UPDATE: Karl Stefanovic and Nine are negotiating details of his early exit from the rest of his contract.
Just when you thought you’d seen everything new and unusual from the world of podcasts, it’s a ‘hold my beer’ from Karl Stefanovic and Pauline Hanson.
The Karl Stefanovic Show podcast released an episode with controversial UK activist Tommy Robinson on Tuesday June 23. Within hours all teasers, plus the episode, had vanished, to be replaced by another one featuring former Special Forces Soldier and TV personality Ant Middleton.
This morning the podcast episode returned, on Pauline Hanson’s Please Explain YouTube channel with a header of:
“It looks like they’re trying to sack my good friend Karl Stefanovic for this video with Tommy Robinson!
Deb Knight was a huge flop for Channel 9 and while she was busy grilling me over One Nation’s polling Channel 9’s ratings were in the toilet.
In 2019 on live TV with her, I called on Channel 9 to bring back Karl.
Now with 6 months to go on his contract the weak management of Channel 9 want to sack Karl over this interview.
Tommy Robinson has a lesson for Australians.
If we don’t learn from the UK’s mistakes on immigration and radical Islam, we are going to face the same destruction. This is exactly what Karl was trying to bring to Australia’s attention.
Have Channel 9 become just as bad as the ABC?”
As I write this, four hours after the re-release, it has had 10,000 views with more than 600 comments.
I can’t think of any other example of this, where a podcast episode by one person, has been dropped, then picked up on a different platform, unrelated to the first’s host or guest.
I say unrelated, but Pauline was very kindly mentioned in the episode, so she and One Nation have some skin in the game.
The process, from someone saying the podcast and all its offshoots had to be removed, to Pauline and One Nation discovering this outcome, then them accessing the video and being allowed to upload and share it, something that is Karl’s independent IP, is the most visible example of the difference in regulation of TV and radio, versus podcasts and YouTube.
The MFW were quick to respond, and with the assumption that Nine and / or Karl would ‘lean on Hanson to take it down’. That hasn’t happened, yet.
Nine is Karl’s employer for the next six months of his existing contract. Their response to Radioinfo:
“The Karl Stefanovic Show is a completely independent production. Nine has no involvement, including in the guest selection and other editorial processes. However, Nine is taking this matter seriously.”
And then there’s Karl’s new multiplatform The Long Weekend show, alongside Eddie McGuire, which plays out on a Friday on the GOLD Network, iHeart, across social platforms, and on 9Now and Stan.
Where is the line now on what content is allowed where, and who can use it if you can’t?
With Kyle Sandilands, a mate of Karl’s, about to step into a similar space in the coming weeks, a new template is being created across radio, TV, podcasts, video and socials. Some have rules, others don’t and those working in the intersection, like Karl and Kyle, are pushing the boundaries for what’s to come.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo. Email: [email protected]. You can subscribe to this publication for just $199 per annum (less for community stations, students and pensioners) and support local media. Celebrate Radioinfo in its 30th year.