The many ‘mistakes’ of Costello’s Nine

In the years since Liberal Party elder Peter Costello became chairman of Nine Entertainment, the company has produced a long series of ‘mistakes’ that benefit the Liberal Party. These ‘mistakes’ – the word used by Nine and Costello regarding the worst events – continue to occur until today.

To illustrate how many ‘mistakes’ Nine has made, a broad survey of the company’s pro-LNP actions is required. Let’s start with the big one.

In 2019, Nine hosted a fundraiser for the Liberal Party at the company’s Sydney television studios. The event cost $10,000-per-person and was attended by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Simon Birmingham, assorted Liberal MPs, and the CEO of the Minerals Council, among other Liberal Party donors and supporters. The politicians and 40 paying guests ate on the set of Nine’s breakfast program Today.

When news broke of a Liberal Party fundraiser at a news company, journalists and the public were equally shocked. Nine had only merged with Fairfax months earlier, and Fairfax’s slogan ‘Independent. Always.’ now seemed laughable. The group executive editor of The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, James Chessell – a former staffer of Liberal Treasurer Joe Hockey – told staff the event was “regrettable”.

Evidently, it was not regrettable enough for the company to stop financially supporting the Liberal Party. Nine donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Liberal Party in 2020, the company’s only political donation. The image of Nine as a credibly impartial news organisation seemed shattered. Later the following year, after once again heavily favouring the Liberal Party with financial donations, the company promised to stop giving money to political parties. Despite the company’s pledge, the damage had been done.

The perception of right-wing bias at Nine has extended far beyond large monetary support for the Liberal Party. In the years since Costello took control of the company, coverage in the company’s news outlets has regularly painted the Liberal Party in a favourable light, while being far less positive towards the Labor Party. This is best demonstrated by the way identical issues have been reported completely differently in states run by Liberal and Labor governments.

On New Year’s Day, 2022, New South Wales recorded 22,577 COVID cases. This was the highest daily total ever recorded in the state. Further, it was the highest daily total ever recorded by any state in Australia. On the same day that New South Wales recorded its disastrous, record-breaking 22,577 cases, Victoria recorded 7,442 cases.

Despite NSW’s explosion of cases, Nine’s Sydney Morning Herald ran the headline on its website ‘Hope bursts through COVID cloud as Sydney rings in the new year’. This positive spin must have comforted scared NSW residents. Unfortunately, for Victorians, where cases were almost three times lower, there was no such comfort from the company. Nine’s The Age website ran the headline ‘New infections surge to an all-time high as state hits 7442 cases’.

Somehow, Nine’s newspapers had made another ‘mistake’. It was NSW that had recorded a surge to an all-time high number of cases. Victoria’s daily total was lower than three additional days in NSW. Despite this, it was Victorians who were told that their state was breaking grim records and failing to control COVID, while NSW residents were told that ‘hope bursts through COVID cloud’.

Presumably, NSW’s Liberal government was thankful that Costello’s Nine had been so creative in its efforts to positively spin NSW’s explosion of COVID cases. Equally, Victoria’s Labor government must have scratched their heads at the imbalance between the state’s much lower new cases compared to NSW, and the vastly different way that Costello’s Nine framed the numbers in a state with a Labor government.

Unfortunately, it was not an isolated example. Nine’s newspapers treated COVID-related budget deficits dramatically differently for NSW’s Liberal government and Victoria’s Labor government. In 2021, the hugely damaging pandemic caused nearly identical budget deficits in both states. New South Wales announced a $19 billion deficit, while Victoria announced a $19.5 billion deficit.

The Sydney Morning Herald clearly blamed COVID for the NSW Liberal government’s deficit in both its headline and the opening paragraphs. In contrast, The Age focused on the Victorian Labor government, not mentioning COVID in the headline or first paragraphs. COVID was only mentioned in the third paragraph with ‘Treasury laying the blame…squarely on the outbreak of the Delta variant of COVID-19’.

Nine’s SMH told readers via its headline and first paragraphs that COVID was to blame for the Liberal government’s budget deficit. In Victoria, The Age told readers that the Labor government ‘blamed’ COVID for the state’s budget deficit. The difference in coverage was stark.

Under Costello’s leadership, ‘mistakes’ at Nine have extended into the company’s coverage of current events. High-profile left-wing events have been reported so inaccurately that retractions and apologies were later published.

When George Floyd was brutally murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, outrage and horror turned to global protests. In Melbourne, thousands of people prepared to march on the 6th of June, 2020, in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, despite COVID restrictions. In a prominent headline and article, The Age announced that protestors were planning to spit at police, creating a serious COVID risk. Later the same day, The Age was forced to apologise when they could offer no proof to substantiate the claim. Readers called on The Age to publish a front-page apology the following day. It was not done.

Two years later, utter chaos descended on Sydney when train workers were locked out by the NSW government. The entire network stopped. That morning, the Sydney Morning Herald labelled the event a ‘strike’. Many social media users, including affected transport workers, quickly told the SMH editor that the event was not a strike. Their valuable information was ignored and the SMH coverage squarely blamed the workers, their union, and Labor.

Leaked messages would later reveal that the SMH’s new editor, Bevan Shields, had been told multiple times by his own journalists that the event was not a strike. Shields ignored these journalists, and it would be many hours – with a furious city reading the incorrect reporting – before the SMH corrected its articles.

This was yet another ‘mistake’ by Nine Entertainment that benefited the Liberal Party. The workers, their union, and Labor were blamed for the Liberal government’s decision. It is truly remarkable that Nine’s ‘mistakes’ never seem to hurt the Liberal Party. All ‘mistakes’ benefit Costello’s own political party. It’s miraculous luck.

One Sydney Morning Herald journalist who experienced no such luck was Elizabeth Farrelly. After 30 years at the SMH, Farrelly was abruptly fired by new SMH editor Bevan Shields when it came to light that she had joined the Labor Party and nominated as a candidate for a local government election. Despite Farrelly deciding not to run in the election, Shields fired her because she had not notified her employer. It is a valid point that Farrelly should have revealed the information in an article where she criticised Liberal and independent candidates in the local election, but Farrelly was summarily fired after 30 years of service. She reacted with shock.

While Farrelly’s Labor affiliation was deemed unacceptable by Nine, the company has no problem publishing articles by Rosheena Campbell without mentioning her serious campaign for Liberal preselection at the recent federal election. Campbell has recently written in-depth articles about the Liberal Party, and neither Campbell nor Nine’s newspapers informed their readers that she tried to win preselection with the party mere months ago. If Farrelly was fired for not disclosing her vague experiment with Labor candidacy, Campbell and The Age have dramatically failed to meet the same standard.

Meanwhile, above the fray of journalists and editors, Nine’s chairman Peter Costello has continued to actively fundraise for the Liberal Party and appear at Liberal events alongside serving Liberal MPs. By any measure of media integrity, Peter Costello’s position is seriously untenable.

Disappointingly, there has been no public discussion by Nine’s journalists about Costello’s ongoing political activities. Despite murky event after murky event, Nine’s newspapers have absolved Costello of all suspicion. According to Nine’s papers, Costello had no knowledge of the $10,000-a-head Liberal Party fundraiser at the company he leads. No article has explored his role in Nine’s financial donations to the Liberal Party. No journalist has voiced concerns about Costello repeatedly fundraising for the Liberal Party while serving as Nine’s chairman.

Nine’s journalists were happy to accept that it was pure coincidence when Costello recently appeared alongside Josh Frydenberg at a pre-poll booth where the MP was trying to save his seat. Costello posed for a smiling photograph with Frydenberg, which Frydenberg posted on his official social media account. This gave the strong impression that Costello was actively supporting Frydenberg. None of this was enough for Nine’s journalists to question Costello’s paper-thin excuse that he had simply bumped into Frydenberg at the polling booth. Ignore the fact that Costello’s former colleagues John Howard and Alexander Downer had also appeared with Frydenberg at the booth during the same week.

The complete lack of curiosity among Nine’s editors and journalists about Costello’s active role in the Liberal Party, while also serving as Nine’s chairman, raises questions about the credibility of Nine’s outlets, and the freedom of Nine’s journalists to investigate public interest stories without fear of reprisal.

It is high time for Nine’s journalists to speak out. The long list of ‘mistakes’ that benefit the Liberal Party, the uneven coverage, and convenient excuses by Costello’s Nine continue to mount. We have not even touched on Costello’s newspapers now using a long-term Liberal Party pollster for their in-house political polls. The overwhelming conclusion is that Nine needs to do much, much more to prove that it is not becoming a media arm of the Liberal Party.

Treating both major parties equally, ending the pro-LNP ‘mistakes’, and Costello ceasing all Liberal Party fundraising activities would start to repair the public’s trust in Nine Entertainment.

Until these things happen, it’s clear that blindly trusting and financially rewarding Nine Entertainment would be the biggest mistakes of all.