The Chaser Report - ARVO: 6NEWS Leo Puglisi on schooling the PM

Episode Date: April 7, 2022

Joining John and Charles for a very special interview is the legendary 6News creator and anchor, Leo Puglisi! Leo talks behind the scenes of his groundbreaking interview with Morrison, and what it's like to run a news organisation that actually tries to check facts. Plus Leo has some tips on the best ways to use Twitter while at school. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thank you for your patience. Your call is important. Can't take being on hold anymore? FIS is 100% online, so you can make the switch in minutes. Mobile plans start at $15 a month. Certain conditions apply. Details at FIS.ca. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report.

Hello and welcome to the Chaser Report for Thursday, the 7th of April, and this is a very, very special episode, probably the best ever episode of The Chaser Report. I'm Charles Firth. I'm here with John Delmenico, and we have a very special guest star interviewee today, which is Leo Paglisi. He is, well, a media baron.

He's probably the biggest media baron we've ever had on this TV show. He's the 14-year-old star wonder of Channel 6 News, which he is both the owner and operator of. Welcome to the chart. Good to be here. So you just got home from school, didn't you? Yeah, it was the second final day of the term, our final day of actual learning, and then I'll be on a two-week break, which is fairly good because it's been quite a long, eventful 11-week term.

And it's good that now I won't be having to hide on Twitter. I'll be able to do it at home openly without seeing it for teachers behind me. I follow your Twitter. Surely for any teachers, it would be very obvious. of years that you're tweeting in class? I had one come up to our Year 9 coordinator and actually say, and I'm quoting directly

here, just so you know, Leonardo Paglisi's on Twitter during class hours. And she came up to me, our coordinator and basically said, if you're not on your mobile phone, which we can't have public school, it's fine. So I'm not on my phone. I'm on a laptop, so I don't see

the issue anymore. If any kids are listening right now, make sure you get yourself a laptop. It used to be banned, funny enough. I had to use a really cheap VPN. And then for some reason, they disabled whatever let us do a VPN Chrome extension. But in doing that, they unblocked everything they blocked. So, you know, the normal thing a teenage boy would do when they see a site being unblocked,

they go straight to Twitter, of course. What other site could there be? You are on a really old person's... Surely TikTok or something is the place to hang out? Isn't it? You try the TikTok web application. It's awful. Look, it's either that or Facebook,

which you only have simply for the fact it's like the only way to connect with certain relatives and our aged audience who do follow for on our Facebook page. But I think, look, in terms of application on the web, I don't think Instagram is that good on the web. So, you know, unfortunately you've got to go to Twitter. As much of a hell site as it is, I don't think I have any other choice these days.

Now, just to key everyone in who perhaps is not up on it, Leo Paglisi is famous now because he managed to score an interview with Scott Morrison earlier this week. It went to air yesterday, and you basically, Leo, did a better job of scuring Scott Morrison repeatedly than most of the journalists in this country. First of all, how did you get the interview? Yes, so our political reporter Roman McKinnon decided to reach out to both Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanesey's team and Scott Morrison's team got back to us within a few days.

Anthony Albanesey's team, as of recording, has not gotten back to us despite many requests from us, both publicly and privately and callouts on the national broadcaster. And so Roman got a reply, let's say I think it would about early February. They said they'd try to work something out. Soon after, we were told they could work something out after the budget. Then we got a specific date of Thursday, which I think March 31 off memory. And they said either 10 a.m. or 10.15. And Romans on school holidays. He's in Brisbane.

I just said, I'll take the day off school. And so I did. And we actually got the interview. It was delayed by a bit because of some speech you need to go do so. We're a bit nervous. But it ends up going ahead and, you know, it can be seen. And I think, well, we enjoyed it. I don't know how the PM feels, but we definitely enjoyed it.

Did you get the impression that they thought it was going to be a pretty cute little softball, funny thing for Scott Morrison to do? Is that how they were treating you? I don't think, well, they never promoted us interestingly enough. I know every single media interview they put out an alert and a full transcript. They didn't do that with us. But I don't think they were thinking it would be some, Morrison. speaks to the cute kids factor and gets a chance to talk about his re-election thing. However, at the same time, I don't think they were thinking that we were going to give

them the questions we did. We previewed it as talking about the budget and the election and key issues Morrison cared about. All those were spoken about. We also just happened to speak about multiple on the record falsehoods or, if you want to call them, lies from the prime minister. Well, let's take a listen now to just a grab from that interview. because you really do manage to skew him. Crykey, and of course they're their own outlets.

That's not a good start. If you're starting with crikey and you're talking about credibility, it's not a good start. You can make that claim short, but at the same time they put together... I can make... I can assert it strongly, I can tell you. Absolutely, absolutely you can assert it strongly, and we're giving you a platform to assert that. No one's stopping you from asserting that. Everything that you said is on the record. The ABC has fact-checked you, rather, about...

The ABC and Crikey. Let's add a few more then I'm sure the Australia Institute is probably going to be the next one I suspect Yeah I watched the entire interview And it's weird and it was weird to watch The entire interview you're just mainly talking him down From like throwing a tantrum

Like every question It seemed like he was shocked that you would ask him Direct questions about things he has said in the past And then you'd have to talk And then you're like as he's getting mad You guys talk him down What did it feel like to be the teacher for once? Yeah I mean it was really interesting

and I actually do want to note that I, apart from at the very start and end, and occasionally when I needed to check that my hair was fine, I wasn't actually looking at him on the Zoom feet. I had a script open on Google Docs with a couple of notes. So I didn't actually see any of his reactions as soon as we were asking the questions. I did hear all the interruptions. But it was very interesting. And as I said on the ABC last night, while I expected some pushback. I mean, we did actually plan for potential follow-ups. The amount of pushback was extraordinary. I mean, I've never seen anything like it. We planned for the stuff about lies and falsehoods, one, maybe two questions, including a follow-up, when it ended up going for

majority of the interview. And it's the part most people care about. Because if he kept coming back to us with these claims about being taken out of context, we're just going to keep presenting the truth to him, and whether he likes it or not, and we're actually going to, on our Sunday Bulletin at APM Eastern this weekend, nice little plug there, we're going to actually fact-check what he said in the interview, especially about the Shanghai Sam stuff, because we found another clip that he said was taken out of context where we've got the full direct press conference. So I don't think he can really make that claim, but at the same time, he's probably still going to.

Yeah, and look, I've followed you for a while on Twitter, and one of the things that really impresses me is you do actually have a real commitment to fact-checking that is absent from people twice, triple your age. And often, you know, if something is going around where you're going, is that true or is that sort of thing, you'll see you have already replied underneath it, fact-checking it and debunking it or whatever. extraordinary service that you provide with Channel 6 News, Leo.

Thank you. I just wanted to sort of perhaps sort of steer you, though, in a bit of a direction because I think you might misunderstand what the role of the Australian media is nowadays. Like, I think if you're going to be, you know, getting into lots of fact checking and stuff like that, you're not going to have a very successful career in the Australian media. I think you want to go down more the opinion-based sort of thing. I mean, even the ABC has abolished their fact-checking unit now. Like, that's just not something that, you know, you do as a journalist.

Well, let me fact-check that. The ABC still has the RMIT fact-check available on their website, also at ABC fact-check. So I have to say you're false on that claim. But look, we definitely See, no one wants to listen to this. You've met, Carl. This is rubbish content, Leo.

This is going straight in our next promo. But look, I definitely think, in all seriousness, that mainstream out with bar the ABC and, of course, AAP, they really don't do any dedicated fact-checking. They never have these sections called fact-check. We do it. It's one of our prominent sections on the website. It's arguably the thing we're most known for these days.

At the same time, we're also the usual general news service. So I guess, well, I would love mainstream outlets to fact-check more, but at the same time, it would require some to fact-check themselves because I think at this stage we fact-checked pretty much all the major out. We've done nine, ABC, a bunch of others, News Corp as well. So, yeah, I think we're going to keep going at them. I don't know if I'll ever get a job at them, but that's why we just keep... Well, this is the question, which is where do you see, do you see Channel 6 as something that you'd want to keep going with even after you've left school?

Or is your aspiration to get a job at, say, ABC, you know, get a serious journalist job, or maybe a satirical news organization like Sky News? You've got, actually, you've already been on there. You've got an inn. Oh, God, Sky News. Funny enough, I was supposed to be on them twice in 2021. both times were cancelled at the very last minute. First time was on Bolt, and the second time was on outsiders.

I ended up going on Bolt early this year, so that's something. I saw your Bolt interview. It was very strange to watch. I sent it to The Chaser Slack, being like, for an entire interview, Andrew Bolt is like on the right side of history. Because it was, for him, it's a pretty normal take. But it was about, for anyone who doesn't have Twitter,

Leo gets just an insane amount of anger on Twitter from adults who get mad whenever he fact-checked stuff and there's been some insane conspiracy theories about like saying that like Leo is a secret Murdoch child Oh yes yes There was a good old latest information from an insider in Canberra is that Leo was a front for the liberals managed by a liberal staffer

That was a good one wasn't it Did your fact check that? Yeah, well, I think it's very interesting because we, we, I don't think the liberal staffer that's, you know, currently my ear telling me what to do, did a good job at making sure I didn't embarrass the PM. But, yeah, I love them, and they keep going, and most of them are blocked, and I always find out funny what they're going to come out with next, especially the stuff, because for those who obviously don't live in Melbourne or whatever, I mean, Hawthorne, it's part of the Kuyong electorate. so it's considered leafy green liberal territory yada yada yada uh by the way on a state level it's actually labor but uh you know they say oh parents are liberal shills or whatever and um it's just been going on since about just before christmas in fact

and i don't think it has stopped i don't think it will ever stop uh and uh it's funny because many of them actually commented the people who've made me saying oh great job with morrison and made him look silly. Like, weren't you calling me an LNP Shillam? Yeah, we get that all the time. I've gotten, point at me that they're blocking me

because of a joke I've made at the Chaser about, like, one side of politics, and then the next day, like, get tagged by them tweeting out my article because I'll be making fun of the other side. And what's weird, though, is, like, I'm an adult making jokes. You're a teenager putting, just saying facts,

and you've gone on basically every, like TV station in Australia mainly because of the insane just because the level of anger that just saying facts has gotten you like when even Andrew Bolt and like Sunrise have been like okay let's just allow facts to exist online

you know everything's just gone a bit mad yeah it's it's very interesting and I don't think people will ever accept the truth with a lot of things especially when it comes to the classic thing preferential voting whether that's we telling people that no

a vote for the Greens is not a vote for the LNP depending on how an individual Greens voter preferences their candidates and parties and all this stuff and everything with the... I can't believe you know I'm in the middle of some you know I'm mutuals with the bloody

Australian electoral commission now it's because of a couple people losing their minds because we said that Skimo can't use the constitution to delay the election and he's probably about to call it either tomorrow on the weekend. So I am going to be

very smug when he does. All these people who were delaying it. For balance, though, who are you voting for in the 2040 election? Prime Minister Clive Palmer might be a good choice. Thank you for your patience. Your call is important.

Can't take being on hold anymore? Fizz is 100% online. So you can make the switch in minutes. Mobile plans start at $15 a month. Certain conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. The Chaser Report, news a few days after it happens. So, Leo, this must take up an inordinate about of your time.

Like, this is, this must be everything you do after school. Why do you do it? Like, if you're not a Liberal Party shield, what is, I mean, most journalists, have some sort of cool backstory of grinding poverty or, you know, that provides their motivation. You're not old enough to have a back story. What's going on? Why are you doing it?

I think the only backstory I've got is that there's home video footage of me watching ABC News Victoria in a high chair. And that is real footage, by the way. I'll have to find it somewhere. Look, as you say, it does take up. It does take up most of my time. In fact, I literally, a minute before I came here, I was speaking to Bob Catteran. As soon as I jump off, I'm speaking at SBS.

So it is fairly busy for me. I guess, well, I, you know, did Bob Cudder give you a rifle? Pardon? Did he give you a rifle? I think I asked whether he'd be happy to, you know, give me a chance and maybe look at one with him, and he seemed to laugh at it, so we might get that happening. He's been talking a lot recently for anyone who doesn't know about, how in his mind, Australia is in the exact same situation as Ukraine

and that the way that Australia will solve this is by making all of secondary school a militia that will fight against the Russian army when the Russian army eventually invades Australia and that we should give all people aged 13 to 17 rifles when they go to school. When we asked whether I should take up arms, he went for seven minutes with his answer. I'm not exaggerating there. And our show is called Unsensored, and it's a bit hard because I didn't want to cut him off, but I did eventually say, you know, we're short on time, keep to about 90 seconds, please.

I should have said that at the start, but if you want to hear Bob Catter talk about how they could bomb Sydney or how we need oil or something like that, too take a listen. It'll be out next week. And I think, in fairness, I think actually I would prefer Leo to have. a rifle more than Bob Catter so giving it to the youngsters is probably a good idea. Now, Leo, there's been a lot of

criticism of the Labor Party who really have just blanked you at this point. Albanese's office haven't come back to you at all, have they? No, we have never received a reply from him or his team. And there's a bit of a conspiracy theory going around that

they're just not dealing in, they're not treating you seriously. But I don't you think it's actually shrewd. I think that they've dodged a bullet here. I think he's scared. Yeah, they knew that, you know, they'd get the Leah Euglese treatment, and they're scared of the facts. Yeah, it's, I guess we do want to speak to Al Bowen about a number of issues, and I'll

say it on the record, I've said it before, but I think the number one thing we want to speak about is what he considers his party to be. Is it a centre-left party or not? because we look at the voting record and we look like things like that also his comments about trans people in general they've

you know been very interesting to hear I'll put it that way and we want to get some clarification on that and also how he would describe himself as a leader he's been called vanilla he's been called bland

vanilla is a bit of strong flavour for him harsh I won't comment because I don't know the political demographics of all your listeners so Leo does not endorse any of these messages send the hate to me yeah I endorse that though

Leo you've done an amazing job are you planning full election coverage during the four weeks of the campaign yeah so yeah we'll have election coverage on the ground we're trying to get weekly interviews with candidates or current MPs or senators we've got a new program because in addition to uncensored and fact check

for just general candidates we're doing spin check it's a great name and we're just going to really cut to the heart of the issues and then on election night itself likely March 14 or March 21 May it has to be one of those dates uh we will just going to fact check you there May 14 or May 21 yeah May 14 that's it when the when the fact check is getting fact checked by Charles first yeah well we're either now but we'll be doing full we'll be doing full live on the night on YouTube. We're trying to rival the majors. Last time we did election coverage, it was the US one.

It just so happened the moment we went on here, INet decided to cut internet in my area. So that was an absolute disaster. But I managed to use Telstra mobile data. Telstra, you know, sign up today. Am I about to plug? No. Are you guys still owned by the ABC?

No. So Leo's, well, the best way to get in contact with all the, media channels that Channel 6 News goes out on is to go to 6Newsau.com where you can link in with their YouTube channel their Twitter feed

and are you on Instagram? I'm on Instagram yeah at personally I'm Leo Paglisi 6 no underscore because someone in Nigeria hacked my account. For 6 News though it's the same handle on every platform at 6 NewsAU

that is the numeral not the word Oh, yes, good point. Thank you very much. Good luck, and I hope that it doesn't take too much time editing down the Bob Catter interview that you just did. Oh, that'll be very fun. Tuesday at APM, 6 News YouTube. I love these plugs, don't I? But no, seriousness, thank you very much for having me.

Our gear is from road microphones, and we're part of the ACASC creator network. Get you tomorrow. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you for your patience. Your call is important. Can't take being on hold anymore. FIS is 100% online, so you can make the switch in minutes.

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