Logies PR sparks hunt for who left behind a ‘baggie’… Plus, Jonesy and Amanda’s drive-time mega-deal leaks – and smug ABC star falls for fake news shocker: INSIDE MAIL
Insiders spill on Jonesy and Amanda’s drive deal
Gold 101.7 presenters Brendan ‘Jonesy’ Jones and Amanda Keller reluctantly confirmed their move from breakfast to drive last Friday, 24 hours after Inside Mail broke the story.
While the tone of their announcement may have been a little sombre – sources tell us they wanted to stay on breakfast – we hear the pair still have plenty to celebrate behind the scenes.
Industry insiders tell us they are being paid ‘breakfast radio money to do drive’, which sounds like a hell of a deal to us. All those millions and you get a lie-in!
‘ARN had no choice – they could not lose them,’ says one source. ‘Amanda’s on $2.5million and Jonesy’s on $1.5million.’ How’s that for gender equality.
So why are radio bosses throwing so much cash at them?
While ARN is confident Christian O’Connell will do better at Sydney breakfast, they also know that Jonesy and Amanda aren’t the sort of talents you can just let go.
Especially with those rumours about Triple M sniffing around.
Industry insiders tell us Brendan ‘Jonesy’ Jones (left) and Amanda Keller (right) are being paid ‘breakfast radio money to do drive’ – which sounds like a hell of a deal to us
‘ARN had no choice’ but to throw the kitchen sink at Jonesy and Amanda to keep them at Gold, after bumping them from breakfast to make way for Melbourne golden boy Christian O’Connell
The new deal – described to us by one source as a ‘sunset deal’, although we predict they’ll re-sign in a few years’ time – makes Keller Australia’s highest-paid drive host.
She is also – apparently – the second-highest paid drive host ever after Hamish and Andy. That’ll soften the blow…
When contacted for comment, an ARN spokesperson told Inside Mail: ‘Jonesy and Amanda have been closely involved in shaping this next chapter from the start, and it’s something both parties are genuinely excited about.
‘This move not only recognises their incredible legacy but also creates an opportunity to connect with an even larger audience across the Gold Network.
‘They’re two of the best in the business, and we’re proud to continue our relationship as they enter their third decade on air together.’
Not happy, Jan
Independent broadcasters Jan Fran and Antoinette Lattouf have launched a news enterprise called Ette Media, all about promoting better media literacy.
A noble endeavour, indeed.
Jan Fran likes to ‘Question Everything’… apart from obvious fake news
She reposted a screenshot of a fake article, purporting to be from the Daily Mail, about how a Jewish group from Bondi was tricked into getting a Nazi-inspired mural painted in their suburb
It never happened and DM published nothing of the sort. The article was a Photoshop job. Fran acknowledged her mistake hours later – but it was quite a clanger
So you can imagine our surprise on Monday to see Fran duped by an obviously fabricated news story purporting to be from none other than the Daily Mail.
The ABC presenter reposted a screenshot of a fake article about how a Jewish group from Bondi was tricked into getting a Nazi-inspired mural painted in their suburb after commissioning graffiti artist Scottie Marsh to do a tribute to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
A very satisfying little yarn for the ‘Zionism is fascism’ crowd, for sure. Except it never happened and DM published nothing of the sort. The article was a Photoshop job.
There were a few clues something was amiss. The first was the byline: Moss Adman.
So much for Question Everything, Jan…
In fairness, Fran acknowledged her mistake hours later, brushing it off with a joke: ‘So this isn’t real. If you can believe Moss Adman doesn’t work for the Daily Mail.’
But for someone who claims to have a keen eye for bias and fabrications – and posts smug videos mocking news headlines – it was quite the clanger.
Lost property
Sydney was brought to a standstill last weekend by an enormous gathering even the mainstream media couldn’t ignore.
Yes, we’re talking about the Logies.
It was a hell of a night. Lynne McGranger won Gold. Ally Langdon scored most popular news presenter. MAFS lost to a show about kelpies (WTF?) Our highlight was seeing the ABC’s Guy Montgomery win best new talent – and he really is.
But, of course, the real story of the Logies is the hangover. And the person who delivered the best morning-after-the-night-before story was PR maven Kelly Black.
Long-time Logies PR maven Kelly Black (right) discovered a baggie of drugs and a small wheel of Brie on Jones Bay Wharf, a short distance from The Star casino, after the awards night
‘Desperate to know who left the Brie and baggie behind,’ Black wrote on Instagram
Black, formerly a spinner for Channel Seven, has been handling publicity for the Logies for years via her agency Black and White. She reps the AACTAs, various radio shows and comedians, too.
She also likes to keep Daily Mail reporters at the far end of the red carpet…
Anyway, petty grievances aside, Black won our unofficial award for Best Post-Logies Instagram Post with this absolute cracker.
She revealed she’d discovered drugs and a small wheel of soft cheese on Jones Bay Wharf, a short distance from The Star casino.
‘Desperate to know who left the Brie and baggie behind,’ she wrote. Cheeky!
We asked a few of the usual suspects in TV land if they had any lost property they wished to reclaim but, shockingly, no one wanted to go on the record.
Black declined to comment.
Sky’s golden girl in troll territory
Sky News is handing 22-year-old rising star Freya Leach the reins to her own weekly show, Freya Fires Up, premiering Sunday, August 17.
The program – which we had the scoop on last month – promises fiery political commentary, sharp-edged panel clashes and no shortage of opinion.
Leach, a controversy magnet known for her blunt delivery, says viewers can expect ‘heated debates’ that are ‘confrontational, robust, serious – the whole lot’.
The former Liberal candidate for Balmain has certainly made her mark at the network since replacing sacked talking head Liz Storer on The Late Debate in June. Now she is graduating from commentator to host and bringing her signature intensity with her.
Sky News is giving 22-year-old Freya Leach her own weekly opinion show. We reckon station management should be keeping a closer eye on her social media – but apparently they love it
Leach went ‘undercover’ in a face mask at the Harbour Bridge protests. She asked peaceful demonstrators leading questions, then stitched them up in a social media video
What this new gig means for her divisive online presence remains to be seen.
Just this week, Leach dropped a video from the (peaceful) Harbour Bridge protest, where she went ‘undercover’ in a face mask and grilled demonstrators with talking points she said mirrored Hamas propaganda, before labelling them ‘useful idiots’.
We won’t show the video because, honestly, we think she stitched them up with leading questions during what the protesters assumed was a good-faith interview.
In reality, it was nothing more than bottom-of-the-barrel trolling.
Still, Leach hinted there was more to come, which suggests Sky News Australia has no issue with her highly provocative – and likely defamatory – social media style.
Indeed, a source at the network tells us they believe Leach ‘has the potential to build an audience across all their platforms – TV and digital – and her smarts on social media can help drive that’.
Leach’s online antics have seen her butt heads with big names before, including none other than Greens cheerleader Abbie Chatfield, whose nightclub appearance with Adam Bandt may have been the kiss of death for the former party leader.
As an aside, we’ve heard whispers the working title for her show was ‘Freya Freaks Out’, but apparently Sky News top brass had second thoughts…
A couple of go-getters
Speaking of Freya Leach, she isn’t the only one kicking goals in her household.
Her baby-faced husband Cooper Gannon will be announced next weekend as the new President of the NSW Young Liberals.
He is replacing Georgia Lowden – who Inside Mail readers will know for wearing a Labor T-shirt to a house party (big no-no!), being pushed around in a shopping trolley on a night out, and appearing in a viral video from Washington, D.C., wearing a ‘Harris 2024 Save Democracy’ tee (off-brand for a Young Liberal, surely?)
Apparently she’s just over it. We hope we didn’t cause any undue stress…
Leach isn’t the only one kicking goals in her household. Her baby-faced husband Cooper Gannon will be announced next weekend as the new President of the NSW Young Liberals
Meanwhile, it’ll be quite the promotion for Gannon from his current role as Secretary.
He’ll be balancing his duties for the Young Liberals with his day job working for Chris Rath, the Opposition Whip in the NSW Legislative Council.
We hear Gannon is running unopposed, but a win’s a win.
As an aside, despite them both being conservative firebrands, we hear Leach and Gannon are ‘total dorks’ when they’re together. Bless.
‘Bad men’, bad headline
The Guardian reckons Gareth Ward and Mark Latham are both ‘bad men’. Perhaps true, but they are very different tiers of ‘bad’
We hate defending Mark Latham – every time we do we feel like we need an acid bath – but how can the Guardian think it’s okay to compare him to a convicted rapist?
Check out this shocker of a headline: ‘Bad men problem: Gareth Ward and Mark Latham leave NSW parliament in unchartered territory.’
Ward was convicted of sexually abusing two young men and is fighting – while on strict bail ahead of his sentencing – to remain a member of the NSW state parliament.
Latham’s a grub, but he’s no Ward. Not even close.
The right-wing firebrand strongly denies the claims made against him by his former partner Nathalie Matthews – allegations that remain untested.
It is an egregious false equivalency. But we suppose the self-appointed guardians of what’s right and wrong in journalism are happy to break the sort of basic rules they expect others to follow.
Latham’s a grub, but he’s no Ward. Not even close. He strongly denies the claims made against him by his former partner Nathalie Matthews (left) – allegations that remain untested
Taxing times
Amidst the ocean of ink that has already been spilt on Jim Chalmers‘ economic roundtable, one crucial point seems to have been lost.
The Canberra jamboree for business bigwigs, union barons and civil service mandarins has been deluged with submissions ahead of its meeting later this month.
Take the Productivity Commission’s suggestion that companies earning under $1billion – almost 99 per cent of them – should see the corporate rate of tax slashed from 30 to 25 per cent.
Many economists would agree with this proposal, given Australia’s corporate tax rate is among the highest in the world.
But what hasn’t been given as much attention is the submission that companies earning over $1billion – the top 500: tech firms, miners and supermarkets – should face an increased tax burden of up to five percentage points under a new cash flow tax.
This would mean that Australia will be the only wealthy country in the world with corporate taxes this high.
In 2024, Australia had the second highest company tax rate in the OECD, beaten only by Colombia. But the Productivity Commission’s recommendations would see Australia take the top spot.
Countries with a comparable rate include Sudan, India and Brazil.
