor has the authority to alter or remove previously published Tharunka articles,” the chair of the board, Ben Heenan, said in a statement.

Football first

After sacking soccer reporter Scott McIntyre on Sunday morning because of his comments about Anzac Day, SBS appears to have acted equally swiftly to replace him. An ad for an experienced sports journalist was placed by SBS Sport this week. “As part of the team, you will create dynamic unique content that will engage, inform and entertain our audience in a timely, contemporary manner. You will have good knowledge of the world game and a keen interest in sport and new media technology.” McIntyre is still considering whether to take legal action against SBS for his dismissal.

Anzac Day appetite

The Anzac War Memorial in Hyde Park during the Anzac Day parade in Sydney on Saturday. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

Despite widespread viewer fatigue about Anzac centenary programming this year, when Anzac Day came along, people not only turned up to events in record numbers but they were very keen to watch the day as it unfolded on TV. The ABC’s coverage of the Anzac Day centenary commemoration services reached an impressive 3.6m viewers on Saturday, a figure Channel Nine would have loved for its lavish Gallipoli drama series which sadly was an expensive flop when it aired earlier this year. While all the networks covered Anzac Day to some extent on 25 April, all except Aunty pulled back back on blanket live coverage all day. The Department of Veterans’ Affairs gave the ABC special funding to be the official host broadcaster and it provided live coverage of all the dawn services and marches across the country, as well as the dawn service at Gallipoli, which was watched by 1m people.