Next Top Murdoch

 I read this in the trashy section of SMH this morning. I think the whole "fiasco" perfectly demonstrates the power that the Murdoch family wields in the Australian media landscape. Sarah Murdoch screwed up hardcore, but the production company gets blamed, and she takes on her sister in law to do the next series. Nepotism anyone?

If you make a really big clanger in your job, the company you work for might choose to fire you: that's how it works. Not if you're Sarah Murdoch, it doesn't. If you're Sarah Murdoch, you fire the company. Yesterday The Diary heard that Foxtel, which is partially owned by the Murdoch family, had, at her insistence, dumped Granada Media Australia, the production company behind the past six series of Australia's Next Top Model - which Murdoch presents and executive-produces - to elope with a new production company for the show's seventh series. Which new production company will get the gig wasn't known, but the favourite, we were told, was Shine, which is owned by sister-in-law Elisabeth Murdoch. We called Granada, where a spokesperson couldn't confirm that it had lost the show. We put in two calls to Foxtel, explaining what we were calling about, but no one called back. Then we got hold of Murdoch, who confirmed the change in production company and gave us this statement: ''Granada produced Australia's Top Model for six years. I worked with them for two years. They are a very talented and hard working crew. But after what happened this year I thought very hard about it and decided it was probably time for a change.''

What happened, is, of course, ''Gaffegate''. Readers will recall that on the final live episode of the show, Murdoch momentarily panicked after a breakdown in communication with the backstage production team, and announced the wrong model as the series winner. It was a simple, embarrassing but really rather exciting misunderstanding that had everyone blushing to their shoulder blades but also yielded for the show a formidable boost in publicity - such a boost, in fact, that people speculated that the gaffe was planned. But since that night everyone had forgotten about it: everyone, apparently, except Murdoch, who, perhaps fearful of a blemish to her reputation, may have found a novel way to communicate that she thinks the gaffe was not her fault - by ditching Granada. Several people are expected to lose their jobs over the move - though several others will presumably gain employment. Australian TV is a small pond. And in that pond, we are told, there is much concern by what appears to be an ominous show of power by someone with ambitions to join the school of big fish. What with Sarah on the move, husband Lachlan now involved with Network Ten, Elisabeth at Shine and Grandpa Rupert still plumbing the depths, it's as if everywhere you turn there's a Murdoch whose flank you can run into, or whose fin you might tweak, at your peril. But that's the Australian media. 'Twas ever thus.

At 2.29 you can see Mrs Murdoch looking as if shes going to crack it.