GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG

ISSUE – NO. 796

16 October 2026

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The Latest – 2026 Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Gets Soft Interview on ABC

On 16 October, ABC Radio National Breakfast presenter Sally Sara gave the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Navi Pillay an oh-so-soft interview. The South African born lawyer is a former judge of the International Criminal Court. She is also an Israel-antagonist. Despite this, Pillay was chair of the International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

In the interview, Pillay stated that, at present, no court of law has found that genocide has occurred in Gaza. Pillay mentioned that the body she chaired remained the authoritative body on this matter until a court of law draws its own conclusion and judgement. Nevertheless, Pillay stated: “What’s different about this genocide is it’s actually occurring in real time.”

Sara did not ask Pillay why Israel is supplying food, water and medicines into Gaza if it is intent on killing all Gazans – and why it has invariably given warning of attacks to encourage civilians to move out of a war zone.

The ABC accepts the Pope’s teachings but only on AI – not faith and morals

As a general rule, ABC journalists are not fond of conservative Christian clergy – in particular conservative leaders of the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church. Except when they criticise Donald J. Trump or give (secular) sermons on climate change and all that.

In short, many a taxpayer-funded public broadcaster journalist has little time for the Catholic Church’s teaching on faith and morals. But they just love it when the Holy Father bags capitalism and all it works and all its pomps.

I recall that, half a century ago, the anti-communist Melbourne University academic Dr Frank Knopfelmacher said that what was particularly helpful about the Pope’s encyclical letter is that he did not expect a reply.

But Media Watch Dog digresses – not for the first time. Cameron Wilson, formerly of the leftist Crikey newsletter, is now the ABC’s National AI reporter. In this capacity he travelled to Melbourne to meet Franciscan priest Fr Paolo Benanti who happened to be visiting Australia’s most left-wing city.

Fr Benanti is regarded as Leo XIV principal adviser on Artificial Intelligence which he is said to regard as “the greatest moral question of our time”. Really. Early on the priest told Comrade Wilson: “I do a lot of street photography because I love to freeze some kind of poetry inside the chaos of life.” Whatever that might mean.

The Franciscan referred to Leo XIV’s 40,000-word encyclical Magnifica Humanitas on the problem with/dangers of AI. He wants to regulate AI. MWD’s view is that it would be a monumental folly if Western democracies stepped back from developing AI and leave that to the Communist Party of China which, by the way, happens to persecute traditional Catholics and other religious believers.

Needless to say, your man Wilson seems to like regulation and did not contest the Pope’s AI adviser. Following Wilson’s leading questions, Fr Bernanti indicated that he was no friend of the leaders of tech companies. The in how the interview ended:

Cameron Wilson: Father Benanti believes AI has the potential to serve humanity in a positive way, but what really worries this man of God is blind faith.

Father Paolo Benanti: When we talk about AI, we talk of really powerful things that could be the best tool to have a better healthcare or drug production tool, or it could be the worst weapon that we ever developed. My biggest fear is not artificial intelligence. So it’s a human beings trusting in an untrustable automatic system.

Needless to say Comrade Wilson did not ask Father Benanti about the Resurrection and whether this might be possible in an AI controlled world. But, then, the ABC rarely takes the Catholic church’s teachings on faith and morals seriously.

Can You Bear It?

David Marr does not challenge Yanis Varoufakis’s allegation that Israel is a genocide/apartheid state

Without question, ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live (aka Late Night Left) has improved after the modest Phillip Adams AC AO AM, Hon DUniv (Griffith), Hon DLitt (ACU), Hon DUniv (SA), DLitt [sic] (Syd), Hon. DUniv (Macquarie), FRSA, Hon FAHA, Hon DLitt (Newcastle) was replaced by Media Watch Dog fave David Marr BA, LLB, DLitt x 2. Comrade Marr (he with the self-confessed Pymble Accent) is invariably on top of his subject and shows a genuine interest in what interviewees are saying.

By the way, according to The Thought of David, a Pymble Accent is possessed by individuals of a certain age brought up in a fashionable and well-heeled suburb on Sydney’s leafy North Shore.

The “good” news is that Late Night Live is still Late Night Left. Good, that is, for MWD since Comrade Marr has followed Comrade Adams in presiding over a show that is all but devoid of viewpoint diversity.

Take some recent programs, for example. On 6 October, regular commentator Bruce Shapiro reported on United States politics from a leftist perspective. Then on 13 October, regular United Kingdom commentator Ian Dunt reported on British politics also from a leftist perspective. Then later on the same night, occasional LNL guest Yanis Varoufakis reported on Greek national politics from a leftist perspective.

Comrade Varoufakis, is a member of the small and unsuccessful DiEM25 party. He believes that the contemporary Greek government is in cahoots with Israel because of its corruption and its opposition to Türkiye.

Moreover, Comrade Varoufakis referred on a couple of occasions to Israel as the “Genocidal/Apartheid State”. This assertion was not contested by Comrade Marr.

This is absolute tosh. For starters, if Israel was intent on murdering all Gazans it would have made plans towards reaching this (alleged) task by now – since the Israel/Gaza war has been underway since mid-October 2023. Israel has the military capacity to kill most, if not all, Gazans. Yet there are Gazans in that part of Gaza under control of the Hamas terrorist movement. Moreover, Israel supplies Gazans with food, water and medical supplies. No sign of an Eichmann here.

As to apartheid – this means racial segregation – as in South Africa of recent memory. The problem here is that Israeli Arabs make up 20 per cent of the country’s population and are represented within both the political and legal systems. Furthermore, some Israeli Arabs serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) – including a record number of Muslim Arab soldiers, as reported by the Saudi Press on 15 October 2026. This is not apartheid.

So, if Israel is into genocide there would be no need for apartheid since there would be no Gazans from whom to separate. Comrade Marr did not challenge Comrade Varoufakis on this issue. Can You Bear It?

Linton Besser’s Media Watch throws the switch to trivia

ABC TV’s Media Watch sees itself as a judge and jury when it comes to deciding media standards. Set up in 1989, it has had only left-of-centre presenters, currently Linton Besser. Media Watch has a staff of around ten who put together a 15-minute program once a week for about ten months of the year. Nice job if you can get it.

This is what the Media Watch Team considered last Monday to be the media news for the week.

First up, Comrade Besser reported that former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was to take up a position as a media commentator on Fox News in the United States. You don’t say. Who would have known that?

Besser alleged that, in her previous roles, Leavitt had led “a crusade against the press”. He then went on to report that some other one-time Trump staffers had gone on to comment on Fox News – naming Kayleigh McEnany, Larry Kudlow, Lara Trump, Hope Hicks and more besides. How frightfully interesting, but of scant relevance to Australia.

Besser then threw the switch to (attempted) humour by referring to “a director of national intelligence which these days appears to be in short supply”. Now MWD asks avid readers – How funny is that? Comrade Besser finished the segment as follows:

“Of course, the back-and-forth between politics and the media is nothing new, and it’s not confined to just the one end of the spectrum, nor just to America. But the incest on display in today’s Washington, and the one-eyed barracking for so mendacious a leader who so revels in attacking the press and profiting from the presidency, must have John Milton rolling in his grave.”

Turn it up. The poet who wrote Paradise Lost died in 1674. It’s not clear whether today’s Media Watch viewers would know who John Milton is. He was referred to without reference to Paradise Lost. Or whether there is still a grave in which the late poet could roll. What’s more, some viewers might have come to the view that Besser was referring to the character in Mark Dawson’s books and film scripts.

For his next topic, Besser focused on Rebecca Wilson who presents as a retirement expert who publishes a report titled Epic Retirement Tick. A hold-the-front-page situation for sure. He commenced the segment as follows:

“And now Bingo nights, Zimmer frames and orthopaedic sandals and how we’re going to pay for all the good stuff when the golden years arrive”.

Yes, Media Watch was of the view that this was a major media issue of the week. The problem? Well, Nine’s “Today Extra” program was plugging a new report called the Epic Retirement Tick which was created by a certain Rebecca Wilson. It turned out that Rebecca, who Besser referred to as “Bec”, had not been disclosing her relevant commercial interests in the Epic Retirement Institute when appearing on Nine’s Today Extra or when being interviewed by the Sun-Herald.

A worthy correction. But all-so-boring and hardly a big media story.

Then Comrade Besser had this to say:

And finally, as we settle in for a late supper and a light sherry, it’s time to dust off the pages of history, thanks to those scholars at News Corp and their regular column titled: On This Day.

How about that? Could the taxpayer-funded ABC’s Media Watch be channelling Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch Dog – which refers frequently to Gin & Tonic Time? Except that Besser’s timeline of a late supper and a light sherry sounds somewhat pretentious, don’t you think?

And then Comrade Besser and his gang of 10 commenced analysing errors of fact and typos in News Corp’s “On this day” which appears in some of its metropolitan newspapers.

And what a BIG STORY this was. Besser revealed that according to “On this day”, on 1 October 31 BC “Alexander the Great of Macedonia defeated Darius III of Persia at the Battle of Gaugamela”. Clearly a typo – the year was 331BC. Really.

“On this day” revealed that Nigeria’s independence from Britain occurred in “1060” – when the year should be 1960. Another typo. But according to Besser, this typo was regarded as an error to be “revealed” on Media Watch. As if no one would have worked this out had it not been for the Media Watch gang of 10 fact-checkers.

Which raises the question “How trivial can Media Watch get?” And here’s another question: Can You Bear It?

SMH Letters Page runs abuse of Angus Taylor

The Sydney Morning Herald presents as Australia’s leading newspaper – yet its Correspondence pages carry abuse with respect to leaders of the Coalition and One Nation. See, for example, MWD Issue 780, 26 June 2026.

On Thursday 13 October, the SMH ran a letter from Madeleine McPherson which supported Angus Taylor’s political tactics against One Nation, but not without abusing the Opposition leader. Here is what was said:

George Brandis suggests Angus Taylor should copy his counterpart in Britain, Kemi Badenoch, and make a frontal assault on One Nation. I carry no flags for Angus, who seems a bit of a dill, but he has a more difficult challenge than Badenoch.

Calling Angus Taylor “a bit of a dill” is just abuse. Taylor has honours degrees in economics and law from the University of Sydney along with a Master of Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University and has a successful background in business. It’s reasonable that he be criticised when appropriate – with respect to policy and/or tactics – but not subjected to school yard abuse. Moreover the abuse was not relevant to the letter and could have been taken out by the Letters Editor without altering Ms McPherson’s meaning. But the SMH Letters went with the abuse. Can You Bear It?

John Lyons fails to explain why Ilhan Omar’s house was raided

On Tuesday 13 October, John Lyons – the ABC’s Americas editor – led his report from Washington DC on Ilhan Omar as follows:

John Lyons : Yet another of Donald Trump’s political enemies has been targeted here by federal agencies. Just before dawn this morning, the home of Ilhan Omar. She’s the Somali-born Democrat representative from Minnesota. Her house was raided by about 12 federal officers from the Department of Homeland Security. Now, there’s a pattern here in the United States over the last year or so of vocal critics of Donald Trump being raided by federal authorities soon afterwards.

That’s all that John Lyons had to say about the issue. What Lyons did not say was that the Department of Homeland Security is investigating whether Omar’s family lied when they arrived in the United States as refugees in the 1990s via a refugee camp in Kenya.

For example, Omar’s father claimed he was a refugee but there are suggestions that he was in the Somali military. Moreover, Ilhan Omar said when seeking US citizenship, that she was 17 years old – which entitled her to automatic citizenship when she applied for it. If she was 18 years old, then her citizenship application would have been examined by the relevant authorities and would not have been automatic.

There is evidence that members of Omar’s staff have changed her birth date on various official and unofficial documents – which is of relevance to her right to US citizenship.

There are also long-standing allegations that Ilhan Omar’s first marriage was to her brother – which enabled him to obtain US citizenship. This has been denied. However, as commentator Megyn Kelly said on News24 this week, this allegation could have been refuted if Omar and her first husband had undertaken DNA tests and provided them to the relevant authorities.

None of the above were covered in the ABC’s Americas editor when he reported from Washington DC. A more informative report could have been undertaken from Lyons’ Sydney residence.

Lyons is a Trump antagonist and his reporting reflects this. Given the facts of the case, listeners/viewers should be able to come to their own conclusions about the seriousness of the investigation. But Comrade Lyons filed a report from the taxpayer funded broadcaster which was short on facts but long on allegations. Can You Bear It?

An ABC Update – Sally Sara Misses Chalmers/Albanese Scoop

The big political story of the week turned on the disagreement between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers concerning the decision of the Australian Taxation Office to delay for close to a year its decision not to accept payment by credit card. From small businesses and the like.

This was news on the morning of Wednesday 14 October when it was known that the Prime Minister had said the previous evening that he made the decision to get the ATO to back down following representations from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

On Wednesday 14 October, Radio National Breakfast presenter Sally Sara interviewed Jim Chalmers. As usual, Sara gave a soft interview to a senior Labor minister. Chalmers told Sara that the decision concerning the ATO was reached by senior members of the government – making it clear that the Prime Minister’s claim was not entirely accurate. Chalmers said this but Sara appears not to have been listening and missed a scoop. Let’s go to the transcript:

Jim Chalmers: The government stepped in. Last week on the Wednesday, I had discussions with the Prime Minister. We agreed that it would be appropriate to find a better way through for small business. We engaged with the business community on the Thursday, as we do frequently on these sorts of issues. Then Daniel Mulino and I took a proposal to ministers on the Friday morning after I discussed with the Tax Commissioner very early on Friday morning, and by late Friday morning we had stepped in…

Sally Sara: Was the ATO instructed by the government to have this credit card ban?….

So Sara had a scoop, but she missed it – presumably because neither she nor her producer was focused on the Treasurer’s response. Chalmers was saying the problem had been resolved by the close of business on Friday 9 October following discussions involving himself, Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino, and the ATO which concluded late in the morning of Friday 9 October.

This was inconsistent with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s statement on the evening of Tuesday 13 October that the ACCI had taken the matter up with him the previous Thursday and the matter had been resolved by the Friday morning.

However, instead of querying Chalmers on his evident disagreement with the Prime Minister, she asked a question about the ATO. Then on Wednesday afternoon the Prime Minister clarified his previous position and said that the decision was a whole-of-government one. Albanese stated that he and Chalmers had discussions and added: “We convened the Expenditure Review Committee, and we unanimously, right across the leadership of the government, agreed”. That is what the Treasurer Chalmers was trying to tell Sara on the morning of Wednesday 14 October but she missed the significance of the comment.

So did ABC’s political correspondent Melissa Clarke when discussing the interview with Sally Sara. Let’s go to the transcript:

Melissa Clarke: But I think what we saw from that exchange in the speeches last night, it certainly gives the impression that the prime minister is having to ride over the top of the treasurer and to intervene. Whether that’s the full picture or not, I think Jim Chalmers was trying to say, “look, there were more meetings going on behind the scenes, and that they preceded that exchange of text messages”. But nonetheless, you have the prime minister giving the impression that he will ride in and will respond directly,

So, there you have it. A scoop lost through the failure of Sally Sara and Melissa Clarke in not asking for more information from the Treasurer.

The Flann O’Brien Gong for Literary or Verbal Sludge – Annabel Crabb’s lightbulb experience with “crepuscular” debate

As avid Media Watch Dog readers are aware, this occasional segment is inspired by the Irish humourist Brian O’Nolan (1911-1966) – nom de plume Flann O’Brien – and, in particular, his critique of the sometimes incoherent poet Ezra Pound. By the way, your man O’Brien also had the good sense not to take seriously Eamon de Valera (1882-1975), the Fianna Fail politician and dreadful bore, who was prime minister and later president of Ireland for far too long.

The Flann O’Brien Gong for Literary or Verbal Sludge is devoted to outing bad writing or incomprehensible prose or incoherent oral expression or the use of pretentious words – or a combination of all of the above.

Due to overwhelming demand from Media Watch Dog readers, The Flann O’Brien Gong for Literary or Verbal Sludge returns this week.

Avid readers believe that Ellie’s (male) co-owner should have awarded the gong last week for ABC fave Annabel Crabb’s praise of George Megalogenis’ book Three Shocks. As readers know, Comrade Megalogenis’ heavy tome about contemporary Australia did not take into account the Bondi massacre and the subsequent rise in support for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party.

Why? Well your man GM had a theory about three shocks and he did not want the reality of terrorism as another shock to interfere with his theory. In any event, the book was published before 14 December 2025 and GM was not inclined to do a re-write. Or something like that.

But MWD digresses, not for the first time. Readers focused on Annabel Crabb’s verbal sludge when she wrote this in The Monthly’s November issue:

Megalogenis’s deep analysis of immigration and population movements across the continent, aided by new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, provides an uncannily well-timed series of lightbulb moments sorely required in the present scrappy and crepuscular debate about Australian immigration.

There are those who go to Roget’s International Thesaurus when in search of an alternative word to one they have previously used. Ellie’s (male) co-owner is in this camp. And then there are those, like the late Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam, who seem to use a thesaurus to impress by using little-known words. Like “crepuscular” to impress others. MWD believes that Comrade Crabb is in the Whitlam tradition. Hence MWD’s decision to award the Flann O’Brien Award to Annabel Crabb – following the tradition established by the somewhat crazy Ezra Pound – even though it is a week late:

Literary Criticism
By Flann O’Brien
of Ezra Pound

My grasp of what he wrote and meant
Was only five or six %
The rest was only words and sound —
My reference is to Ezra £

Literary Criticism
By Ellie
of Annabel Crabb

My grasp of what she wrote and meant
Was only 3 or 4 per cent
She flashes words to seem so fab
The reference is to Comrade Crabb

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Until Next Time.

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