More than one year after The Sydney Morning Herald lost subscribers when gossip columnist Andrew Hornery bullied Rebel Wilson into coming out as gay, readers across Nine mastheads are once again fleeing in droves. The current exodus has been triggered by contentious coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Nine editors, including The Sydney Morning Herald’s own Bevan Shields, have reportedly threatened to ban journalists from covering any content related to war if they sign an open letter calling for more ethical reporting on Gaza.
Over 300 staff from major media outlets, such as the ABC, Guardian Australia, and The Age (also owned by Nine), have added their signatures to an initiative supported by the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) union. The aim is to promote a more balanced approach in reporting on Israel and Palestine.
According to Crikey, many journalists at Nine who signed the letter faced threats. Editors justified sidelining these staff, claiming it was to protect their mastheads’ reputations from perceived bias. They argued that the “bans”, though they hesitated to use the term, were not punitive and were set to last as long as the conflict does, as journalist Cam Wilson explained.
Readers are now reportedly angrily cancelling their newspaper subscriptions, and at least one senior staffer has quit in frustration.
In response to Crikey’s bombshell report, a Nine spokesperson told the website, “The editorial leaders are in constant communication with a vast range of newsroom staff, representing all perspectives, and will continue to encourage open dialogue on all issues, including this one”.
This isn’t the first instance where Nine has hemorrhaged subscribers due to lapses in judgment by its staff. In a previous incident last year, Hornery, 62, whose career seems built on a foundation of bullying and defaming women, found himself compelled to issue a public apology.
Remembering the time Andrew Hornery said Carla Zampatti was "not keen to discuss her fall" when she was in a coma, and "on the mend" the day she died. https://t.co/8bOVh5lhEf pic.twitter.com/zECA1xPm9c
— Rachel Withers (@rachelrwithers) June 14, 2022
His attempt to out Wilson in pursuit of a so-called “scoop” resulted in a mass cancellation of subscriptions, with irate readers expressing their discontent after witnessing the actor being pressured into a public disclosure of her sexual orientation.
Hornery, now a substantial legal liability for Nine, took it upon himself to email Wilson’s management team, claiming inside knowledge about the actor’s new relationship with fashion designer Ramona Agruma.
He gave her a mere two days to respond. Instead of complying with the newspaper’s enquiry, Wilson seized control of the narrative, announcing her new girlfriend on her personal Instagram account.
Initially, Shields staunchly supported Hornery, asserting that the paper hadn’t outed Wilson but had merely posed questions, following standard practice that includes setting deadlines for responses. However, this stance quickly became untenable.
Faced with internal backlash, exacerbated by the story coinciding with LGBT Pride month, the outlet issued an apology for its reporting, leading to the removal of Hornery’s article. The exact number of lost subscriptions due to his reckless reporting remains unclear.
Adding to the turmoil, this incident followed a separate scandal involving Shields’ directive to label a rail shutdown as a ‘strike’.
In February last year, leaked messages from the SMH’s newsroom chat group exposed Shields instructing staff to describe the government shutdown as a “strike”, despite multiple employees pointing out his error.
The revelation ignited criticism on social media, with SMH readers expressing concern that such “mischaracterising” of political events undermined the newspaper’s integrity.
In his routine email to subscribers, Shields acknowledged his “stuff-up,” expressing regret over both the mistake and the failure to promptly issue a correction for the online news story.
