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Last updated on August 8th, 2017 at 05:10 pm
Tragically, Glenn failed to land a solid punch:
The annual Walkley Awards for journalism were rocked by an attack on stage tonight at the Crown Casino in Melbourne.
Controversial crikey.com.au writer Stephen Mayne was attacked by Sunday Telegraph columnist Glenn Milne.
Mayne had just finished awarding the best business news report to the Australian Financial Review’s Morgan Mellish when Milne rushed up onto the stage and accosted Mayne, pushing him off the platform and onto the floor.
Milne then began berating Mayne from the stage as the audience, which consisted of a representation of Australia’s top journalists, looked on horrified.
Milne called Mayne “a disgrace” and continued to abuse him from the stage, while the floor manager rushed to restrain him.
Mayne jumped back on stage but Milne almost broke free from the clutches of the floor manager, forcing Mayne to jump from the stage.
Mayne was yards away from his short, cancer-recovering attacker when he was “forced” from the stage. That leap of fright was priceless.
UPDATE. The complete list of Walkley winners. One or two unexpected names among them, massively outnumbered by the usual Walkley crawlers.
UPDATE II. Excellent comments from C.L. and Murph.
UPDATE III. Scared Stephen seeks shelter from his towering foe.
UPDATE IV. Lookit! Mayne v. Milne YouTubed. Watch for Mayne’s raised fists of glory following his victorious running-away. More from Andrew Landeryou.
UPDATE V. A News Ltd. pal emails: “I do think Stephen Mayne deserves more respect. After all, he did found SCARDEYCAT.COM and was a deserved recipient of a recent Big Girl’s Blouse Award.”
- Why wasn’t it on SBS this year? Sounds like a bigger hoot than the wrestling- pity he didn’t bean the weasel with a balsawood chair.Posted by Habib on 2006 11 30 at 08:34 AM • permalink
- BTW- is he the fat little fucker who used to be on Ch 10 (I think) and who had a column in Mondays Australianwhich seemed to be written by Wayne Swans press secretary?
On a scale of 1-10, 1 being John Kerr at the Melbourne Cup and 10 being Boris Yeltsen after dinner (or Ted Kennedy before breakfast), how would he rate?
Will he be getting a pink slip from Rupert?
- Just on up here in daylight-saving free Beatograd; looks like he was half in the bag, but it seems he took exception to Mayne slagging off the Govt appointee to the telstra board (when Mayne could muster 2% of the vote).
How’d that pencil neck get the gig?
I suppose seeing as it’s the Meeja Yartz Alliance award night and only gives gongs to fellow members of the groupthink tank, he’s just the lickspittle for the job.
I’m surprised there’s not more of them blotto (or moreso than usual), after all they’d have been out in solidarity with their IR protest comrades, and would have had to take part in the mandatory pubcrawl which follows any action to fight the oppression of the proletariat.
- Mayne was pathetic. His prepared speech about endless election losses was pathetic. His ad-libs after Milne’s attack were also pathetic. Having not subscribed to Crikey, I don’t know much about the guy, other than this: He’s pathetic.
Anton Enis was also massively unfunny and should stick to reading a teleprompter instead of doing Glasshouse-esque hack jokes about George W. Bush.
I wonder if Paul McGeough had his eye on Michelle Grattan?
- More like the Wanker Awards.Posted by Mystery Meat on 2006 11 30 at 09:32 AM • permalink
- Glenn Milne may have been channeling Andrew Landeryou.
- I happened to glance at SBS and caught a little bit of it but I thought it was part of the show so I changed the channel.Posted by Art Vandelay on 2006 11 30 at 09:36 AM • permalink
- Oh Lordy, I live in the longitudinally backward and daylight saving free State of WesssTern Australia, and I was going to kiss off the Walkeleys on SBS as the usual wankfest of the Yarty and Perpetually Outraged, but thanks to Blair and the commentariat, I have just cracked a fine bottle of Margaret River red, a tube of Pringles, and will be settling back in my fat and overstuffed capitalist pig recliner chair to watch the fun.
I hope somebody belted Red Kezza in all the mayhem.Make my day.
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2006 11 30 at 09:41 AM • permalink
- Fighting is a good thing.
There was a time when two men would “hash out” their differences. Sometimes in a private place, sometimes in a ring formed by their peers, out behind the shop.
Now, with that custom gone along with just about every other behavior separating men from castratos, we’ve lost that anchor that held respect and real tolerance in place.
Now we pretend to respect or give lip service to tolerance, or at the very best, we confuse respect with admiration and tolerance with ambivilance. Take away fear of physical reprisal then everything starts to become unglued.
There’s nothing like the fear of a good ass kicking to remind most folk to mind their own damn business or to be polite.
- Every bouquet needs a pansy.
Brave Sir Mayne ran away.
Bravely ran away, away!
When danger reared its ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes, brave Sir Mayne turned about
And gallantly he chickened out.
Bravely taking to his feet
He beat a very brave retreat,
Bravest of the brave, Sir Mayne!
- Sorry for the divergent comment, but I just wanted the world to know that I have yet to find the end of amuzement over at Crooked Timber. I’ve been reading for years and still laughing. There are several gems up there now:
On Iraq, Quaddafi and WMD. Talk about bring nukes to a fist fight.
- Pity, I’m over here in West Oz too and flicked to SBS, saw it was the walkleys and turned over… Thinking anything must be better than that crap… Not knowing there was going to be a bit of action… Pity some real biffo didn’t develop, with members of the crowd piling on… A good pile on is always an appropriate way to end a good night…
Anyway, i can now see just the good bit instead of sitting through all that manure…
And yes, still in the dark as to what would cause someone to go troppo at a big event in front of their peers like this???
- #15—I call them the “Wankleys”.Posted by Evil Pundit on 2006 11 30 at 12:42 PM • permalink
- Well I can explain a little…There has been bad blood between the two for years. See for example:
http://tinyurl.com/yjefk3
which is a 4-yr-old article reprinted recently on Stephen Mayne’s website (why? I don’t know) attacking Milne personally. It’s all something to do with their respective attitudes to different sides of ALP politics as far as one can tell. Google searches will I suspect turn up more stuff. However all people enjoying the possession of their critical faculties should probably do something else with their time.You know, I’m still stunned…Mayne was the MC? I’ve got that right?
- Milne will apologise, and so he should.
Mayne’s a dickhead, and such behaviour makes him appear a lot more notorious than he actually is.
Posted by James Waterton on 2006 11 30 at 01:47 PM • permalink
- Why aren’t American awards shows this much fun? Of course, it could never happen between American journalists, because they might break a nail or get their hair mussed. And I don’t call Kanye West’s meltdown at the… Grammys, was it?… because everyone has figured out he’s mostly for show. Forget the Oscars or Emmys, even if anything happened there everybody’s asleep and wouldn’t know it.
- This is a mere sideshow that distracts people from the growing threat of the international animal conspiracy.
- Yeah, Rebecca, that’s just what those boring awards shows need, a good fight!
Mayhaps a catfight? Imagine, two or more young, attractive actresses going off on each other, rending each other’s clothes, pulling hair, ripping off clothes, scratching, tearing clothes, biting…..
Ratings would go through the roof! It’s all there, action, drama, sex, violence, love, titillation, sorrow, bare skin…..
And there’s even precendence on TV: professional wrestling!
They might even have a “Senior’s Division”, where oldsters like Barbara Streisand and Jane Fonda pummel each other. Put that on Pay-Per-View, and I’d watch it (suitably soused so as to numb the pain of potentially seeing those semi to fully nekkid) just to see who has the most staying power.
Too bad we can’t copyright this idea, eh? But wronwright probably sewed that up long ago.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 11 30 at 02:55 PM • permalink
- #46 Paco—The international animal conspiracy is worse than I thought. Now they’re stealing our women!Posted by Evil Pundit on 2006 11 30 at 04:11 PM • permalink
- Walkley Winner
Newspaper Feature Writing – Jack Marx, Fairfax: I was Russell Crowe’s Stooge.A weird and bitter attack on Crowe borne of jealousy and envy. A mini-Masters hatchet job. Most unedifying.
Interesting that NOT ONE commercial radio station managed a gong – and yet they do some wonderful work uncovering the dirt.
Ah well, just another incestuous, discredited Lefty love-in.
- That was great. I’m sorry I went to bed early.
I only wish that instead of shoving Mayne that Milne had come in with a big solid right hand.Posted by Hank Reardon on 2006 11 30 at 04:29 PM • permalink
- #47, I don’t care about the naked part, but I’d pay money to see Barbara Streisand and Jane Fonda punch each other out (well, more like slap, scratch, and hair-pull). I’d be in the front row throwing cups of Mt. Dew and popcorn in the ring, and yelling things like “Yeah, my mother could take you, grandma!”
Won’t ever happen though, because they’re pacifists.
- #52 Evil Pundit: Stabbing us, eating us, stealing our women. Next thing, they’ll be running off with our children.
- Speaking of fights, ABC Online is reporting predictions that “there will be a resolution to the stand-off over the Labor leadership within days” and Andy Landy is saying that Heavy Kevvy is preparing to challenge. Malcolm Farr in today’s Tele says that the dumping will happen next Tuesday.
Sounds like the ALP is getting ready to lose another election!
- Indeed, a great pity Milne couldn’t land a solid right hook.
In a profession populated by dickheads, Mayne is a dickhead’s dickhead.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 11 30 at 05:31 PM • permalink
- #41 El Cid, in this case it’s appropriate to quote Niles Crane:
“Well, if it isn’t ‘float like a Lepidoptera, sting like a Hymenoptera.’”
- Forget the awards, there’s something about people in tuxes having a fight that really works. Time to start planning for the 2007 Walkley Wrestling Federation!Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 11 30 at 06:07 PM • permalink
- #64 MM, couldn’t agree with you more. A tux makes you look like a penguin and feel like a goose. But that should be no bar to fighting. Every Aussie event should include a dust up. Weddings, funerals, 21st birthdays, awards ceremonies, footie matches, days at the cricket… none of these is complete, no, none of these is Australian without a barney.
- I admit to being stunned that a) anyone still watches SBS and b) that if they did it would be to watch the Walkleys and not just hoping to see some bare flesh in a European movie.
O/T but worth it: Opinion Journal has been running a series of letters in response to the remarks of Kerry and Rangel in the US to the effect that US servicemen and women are losers. These letters are important and touching and I thought many of you would appreciate reading them.
- Milne is the reason why I am very selectful about which MSM publications I read or view. Mayne is just a tosser, with a ‘mouthy’ attitude, he is not a journalist in the true sense, just a muck racker and opportunist. He reminds of those jerks at school who would mouth off, then run like blazes for the nearest authority figure for protection. Hell, we used to love beating the crap out of those ‘tools’. When I see Mayne, I think of the good old days.
- Walkley winners….> boys club tim tam.
Don’t forget Sydney Sun Herald is now Pro Islamic paper… oh goody!!
Lebannon image Winning one is still Pro Islamic, you can see this through the eyes of the photographer. SMH made it look PRO ISLAMIC…It looks so anti jewish. I could take this at lakemba set it up and make it look third world retouch it like islamic reuters and make a motsa of mulla…Any wonder the aussie government dosn’t know what is truths?
Is that image truth? To who’s truth and did the journalist and image work well in protraying the illusion of it all?
I think we should let the australian public know, it’s all an illusion…Can I trust you the journalist?Well, Love tim blair and his stories but can I trust the organisation? Does the organisation want profit? or real truths?
Media contribute sometimes unknowingly to the illusion of truths……
- Danny Weidler winning a Walkley. What a joke.
Danny is remembered as one of the fattest kids at Sydney High ever (and that’s saying something). On jewish fast days Danny used to smuggle food into school.
My one memory of Danny on the rugby field is him being on the wing (a popular spot for hiding the less able, as the ball rarely went out there). One day when the ball did make its way to Danny he promptly fell over.
I laugh whenever I see Weidler’s column. Imagine him judging people with sporting talent.
Posted by The Mongrel on 2006 11 30 at 07:48 PM • permalink
- OT
So, after going a month without being able to read this website because my ISP DNS server stopped resolving it (my ISP is Comcast), I switched to OpenDNS, and immediately got timblair.net to resolve again. Yayyyy! Now it stopped resolving LGF. Damn! Any DNS ideas? Is this a vast idiotarian conspiracy?
Posted by Dave in Chicago on 2006 11 30 at 08:08 PM • permalink
- #81 Ben P –
“Ben P, why would anybody loathe Steven Mayne?”
So why do you, folks?
Actually I’ve never heard of Steven Mayne in my whole life, same as virtually every other Australian TV or radio personality. Course I’ve never heard of Ben P until now. New commenter here? Or a sock puppet?
Posted by wronwright on 2006 11 30 at 08:26 PM • permalink
- It’s slap fights all over the place down there! What’s the matter with you people? Did Paul Hogan score the only decent Bowie knife…?Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 11 30 at 09:22 PM • permalink
- Well, what you have had Mayne do to distance himself from a potential threat? No. Seriously. What could he have done in the position he suddenly found himself in that wouldn’t have you calling him a sook or a bully. Please enlighten me on what otherwise seems like a schoolyard attack on someone you don’t like. What would any of you have done had it been you? Being the smart folks you are, you’d know the consequences of your actions no matter how hastily put together under duress. No posturing please, I’m talking real action and real consequence.
I thought that he handled it well and played to the media crowd who seemed to be enjoying the whole thing.
The excuses of medication, disease and booze from society’s “respected” is excrutiatingly lame, wearing quite thin and is a huge double tandard compared to the charges a migraine suffering medicated someone like myself would receive had I done the same thing.
Personally I think Mayne shouldn’t have been a political candidate, but I do enjoy how Crikey gets under people’s PR skin.
- The Mayne parents are members of the East Doncaster Uniting Church, Andersons Creek Rd. As is well-known the Uniting Church is a hot-bed of socialism*.
Mayne’s mother, Diana, is a piano teacher and rather neglected Mayne and his older two sisters in their formative years, preferring teaching.
Stephen was always a hobbledehoy – tall, awkward, long horse-like face. He was friendless, a loner – hardly surprising given his annoying personality as a youth. There was talk he had a learning difficulty.
I also posted this on Andrew Landeryou’s blog.
* The Methodist Church was a great church. The Presbyterian Church was a great church. ‘Muscular Christianity’ would describe them. Even the Congregational Church had its moments. The combination, the Uniting Church, is a church created by committee with the weaknesses of all three and the strengths of none. A pansy church with falling mostly- elderly membership except in areas of Asian immigration. ‘Church and Nation’, the magazine, makes The Age look conservative.
Posted by walterplinge on 2006 11 30 at 09:41 PM • permalink
- The M&M show. Mixed emotions here. A bit like seeing your mother in law drive over a cliff in your new Mercedes.
Milne almost single handedly brought about the push for Costello back in June. It was a synthetic push to oust Howard and install good pal Costello (big Press Secretary job for Glenn methinks). Anyway. it was a total fizzer but Milne still ranted on about it for months. Couldn’t let it go.
As for Mayne – well I hear him sometimes talking to Virginia Trioli (natch) and he is a chardonay sipping leftoid trendoid wanker through and through.
Anyway, if we have to have a winner, let it be Milne. He may have a bit of explaining to do back at headquarters tho.
- I thought the Howard Government sedition laws were the end of journalism as we know it? And yet last night all was in its rightful place.
Pissed, pusillanimous, pugilists. Truly a new zenith for Australian journalism.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 11 30 at 09:52 PM • permalink
- Now that SBS has been shown how to actually get someone to watch these awards they have taken the executive decision next year for Margo Kingston to suffer a “wardrobe malfunction” ala Janet Jackson style.
Hey be thankful, some were arguing for her to lose her strides as well!
Posted by the nailgun on 2006 11 30 at 10:18 PM • permalink
- Walterplinge, you utter creep. So Mayne’s parents attended church. Jesus Christ, so what? Playing the man’s parents; that’s nasty stuff, and the sort of crap you’d expect to see on a gossip website.
Other than that, it’s an interesting and enjoyable YouTube, if a little sad. I fear Mayne and some of his colleagues don’t have an elevated sense of treating others well or of journalistic integrity.
- #91 – Lighten up Darlene. Re-read the post. It’s bit of anti-Stephen Mayne gossip. Besides, I know the family and you don’t.Posted by walterplinge on 2006 11 30 at 11:55 PM • permalink
- Found: One spear and an old flask with Sumerian inscribed upon it. Please contact front desk.Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 11 30 at 11:56 PM • permalink
- #85, If Mayne had any balls, he would have stood his ground and responded with a right jab and a left hook and followed up with a front kick to that big fat stomach. Milne would have gonet sprawling on his even fatter arse. Mayne would have become an instant hero and it would have been great TV. That’s the sort of entertainment the Australian public wants to see on its screens. Instead we got Mayne the wimp.
- The Walkley’s: Pity the cleaning staff who must clean up after a 1000 strong circle jerk.Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 12 01 at 12:04 AM • permalink
- #98: I don’t disagree, but what would the media outcome of such an event be? I’d really like to know what Tim might have written had Mayne stood his ground and retaliated.
“Political failure Mayne bashes cancer/migraine sufferer infront of shocked media dignitaries. Child cries.”
What if (for a fanciful example) Mayne were Bush/Howard/Beazly/Yellow Wiggle and some pisshead charged the stage him calling him a disgrace with the recipient employing the same (lol dare I say it…) cut and run tactic?
“Mighty hero of the western world thinks quickly on their huge feet (and we all know what that means eh ladies) to narrowly escape impending violence from crazed, screaming lunatic. Crowd of hundreds cheer. Child laughs innocently.”
The condescending tone towards Mayne for distancing himself is really pretty weak. Backing away and leaving it to the stage managers (who were onto it pretty quickly) was pretty much his only safe/reasonable course of action…and yet he’s a pussy for not plunging into Milne’s chest and showing him his still beating heart.
- #104, maybe something similar to Prince Charles’s reaction when a deranged protestor ran on stage firing (what turned out to be) a starter’s pistol. That was back in the early 90s and NSW Premier “Knuckles” Fahey crash-tackled the attacker while Charles’s security had to hustle him away. These days Chuck is a pantywaisted, organic farming, outdated architecture loving loon, but at least they didn’t have to rescue him from under the stage…
- While Mayne may have been “giving the sign” to Milne at the event, it was a disgraceful display by Milne that did him no credit. I really thought it happened so quickly and in such circumstances that few of us would have had the presence of mind to react differently than Mayne did on this occasion. The news report that stated that others looked on in horror really gave credit where none was due. Basically from the video it appears there was clapping and catcalls. In a profession already so demeaned, this did no favours.
“In vino veritas” as noted above puts it mildly.
- #105: Must have missed the bit with Mayne being rescued. Looked to me like he was on his own what with the stage managers handling the situation as they should, much like Charlie’s security team did.
Forgive me if I’m not reading the correct intonation on what may be a joke, but it is these made up, degrading (some only slightly) comments towards Mayne that are bugging me. Hey, everything is ok and opinions are great but some of that good wholesome truthiness with a dash of balance wouldn’t go astray at times.
*sigh* I guess I’m just burnt out and tired of seeing the players getting roasted while the main game goes to the dogs.
- #82
As usual, wronwright is onto something. This subject seems to have created some new members.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 12 01 at 01:14 AM • permalink
- Hardly the Mayne event.Posted by boxofmatches on 2006 12 01 at 01:19 AM • permalink
- It’s Friday! Time to get completely Milned!Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 12 01 at 04:34 AM • permalink
- I subscribed to Crikey! for a while when Mayne ran it.
Once, I e-mailed in a bit of gossip on a topic that he was running hard on at the time and where I had a fair bit of inside info (used a nom de guerre, of course). I emphasised it was “gossip only – just background info for his information. Not to be reproduced or attributed”.
Sure enough, the very next day it was reproduced by him without any of the qualifications. I guess I knew that was a possibility, but the brazenness did surprise me. When I challenged him, he said to the effect “I didn’t give your name out, so what’s the problem?”.
I still have the e-mails and am waiting until he sticks his neck out far enough and I’ll delight at sending them out to whoever he’s combating at the time.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 12 01 at 04:54 AM • permalink
- Crikey A Milne Pooh BearPosted by stackja1945 on 2006 12 01 at 06:17 AM • permalink
Well Tim, going on your atitude to the assault on Mayne, you will have no objection if some drunk takes a dislike and pushes you over. And of course any sign of fear from you will be just fodder for ridicule.
For some reason I can’t see Tim showing “any sign of fear” if a drunk tries to push him over. Instead, I see Tim laughing and shoving back. Drunk falls on arse, much hilarity ensues.
So what I’m saying, pinochet, is maybe you should lay off the sauce.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 12 01 at 07:05 AM • permalink
- (hmmm. nice sleep. cuddles with teddy. zzzzzzzzz)
buxom wenches …
(stirs)
mead …
(waaa? stirs)
Spear of Destiny. Shield of Harold I. In the hands of others …
(bolts upright)
I better check the locks.
Posted by wronwright on 2006 12 01 at 07:07 AM • permalink
- 107. Oh come off it Kris. EVERYONE who places himself before the public as a celebrity (albeit minor celebrity) subjects themselves to public ridicule. If he’s not a big enough boy to take it, then he needs to get the hell out of the footlights. And why not complain about the way Howard is ridiculed? Or does your compassion only run for those you care for?
- #85 in all seriousness Kris, and Debrett’s is quite explicit on this, the appropriate course would have been for Mayne to throw himself off a large edifice (much larger than the stage) or take a short walk in the garden with the Webley. The fact that he didn’t displays a distinct lack of breeding and suggests he is going to bore us for quite a little while longer with his ‘activism’.
In the case of Milne, Debrett’s says he should drink another case of vodka and call Rup to tell him what he thinks.
- #66 rebase, I went to a christening party in Campsie (near Lakemba) which got out of hand where someone rushed out to retrieve a gun from his boot (trunk). OK, that was in the early 80s and the Lebs were few and far between then. Needless to say, it was the talk of the town for some time. Now it’s so passé there.
- #91 Darlene –
Walterplinge, you utter creep.
I think we could do without the name calling, especially with regards to respected and longtime commenters here.
Posted by wronwright on 2006 12 01 at 09:44 AM • permalink
- #120 Actually Bob, outside of comedy I dislike all forms of ridicule of a person in an argument/discussion when it is not the real point of an issue…which in this case is “drunk journalist Glenn Milne is removed from stage after pushing and yelling at presenter Stephen Mayne who jumped from off stage”
Whether Milne is fat or Mayne gangly has absolutely nothing to do with it. Big whoop if Mayne didn’t get all Chuck Norris on Milne’s ass or he didn’t impale himself on a boom mic jumping from the stage.
It’s just not relevant. Neither are the little munchkin’s freakish eyebrows.
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