MEDIA McKNIGHT | Episode 41

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:08]Uh, James, would you, James?

[00:00:10]Should we go and get James Murray?

[00:00:14]Sorry, I'm tethered.

[00:00:24]challenge the Prime Minister.

[00:00:26]No, there was nothing like that in the cabinet.

[00:00:27]We were going to get... What's your metal plan?

[00:00:30]I think they don't wear a varnish here, 'cause I'm tethered.

[00:00:32]I manage it.

[00:00:33]It's very... I know.

[00:00:35]We tied... Don't shackle Beth Rigby.

[00:00:38]That's all we say.

[00:00:39]Well, you tap it off.

[00:00:40]Well, listen, we're gonna take, we're gonna get a mic over there.

[00:00:42]all over the floor.

[00:00:43]That's right.

[00:00:43]Yeah, I've done that before.

[00:00:44]Don't worry.

[00:00:45]I mean, it's been quite unpredictable and messy this morning, but, hey, Beth, that is politics.

[00:00:49]But we'll catch up.

[00:00:50]We'll catch up on that in a few moments.

[00:00:51]Rolling news can often come with many challenges.

[00:00:56]The team at Sky News UK.

[00:00:58]They're caught up in their own wiring.

[00:01:00]Hello, on television and radio producer presenter Rob McKnight with over 30 years experience.

[00:01:05]This is Media McKnight.

[00:01:06]But it wasn't just news coverage in the UK experiencing trouble.

[00:01:10]CBS in America had their own issues to contend with during President Trump's visit to China.

[00:01:15]On day one of the visit, this was NBC in China.

[00:01:19]Tonight, we're live from Beijing.

[00:01:23]We're just beyond those walls.

[00:01:24]Moments from now, President Trump will meet face to face with China's leader in a critical meeting for both countries and the world.

[00:01:31]Not to be outdone, their competitors at ABC were also on the ground.

[00:01:38]Good evening.

[00:01:38]We do begin tonight with the breaking news right here from Beijing.

[00:01:41]A short time from now, President Trump and China's President Xi will meet face to face for their historic high stakes summit.

[00:01:47]But the newly installed anchor of CBS News, Tony DeCopal, well, he could only get as far as Taiwan because of a visa issue, and if that wasn't bad enough, this happened live on air.

[00:02:00]And finally, tonight from Taiwan as President Trump and China being prepared to meet, you will hear a lot about American decline and the rise of a powerful new China.

[00:02:11]The Chinese certainly, is he okay?

[00:02:14]We're gonna take a quick break.

[00:02:18]We have a medical emergency here.

[00:02:20]We're calling a doctor.

[00:02:26]Call the doctor, please.

[00:02:34]So I'm going to sign off for Tony Decopo, who's been reporting in Taiwan.

[00:02:38]We're gonna go to break.

[00:02:39]We'll be right back.

[00:02:48]CBS issued a statement.

[00:02:50]saying the cameraman suffered a medical episode, but he's okay in recovering.

[00:02:54]It's so important the control room listen to what the anchor is saying.

[00:02:58]So often people, they're doing lots of things are not actually paying attention to the final product.

[00:03:04]I've seen this time and time again, both as a viewer and as someone inside the control rooms.

[00:03:09]It reminds me of a time many, many years ago, maybe in the 90s.

[00:03:13]Ross Simons was reading 7 nightly news.

[00:03:16]Now, they had tried to throw to a couple of stories, and it hadn't worked.

[00:03:21]So Ross made the decision to go to a commercial break.

[00:03:24]And nothing happened.

[00:03:25]And he threw again.

[00:03:27]And nothing happened.

[00:03:29]There was so much chaos happening in the control room.

[00:03:33]No one was actually listening to the anchor saying, we will go to a commercial break.

[00:03:37]It was messy and unprofessional.

[00:03:40]And here what we've seen is the control room's been delayed.

[00:03:44]They've decided to communicate to the backup host who's literally sitting there in the studio in case a problem happens, and instead of just cutting to him and letting him pick up, he's watching the same feed.

[00:03:56]They've stopped to communicate.

[00:03:59]And 1st of all, react to what the presenter is saying, think of a plan and then communicate.

[00:04:04]In that one, get back.

[00:04:07]I'm coming back to you now.

[00:04:08]2 seconds is all you need.

[00:04:10]And no one listened about the commercial break.

[00:04:13]Now, maybe they had used up all their commercial breaks so they couldn't go to one.

[00:04:16]But, of course, for a lead, for the prime time news bulletin, it was very messy.

[00:04:23]But it has been a challenging time for the CBS News division under the leadership of Barry Weiss.

[00:04:28]The latest ratings from the 1st week of May show ABC news in 1st place with over 8.100000 viewers.

[00:04:35]I mean, those figures are just phenomenal compared to Australia.

[00:04:38]NBC was 2nd on 6.100000 and CBS way behind on 3.7 million.

[00:04:44]In fact, just recently, it dropped to under 4000000 for the 1st time in its history.

[00:04:49]There are reports Barry Weiss is on the outer, but Paramount has denied this, but it is one to watch this space.

[00:04:56]60 minutes has gone through some major changes.

[00:04:59]It's just finished its season and is expected to come back as a very different looking show.

[00:05:04]There's been a lot of reportage that Paramount has basically capitulated to Donald Trump and the White House and are offering them favorable coverage.

[00:05:14]That coverage, despite what the success of Fox News is, the coverage on CBS has led to a decline in viewership and lots of jokes.

[00:05:24]It's also believed that the late show with Stephen Colbert has been a victim of this capitulation to Trump, another claim denied by Paramount, which says that was a financial decision.

[00:05:35]Whatever's happening, it's not working.

[00:05:38]And so Paramount, just like here with Channel 10 in Australia, their parent company, Paramount Global, is facing some serious issues.

[00:05:56]Well, there's more bad news for TV viewers in regional Australia, with news, when is set to drop channel 10 in 3 markets.

[00:06:03]In an exclusive report by Kevin Perry on the TV black box website, it's been revealed the Wind Network will stop broadcasting network 10 services in the Riverland and Mount Gambia regions of South Australia, along with the Griffith Market in New South Wales on June 30.

[00:06:19]The closure follows ongoing financial pressures facing regional media outlets with declining advertising revenue.

[00:06:25]It's continuing to impact the economics of maintaining commercial services in smaller markets.

[00:06:31]Now, broadcasting authorities have historically permitted wind to carry affiliate agreements with all 3 commercial networks in these regions because of their relatively small population basis.

[00:06:42]However, Wynn now believes it is no longer financially sustainable to continue broadcasting 10 services in those areas.

[00:06:48]The Move Mirror is a similar decision made in 2024 when broadcasts of network 10 programming were withdrawn from the Mildura Market.

[00:06:56]Network 10 has released a statement to Kevin Perry today criticizing the move.

[00:07:01]It is a sign of things to come.

[00:07:03]What's happening in these regional outer markets are indicative of the turmoil going through the TV sector?

[00:07:10]This is just the beginning, mark my words.

[00:07:13]Stations here and there will shut down because of the financial pressures.

[00:07:19]And we know, thanks to information made public, that Network 10 has lost.

[00:07:24]half a $1000000000 in the local market over the past 2 years.

[00:07:28]It's not a good sign for the television industry, but hopefully we can recover, although the signs are certainly not looking good.

[00:07:44]I've been talking about the move to video podcasting for years now and things are really starting to take off.

[00:07:50]Today, it's been announced Car Stefanovic and Eddie Maguire will be hosting a new Friday night show called The Long Weekend.

[00:07:57]The new 3 hour show will air nationally across the Gold Radio Network before streaming on iHeart, 9 Now, and Stan, with global distribution, also locked in through the iHeart Network.

[00:08:10]This is a really clever play, and shows the way television and radio are coming together.

[00:08:15]ARN gets 3 hours of content and isn't it interesting that they're not just going with a music format anymore.

[00:08:22]They're actually moving into, I wouldn't call it talk just yet, but it's certainly a different kind of programming.

[00:08:30]You'll have 2 guys talking sport and entertainment for 3 hours.

[00:08:34]I'm looking forward to see what they do.

[00:08:36]And that's through jam TV, Eddie Maguire's production company, which really is really the is the unwritten hero.

[00:08:44]when it comes to Australian production.

[00:08:46]It does all these sporting games for the AFL.

[00:08:49]It's done big events like the Shane Warne Memorial.

[00:08:52]It does TV shows.

[00:08:53]It really has become a powerhouse when it comes to live television.

[00:08:58]I can't wait to see what they do.

[00:09:00]And as for 9 and 9 now and Stan.

[00:09:03]It's interesting that they're getting into bed with ARN.

[00:09:06]Now, obviously, Steve O, Michael Stevenson used to be head of sales at nine.

[00:09:11]So there's a close relationship.

[00:09:12]But it is fascinating, the 2 companies are coming together in this way.

[00:09:17]Now I made the point.

[00:09:18]This deal does not affect Carl and Eddie's continuing jobs with Channel 9.

[00:09:23]Although, what will Carl do next year has become the talking point for the whole industry.

[00:09:30]We wait to see that one.

[00:09:31]And you don't just have to leave it to the big players when it comes to video podcasting.

[00:09:36]Have a look at what I did for Libby Gore recently with her interview with Bill Shorten.

[00:09:41]I did this with my home equipment.

[00:09:43]We make interviews from anywhere in the world look professional through a new service I've developed called video podcast services.

[00:09:52]And if you want more information and a bespoke graphics look, I'm doing it for just $80 a record.

[00:09:58]So just go to video podcaster online and find out what it's all about.

[00:10:03]I want to make video podcasting the next big thing in Australia.

[00:10:06]It's happening overseas.

[00:10:08]We need to be doing it here.

[00:10:09]So get in contact.

[00:10:20]A few weeks ago, I defended Meta and Facebook in regards to the news media bargaining incentive.

[00:10:25]Basically, I don't believe Facebook should be paying to send consumers to rival news sites that use the Facebook platform to promote and market themselves.

[00:10:34]But now, 5 top publishers have alleged meta founder Mark Zuckerberg personally ordered the company to pirate 1000000s of books rather than pay for them.

[00:10:43]Zuckerberg and Meta have been accused of committing one of the most massive infringements of copyrighted materials in history to train its artificial intelligence system, llama.

[00:10:52]The company has said it will fight this lawsuit aggressively.

[00:10:56]Meta and other AI companies, have been claiming the use of the copyrighted material, is acceptable under fair use.

[00:11:03]That's still a major legal issue of contention, but in my opinion, a company shouldn't be available to steal someone's work on this scale, to generate a new business and profit from it.

[00:11:15]Fair use, or fair dealing, as we call it here in Australia, allows images, pictures, and copy to be used for the purposes of news reporting, commentary, parity, and legal use.

[00:11:26]The use of AI here in Australia is currently being debated with big text saying any restrictions could lead to companies going elsewhere to build data centers so they don't have to comply with our laws.

[00:11:39]Fair dealing is something many people who work in the industry in Australia.

[00:11:43]Well, they don't actually understand.

[00:11:45]And it is slightly different to the US.

[00:11:48]The issue recently came to light in the media diary section of the Australian.

[00:11:52]When journalist Steve Jackson reported that 9 entertainment had stolen an exclusive picture published by the Daily Mail during the Bondi beat shootings last December.

[00:12:02]Diary can reveal the kleptomaniacs at the nation's biggest media outfit are refusing to pay a $20,000 invoice it received from a rival media outlet after they were once again caught out braisingly stealing their competitor's best picks and openly plonking them on their own news sites, television programs and front pages.

[00:12:21]In fact, just about all of news corps mastheads splashed with pigs owned by the male.

[00:12:26]The only difference between news and nine, when the mail sent its invoice to news, the company paid it.

[00:12:33]What a novel approach.

[00:12:34]At least it would be at 9, which is again claiming it's okay to nick another outlet's work under the country's fair use provisions.

[00:12:41]Fair use, fair dinkum, what a joke.

[00:12:44]But 9 is right.

[00:12:46]The use of a photo for the purposes of reporting news is covered under fair dealing, which is governed by the Copyright Act 1968.

[00:12:54]Unlike fair use in the US, Australian fair dealing only applies to a defined list.

[00:13:00]Research your study.

[00:13:02]Now this applies to students, academics, and researchers, criticism, or review.

[00:13:06]It must be genuine critique though, not just a pretext to reproduce content.

[00:13:11]Parody your satire, which was added in 2006.

[00:13:15]Now that requires the use to actually be parotic or satirical in nature, reporting news covers journalists and news organizations, giving professional advice for lawyers, patent attorneys and trademark attorneys only.

[00:13:28]Now, the fairness factors, even within a permitted purpose, the dealing must be fair, because the courts consider the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the work, the amount and substantiality of the part taken, the effect on the market for the original work, whether the work was available for purchase.

[00:13:46]So, yes, in hindsight, the work is available for purchase, but it wasn't at the time.

[00:13:52]So 9 is right that it can use an exclusive photo from another outlet for the purposes of reporting news, even though they could possibly buy it.

[00:14:02]Where things get messy though, is the gentleman's agreement, the papers seem to have had over the years with each other, that they will honor invoices when they've used someone else's picture.

[00:14:12]But they've never actually had to honor those invoices.

[00:14:16]They've chosen to do it.

[00:14:18]And maybe that's because they all pay photographers to go and get the pictures and they just think it's fair.

[00:14:23]TV news.

[00:14:25]Well, they have never entered into that agreement.

[00:14:27]It is not uncommon to see footage from other networks appear on their rivals during news reports and rarely is anything said.

[00:14:35]In fact, the only time a TV network arcs up is when a rival has pushed it too far by using too much of the material.

[00:14:42]But even then, there's no actual time limit.

[00:14:45]And I can't tell you now how many times I've been told, oh, you can only use 30 seconds of someone else's material.

[00:14:53]Well, that's not actually a thing.

[00:14:54]I reckon a lawyer must have said that once, just to make things easier at some paper or news website or something because it's become accepted practice.

[00:15:06]So many people believe you can only use 30 seconds.

[00:15:09]But it's just not true.

[00:15:10]You are not limited to just using 30 seconds and you are not bound by copyright, no matter how many people on the internet complain that a news outlet has used their video or pictures without permission.

[00:15:22]Once you've published, you can't control what is and isn't used under fair dealing.

[00:15:28]There are things worth noting, though.

[00:15:30]You can't just use someone's vision for illustrative purposes.

[00:15:35]It has to be specifically to report the news or commentary about the clip.

[00:15:40]Even though they do it.

[00:15:43]Like you watch morning shows and breakfast shows and they'll run overlay because they're talking to a person, but theoretically, you can't just use any vision.

[00:15:53]You have to specifically be talking about that clip.

[00:15:56]i.e having a reason to play it under fair dealing.

[00:16:00]On YouTube, I get copyright notifications all the time.

[00:16:03]And in 99% of cases, I beat them because of the way I have used the clip.

[00:16:08]I stay within the limits of fair dealing.

[00:16:11]I usually, well, I always do talk about the clip.

[00:16:14]There's only been one case I agreed to give up on, and that was the one in Media McKnight, where I showed a clip of a guy who recreated the opening of a UK series.

[00:16:25]He and I had a chat and I went, you know what?

[00:16:27]I'm fine for this not to be monetized.

[00:16:30]You went to all this trouble and we had a gentleman's agreement.

[00:16:34]But otherwise, I win my YouTube cases, even when people say no, they don't accept it.

[00:16:40]I will push it with YouTube because I know I am falling under the fair dealing restrictions.

[00:16:46]And that's what you have to do.

[00:16:48]You have to be careful.

[00:16:49]But to come all the way back to channel 9 using a picture of a newsworthy event.

[00:16:53]Sorry, guys, it's fair game.

[00:17:05]Sam Pang has confirmed he won't be hosting the logos this year, which is a shame, because he's done a terrific job in the role.

[00:17:11]And speaking of the Logis, that also leads me to this week's salute and a slap, 1st the salute.

[00:17:18]I've been reminded of just how great production teams in Australia are when it comes to doing live events, especially compared to some overseas examples.

[00:17:27]In fact, I watched the BAFTA Awards, the TV Awards the other week, and I was appalled by the execution and coverage of such a prestigious show.

[00:17:35]Post Greg Davies was fantastic, but the red carpet was nowhere near as good as the Logies, and the actual event was lacking in terms of sleekness and shine.

[00:17:45]What I did like, though, was the genuine love that came across for the industry.

[00:17:50]This evening is about television.

[00:17:53]Fuck, Simon got time to go into the history of this beloved medium, but a quick AI search told me that it began in 1870, when to David Attenborough first filmed himself hugging a monkey.

[00:18:05]Now, tonight, we celebrate, and I hope you'll agree with me, proper telly.

[00:18:11]Proper telling.

[00:18:16]And that pride continued throughout the night.

[00:18:19]The UK people seem to really be thankful that they're working in the TV industry, and it's something our local industry needs to embrace.

[00:18:28]So here comes the slap.

[00:18:29]The Logie Award should be a celebration of television, not a chance to talk it down and make jokes about the whole industry being irrelevant, and social media being more popular and other forms.

[00:18:40]Look.

[00:18:40]I do a TV show from my garage.

[00:18:42]I'm very well aware of the impact social media and alternative platforms are having.

[00:18:48]But television should still be a pride of place in Australia's culture.

[00:18:55]And the people at this event, the ones that get up, it's easy to make a joke about how bad the industry is, how nobody's watching.

[00:19:04]Don't do that.

[00:19:05]Get up, be proud of the industry.

[00:19:08]Talk about it, 70 year history, the impact it's had on our lives.

[00:19:12]This year is the 70th anniversary of the television industry in Australia.

[00:19:17]That is something to be proud of.

[00:19:19]So get up, get your logie, and embrace, be nice.

[00:19:23]Make jokes, but don't do it at the industry.

[00:19:26]Make jokes about people in the room, but stand up with pride about television, because the more you put it down, it reinforces to the viewer that it's irrelevant, and they'll stop watching.

[00:19:37]And if that's what you want, then you won't have a job, and that's no good for anyone.

[00:19:51]And before we go, another edition of shit I just don't care about.

[00:19:55]Actress Kirsten Dunce says she was paid much less than her co-star Toby Maguire in the original Spider-Man trilogy.

[00:20:02]Now, despite the fact she said this a few years ago, that comment is doing the rounds again on social media, but I just don't give a shit.

[00:20:09]Tubby Maguire was Spider-Man.

[00:20:12]He was the star of the show.

[00:20:13]He doesn't have to be on paid parity with his co-star who has a much lesser role and isn't in the film as long.

[00:20:20]Sorry, guys, I just don't care.

[00:20:23]And that brings us to the end of this edition of Media McKnight.

[00:20:27]I'll be back again next Tuesday at 8 p.m.

[00:20:30]Australian Eastern Standard Time.

[00:20:32]Or if you're a paid member, you'll get the episode as soon as it is ready to go without having to wait for the schedule publish.

[00:20:39]Just go to youtube.com slash at McKnight tonight.

[00:20:42]That's youtube.com slash at McKnight tonight.

[00:20:45]I'm Rob McKnight.

[00:20:46]I hope to see you again soon.

[00:20:47]Cheers.