Nine Entertainment Chairman Peter Costello is overseeing an organised attempt by management at Nine to cover-up the alleged sexual assaults of numerous female journalists at Channel 9 by former News boss Darren Wick.
Over the last couple of days Peter Costello has approved several hit pieces that Nine published, via their SMH website, that leave Nine CEO Mike Sneesby with no choice but to negotiate a severance package and resign or be sacked.
One legal proceeding in relation to sexual assault / harassment is apparently already afoot against Nine and reports say one complainant told a Nine Director she had been sexually assaulted / harassed by Darren Wick but the director did nothing.
Peter Costello is good friends with Scott Morrison who, as we all know, also has a recent history of covering up sexual assaults of women.
On the 15th of March 2024 the SMH reported that Darren Wick had resigned but it turns out Wick was given a $1 million handshake to get lost after a sexual assault complaint.
The alleged sexual assaults were first reported on Monday (20/5/24) last week by News Corp websites and papers.
Nine’s SMH website reported the sexual assaults for the first time on Saturday the 25th of May 2024 in an article titled “Former Nine News boss Darren Wick accused by staff of drunken, lecherous behaviour” which starts off:
Darren Wick, the recently departed head of Channel Nine’s news and current affairs division, has been accused of engaging in drunken, lecherous behaviour in what furious staff say was “an open secret” for more than a decade.
Three women have now alleged to this masthead that Wick, the powerful news and current affairs chief for the past 13 years, brazenly groped them in public view of their colleagues.
The claims cap off a torrid week for Nine, the publisher of this masthead, amid reports of Wick’s alleged inappropriate behaviour and staff anger at how management has dealt with the situation.
“At one point in the night, in full view of everyone, he started feeling my arse,” she said.
As the night went on, she witnessed Wick do the same to other women. “It was obviously utterly shocking to me, but he was my boss with a huge amount of power.”
What added to her horror was that Wick’s behaviour occurred in a room full of staff.
“He was not hiding it. Like everyone could see it,” she recalled. The woman began to cry as she recalled how demoralised she felt.
“To think you’re hired for what you can bring in terms of skills and experience” only to realise “you’re just a piece of arse for him.”
The reporter ended up leaving Nine because she felt Wick “was untouchable”. Her view was that “because everyone knew, and allowed it” a complaint would only have harmed her own career.
A second woman alleged Wick’s “alcohol-fuelled grope sessions” occurred at public functions such as staff Christmas parties, the Logies and functions to celebrate TV ratings.
A senior figure in the network said Wick’s behaviour was an “open secret”, and there was a feeling among female colleagues “that a complaint would have been weaponised against them”. (Click here to read more)
The above article on Nine’s SMH website on Darren Wicks was 5 days after News Corp started reporting the sexual assaults which forced the SMH to write something otherwise all of Nine would have been silent which is not a good look given the allegations of the cover-up.
Journalist Peter Fitzsimons was even pushing propaganda for Nine trying to help with the cover-up as per his below message on “X”: Everyone knew so Nine and The SMH had years to write the story but said nothing yet Peter Fitzsimons says what he says below. The man has no shame.
Senior management at Nine knew about Wicks sexually harassing and assaulting women for years but did nothing. One women also said that Darren Wick “put his hand up her skirt after she accepted a lift home from him” as per the below screenshot from The Australian: (Click here for the source article at The Australian but it is behind a paywall)
Stitching up CEO Mike Sneesby
Nine Entertainment owns The SMH, The Age and The Financial Review papers and websites and Nine television as well as the Stan streaming service and other businesses.
Since Saturday Nine ran numerous stories on the scandal but one on Tuesday (28/5/24) and one on Wednesday (29/5/24) make it clear that CEO Mike Sneesby is being stitched up by Chairman Peter Costello to take the fall.
On Tuesday (28/5/24) the SMH reported a “Second Nine manager resigned amid complaints of inappropriate touching” which relates to Adrian Foo who left Stan last year after 5 complaints. “Foo is a friend of Nine chief executive Mike Sneesby, who ran Stan until April 2021. Foo left Stan a year ago before the investigation had finished.”
On Wednesday the SMH published an article titled “Nine boss Mike Sneesby faces more claims of his executives’ bad behaviour“. The article, while not expressly saying so, makes it very clear that Mike Sneesby’s days at Nine are numbered because the article attacks Sneesby and even suggests a possible replacement as CEO.
An article like that would not have been published without the approval of Chairman Peter Costello as I discuss in the below video.
I published a video on Wednesday (29/5/24) on YouTube below tilted “Nine Chairman Peter Costello preparing to sack CEO Mike Sneesby over Darren Wick scandal” with more information as per below:
Mike Sneesby definitely deserves to be sacked but so does Peter Costello who has been a Director of Nine since February 2013 and Chairman since March 2016.
Motivation for the cover-up would be both financial and reputational for Peter Costello and the Directors as no one wants to be known for concealing sexual assault as it would not only be embarrassing but also limit your employment opportunities elsewhere which also gets back to a financial motivation.
Are Nine’s journalists involved in the cover-up
Sexual assault is a “serious indictable offence” and the attempted cover-up by Peter Costello and Nine’s management is also a criminal offence.
Another Nine journalist, Elizabeth Knight, wrote an article on Tuesday (28/5/24) and said:
“But if, for a moment, one removes the emotion from this admittedly charged issue and treats it clinically like any other corporate problem, it falls into the basket of occupational health and safety.”
If you grab women on the bum, feel them up and stick your hand up their dress, as per above, that is sexual assault and is a criminal offence so for Elizabeth Knight to downplay it and say “it falls into the basket of occupational health and safety” sounds very much like Knight is trying to aid Nine’s cover-up.
Radio Station 2GB is also owned by Nine and 2GB’s Ray Hadley is quoted as saying:
Ray Hadley, another of the network’s big names — and it’s highest-paid on-air talent — publicly offered to support any of the women impacted by former news boss Wick, saying that some of the victims have already reached out to him.
“If you wish me to become involved, I’m happy privately to become involved, a couple of young women have already reached out to me,” Hadley said. “The lines have been drawn in the sand. I’ll tell you one thing, it’s got to stop.” (Click here to read more)
Ray Hadley protected his mate sexual predator Alan Jones for years at 2GB and in 2013 I published an article titled “2GB host Ray “Jelly Back” Hadley does sleazy deal with NSW A-G Greg Smith regarding paedophile priest“. So I doubt very much that Ray Hadley will help the women but he help Nine with the cover-up given his history.
Above you have Nine’s journalists Peter Fitzsimons and Elizabeth Knight and radio host Ray Hadley, who all stayed silent for years about Darren Wicks and Alan Jones, now sticking their noses in with questionable statements and/or motives that looks like they want to protect Nine, not the women.
If Nine were serious about righting the wrongs of the past they would have already announced a full investigation into the sexual assaults and sexual harassment by a law firm. But they haven’t, because to do so would mean financial and legal liability for Nine Entertainment and possibly financial and legal liability to some degree for the management and the Directors as well.
The true extent of Wicks sexual harassment and sexual assaults would be unknown at this point and really needs a police investigation.
If the women don’t want to make complaints to the police it would be good to see them go to a law firm for a potential class action which is what happened when former High Court judge Dyson Heydon was caught sexually harassing / assaulting numerous women.
The above happens because the people running the company really don’t care about the company.
I suspect Mike Sneesby will be gone as CEO of Nine by Friday afternoon but that won’t be the end and I’ll keep following up on this matter.
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Categories: Channel 9, Nine Entertainment
Nothing new for the previous Treasurer Hon P. Costello to be involved in a series of cover ups, years of experience that LNP excelled at, along with his hero former PM Hon John Howard, described by his then Attorney General Hon George Brandis as ‘that lying little rodent’ Wouldn’t expect any less from Costello and his band of undesireables at C9…
Costello does not deserve to have the word “Honourable” in front of his name, so doesn’t Dreyfus, Joyce, Albanese, etc.
Thank you, KCA.
Shocking, absolutely disgusting. 🤮
Thanks for your work KCA.
So much corruption uncovered
Costello has always been a deeply unserious person. He should not be in such an influential position in a country newspaper, let alone a national media conglomerate.
Again Great job KCA👍. We are seriously running out of people in power we can trust. Is not having honesty, morals & common decency a pre-requisite for men in high powered jobs of power,? You can only assume YES.!!!!!!
There is no such thing as face value anymore.
I have in my mid years (a few decades ago) realised and accepted that there is ALWAYS a backstory, to EVERY single issue or matter.
Never believe or trust anything on face value, more so from commercial mainstream media, the greatest purveyors of obfuscation and biased reporting.
I often wonder what is going on in our name or not, right now, at this very minute, that we as Australian citizens have absolutely NO IDEA about …
At this point in my life, absolutely NOTHING at all shocks me!
Good work, KCA! Thank You!
how do these people sleep at night. costello is a mate of morrison so it is not surprising that he is covering up the crime. what a pathetic human.
They sleep because they think of these actions as wins.