Daily News Roundup

 

MONDAY, NOV 9

Malcolm Turnbull is set to lift the lid on the Canberra culture of “boozing and screwing staff” in an explosive episode of Four Corners tonight that the Morrison Government has tried to stop going to air.

The Australian’s Media Diary columnist Nick Tabakoff broke the story this morning that “emails have been fired off by the government to the ABC, addressing or copying-in the public broadcaster’s managing director David Anderson, news chief Gaven Morris, Four Corners executive producer Sally Neighbour and researcher Lucy Carter” over the story.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said this morning that the ABC had a duty to “uphold its charter” when asked if his office or other senior ministers had applied pressure over the issue.

“We would just expect that the ABC, always, that they would act in an independent and an unbiased…way,” Mr Morrison said.

“If they are going to make inquiries I would think they would want to do them across the political spectrum.

“I more than supported it. I ensured that it continued,” Mr Morrison said about the “bonk ban” that Mr Turnbull introduced.

But despite the complaints to the ABC, Mr Morrison conceded he had not seen the program.

“I am not in the habit of responding to allegations based on a program I haven’t seen. I don’t even know what’s in it,’’ he said.

Four Corners executive producer Sally Neighbour confirmed on Monday morning that political pressure had been applied.

“The political pressure applied to the ABC behind the scenes over this story has been extreme and unrelenting,’’ she tweeted. “All credit to the ABC’s leadership for withstanding it. ‘Inside the Canberra Bubble’, tonight on #4Corners.

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 Rugby Australia has signed a three-year deal worth $100 million with Nine to show content on its online streaming service, Stan, as well as showing select matches on its free-to-air channel.

As part of the agreement, Super Rugby games will be shown on free-to-air television for the first time.

Starting next year, the contract ends a 25-year partnership between News Corporation’s Foxtel and the code in Australia.

All Super Rugby AU matches will be live and ad-free on Nine’s video-on-demand streaming service Stan, as well as Super W and all games from New Zealand’s Super Rugby Aotearoa.

The Nine Network will also screen Saturday night’s Super Rugby AU match live — a first for the code — as well as finals matches.

Stan will also stream the Rugby Championship, Bledisloe Cup, Wallaroos Tests, as well as all inbound Tests for Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina with select games also broadcast free-to-air on Nine.

Club rugby games in both NSW and Queensland are also included in the landmark deal.

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As debate rages about whether he should concede his defeat in the US election, incumbent US President Donald Trump spent his second day playing golf at his course in Sterling, Virginia.

US networks called the election on Saturday for Democratic candidate Joe Biden after it became clear he had won the majority of votes in Pennsylvania.

The state carries 20 electoral college votes, and winning it was enough to give Biden a comfortable lead.

Soon after, president-elect Joe Biden and vice-president-elect Kamala Harris took to the stage in Wilmington, Delaware, to claim victory.

While this was going on, the incumbent President was playing a round of golf at the Trump National Golf Club.

And he was there again on Sunday, golfing for a second day in a row.

His motorcade was met by a smattering of admirers and detractors holding signs, including one that read: “Trumpty Dumpty Had A Great Fall.”

Trump hasn’t said anything publicly since Biden and Harris claimed victory but, up until then, he had been insisting the race wasn’t over.

The President has spent months trying to undermine the election results with unproven allegations of fraud, and has pledged to go forward with a legal strategy that he hopes will overturn state results that gave Biden the win.

“The simple fact is this election is far from over. Joe Biden has not been certified as the winner of any states, let alone any of the highly contested states headed for mandatory recounts, or states where our campaign has valid and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor,” Trump said in a statement released by his campaign.

He threw out baseless allegations that the election wasn’t fair and “illegal” votes were counted, promised a flurry of legal action and fired off all-caps tweets falsely insisting he’d “WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT.”