December 21, 2019
Welcome to Best of the Week.
I’m exhausted, and I suspect it’s a pretty safe bet to assume you’re exhausted too.
I’m exhausted not just because my friend left my apartment at 3:07am, now it’s 8:10am, and this needs to go out this morning. (Although that, combined with the fact that my incredibly quiet upstairs neighbours, somehow manage to make it sounds like they are dropping a single bowling ball right above my head every morning at daybreak, really doesn’t help. Honestly. Every Day. It then bounces seven times as it stumbles towards the invisible bowling pins, and then all is quiet once more).
It’s more than that.
2019’s been an exhausting year.
Whether it’s the bushfires ravaging the country. The total paralysis of our leaders in the face of immense challenges. The smoke covering Sydney. Or clashing with Studio 10 and News.com.au’s Joe Hildebrand on the radio about the timing, optics and sensibility of Prime Minister Scott Morrison taking a holiday at this time, and whether or not the volunteer fire services are adequately resourced. It’s hard not to be wishing away the time, and looking forward to the theoretical reset that comes with a new year.
And while the on-air clash with Hildebrand was (this time around) exclusive to myself and The New York Times’ Australian bureau chief Damien Cave, looking back on 2019, I imagine some of you have felt like you’re speaking into a microphone but not being heard. Losing an argument you didn’t even want to be a part of. And thinking “Oh my lord, is it over yet?”
Taking a detour into 2020
Away from the fires and back in the media bubble, the end of 2019 has been unexpectedly hectic and exhausting for Seven. A few significant things it wanted to get done in 2019 have faced a roadblock, and will have to take the long way around to get over the line in 2020.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has expressed concerns about the market implications should Seven sell its magazine arm, Pacific Magazines, to German-owned Bauer Media.
