Now we turn to what was billed as a world exclusive interview broadcast on prime-time Australian television last week:<\/p>\n
PAUL MURRAY:\u00a0It is the interview that has got the entire world talking. The conversation between Sharri Markson and Benjamin Netanyahu \u2026<\/p>\n
– Paul Murray Live, Sky News Australia, 21 August, 2025<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Sky News Australia landed the interview that was the envy of news networks across the globe, an exclusive 16 minutes with the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
Through the week, Sky News\u2019 Walkley Award-winning Sharri Markson was breaking news about the steady deterioration of the relationship between Australia and Israel, in the wake of a decision by Anthony Albanese to support the formal recognition of a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n
She obtained a copy of the highly critical letter Netanyahu had sent the Australian Prime Minister, and reported Netanyahu\u2019s social media spray, which accused the Australian PM of being \u2018weak\u2019, which is why Markson opened her landmark interview like this:<\/p>\n
SHARRI MARKSON:\u00a0Why do you believe history will remember him as a weak politician?<\/p>\n
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: \u2026\u00a0I think his record is forever tarnished by the weakness that he showed in the face of these Hamas terrorist monsters \u2026<\/p>\n
– Sharri, Sky News Australia, 21 August, 2025<\/p>\n
The exchange prompting news reports across the media.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Markson also asked a sharp question about rumours of an imminent ceasefire:<\/p>\n
SHARRI MARKSON:\u00a0Is this true and do you still plan to takeover Gaza and eliminate the terrorists if they do agree to a deal?<\/p>\n
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU:\u00a0Well, we\u2019re going to do that anyway \u2026<\/p>\n
– Sharri, Sky News Australia, 21 August, 2025<\/p>\n
But between these bookends, what would you have asked a world leader whose military campaign has killed tens of thousands of people and prompted waves of protest at home and across the world?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what was on Sharri Markson\u2019s interview clipboard:<\/p>\n
SHARRI MARKSON:\u00a0Have you been shocked at the antisemitism, the violence, the hatred you\u2019ve seen unfolding on our streets here in Australia, and then the lack of action and the lack of leadership from the very top, from our Prime Minister?<\/p>\n
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU:\u00a0Well, I was very dismayed \u2026<\/p>\n
– Sharri, Sky News Australia, 21 August, 2025<\/p>\n
Bibi was then invited to wax lyrical on any resemblance he sees between Albo and those who thought they could do a deal with Adolf Hitler:<\/p>\n
SHARRI MARKSON:\u00a0\u2026 is this word \u2018appeasement\u2019 a direct reference to how Europe dealt with Hitler in the 1930s and do you think we\u2019re seeing from leaders like Albanese and others, a similar complacency now?<\/p>\n
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU:\u00a0It\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re seeing \u2026<\/p>\n
– Sharri, Sky News Australia, 21 August, 2025<\/p>\n
Markson did ask about the persistent allegations of starvation and genocide in Gaza, prefacing those allegations as false and defamatory:<\/p>\n
SHARRI MARKSON:\u00a0Part of the problem here is that there is a very effective propaganda campaign being run against Israel. The Albanese government is aiding and abetting it, so are some media outlets. Prime Minister, what do you say to the libels that Israel is deliberately starving Palestinian children and is conducting a genocide in Gaza?<\/p>\n
– Sharri, Sky News Australia, 21 August, 2025<\/p>\n
And otherwise giving Benjamin Netanyahu, potentially the most consequential world leader at that very minute, a free pass with much nodding and enthusiasm:<\/p>\n
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU:\u00a0You will encourage more and more and more of this radicalism in your own country\u2026<\/p>\n
SHARRI MARKSON:\u00a0Absolutely, absolutely.<\/p>\n
– Sharri, Sky News Australia, 21 August, 2025<\/p>\n
In all, Sharri Markson asked Benjamin Netanyahu eight questions but not one which might have put him on the spot.<\/p>\n
Not even about pointed criticism from prominent figures in Australia’s Jewish community who 24-hours earlier had written to Netanyahu decrying his comments about Albanese as inflammatory and bound to incite yet more antisemitism downunder.<\/p>\n
On Friday we asked several of this country\u2019s most experienced journalists to give their assessment of Sky News\u2019 world exclusive.<\/p>\n
One was Michael Gawenda, a former editor of The Age newspaper and contributor to The Australian, who has written of his deep connection with Israel.<\/p>\n
He told us:<\/p>\n
This was the definition of a soft\u00a0 interview. It was beyond soft. It was not journalism. There was not a single challenging question. Indeed the questions weren\u2019t questions at all but statements of agreement with what Benjamin Netanyahu had said about Australia and Albanese in particular, so that all he had to do was agree \u2026<\/p>\n
– Email, Michael Gawenda, Former Editor-in-Chief, The Age, 22 August, 2025\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gawenda said he would have asked Netanyahu about those criticisms made by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, and Gawenda is not alone.<\/p>\n
Potentially Australia\u2019s most well-known television journalist, Ray Martin, told us Sharri Markson should have asked about them too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He added:<\/p>\n
It was clearly not an interview but a sycophantic endorsement of Benjamin Netanyahu. It failed Journalism 101. There was no attempt at balance, there was not one critical question \u2026 Good on her for getting an exclusive interview but it was a wasted opportunity.<\/p>\n
– Phone, Ray Martin, Journalist, 22 August, 2025<\/p>\n
Helen Dalley, formerly of Channel Nine\u2019s storied Sunday program and a former anchor at Sky News Australia, told us she too was disappointed:<\/p>\n
The Sky News interview \u2026 was a missed opportunity to even slightly challenge a political leader of a country engaged in war. Not one challenging or probing question.<\/p>\n
– Text Message, Helen Dalley, Journalist, 23 August, 2025<\/p>\n
In contrast, the same interview conducted by a daytime news anchor at Sky News\u2019 American counterpart included questions like these:<\/p>\n
BILL HEMMER: \u2026 your own soldiers have been accused of killing innocent Gazans who are in line for food. That\u2019s the accusation, almost on a daily basis. Can you defend that?<\/p>\n
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Yeah, I can deny it \u2026<\/p>\n
BILL HEMMER: Will you allow more independent reporters to go into Gaza and see it for themselves?<\/p>\n
– Fox News, 7 August, 2025<\/p>\n
We asked the decorated veteran television interviewer, Kerry O\u2019Brien, for his view:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sharri Markson might as well have simply handed Benjamin Netanyahu a microphone and\u00a0said let me know when you\u2019re finished.<\/p>\n
– Email, Kerry O\u2019Brien, Journalist, 23 August, 2025<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien and his peers shared with us some of the questions they would have asked the Israeli PM. They\u2019re on our website and I\u2019d encourage you to read them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This morning Sharri Markson told us it was important that her viewers hear Netanyahu explain Israel\u2019s efforts to avoid civilian casualties and deliver aid, and that:<\/p>\n
Unlike the left-leaning figures Media Watch spoke to, who no longer work in mainstream media, I\u2019ve been inundated with high praise from leading editors and journalists describing the interview as outstanding, first-class and agenda-setting.<\/p>\n
– Email, Sharri Markson, Journalist, 25 August, 2025<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Sky News told us that if the ABC believes it could have done a better job it should secure its own interview with Netanyahu, and:<\/p>\n
The ABC has spent a decade trying to discredit Sharri Markson\u2019s reporting, including falsely dismissing her accurate investigation into Covid-19\u2019s origins as a conspiracy. The ABC has a long history of anti-Israel bias and is in no position to lecture others on objectivity in journalism.\u00a0<\/p>\n
– Email, Sky News Spokesperson, 25 August, 2025<\/p>\n
With a track record of breaking news, and a rolodex of politicians willing to take her call, few could\u00a0really argue Sharri Markson is an unserious journalist\u2014but for me, this interview crossed the line into open advocacy for the Netanyahu government.<\/p>\n
Landing the Israeli PM was clearly a serious get, but what\u00a0Sky News delivered was also a dud which denied audiences their only chance to see Netanyahu tested from an Australian point of view and to think more deeply, not just about Anthony Albanese\u2019s divisive diplomatic decision, but also about one of the most awful conflagrations in the history of the Middle East.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now we turn to what was billed as a world exclusive interview broadcast on prime-time Australian television last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-95226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}