Eddie, Nine and PBL forced to chomp down on a "shit sandwich"

Well, after the right royal bollocking I gave Crikey and its publisher Eric Beecher the other week, the daily email has today come good and produced a cracker of a story - all without using a single below-the-belt punchline, quip or verbal attack, which is nice to see. See, it can be done fellas.

For those of you following the on-going battle between the fledgling Nine Network and its main rival, a resurgent Channel Seven, you probably had a good laugh when Seven announced it had poached Nine's former News and Current Affairs Director, Mark Llewellyn, from right under Eddie McGuire's nose. No sooner had McGuire told Llewellyn that he'd decided to give Llewellyn's position to Bulletin editor-in-chief Garry Linnell, cut his salary by half, and thrown him out of his office, did Llewellyn announce he was jumping ship and moving to Seven, courtesy of his old mate, and former Nine News Chief Peter Meakin, who had moved to head of News at Seven. Follow? Good.

Now, Nine and its parent company PBL were understandably annoyed that Llewellyn had reacted in such a hot-headed way, and so sought to block the move - or, at the very least to make it a costly one for Llewlleyn - by saying they'll fight Llewellyn's defection through the courts. But, only a day or so after Nine launched its legal action the station decided to back down and let Llewellyn go his own way. Why, all of a sudden did Nine change its mind? Well if you believe Nine, then "it was a decision between fighting a lengthy and costly battle or getting on with running a TV station", and Nine wanted to get on with making quality television. But you don't need to be a media analyst, a pundit or a Nine or Seven Exec to realise the real reason is a little more complicated - and interesting. Which brings us to today's cracking Crikey scoop: extracts from Llewellyn's affidavit, which would become public documents and which would present Fairfax, and all the other Packer bashers, with a tantalising look inside the Nine Network, McGuire's management style and PBL's corporate macho culture. Take a gander at this, which comes from today's Crikey.




Eddie McGuire may still be as green as a freshly harvested cucumber when it comes to running one of the nation's most trusted news sources (yes, I'm sorry, but it's sadly true), but Llewellyn's affidavit - assuming it's true, which, judging by Nine's reaction looks like the case - doesn't paint a flattering picture of McGuire, who has the daunting task of turning around Big Kerry's beloved network. Instead, McGuire comes off looking like he's still on set with Sam, Trev and the rest of the goofy Footy Show gang: a blokley sycophant to the very end, McGuire's never short of a compliment, just so long as it softens the hard blow around the corner. It may be just the way Kerry would have run the station, but McGuire's not Kerry - no-one is, which is why Nine, and to some extent PBL, are in such dire straights.

Poor Eddie: he's bitten off more than he can chew, and should probably get used to the taste of Nine's unique brand of contract negotiation.