GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG

ISSUE – NO. 794

2 October 2026

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The Latest – Is the Sydney Morning Herald in favour of a more radical Greens’ leadership?

There was a time when Media Watch Dog referred to Matthew Knott as “Young Mr Knott” or something like that when he wrote for the left-wing Crikey and appeared on Insiders. However, the years pass by and descriptive adjectives take account of this.

Media Watch Dog was pleased to see a not-so-young-anymore Matthew Knott – The Sydney Morning Herald’s foreign affairs and national security correspondent – on ABC TV’s Insiders last Sunday. Also on the Insiders couch were Melissa Clarke (ABC) and Greg Sheridan (The Australian). David Speers was in the presenter’s chair.

In what was so unusual for Insiders these days – there was a real division of opinion with Knott and Clarke arguing with Sheridan – At one point your man (yes, he now is a man) Knott had this to say:

David Speers: The Prime Minister argues we have had influence when it comes to kids on social media, plenty of other countries are now followed. He clearly thinks that this could be an area where we…with other middle powers, can have influence. What do you think?

Matthew Knott: Yeah, at the risk of being kind of David Marr, to Greg’s Gerard Henderson.

Greg Sheridan: Who is who? No, no I want the David Marr role.

Matthew Knott: The viewers will have to decide who’s who.

Greg Sheridan: I think he’s better looking. Look, I love Gerard but I think David Marr is better looking really.

Matthew Knott: I think it was important for Anthony Albanese to be there. It’s interesting to remember he actually missed the first three UN General Assemblies when he was Prime Minister. He’s now taken to it much more. He’s embraced it. We are running for a seat on the Security Council, we can’t run for that and not show up….

Greg Sheridan: All these meetings were fanboy meetings, like being at a Taylor Swift concert and getting a selfie. That is not how an Australian Prime Minister conducts himself.

Ellie’s (male) co-owner says thanks to Comrade Knott for remembering.

But what disturbed MWD was the indication that Knott is embracing left wing causes. How very Sydney Morning Herald.

This was also evident in Knott’s article in the SMH on Friday 2 October, titled “Greens need to let the sunshine in”. It is unusual for an in-house journalist to get a run on the Opinion Page – this would suggest that he has editorial support for his position on the Greens. In any event, Knott seems to be arguing that the Greens should have a democratic party organisation. What’s more, he seems to be a supporter of the US New York democratic socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani. Here’s how the column concluded:

Crucially, Mamdani challenged New Yorkers’ frustrations at rising inequality by acting as a hopeful warrior with a plan to bring prices down, not a shrill dogmatist. Shoebridge has committed to giving members a say in the next leadership ballot, but in media interviews yesterday he pointed to why such a move has not happened and why it would be difficult to implement.

Party members in smaller states such as Tasmania, the Greens’ birthplace, would resist being outnumbered by inner-city voters in NSW and Victoria. While it won’t be easy, the party has an urgent need to reform and re-energise, to become more outward-looking and mass-based. It might not make life easy for leaders, but could lead to electoral success.

What a load of absolute tosh.

Matthew Knott fails to recognise that if the Greens membership voted for the party’s leader, then the radical Senator Mehreen Faruqi would almost certainly prevail. That would put a Mamdani-like political operative in a balance-of-power position in Australia. For all his faults (see today’s hugely popular “Can You Bear It?” segment), Senator David Shoebridge is a more pragmatic politician than Senator Mehreen Faruqi. Yet the powers-that-be at the Sydney Morning Herald – assisted by Knott – seem to be in the Faruqi camp.

Can You Bear It?

The matters that Greens leader David Shoebridge was not asked to address on 7.30

7.30 presenter Sarah Ferguson is known for her hostile encounters with right-of-centre politicians. Remember her interview with Liberal Party leader Angus Taylor on 14 May when she interrupted the Opposition Leader 34 times in a 19-minute interview?

Well, it was all very professional when Ferguson interviewed new Greens leader Senator David Shoebridge on 7.30 last Wednesday.

Sure, Ferguson asked some challenging questions about Greens policies under his leadership. But she ignored some matters which go to Shoebridge’s character.

Comrade Ferguson did not raise the fact that Shoebridge had defeated Senator Mehreen Faruqi in his leadership contest despite the fact that the Greens are heavily into the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) mantra. And Faruqi is a woman of colour – who despite her success since migrating to Australia from Muslim-majority Pakistan presents as a victim of white racism and misogyny. The problem here is that Shoebridge has associated himself with the DEI cause.

Moreover, the 7.30 presenter did not mention the Greens leadership rivalry. The white lawyer Senator Shoebridge’s deputy leader the Victorian Senator Steph Hodgins-May is also a white lawyer. Both could form part of a white sight-screen at a red-ball test cricket match.

Also, 7.30 did not show footage of Shoebridge speaking with contempt to a police officer when he was pulled over for a routine alcohol/drug test. He even flashed his title of Senator. Here’s what the Greens leader posted on his Instagram account on 3 May 2026 along with some footage:

David Shoebridge: I was just pulled over by police on my way in to MardiGrass at Nimbin. Have a look at this footage.

Constable Hardy: So we are also recording audio and video, Senior Constable Hardy is my name.

David Shoebridge: Yeah, Senator David Shoebridge is my name.

Constable Hardy: Okay, yep.

[cut]

David Shoebridge: How many cops are there at this particular stop?

Both Counting: 1,2,3,4,5.

David Shoebridge: And how many stops are there around Nimbin?

Constable Hardy: I’m not quite sure. There’s people from out of town.

[cut]

Constable Hardy: The alcohol test. All you have to do is just count 1 to 10 towards that device.

David Shoebridge: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10.

Constable Hardy: The other test we’re doing today is roadside drug testing. You had one of these before?

David Shoebridge: Yeah, every time I come to Nimbin.

[cut]

David Shoebridge: See all the waste of public resources and waste of your time and waste of public money and see it all the time. Yeah.

[cut]

Constable Hardy: Cannabis, cocaine or amphetamine, anything like that used recently?

David Shoebridge: No.

Constable Hardy: Okay, so

David Shoebridge: And to be quite frank, if I had, I wouldn’t tell you, but I haven’t.

Constable Hardy: All you need to do is generate some saliva in your mouth. Place those absorbent tabs on your tongue towards the back. Press down, drag to the front, and hand it back to me.

[cut]

Constable Hardy: I’ll come back and check.

David Shoebridge: Last time did you say?

Constable Hardy: Yeah, just that last one there [pointing]. That way, if we do stop anyone else.

David Shoebridge: No sense of irony there.

Constable Hardy: Not this time.

David Shoebridge: Okay, cool.

Senator Shoebridge gets pulled over by Constable Hardy who, presumably, is required to state his rank. And Comrade Shoebridge says he’s a senator. How “cool” is that?

The well-paid Senator is on his way to Greens-country around Nimbin in the Northern Rivers area of NSW – presumably driving a taxpayer-funded car. He did not have to go to Nimbin. But the modestly paid Constable Hardy is doing an important job at the direction of NSW Police’s management – on the road to Nimbin.

Shoebridge complains about “number of cops” at the testing stop. But Hardy has no control over this – he is just doing his job which Shoebridge claims is a waste of public resources. And Shoebridge boasts about drug-taking – in mock defence.

This rudeness to a police officer doing his job in a polite way is bad enough. But the Greens leader decided to post his snobbery on Instagram.

Yet Sarah Ferguson avoided David Shoebridge’s poor past behaviour along with his evident double standards on DEI matters in his first 7.30 interview as Greens leader. Can You Bear It?

Melissa Clarke’s claims of Islamophobia rebuffed by Muslim doctor

On 26 September, Melissa Clarke interviewed Naba Alfayadh in the “Changing Australia” segment on ABC Radio National Breakfast. Dr Alfayadh (a medical doctor) arrived in Australia at age 10 as a refugee from Iraq in 2003 speaking only two words of English. Her father had come to Australia two years earlier. She has founded a charity that supports Arabic, Farsi and Indonesian-speaking families in Australia.

In an early question, Melissa Clarke ran the fashionable left-wing line about Australia being intolerant of Muslims, Islamophobic and all that – but was surprised by the response. Let’s go to the transcript:

Melissa Clarke: But I gather your parents had difficulties after coming to Australia, getting their medical qualifications recognised and experiencing some racism and Islamophobia, as well as the difficulties of getting established in a new country. As you, as a young kid. How did you process going through that and witnessing their difficulties and your own?

Naba Alfayadh: I think what comes to mind, Melissa, immediately is actually how much my dad talked about the incredible love in Australia…. But I think we have such a special country, and I remember both my parents loving the culture here when we got here.

How about that? The Australian-born Melissa Clarke is the alienated one, ashamed of aspects of her country. But Iraqi refugee Naba Alfayadh disagreed – stating that Australia is a special country and she has not experienced Islamophobia. Comrade Clarke seemed quite shocked. Can You Bear It?

Steve Cannane promotes Four Corners’ program on Pauline Hanson with fake news

Last Monday, ABC TV’s Four Corners ran a program on One Nation titled “Behind the Orange Wave”. Presented by Steve Cannane, it said little that was new. Except what Comrade Cannane claimed as “news”. Namely that Gina Rinehart allegedly attempted to help recruit Liberal MP Henry Pike (the LNP member for Bowman, Queensland) to join One Nation. This alleged “exclusive” led to Steve Cannane leading ABC Radio News in the morning of 29 September with this reference to Henry Pike:

Steve Cannane: …he saw it as an attempt to recruit him. Mrs Rinehart did not respond to questions. Mr Pike said he is, and will always be, a Liberal.

Presenter: For more on that story, watch Four Corners on ABC TV or iView tonight.

Cannane’s claimed exclusive also received prominence on ABC Online.

Photo: ABC Online

When Ellie’s (male) co-owner tuned into Four Corners at post-dinner/drinks-time last Monday, he found that the Rinehart/Pike/One Nation “news” was buried in your man Cannane’s report – it certainly did not lead. This despite the fact that the program was somewhat boring – the only highlights being that One Nation’s James Ashby told Cannane “f— off”. [Maybe Mr Ashby should enrol in Nancy’s Courtesy Classes – just a thought. – MWD Editor.]

In fact, the Rinehart/Pike One Nation story was broken by Rob Harris and Paul Sakkal in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on 11 September – over two weeks before the Cannane “exclusive”. Their report included the comment that Henry Pike had said he would not move closer to Pauline Hanson in order to retain the support of Gina Rinehart. A non-story, story by Four Corners about Four Corners. How very incestuous – in a media way. Can You Bear It?

Shaun Micallef Returns To Game Show Land – And Brings His Son Along

It is one of the great tragedies of Australian television that although Shaun Micallef isn’t interested in retirement, he will do anything but give the world another season of his best work The Micallef Programme. Alas, we now have yet another Shaun Micallef game show instead. Micallef has temporarily vacated the ABC and moved to Channel 10 to host Shaun Micallef’s Parents’ Evening. When Micallef retired Mad as Hell, he made numerous comments about wanting to give the younger generation a go. Free from the shackles of the ABC and their commitment to what we will call the older generation, he has managed to do so. However, he has given the co-hosting gig at Channel 10 to his son, Gabe Micallef.

An imported concept from the UK, Shaun Micallef’s Parents’ Evening is a quiz show where comedians/public figures/people who were on some sort of reality TV show appear with a family member, and together compete against the other family duos. This is how Micallef described it in a long promotional piece in the Sydney Morning Herald:

“And I think that’s the fun. It’s that gentle chiding that happens between family members that makes them more real. That world exists online, supposedly in terms of rawness and honesty, and something genuine that you don’t get on so-called slick television.

“So this is a smashing together of the worlds, and there’s an intersection within which both things can happen at once. And I think the way they orbit each other is interesting. I see it as like a series of plates we’re spinning, and Gabe’s spinning three, and I’m trying to move four, and the guests are, ‘What are we doing now? Where are we?’”

An avid younger reader described the show to MWD as a “bleak Australian version of a nepo-baby situation” – whatever that may mean.

Can You Bear It?

ABC’s The Radio National Hour presents the cop-killer Ned Kelly, as depicted by Sidney Nolan, as a poet and reformer

It was about 5.45 on a Saturday morning on 26 September – i.e. Hangover Time – and Ellie’s (male) co-owner was walking the said canine while listening to a repeat of part of ABC Radio National’s The Radio National Hour.

Tracey Holmes was in the presenter’s chair. She spoke to Denise Mimmocchi, the senior curator of Australian art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The gallery has a new exhibition on the early work of Sidney Nolan (1917 –1992) including the artist’s depiction of the bushranger Ned Kelly. Let’s go to the transcript:

“Tracey Holmes: Why was Nolan so drawn to the story of Ned Kelly?

Denise Mimmocchi: Well, I think there are many reasons he was drawn to it. You know, firstly, you know, he spoke of you know in, in his own family legend, his grandfather was part of the group of police which were pursuing Kelly. So he, you know, he grew up with ideas about Kelly, and he would visit as a child the area around the Goulburn Valley, which was part of the Kelly story, or where the Kelly narrative was played out.

So, it was in his mind. But also in the 1930s, he was, there was a resurgence in the interest in Ned Kelly as a figure. And certainly by the early 40s, Nolan himself, and particularly as he was coming out of that period of, of war – as well, he became deeply interested in looking into historical accounts of Kelly.

You know, he read newspaper accounts, he read the Jerilderie Letter, which was like Ned Kelly’s manifesto. And he was inspired by yes the story, but also the words of Kelly himself. You know, he saw him as a poet, a rebel reformer. By this stage, too, in 1944, Nolan had deserted the army. He was facing the threat of being sent to active combat in New Guinea, and so he deserts the army. He’s living in hiding back in Melbourne. He’s living under an assumed name. So, I think he identified, you know, with the idea of the rebel outlaw that he saw in in Kelly as well”.

Turn it up. Mimmocchi said that Sidney Nolan had deserted the Australian Army in 1944 because he did not want to take part in active combat against the army of Imperial Japan in New Guinea. That’s correct. But the curator did not mention that Kelly was a vicious criminal. He was a horse thief, bank robber and kidnapper who preyed on his relatively poor neighbours.

And then there’s Kelly the cop-killer who murdered three policemen at Stringybark Creek in October 1878. The lightly-armed Constable Lonigan was shot in the back and Constable Kennedy was shot as he lay wounded – Kelly even destroyed a note the dying Kennedy had written to his wife.

See Gerard Henderson’s article “Truths need to be told about Australian bushranger Ned Kelly” in The Weekend Australian on 14 January 2017 – see here.

So, there you have it. Nolan admired Kelly who shot a policeman in the back at a time of peace. But Nolan deserted the Australian Army because he did not want to shoot Japanese soldiers in the front in a time of war.

Yet neither Denise Mimmocchi nor Tracey Holmes saw the unpleasant irony in this. Which raises the question: Can You Bear It?

 

New Segment – A Moment With (The Red Bandannaed) Fitz – Peter FitzSimons interviews George Megalogenis about the author’s book which he has not read and neglects to refer to the Bondi massacre

By popular demand, Media Watch Dog has instituted this segment. As avid readers know, Peter (“Look at me”) FitzSimons wore a red bandanna on his head for over a decade. Until the red rag was sent to the dry-cleaners – where it was lost.

These days, Comrade Fitz writes for the Sydney Morning Herald – and has a weekly column for the Nine Entertainment Group’s Sun-Herald in Sydney. It’s called “Five Minutes With Fitz”. It is illustrated by a pic of Fitz which depicts more hair on his chin than on his head sans red rag.

Now, Ellie’s (male) co-owner rarely reads Fitz’s “Five Minutes With Fitz” column where he publishes a transcript of someone he has interviewed. The reason? Well, reading five minutes with the Red Bandannaed One seems like five hours. Or, sometimes, five days.

Consequently, Hendo relies on avid readers to tip him off. So, lotsa thanks to the avid Bathurst reader who drew MWD’s attention to “Five Minutes With Fitz” which appeared in the Sun-Herald on Sunday 20 September. Titled “The big shift: three seismic shocks that changed us”, it consisted of an interview with journalist George Megalogenis. He is the author of the recently released Three Shocks: Who we are becoming in the 21st Century? (Penguin, 2026).

As avid MWD readers, along with viewers of News24’s The Media Show on Fridays, will be aware, GM’s three shocks that changed Australia are as follows:

First, a majority of Australians now are either themselves migrants or children of migrants. Second, the largest group of workers by occupation are professional females, tertiary educated women. Third, Australia is now in an unstable world where its two most important external relationships – China and the US – are no longer reliable.

How shocking is all that? – MWD hears avid readers cry. Early on, Fitz confessed that he has not read Three Shocks, but said that he had “read extracts and got the guts of it.” Well done, Fitz.

Whatever “guts” he “got”, Fitz seemed unaware that Three Shocks totally ignores the shock of the Bondi Massacre. And the shock of the rise in support for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation which surged after the terrorist attack on the Australian Jewish community at Bondi Beach on 14 December.

As George M. acknowledged in his discussion with Nick Bryant on ABC Saturday Extra on 5 September, his book was completed before the Bondi Massacre. Moreover, George M. did not wait to let the worst terrorist attack in Australian history interfere with his “Three Shocks” theory. In other words, your man Megalogenis did not want recent facts to interfere with his you-beaut theory. See MWD Issue 790, 11 September and also Gerard Henderson’s appearance on News24’s The Media Show of the same day.

Could it be that Fitz reads MWD? For he did ask George M. how One Nation comes into the “Three-Shocks” frame. The author then committed the risky strategy of making political predictions about the future about One Nation and more besides George Megalogenis commenced talking about “the Tendulkar line” and Zzzzzz. Ellie’s (male) co-owner could not take it anymore.

Verily, A Red Bandannaed One Moment.

[Well done. Verily Three Shocks should have been withdrawn from planned publication and rewritten after 14 December to take into account the Bondi Massacre and the subsequent surge of support for One Nation. Even if it requires a re-thinking of George’s theory and delayed the Sun-Herald interview with Fitz. – MWD Editor.]

History Corner – Laura Tingle falls for Bert Evatt howler

In recent times, avid readers have been asking Ellie’s (male) co-owner – whatever happened to Laura Tingle, the ABC’s global affairs editor?

And the answer is – not much at all, actually. Ms Tingle has had little of significance to report about the globe and all that. However, MWD noticed a Tingle article on ABC Online on 18 September which was headed: “The UN often feels it’s damned to irrelevance, but it is needed now more than ever”.

Really. The United Nations has, to be sure, been irrelevant for most of its existence. Except in 1951 when the Soviet Union – a member of the UN Security Council along with Britain, China (represented by the government in Taiwan) and France – temporarily resigned. This decision deprived it of its veto and the UN supported the United States-led military support for South Korea against aggression from North Korea. These days China is represented by the communist government in Beijing and Russia has taken over the position once held by the Soviet Union.

Here’s what the ABC’s global affairs editor had to say:

“The Security Council is still seen as an important platform for smaller countries. Australian leadership ‘of the Council’s response to the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, and the first Council resolution on small arms and light weapons are prominent examples’ of what occasional membership of the Security Council can achieve, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website says.

“And there is a particularly long history for Australia with the Security Council, given the significant role the country, and External Affairs Minister HV ‘Doc’ Evatt, played in the establishment of the UN in the first place. It was one of the first members of the Council in 1946 in acknowledgement of that role, and in fact even chaired its first session.”

This is nonsense. Bert Evatt, when External Affairs Minister in the Chifley Labor government, presided over a session of the General Assembly as president – not the UN Council.

It is true that Dr Evatt’s grave at Canberra’s Woden Cemetery states: “1948–1949, President of the United Nations”. But all this is fake history – he never held such a position.

For a balanced account of Evatt – John Murphy’s Evatt: A Life (MUP, 2016) is well worth a read.

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Until Next Time.

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