There’s nothing worse than being left out of a joke. At News24, though, they didn’t get it in the first place. The presenter James Macpherson kicked an own goal this week, presenting a satirical video as an authentic Seven News segment while hosting The Bolt Report.
The video was created by the sports comedy group Kick it Forward, joking that one of the members of the group, Josh Garlepp, had quit social media after copping abuse for posting about Fremantle’s finals loss on X.
“There were 220 comments targeting me physically, mentally, my mum, my dad, my dog,” he said in the clip, which was presented as a mock Seven News report, adding that he had received insults including “baby flog dick” and “tall lanky freak”.
Unfortunately, News24 failed to pick up that it was a work of comedy, with Macpherson playing a section of the clip during Tuesday’s program, credited to “Seven News”.
Related: ABC and the Guardian call on One Nation to reverse media ban amid censorship concerns
“I have to warn you, the abuse was shocking,” Macpherson grimly declared. “According to the Seven News report, he was called every derogatory name under the sun … He was called a flog, a cuck, he was called woke, he was called a baby penis, and he was called … Albo!”
Macpherson suggested the clip showed that it was now a “common online slur” to be called an “Albo”. He also used it to illustrate his anger at the federal government’s proposed reforms to social media algorithms, which he claimed were trying to “restrict the flow of information” and shut down dissent.
Garlepp was quick to pick up on the plug, posting to X that he didn’t expect News24 to be “as gullible and digitally illiterate as their target audience”.
“Not only missing the joke but repurposing for their own agenda,” he wrote. “The story was parody, made by me and then used against the algorithm legislation. How dumb are these people?”
On Thursday, News24 issued a correction noting that the clip was “not a genuine news report”.
“News24 apologises for the error. The segment was removed from all online versions of the episode,” it read.
A ‘truffle hound’ for fake news
It’s not the first correction News24 has issued since Macpherson took the reins temporarily at The Bolt Report.
On 2 September Rowan Dean, appearing alongside Macpherson, falsely claimed that the race discrimination commissioner, Giridharan Sivaraman, had not appeared at the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion.
The pair were discussing comments Sivaraman made to Guardian Australia after a slew of racist social media remarks about Australians missing in the catastrophic Nepal-Tibet floods underneath articles posted by mainstream media outlets.
Sivaraman connected the comments to Australia’s immigration debate, which he said was “amplified by the rhetoric of far-right populist parties” and indicative of a “real rise in white supremacy ideology”.
Dean and Macpherson weren’t so sure. “This guy is a kind of truffle hound for racism,” Dean claimed, before asking: “Why wasn’t the race discrimination commissioner at the royal commission … talking about the racism that is absolutely inherent in many of the teachings that go on in radical Islamic places?”
Well, he was. Not only did he appear, Sivaraman provided the commissioner with two submissions and a 32-page document including recommendations to improve social cohesion and providing up-to-date racial discrimination complaint data.
On 7 September News24 posted a correction, noting that the comment by Dean, whom it described as a “guest” on the program, was “incorrect”. “The Commissioner appeared as a witness during the Royal Commission’s hearings in Sydney on 20 August 2026,” it read.
Where’s Karl?
Has anyone seen Karl Stefanovic? The media has been in a panic this week after noting that his podcast, which previously ran multiple times a week, has mysteriously fallen silent.
The Karl Stefanovic Show hasn’t uploaded a new episode since 24 August, when he interviewed the anti-ageing surgeon Dr Buck Parker.
The show’s Instagram page has been similarly dormant since then, and its Facebook page appears to have been deleted. Stefanovic hasn’t posted to his personal Instagram since 29 August, when he uploaded a video happily roaming an orchard in Griffith. “Spring is sprunging,” he said at the time. “Bees are rooting.”
We don’t know if he’s still skipping around the orchard, as he hasn’t provided comment to any media outlets about his disappearance.
Among those to investigate the mystery was Mary Madigan at news.com.au, who pointed out that the halt in production of his podcast came after he was dropped from the media company ARN.
“There were industry murmurs that ARN had gone to the trouble of signing Stefanovic not just to stick him in a Friday arvo slot but to groom him to take over the highly coveted Sydney breakfast slot,” she wrote on Wednesday. “A spot that desperately needs filling since the shocking axing of The Kyle and Jackie O Show in March.”
What Madigan neglected to disclose was that she is now employed by Kyle Sandilands. It was just the fourth article she had contributed to news.com.au, where she is still listed as a wealth and culture reporter, since joining Sandilands as a presenter on his own media venture a month ago.
On Thursday Madigan was back, revealing that Stefanovic had “expressed interest” in working with her boss. This time she did disclose that she worked on his program.
According to the article, Stefanovic had informed Sandilands he was on holiday with his wife. The pair had also had “private chats” about Stefanovic joining “King Kyle” as an afternoon drive host. We’ll see how that goes.
Glasses down
Nine Entertainment has put its foot down on Meta glasses.
In an internal communication to staff, management said that effective 1 September, the use of smart glasses and wearable devices would not be permitted in workplaces and facilities to safeguard “personal privacy” and “commercial information”.
“This policy is designed to safeguard personal privacy, confidential commercial information and intellectual property,” the memo said. “Exceptions for newsgathering or operational requirements will need to be approved by your Executive Team Leader and Risk. Exceptions for medical or accessibility reasons will need to be granted by Nine Group People & Culture and Security.”
Meta’s AI-powered smart glasses, launched a few months ago, have been labelled “pervert glasses”, despite a glossy advertising campaign featuring Kylie Jenner.
The technology editor at the Sydney Morning Herald, David Swan, was not immune to their stink, writing an opinion piece this month under the headline: “My smart glasses were brilliant. Now people think I’m a creep.”
Swan was using them for an innocent reason: to film his two-year-old son playing football. “Here’s my take, as someone who likes the glasses and wants to keep using them,” he wrote. “Let’s pause. Not forever, and not with an import ban … Just long enough to work out the rules. We’re not ready for smart glasses, but maybe we can be.”
How do you cover a neo-Nazi?
How do you cover neo-Nazis without platforming neo-Nazis? That’s a question media outlets had to grapple with this week as the high court heard a challenge from the White Australia party, formerly known as the National Socialist Network, which was designated an illegal hate group in May.
Most have kept their reporting strictly to what was heard in court, and excluded statements made in press conferences held by the group between hearings.
Seven News, however, included a clip from the neo-Nazi leader Thomas Sewell addressing the media alongside members of the group.
“We believe that the white people in Australia should have the right to vote for a political party that does not wish for the ethnic replacement of white people,” Sewell said in the broadcast clip, which did describe his party as “white supremacist” and a “hate group”.
The White Australia party has also had some sympathetic content creators on the ground, including the rightwing commentator Hugo Lennon, commonly known as “auspilled”, who spoke at the latest March for Australia rally.
His videos have received tens of thousands of views online. In them he has warned against the “punitive effect” of the ban without detailing why it was enacted in the first place.
