A pair of Nine Entertainment’s biggest radio stars have slammed the actions of chairman Peter Costello after video emerged of him appearing to knock a reporter to the ground.
Nine Entertainment Chairman Peter Costello has been accused of knocking a journalist to the ground when refusing to answer questions about cultural issues at its TV network.
The journalist claims he was assaulted in the incident, which was caught on video.
Mr Costello denies any wrongdoing.
In video captured by The Australian’s Liam Mendes on Thursday, Mr Costello can be seen walking through the airport’s arrivals terminal as he ignored repeated questions about sexual harassment claims made against Nine’s former news boss Darren Wick.
About one minute after Mr Mendes introduces himself, Nine’s chairman appears to rush the journalist, knocking him to the ground before apparently smiling and walking away.
“You’ve just assaulted me,” Mr Mendes can be heard saying.
Major radio stars at Nine Entertainment have slammed the actions of chairman Peter Costello after video purportedly showed him knocking a reporter to the ground. Picture: Liam Mendes / The Australian
Mr Costello denied reports he caused the reporter to fall over, claiming Mr Mendes walked back into an advertising placard before he fell.
2GB host Ben Fordham described the incident as “ugly” and revealed to his listeners on Friday morning he had reached out to Mr Costello for him to address the incident on air, however Fordham didn’t receive a response.
“I said, ‘you’ve got to address the airport incident, you know that better than anyone and there’s only one place to do it, 2GB at 7.15am’. I haven’t received a response,” he said.
He said if Mr Costello did call in to the show, he would say: “Boss, you’ve had a shocker.”
Ben Fordham described the Peter Costello incident as “ugly” and revealed to his listeners on he had reached out to the Nine chairman for him to address the incident on air, however he didn’t respond. Picture: Sam Ruttyn
2GB’s Ray Hadley said the Peter Costello incident was “not really good” for Nine. Picture: Tim Pascoe
Fordham also speculated as to how he believed the incident played out based on the footage.
“It seems like Peter Costello was taken by surprise. He was not expecting a reporter to be waiting for him inside the terminal at Canberra Airport. When Liam Mendes fires off questions, the Channel Nine chairman appears to be increasingly frustrated,” he said.
“Mr Costello picks up his pace and walks into Liam Mendes. That’s what it looks like to me. Liam falls into some advertising billboards and ends up on his backside.
“Mr Costello does not stop to offer assistance or check that he’s OK. It’s not a good look.”
One Nation Chief of Staff James Ashby discusses an incident involving former treasurer Peter Costello in which he knocked a journalist over.
“No, you don’t do that, Peter Costello should have known better,” Mr Ashby told Sky News host Steve Price.
“He should never have done that silly silly silly.”
Mornings host for the network Ray Hadley later discussed the incident on his program, however, he refused to play into speculation over how it should be dealt with by Nine.
“Look, I’d know what would happen to me if I dropped my shoulder into someone who was trying to interrogate me somewhere, you wouldn’t hear that end of it,” Hadley said.
“Ben Fordham offered him the chance to come on and clarify what happened this morning, he hasn’t come on and I’ll leave it to greater minds than me to sort out what they’re going to do.
“But from a company’s point of view it’s not really good when the chairman accused, let alone acted in the way that he allegedly acted. I will leave it with the board to deal with it.”
Melbourne’s 3AW’s mornings host Tom Elliott called on Mr Costello to “apologise and be done with it” if he had indeed pushed Mr Mendes.