{"id":746172,"date":"2026-06-19T07:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T07:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/746172\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T07:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T07:07:08","slug":"a-joy-to-watch-pauline-hanson-gets-a-warm-welcome-in-some-parts-of-the-media-amanda-meade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/746172\/","title":{"rendered":"A joy to watch? Pauline Hanson gets a warm welcome in some parts of the media | Amanda Meade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pauline Hanson may have been vague on policy detail, costings and sources<\/a> but according to a bunch of News Corp Australia commentators she gave a \u201ctour de force performance\u201d at the National Press Club on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The One Nation<\/a> leader was hailed as \u201ca politician ready to rule\u201d by news.com.au and \u201ca joy to watch\u201d by the Herald Sun\u2019s Andrew Bolt.<\/p>\n

Jai Bednall, news.com.au\u2019s \u201chead of growth\u201d, said it was \u201cclear we have a new unofficial opposition leader\u201d who \u201clooks and sounds sharp\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome Aussies of all ages might struggle to trust a party that is having to expand so rapidly with the nation\u2019s finances, let alone geopolitics,\u201d Bendall wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut One Nation doesn\u2019t have to be perfect in these areas either. They just need enough people to believe that it surely can\u2019t get much worse than those currently running the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Australian\u2019s associate editor Jenna Clarke, hailed Hanson as a Thatcher from Queensland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cCritics and commentators were expecting a lecture from a Karen, instead she put on a show akin to late British PM Margaret Thatcher, if Marg ever spent any time in a Townsville pub,\u201d Clarke wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cHanson is sharp in every sense, from her political antenna to her rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandilands v Fordham<\/p>\n

Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce are \u201cvery inspirational\u201d, according to shock jock Kyle Sandilands, who has claimed he\u2019s helped the One Nation leaders with their \u201cmessaging\u201d and introduced them to \u201cupper society\u201d.<\/p>\n

In his first interview since settling his $85m <\/a>federal court case, Sandilands said a major driver in accepting the \u201cmiserable amount\u201d of $12m from ARN Media was mounting legal fees, which have already reached $1m.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent time with both of them, and they\u2019re very inspirational,\u201d Sandilands told radio Game Changers Radio<\/a> podcast. \u201cAnd they\u2019re not what everyone thinks they are. They\u2019re not like a lunatic racist party of country bumpkins that think that the world should change, but a lot more common sense stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandilands, who is launching his own independent podcast, Kyle Sandilands Live, also used the interview to say fellow shock jock Ben Fordham \u201cdeserves a slap\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sandilands alleged Fordham was critical of his $100m contract to host the Kyle and Jackie O Breakfast Show on Kiis FM, but then dared to ask him for an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then he\u2019d send me a text, \u2018hey mate, do you want to come on?\u2019 I said, \u2018no, you\u2019ve been a cunt about it\u2019,\u201d Sandilands told Game Changers.<\/p>\n

\u201cFuck you. And he wrote, \u2018oh, don\u2019t be a sook\u2019. And I was like, \u2018you want a slap? Like watch your mouth.\u2019 Like I don\u2019t put up with his bullshit\u2026 Like he deserves a slap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fordham responded on his 2GB show on Friday morning, disputing Sandilands\u2019 version and saying his former breakfast radio rival never threatened to slap him.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Kyle, you can slap me anytime, sweetheart,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd let me say this to Kyle \u2018The Slapper\u2019 Sandilands. I love it when you role-play as the tough guy and you\u2019ve explained recently that\u2019s what you do when you\u2019re on the air. You play a character. But be honest with yourself. Come on, Kyle, tell the truth.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t threaten to slap me or say watch your mouth or F-you. You\u2019re just having aggressive fantasies about the guy who dominated you in the ratings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grogs told to jog on<\/p>\n

Some of the questions at Hanson\u2019s press club appearance raised more than a few eyebrows. There was no more stringent critic than Greg Jericho, the Australia Institute\u2019s chief economist and a regular Guardian Australia<\/a> columnist.<\/p>\n

Greg Jericho with his 2016 Walkley award for commentary for Guardian Australia. Photograph: Josh Wall\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Jericho was among those who thought questions from the Age and Sydney Morning Herald correspondent James Massola and the Canberra Times\u2019 Dana Daniel were underwhelming.<\/p>\n

Massola: \u201cA simple question for you, reflecting on your speech, your comments about migration and multiculturalism, and what have you, is Australia in danger of being swamped by Muslim migration?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanson: \u201cNot if I\u2019ve got anything to do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel: \u201cCanberra cops a lot of criticism from conservatives. You spent a lot of time here in your career. How do you rate our nation\u2019s capital?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanson: \u201cWell, I try to keep out of it as much as I possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jericho reacted to the broadcast with a post at 2pm on BlueSky which said: \u201cThis gallery has had a decade of watching Trump and 30 yrs of Hanson and they walked in the press club like it was first day on the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a Walkley award-winning journalist<\/a>, Jericho has been a member of the press gallery since 2015.<\/p>\n

But an hour after he posted the sharp criticism of his gallery colleagues, the committee president, Jane Norman, emailed to say he no longer qualified to hold the pass.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing another audit of Press Gallery passes and yours has been identified as one that no longer fits the criteria,\u201d said Norman, the ABC\u2019s national affairs correspondent.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven your primary job is now as the chief economist at the Australia Institute, can you please arrange for a lobbyist pass for the building?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jericho told Weekly Beast he had joined the institute in February 2022. On sitting days, he said, almost all his time was devoted to journalism.<\/p>\n

Norman told Beast: \u201cIt hasn\u2019t been cancelled. I asked Greg to arrange a lobbyist pass because he\u2019s the chief economist at the Aus Institute which is in breach of the Press Gallery rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jericho said his pass was being cancelled: \u201cIf you\u2019re kicking me out, fine, but don\u2019t tell me you\u2019re not while you show me the door!\u201d<\/p>\n

An English editor in France<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve established that the Daily Telegraph editor, Ben English, loves to post videos<\/a> from his car or his desk and talk up his paper\u2019s stories. But this week he changed tack and posted what looked very much like an ad<\/a> for Qantas\u2019s new Airbus A350-1000ULR on the Tele\u2019s Instagram page.<\/p>\n

An Instgram post of Ben English in France<\/p>\n

\u201cHello, everyone, from Toulouse in France,\u201d English said<\/a>, with the plane behind him. The \u201clongest haul flights ever for humanity\u201d had just been announced by the airline\u2019s chief executive, Vanessa Hudson. The nonstop service from Sydney to London was first announced in 2017 and was due to come into service in 2022, but has been repeatedly delayed<\/a>. The flights are now set to start in October 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re specially designed as incredible innovations to enable people to minimise the impact of being on a flight for 20 hours, including wellness centres, special diet, special temperature control, a whole range of things,\u201d English gushed. There was no indication on the post that he had travelled courtesy of Qantas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The aviation writer Robyn Ironside, who is also on the junket to France, disclosed the arrangement in her stories for the Australian<\/a> and the Tele: \u201cThe writer is a guest of Airbus and Qantas in Toulouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

We tried to ask English if he had paid for his own ticket to the media event but received an out-of-office auto-reply from his email. The Daily Telegraph has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

New line of work<\/p>\n

Matthew Hooton may be the \u201cmost experienced, exciting and intellectually engaged political and business commentator\u201d in New Zealand<\/a>, according one of the country\u2019s biggest publishing companies, but he is not a journalist. That hasn\u2019t stopped Stuff Group from appointing the former National party strategist as editor-in-chief of the Post and the Sunday Star-Times.<\/p>\n

In the Post\u2019s report<\/a> on the controversial appointment it noted: \u201cThere\u2019s one thing missing from his list of credentials: journalism. Hooton has never trained as or been a journalist, yet he\u2019s now the new editor-in-chief of The Post.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Stuff Group owner and publisher, Sinead Boucher, explained that she had chosen the lobbyist for his understanding of power.<\/p>\n

\u201cFew people understand power in New Zealand as well as Matthew does,\u201d she said in the press announcement. \u201cHe has lived and breathed political strategy and spin for most of his career, and he knows institutional self-interest better than most.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the media it was described as a \u201cbombshell\u201d and a \u201cWTF moment\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hooton, who was writing a column for the New Zealand Herald before he landed the gig, said he was a fast learner who would \u201cdelegate things pretty readily\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Post is not one person, The Post is not one generation of people, The Post is its whole history,\u201d Hooton said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got pre-existing institutional frameworks that ensure the highest standards of ethics, and the highest standard of balance and rigor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The head of journalism at Massey University, Associate Prof James Hollings, told Radio New Zealand<\/a> that Hooton\u2019s appointment was \u201cone on the shock factor\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be quite a sea change for journalism and political journalism in New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cup overflowsLionel Messi celebrates scoring Argentina\u2019s first goal during their World Cup match against Algeria. Photograph: Roberto Schmidt\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

SBS\u2019s broadcast of the World Cup has already reached 9.76 million Australians and SBS<\/a> says it is \u201cdelighted this global sporting event has been embraced by Australian audiences and media\u201d.<\/p>\n

The enthusiasm is so high for World Cup content, Weekly Beast understands, the exclusive Australian rights holder has raised concerns with a number of media organisations over their use of footage, some of which comes close to a breach of rights.<\/p>\n

Before the tournament began, SBS warned media organisations that any use of its footage or other copyright material from the World Cup would be considered a breach of its copyright, unless it was under fair dealing.<\/p>\n

We noticed both the Courier-Mail and the Daily Telegraph were running an eight-second gif of Lionel Messi\u2019s long-range goal for Argentina against Algeria on their homepages this week.<\/p>\n

The United Australia party ad in the Advertiser<\/p>\n

According to SBS rules, the use of animated gifs or looped MP4s is not ordinarily permitted by rights owners under fair dealing for major comparable sporting events.<\/p>\n

An SBS spokesperson would not be drawn on which media organisations the broadcaster had contacted.<\/p>\n

\u201cNon-rightsholders may only use FIFA World Cup 2026\u2122 content in accordance with the requirements of fair dealing under the Copyright Act 1986, including for the genuine purpose of news reporting, criticism or review,\u201d a spokesperson said. \u201cIn particular, any use must attribute SBS as the source\/rightsholder of the content.\u201d<\/p>\n

News Corp Australia was approached for comment.<\/p>\n

Zero insight<\/p>\n

A familiar yellow Clive Palmer ad for the United Australia party<\/a> has never looked so out of place as it did this week in the Advertiser.<\/p>\n

The anti-immigration ad, for Senator Ralph Babet, ran along the bottom of the page featuring stories about and photographs of Nestory Irankunda\u2019s joyful family and Adelaide Socceroos fans celebrating his World Cup performance against Turkey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Just below a sea of smiling faces in Adelaide, including Irankunda\u2019s mother, Dafroza Siyajali, was the jarring headline \u201cZero immigration\u201d.<\/p>\n