GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG

ISSUE – NO. 762

13 February 2026

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THE LATEST

  • Sarah Ferguson shoots herself in the foot when pointing to Angus Taylor’s private school education

Left of centre ABC types are invariably banging on in opposition to the Culture Wars – whatever they may be. The line is that political conservatives initiate culture wars when they defend the status quo. But leftists – who like to be called progressives – do not initiate culture wars when they advocate cultural change. Work that out if you can.

On Thursday 12 February, 7.30 presenter Sarah Ferguson travelled to Canberra where she interviewed two Liberal Party MPs concerning the party’s looming leadership challenge. Namely, the member for Durack Melissa Price and South Australian senator Alex Antic. Let’s go to the transcript where Comrade Ferguson fired an opening “progressive” round in the culture wars:

Sarah Ferguson: You said he’s [Angus Taylor] a decent man. There’s no question about that, but you also said when, particularly when, at a time when people were raising the question as to whether or not you might have an interest in One Nation, you said that One Nation is successful because they have “real people in their ranks”. So, is a private school alumni, an alumni, a private school boy, an alumni of Sydney University and a Fulbright Scholar to Oxford the right antidote to Pauline Hanson?

Alex Antic: I did for a minute forget that I was on the ABC so thank you for that culture wars type introduction. I don’t accept that characterisation.

Sarah Ferguson: Hold on, let’s just deal with that for a second. Were there or were there not rumours, questions being asked, as to whether or not you had an interest in One Nation?

Alex Antic: I’m not, there were rumours about that. I’m certainly not objecting to the rumours. What I’m saying is that that characterisation of Angus as somehow not being a real Australian because he went to private school, and he was fortunate. I don’t think is –

Sarah Ferguson: It’s a question, not a characterisation. It is a question as to whether or not someone with that background is the antidote to One Nation whom you described as being successful because they have real people?

Alex Antic: And Angus is a real person. I mean that’s pretty clear. And I think he will resonate well with real people, real Australians….

So, the 7.30 presenter focused on the school education of the Liberal Party’s Angus Taylor. But what about the school education of the Labor Party’s leadership group – all of whom went to non-government schools. Here’s the list:

Anthony Albanese — St Mary’s Cathedral College (Sydney)

Richard Marles — Geelong Grammar School

Penny Wong — Scotch College, Adelaide

Don Farrell – Blackfriars Priory School (South Australia)

And there’s more. Ms Ferguson’s marriage to Tony Jones (the former ABC TV journalist) is a matter of public knowledge. She attended New Hall School in Essex and he attended Newington College in Sydney. Not a government school here either.

So, there you have it. Ms Ferguson is concerned that Angus Taylor is “an alumni, a private school boy”. He went to the local private school at Nimmitabel and then boarded at The King’s School, Parramatta. But Ms Ferguson is not concerned that she married “an alumni, a private school boy” of the Newington College kind. Turn it up – as the saying goes.

[Good discovery work. Perhaps you should have placed this in your hugely popular Can You Bear It? segment. – MWD Editor.]

  • Nine’s Niki Savva in denial about Malcolm Turnbull’s disastrous 2016 election campaign

As avid readers are aware, Media Watch Dog has maintained for eons that many members of the Canberra Press Gallery will accept a Liberal Party prime minister provided he is named Malcolm Turnbull – or a female equivalent. Niki Savva, who writes a column for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, is one of this cohort.

On 5 February, Comrade Savva filed yet another column on the pending death of the Liberal Party of Australia. She may or may not be correct in her prediction – for his part, Ellie’s (male) co-owner is not into prophecy. Early on in her piece, Savva wrote this (somewhat inarticulate) paragraph:

There is still some whistling in the dark, and a helluva lot of dog whistling in the dark right now in the former Coalition. Those fearing the worst are right. It has taken two catastrophic election defeats and the prospect of a third to recognise, understand and accept the crisis in centre-right ranks.

Hang on a minute. Comrade Savva is referring here to the Coalition in 2022 (under the leadership of Scott Morrison when 18 seats were lost to Labor or Independents) and 2025 (under the leadership of Peter Dutton – when 14 seats were lost). But she made no reference to the 2016 election when 14 seats were lost to Labor. And who might have been the Coalition leader in August 2016? Why, it was none other than Malcolm Turnbull. Fancy that.

It would seem that Nine’s cartoonist was desperate about how to illustrate yet another Savva column fanging the Liberal Party. So, Dionne Gain went with the “dog whistling in the dark” line and drew a seemingly frightened Party leader Sussan Ley along with two canines of the Dobermann breed. This from the Sydney Morning Herald which claims that it is committed to RESPECT.

A certain Riley Brown, who frequently writes letters to newspapers, submitted this brief letter-to-the-editor of the Sydney Morning Herald before midday on 5 February:

Niki Savva neglects to mention that the demise of the Liberal Party started with Malcolm Turnbull’s covert undermining of the leadership of then prime minister, Tony Abbott. It continued with Turnbull losing a net 14 seats after the 2016 election, leaving a majority of one and peaked with Turnbull’s on-going “miserable ghost” commentary of the Liberal Party after he left parliament.

Riley Brown

Bondi Beach 2026

Mr Brown attached an address and mobile phone number. But his letter was spiked. Could it be that the SMH is running a Turnbull Protection Strategy? In any event, the spiking of Riley Brown’s letter is not surprising in view of the article by Margot Saville published in the SMH on 6 February in which she mocked political conservatives (re which see last week’s MWD). Comrade Saville is the SMH’s deputy opinion editor on whose watch Comrade Savva’s article was published. Can You Bear It?

[No, not really – now that you ask. I note that Niki Savva quoted Tony Barry of the Redbridge Polling Group (who was once a Liberal Party official in Victoria) as saying with respect to Coalition MPs: “These guys are arguing over who gets to be mayor of Hiroshima as the Enola Gay [a superfortress bomber] appears over the horizon”. Sure, the US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima was justified. But Mr Barry seems to believe that it is appropriate to make (bad) jokes about the occasion. He would be well advised to enrol in Nancy’s Courtesy Classes. – MWD Editor.

  • The Saturday Papers’ Karen Middleton refers to an attack on a Christian Bishop as an attack on a “Muslim Preacher”

ABC TV has junked such current affairs programs as Lateline, The Drum and Q+A. Unlike the BBC, the ABC no longer runs a current affairs discussion program on its main channel at night.

What ABC TV has got left is Insiders at 9 am on Sunday mornings. It essentially features Canberra-based journalists talking to one another about Australian national politics – with the ABC’s Canberra-based David Speers as presenter.

Since ABC TV is bereft of a debate and discussion about current affairs, it boasts Insiders as one place at the taxpayer funded public broadcaster which provides the “sharpest analysis”.

How does Insiders’ “ sharpest analysis” shape up? – MWD hears avid readers cry. You be the judge with respect to this exchange which took place between your man Speers and The Saturday Paper’s political editor, the left-of-centre Karen Middleton, on 8 February 2026. Let’s go to the transcript:

David Speers: Karen, the point from [Independent Senator] Lidia Thorpe and others is that this sort of racial hatred [directed against Indigenous Australians] hasn’t been treated seriously enough – it’s been terrible since The Voice referendum defeat. Is there a point there do you think?

Karen Middleton: Yes, I think so, I’m sure – well, I know that there is a process to be followed before you determine something a terrorist act. So there is often a little bit of a lag when that occurs. I think that happened with the Bondi Junction assessment and then the other event in the, the Muslim preacher who was attacked.

Karen Middleton’s comment was not of the “sharpest analysis” genre. Not anywhere near it. Media Watch Dog is not aware of any “Muslim preacher” who has been the victim of a terrorist attack. It would seem that The Sunday Paper’s political editor was referring to the knife attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel of the Assyrian Christian Church. He is the bishop of the Christ the Good Shepherd Church in the Sydney suburb of Wakeley. A young man has been charged with the assault.

Any religious figure other than that Bishop.

David Speers did not correct Karen Middleton’s serious error when, or after, she made the false claim. Moreover, Middleton also failed to make a correction later in the program. And the Speersy/Middleton duo act is supposed to represent the “sharpest analysis” on Insiders. Can You Bear It?

  • Malcolm Turnbull goes into Miserable Ghost mode with yet another criticism of the Liberal Party

While on the topic of the taxpayer funded broadcaster’s very much requited love for the former Liberal Party leader who was Australia’s 29th prime minister, Mr Turnbull was interviewed by Sally Sara on ABC Radio National Breakfast on 11 February.

Despite once having ridiculed former prime ministers who entered into the public domain as “miserable ghosts, it would seem that Turnbull cannot resist the offer by the ABC – where he invariably criticises the Liberal Party after receiving soft questions. Here are the “highlights” of the latest Sara/Turnbull exchange:

First up, Sara asked Turnbull about the visit to Australia of Israeli president Isaac Herzog and the resultant demonstration by protestors including those supporting radical Islam by the radical left. Let’s go to the transcript:

Sally Sara: What do you think about police attempting to remove several people who were in the middle of Muslim prayer at Monday night’s demonstration.

Malcolm Turnbull: Well, I, I don’t know the whole context. But, you know, one would have hoped that the police would have waited for the prayers to be concluded, frankly. But you know, this is, this is providing, you know, the benefit of hindsight to a decision made on the spot. But I don’t know the full context, but I think perhaps it might have, I think in retrospect, I’m sure they [NSW Police] feel they would have been better off letting them conclude their prayers.

That’s all very well. But NSW Police was attempting, for safety reasons, to move a crowd away from a reception for President Isaac Herzog which was taking place nearby. Would Turnbull have had the same response if, say, a group of Christians knelt down on the street to say the rosary – defying NSW Police orders by doing so? MWD doubts it.

Then when asked whether the Sydney Morning Herald editorial was correct in suggesting that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (via Governor-General Sam Mostyn) should have invited the Chief Rabbi of Israel instead, Turnbull waxed and waned before supporting the Herzog visit. Sort of. In doing so, he referred to “some members” of the Jewish community who supported the visit and other members who opposed the visit. The latter reference was to the minority Jewish Council of Australia whose paid anti-Herzog advertisement in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald on 9 February contained some fake names along with wrong names. The advertisement has been removed from Nine’s website.

Then Turnbull seemed to go along with Comrade Sally Sara’s view that the Herzog invitation was not “comforting” as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had said but “traumatising”. Soon after, Sara asked the born-again Miserable Ghost about the Liberal Party leadership. Let’s go to the transcript:

Sally Sara: You’re listening to Radio National Breakfast. My guest is the former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Turning to the Liberal Party, Sussan Ley is likely to face a challenge for the leadership from Angus Taylor. Who do you think is the best person to lead the party?

Malcolm Turnbull: I don’t, I wouldn’t offer an opinion. I think that, I think leadership is obviously always important, Sally. But really the problem the party has got is that it has drifted away from the centre of Australian politics. It’s become lost in this sort of world, this bubble of populist right-wing media….

Needless to say, like Comrade Savva, Comrade Sara did not raise, or debate, the issue that under Turnbull’s leadership in the August 2016 election the Liberal Party lost 14 seats to Labor. Can You Bear It?

  • Four Corners’ misleading comment on the Opera House demonstration

As avid readers know, anti-Semitism existed in Australia well before the terrorist group Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October, 2023. However, anti-Semitism became rife on Monday 9 October when a large number of demonstrators – consisting primarily of adherents of radical Islam and the radical left – conducted an unauthorised march from the Sydney Town Hall to the Sydney Opera House.

On the way and outside the Opera House, demonstrators chanted “From the River to the Sea/Palestine will be free” – calling, in effect, for the abolition of Israel, the Jewish state. Chants outside the Opera House were variously heard as “Gas the Jews”, “ F-ck the Jews”, “Kill the Jews” and “Where’s the Jews”. They all amount to much the same – since many of the protestors wanted to harm Jewish Australians.

In spite of the prevailing anti-Semitism, Four Corners, ABC TV’s lead current affairs program, did not do a program on anti-Semitism in 2023, 2024 or 2025. However, it did do a program on neo-Nazis in Australia in 2025.

After the murderous attack on the Australian Jewish Community at Bondi Beach on 14 December 2025 – the worst terrorist attack on Australian shores – the ABC decided to do a two-part Four Corners program on the Bondi massacre.

The first program titled “Bondi: Light Over Darkness” aired on 2 February and the second titled “Bondi: Path To Terror” on 9 February. Four Corners’ “Path To Terror” has been severely criticised by the Australian Intelligence and Security Organisation (ASIO). MWD will deal with this program in due course. Gerard Henderson has written about this in his Weekend Australian column on 14 February.

In “Bondi: Path to Terror”, presenter Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop made the misleading comment. Let’s go to the transcript:

Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop: On October 7 2023, the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel lit a fuse inside Australia’s extremist scene. One group celebrated the deaths of nearly 1,200 people.

Sheikh Ibrahim Dadoun: I’m smiling and I’m happy! I’m elated, it’s a day of courage, it’s a day of pride, it’s a day of victory. This is the day we’ve been waiting for.

Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop: Israel’s war in Gaza sparked mass protests, and while the vast majority were peaceful – some at the Sydney Opera House chanted anti-Semitic slogans.

Four Corners failed to emphasise that the Sydney Opera House protest took place on Monday 9 October, well before the Israel Defense Forces went into Gaza in late October. And in his comment, Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop ignored the torching of synagogues, the burning of cars, attacks on Jewish schools etc. Moreover, while many protests were theoretically peaceful – many called for the destruction of Israel. Hardly a peaceful act.

In the two-part series, Four Corners made no explanation of why it had not devoted a program to anti-Semitism in Australia during late 2023, 2024 and 2025.

ELLIE’S PROPERTY ADVICE

  • Ellie comments for MWD on Melbourne’s Hill of Content bookshop

Unlike the late Jackie (2016-2023) who possessed a Dip Wellness, The Gunnedah Institute, when compared to 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) who has six gongs, Ellie is relatively gongless. Even her (male) co-owner Gerard Henderson AC (aka Always Courteous,) has a gong – albeit of the self-bestowed kind.

So, Ellie has gone in search of an honorary gong by undertaking unpaid work in the area of real estate advice. In this instance, advising landlords to lay off charging too much rent for good tenants.

Ellie’s (male) co-owner invariably visited the Hill of Content bookshop when in Melbourne. And, being well brought up, never left the shop without purchasing some written material.

Last Saturday, he headed to Hill of Content’s new site at 1/32 Bourke Street, near the top of Spring Street. It has moved up Bourke Street from its location at 86 Bourke Street near Exhibition Street. The original Hill of Content had been at the 86 Bourke Street location for a century – until the site was sold in 2025 to a developer.

On this occasion, Ellie’s (male) co-owner did not buy a book at the relocated Hill of Content. You see, it did not seem to stock Gerard Henderson’s Malcolm Fraser: A Personal Recollection or Tony Abbott’s Australia: A History or Tony Parkinson’s biography of Alexander Downer.

Concerned that Hill of Content may be channelling Melbourne’s left-wing bookshop Readings (where male sandal-wearers are wont to ask for a 10 per cent discount), Hendo elected for a temporary boycott. But, for old time’s sake, he did photograph the old Hill of Content at 86 Bourke Street. It looks more like a “Hell of Discontent”. See picture below.

Once was Hill of Content at 86 Bourke St – now vacant.

The old Hill of Content is now in rigor mortis mode – with a sign suggesting that the landlord has yet to replace the former tenant. There is a lesson here.

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Ellie comments for MWD: “Landlords of buildings, kennels or whatever should realise that good tenants are hard to replace and make sure they impose a reasonable rent. ‘Here I stand, I can do no other’, as Martin Luther is said to have proclaimed.”

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[Well done Ellie. I expect that I will be writing to the Honours Secretariat anytime soon in view of your impressive start in giving voluntary advice. – MWD Editor.]

THE AUSTRALIA INSTITUTE/ABC ENTENTE

As Media Watch Dog readers know, this blog has been monitoring the ABC/Guardian Axis and the ABC/Australia Institute Entente. That is, the ready access that journalists from the left-wing The Guardian Australia and political operatives from the avowedly leftist Australia Institute (which is based in the Canberra Bubble) get on the ABC. Meanwhile, political operatives from the conservative Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne, Robert Menzies Institute in Melbourne and the Menzies Centre in Sydney have been effectively de-platformed by the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster. [Don’t you mean censored? MWD Editor.]

  • Viewpoint diversity of Mike Bowers’ “Talking Pictures” segment on ABC TV Insiders program now extends to interviewing leftists from The Australia Institute as well as The Guardian Australia

The ABC is a Conservative Free Zone without one political conservative presenter, producer or editor for any of its television, radio or on-line outlets. Not one. ABC management and many ABC journalists are in denial about this. However, no one has been able to name one political conservative who fits the bill.

Now MWD is a fan of Canberra-based Amy Remeikis. As avid readers will recall, MWD supported Comrade Remeikis in the campaign for her to receive a significant wage rise when she worked at The Guardian Australia. MWD regretted that she was one of The Guardian’s contemporary wage slaves – since it has been well known to pay low wages to many of their contributors. Within awards, to be sure – but low all the same.

And so it came to pass that last year Comrade Remeikis packed up her hammer and sickle and joined the comrades at the avowedly leftist Australia Institute in Canberra. There, apparently, socialists are paid (in Marxism terminology) “from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs”. It would seem that Comrade Remeikis has quite a few needs of the monetary kind. So, her standard of living should have improved now that she is no longer a Guardian wage slave.

So, it was great news when, last Sunday, Comrade Remeikis did the “Talking Pictures” segment with Mike Bowers on ABC TV’s Insiders. Comrade Bowers used to be photographs editor at The Guardian Australia but now works as a freelancer.

This supports MWD’s view that the ABC is a Conservative Free Zone.

 

A CHRIS SIDOTI MOMENT

  • In which Chris Sidoti lays down the law on genocide while conceding that the law is not clear

Chris Sidoti who is one of the commissioners of the United Nations Human Rights Council can be heard regularly on the ABC. Currently he is the leading booster in Australia of the claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Interviewed on the ABC Radio AM program on 11 February, Sidoti was vehement in his criticism of Israel and had this to say:

Sara Tomevska: In January 2024, the International Court of Justice found it plausible Israel’s actions in Gaza could violate the genocide convention. Separately, Isaac Herzog has rejected a UN Human Rights Council commission of enquiry that he is among three Israeli leaders to have incited genocide through his comments that an entire nation was responsible for Hamas’ October 7 attack. Mr Herzog later said there are many innocent Palestinians and that his comments were taken out of context.

Chris Sidoti: In the full context of what was happening at the time and other things that Herzog himself said, we came to the conclusion that his words were an incitement to genocide.

Sara Tomevska: Human rights lawyer Chris Sidoti is one of the UN commissioners. He believes Mr Herzog’s visit should never have gone ahead.

But is Chris Sidoti sure? MWD has its doubts. Interviewed by Sally Sara on ABC Radio National Breakfast on Thursday 5 February, Sidoti declared that international law was ambiguous on this point. Let’s go to the transcript:

Sally Sara: Why do you think the Israeli President Isaac Herzog should be arrested when he arrives in Australia?

Chris Sidoti: For things that he has said personally. Our commission prepared a report and released it in September last year, in which it looked at the question of genocide. One of the issues considered was incitement to genocide, a crime in itself, and we came to the conclusion based on a statement made by President Herzog that he had incited genocide….This is something that is about him, personally, this issue, and that’s why I consider that he should be arrested and investigated, and if the evidence is there to the satisfaction of prosecution authorities, he should be prosecuted.

How about that? Sidoti is accusing President Herzog of incitement to genocide even though he conceded that the law is not clear on this point.

Verily, A Chris Sidoti Moment.

MWD EXCLUSIVE

  • ABC declines to state whether Laura Tingle visited Israel etc

Laura Tingle, the recently appointed ABC Global Affairs Editor, is involved in speaking and writing on Israel with particular reference to Israel’s defensive war in Gaza.

However, the ABC will not state whether La Tingle has visited this part of the Middle East. On 24 September 2024, Gerard Henderson sent this email to ABC Communications Department:

Good afternoon ABC Communications Team.

I have a question which I hope the ABC will answer by the close of business tomorrow. ABC Global Affairs Editor Laura Tingle has been commenting from New York in recent days on Israel/Gaza/West Bank etc. My query is this. Has Ms Tingle been to one or all of (i) Israel, (ii) Gaza and (iii) the West Bank?

Here’s hoping for an answer in line with the ABC’s commitment to the Right To Know Coalition.

Best wishes

Gerard Henderson

After a reminder, the ABC sent this reply:

Hi Gerard. No we won’t be commenting on Laura’s travel. Cheers.

So the ABC will not state whether its Global Affairs Editor has ever travelled to Israel/Gaza/West Bank. Unusual, don’t you think?

 

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Until Next Time

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