Today in Media Files, the newspapers have preempted tonight’s NBN Four Corners episode with a very broad definition of an “exclusive”, and Fairfax’s Michael Bachelard has written an extraordinary piece about his experience reporting on the Exclusive Brethren.

Exclusive watch. NBN exclusives are coming thick and fast today. The ABC’s Four Corners tonight will be looking at the NBN, marking the halfway-point in its rollout. And as well as the regular promotion of the story on other ABC programs this morning, the newspapers also have their own “exclusives” ahead of the program. The Australian‘s exclusive breaks down the costs of the NBN at different sites — details also in a front-page story in the Australian Financial Review this morning (but not tagged “exclusive”).

The Australian, October 23, 2017

Australian Financial Review, October 23, 2017

Fairfax had its own exclusive interview on the front pages of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald with NBN Co CEO Bill Morrow. But its definition of “exclusive” interview is also a bit loose, given Morrow also gave an interview to the ABC’s Fran Kelly this morning on RN Breakfast.

The Age, October 23, 2017

Exclusive Brethren v Michael Bachelard.  The Sunday Age and Sun Herald yesterday ran an extraordinary piece by Michael Bachelard about the lengths the Exclusive Brethren had gone to in trying to stop his reporting about the Christian sect over the years. The story details enormous payments to a source who stopped cooperating with Bachelard, and the three times the Brethren considered bribes to stop his reporting:

“In suburban meeting halls in Australian cities, the Brethren held prayer gatherings in which they appealed to God for the death or ‘removal’ of me and [Tony] McCorkell over ‘the legal proceedings in Sydney’. When McCorkell did actually die this year at the age of 37 of natural causes, they called it an ‘answer to prayer’, and ‘God’s work completed’. But for this wealthy, closed Christian group, leaving it to the courts and to prayer was not enough. They also talked with their wallets. They resorted to bribery.”

The revolving door. Former ADF member and cricket commentator Cate McGregor’s column has moved home from News Corp’s Daily Telegraph to Fairfax’s The Sydney Morning Herald. McGregor had been writing a fortnightly column for the tabloid, but her first column in the Herald was published Friday — on why the Liberal party is facing oblivion.

Grunter’s new gig. The man holding the reins of Nine’s A Current Affair has been given a new job at the network, The Australian reports. ACA‘s executive producer Grant “Grunter” Williams has been on leave for a few weeks, but has reportedly been given the new gig of manager of news content development. Robert Carmody will take over the ACA role.

Glenn Dyer’s TV Ratings. You will not be able to escape the hype about The Block as it enters the final week for the season. The Block grabbed 2.20 million last night nationally, and 1.50 million in the metros and top place in the regionals with nearly 700,000. And that was the night, which Nine won comfortably. Ten was again weak and its main channel share in the metros was a low 6.8% — the ABC ended well ahead in 3rd spot.

The ABC in fact did very well with Doc Marin at 7.40pm (1.37 million nationally) and Dr Blake’s Mysteries at 8.30pm (with 1.40 million). In fact the ABC ran second for much of the night behind Nine and well in front of Seven. That faded as it continued to run dead against The Block. Both Doc Martin and Dr Blake also did very well in the regions. In the morning Insiders was clearly tops again with half a million national viewers.

In regional markets The Block was tops with 698,000, followed by Seven News with 489,000, then Dr Blake’s Mysteries with 460,000, Doc Martin was fourth with 434,000 and fifth was Nine/NBN News 6.30pm with 424,000. Ten’s broadcast of the Bledisloe Cup Test between The Wallabies and the All Blacks saw a surprisingly (given the miserable year for Rugby Union, on and off the field) good 700,000 watch on Ten nationally on Saturday night (466,000 in the metros and 124,000 in the regions) and just 190,000 on Fox Sports. So all up 890,000 watched across the country. And if anyone is interested Sunrise again won last week — 481,000 nationally and 278,000 in the metros with Today on 420,000 and 276,0000 in the metros. — Read the rest on the Crikey website