As The Magpie Was Saying Before He Rudely Interrupted Himself ….

 

For those who’ve been wondering what ever has happened to their favourite ultracrepidarian, wonder no more. The old bird is now finally ensconced in his new Nest and is ready to gradually re-enter the fray.

 The reinvigorated Nest may differ a little from its predecessor, but still with the continued intent of entertaining while informing on matters local, national and international. But we’ll muck around with the format a bit until we get the balance right. Happy to hear what you think – well, probably just happy-ish.

TWO IMPORTANT POINTS: Your comments are invited as always and will be published as before,  and The Nest will always remain free.  (Oh, and three … donations will also be welcomed, relocation has also involved buying a new (i.e reconditioned) computer and a few other bits of hardware necessary only for the blog.)

Happy to say that The ‘Pie’s network of trusted citizen journalists remains intact, and the cornucopia of comment-worthy daily happenings in the ‘ville continues apace (the one thing the old bird has managed to do in the interim is read the Daily Astonisher every day during his relocation adventure, and boy, aren’t there always rich pickin’s there!)

The ‘Pie rebooted comments a few weeks ago, but is aware that only a few readers were aware of the initial moves, but certainly enough to make for some interesting exchanges and topics. So while a few will be familiar with much of the following, here is a sample Nest for everybody to reacquaint themselves with the Magpie’s ranting ramblings, typos, fat finger fuck-ups and all. He awaits your return fire.

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Shakespeare Rewritten: The Karl Stefanovic take on the Bard.

First, a brief mention of what someone, somewhere will inevitably call Karlgate.

The ‘Pie doesn’t intend to encourage pointless discussion about the Karl Stefanovic uproar and the ingenuous reaction of some to his clever, carefully planned and executed exit from Channel 9.  But just for the record, a view not much aired.

Stefanovic carefully plotted each and every one of his strategic steps, all aimed at monetising his chosen career-veer into podcasting, unfettered by the boundaries of the job that has made him filthy rich over 20 years.

But the Today Show gig was not a job from which he could resign without a massive financial penalty, possibly a crippling breach of contract settlement. So in January, he launched his podcast, featuring a wide variety of interview guests. But it was a carefully orchestrated Jekyll and Hyde performance, while playing the lovable(?) buffoon for Nine’s cameras each morning, he was letting rip with some Sandilands-like grubspeak outrages on his podcast.  And his exit plan was well towards fruition long before he interviewed the ill-bred guttersnipe and thug Tommy Robinson, as revealed by this weekend’s Australian.

What the Oz didn’t say that this was an unsubtle ploy that played Nine management for fools.

Just before he flew out to interview Robinson in the UK, Stefanovic used his podcast to champion accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith, suggesting a Labor government set-up. This laid the groundwork to paint Nine into a corner where they would have to fire him, because Nine programs including his former gig, 60 Minutes, had led the charge against BRS after belatedly picking up the story originally broken by the ABC. This was a deliberate provocation.

But just to make sure that his strategy hit home, Stefanovic then did his Dorothy Dix interview in the UK with the oafish Robinson, (who presumably would not get a visa to Australia under any government) and promptly posted it.  He left it up for 12 hours before doing a cynical ‘oops, sorry ‘bout that’ and took it down – long enough to ensure it was noticed by Nine.  The rest as they say, is history …. Karl walks with a payout of his remaining contract and penalties – announced to be in the high six figures instead of being hit with a breach of contract suit.

But why would Stefanovic take this course when his contract was up in December anyway , just six months away? Why not just wait and then make the jump without the possibility of any  mud sticking?

Well, just one word covers why … publicity.  Does anyone believe that a happy kissy-kissy tearful on-air farewell in December would garner anything like the farmed outrage and cynical biased reporting that Project Outrage has received across the country? While his podcast is free to listeners, it certainly isn’t to advertisers, and there are plenty of them willing to fork out up $5000 a pop to reach the average audience between 190,000 and 350,000., figures which will certainly swell hugely thanks to … you got it, the free publicity.

And the free lucrative honking about this in the media isn’t about to end anytime soon, for another, equally cynical reason – the Murdoch versus the Rest (particularly Nine) syndrome. The Holt Street Haranguers have found a perfect vehicle to again lay into chief media rival Nine, which inter alia owns the SMH and The Age. Murdoch’s minions all offered biased coverage always skewed towards Stefanovic as the the victim of woke big business (Hypocritical award of the Year, anyone?).

And it’s an editorial decision that has been and will continue to be spread across the entire Murdoch octopus, including our good old Townsville Daily Astonisher.

Hidden agenda or what?

The ‘Pie has detailed all this simply because it’s the sort of thing Big Media depend on the ‘little folk’ to remain in ignorance of, and to create their own little pockets of rage farming. in pubs, clubs and BBQs.  The ‘Pie think Stefanovic is a sleazy meathead and Tommy Robinson violent racist thug, but not an opinion shared in Murdochistan, where knocking a rival outweighs calling out egregious lowlife behaviour.

All good fun if you know what’s going on. But ironically, it is an insult to many, including The ‘Pie, to describe Stefanovic as a journalist … he gave up any right to that title years ago when he decided to become a grinning Colgate’s commercial, buffoon windsock swaying with the winds of populism. Like his contemporaries Sandilands, Jones, Hadley and Bolt et al,  Stefanovic does not inform, debate or interrogate issues of the day even handedly, Rather than challenge, he instead simply reflects what he knows are the entrenched views of his target audience

The phrase ‘lend me your ears’ is no longer a noble precursor to a telling indictment of betrayal but a cynical, dishonest money-grubbing exercise.

Perhaps Stefanovic’s modern version of the Bard’s famous speech should begin’ Fiends, bogans and cuntymen.

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Political Polka Meets Judicial Jazzercise, …

…where there will be all sorts of skippy steps involving stretching, bending and contortion. Welcome to the Cairns Suppression Order fuck-up, which is going to be a dance marathon.  The suppressed name was that of a witness in the preliminary hearing of an alleged extortion case.

The legal industry just loves the use of Latin phrases to reinforce the ominous vibe of arcane masonic-like exclusivity. So perhaps in reference to the Cairns suppression order brouhaha, we will shortly be regaled with the opinion that this is a not a clusterfuck, but a ‘confutatio cacata’. This grand assessment loses some of its smarty-pants gloss when it is translated as ‘shitted-up mess’. And when it comes to this no-name matter, it is emerging as one great steaming pile of squitter, or more politely, a turba confuse, a massive tangled mess.

The ’Pie does not intend to run a side trial-by-media on the initial matter itself, but as always, will look at the reporting of the matter and the curious questions that arise along the way. The short version is that an acting Cairns magistrate accidentally allowed the name of key ‘witness’ in an extortion trial be aired in open court, and the 40 minutes it took to decide to suppress it. was a joke in this electronic age … blogger Shane Cuthbert who was in court at the time, texted out the name within seconds of hearing it.  As the whole world now knows,  the gist of the core allegations that the ex of a married woman had demanded $15k or he would reveal his claim that she had dropped her tweeds to cop a length from none other than The Kid, our Premier David Crisafulli. At this stage, there is no evidence that this actually happened, and evidence suggests Crisafulli had nothing to do with moves to suppress his name. But the cashed-up mainstream media were bound by the order,  and fustrated by knowing the name but prohibited from using it,  they are fighting this order tooth and nail through the courts, an expensive but worthy argument of principle. But nothing bruises the tender legal heart so much as exposure of its inconsistencies, incompetence and futility, so despite having deleted all references he had made to the name,  a few days later Cuthbert was charged with a breach of a court order.

When this matter waddled its way into court, the police apparently suffered a major attack of cognitive dissonance –personal belief denying empirical fact – by seeking to have Cuthbert’s name also suppressed,. The reason for this extraordinarily goofy idea was never explained, and anyway, the magistrate (a different one to the beak who issued the initial order) refused . The weird thing here is that while the world and his wife all know who the mystery ‘powerful person’ is, they also know who Cuthbert is, because he broke the story on YouTube. On top of that, he was named in MSM stories about his arrest and charging.  By agreement, he hadswiftly removed any reference to the matter from his social media, so knowing his name will not further reveal what we already know. So by refusing to suppress his name (I mean FFS!), at least one magistrate doesn’t look silly in this ‘confutatio cacata’.

Then, in the story, there was this from today’s story …

The ‘Pie is versed enough in the sensible reasoning behind most suppression orders, but in this modern era, the law has not adjusted to the fact that such orders are trying to put the cork back in a champagne bottle.
But in this matter, we come to the strange use of the word ‘uninvolved’, when the mystery man (the coyly coined MM, but apparently far more than a sweet nibble) became the very involved catalyst when he is said to have nailed a consenting married woman. While those of you still awake at this stage will say, yes, but he has committed no crime and therefore deserves to be shielded from the public airing of his alleged infidelity in an extortion case.
Which brings to the question to be decided in a higher court, that of public interest and right to know versus shielding a public person from embarrassment and censure..

The question which needs to be considered here is : does the moral dimension of MM’s horizontal hoedown – if it actually took place – fall in favour of public exposure. Because there are still many who like their ‘powerful’ men and women to adhere to a higher standard to merit the money, perks and power bestowed upon them by the electorate.

This one has legs as they say, and will probably be a marathon rather than a sprint.

Meanwhile, MM hasn’t entered the fray, he’s too busy – errr – running his publicly owned corporation called Queensland.  Allegedly.

Submitted on 2026/06/18 at 3:02 pm | In reply to The Magpie.The mystery deepens, as the sharpest legal minds in the country are at a loss to understand the legal justification behind the Cairns Magistrate’s suppression order in a local extortion case.The order is designed to keep Premier David Crisafulli’s name being revealed in the matter, even although the premier was in no way involved in the alleged criminal offence itself. Even heavy hitters in the legal industry are at a loss to understand why acting Magistrate Gelma Meoli decided to tilt at this particular windmill. But tilt she did, despite the law being pretty clear that this is a tenuous interpretation of a court’s non-publication powers. Even the venerable AFR has weighed in. Here is the bit in that excellent report that caught The Magpie’s eye. At least in principle, orders like these are not made lightly, according to David Rolph, one of the country’s foremost media law scholars. “Departures from open justice like non-publication orders should only occur where it’s strictly necessary to protect the administration of justice.” Extortion cases can be a prime example of “strict necessity”. “People wouldn’t come forward to complain about blackmail and extortion if their identity was going to be exposed,” Rolph explains. Since the “married man” is not a party to the case, it’s not completely clear why suppressing his identity was necessary. But one thing is clear: orders like this do not – or at least should not – exist to protect high-profile people from embarrassment. “Protecting someone’s privacy and someone’s reputation has never been a basis for granting orders,” Bosland says. “So it can’t legally be that.” At least in principle, orders like these are not made lightly, according to David Rolph, one of the country’s foremost media law scholars. “Departures from open justice like non-publication orders should only occur where it’s strictly necessary to protect the administration of justice.” Extortion cases can be a prime example of “strict necessity”. “People wouldn’t come forward to complain about blackmail and extortion if their identity was going to be exposed,” Rolph explains. Since the “married man” is not a party to the case, it’s not completely clear why suppressing his identity was necessary. But one thing is clear: orders like this do not – or at least should not – exist to protect high-profile people from embarrassment. “Protecting someone’s privacy and someone’s reputation has never been a basis for granting orders,” Bosland says. “So it can’t legally be that.” So if that’s the case, what is it?

Submitted on 2026/06/18 at 1:17 pm

The ‘Pie was interested to learn that Acting Magistrate (‘acting’ being interesting in itself) Gelma Meoli comes from a highly respected local rural family of presumably Italian heritage in the area, and is well known for their support of conservative politics (Country Party originally). To use the legal nomenclature, that fact may be nugatory on which ‘nothing turns’ as the eagles are fond of saying, but since this bumbling legal dog’s dinner of a matter has understandably prompted all sorts of speculation, might as well throw this one into the mix for conspiracy theorists.

Note: Cuthbert appears in court on August 4, but the media’s fight against the suppression order is likely to end up in the High Court sometime in the next 10 years, along the way supplying plenty of Veuve Clicquot for this lawyers picnic.

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Speaking Of Criminal Behaviour

It’s not only the Daily Astonisher that is having a losing battle bridging the ever widening gap between credibility and the current publication (have you voted on Townsville’s best burger yet?). It seems someone out at Charters Towers hasn’t been paying attention, either.

An alert reader (nice to know quite a few have stuck with The ‘Pie during this transitional period) sent in this nightmare fodder.

In the what?

Well, in the brainchild of this chap …

One doesn’t get a rush of confidence when reading claims that the Gazette is Charters Towers’ leading newspaper, a truth that omits that it is the ONLY hard copy paper in the town, since the venerable Northern Miner was swallowed into the great digital maw of News Ltd in 2020, and is now an online masthead only,  featuring rehashed stories from the Bulletin, 95% of which are about Townsville.

So in that sense, more power to Mr Sumpton – whatever his own real pipe dreams are, he has even gained the endorsement of the local council.

But just what a disgraced fraudster and conman from Townsville can offer this fledgling newspaper is hard imagine. The’ Pie concludes that the mentally damaged Thompson saw a chance for a fresh audience of cookers, and Mr Sumpton innocently (?) sees a boost to the Gazette’s print run with a parallel boost in ad rates.

Ironically, the Gazette is probably published in the News Ltd print hall in Townsville.

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About bloody time … but somebody better do a welfare check on Charlie McColl.

The ‘Pie is reliably told that at the last MIRRA meeting Ma Greaney attended in March,  shewent off saying TCC would not take on the upkeep of the road, the election pledge Baillie made was stupid, and agreed with her old mate Charlie McColl who has been writing to everyone and anyone who he can think of – objecting to the road being open.

Ma was quickly told it was a state govt issue and nothing to do with council and one of MIRRA core projects is to have the road open to Florence Bay.

Seems state govt has had enough of council’s antics – current estimate of cost for the Sooning st bridge is now over $20 million, due to open in July – August.

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And Finally …

His first his marriage, then his party, and now his policy on housing.

Will someone please tell Barnaby he has to stop with the back-flipping …at least .until learns how to nail the landing.

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The’Pie cannot guarantee an immediate return of your old regular Sunday morning delight, there are new demands on his time, but he will work towards again making it a fixed feature. And any small donation you think appropriate will not be regarded as a bribe, The ‘Pie will do his duty anyway … heh, heh, heh.

Until the next barrow load, see ya.