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Laura Tingle’s analysis of the killing of journalists by Israel has been found to be “duly impartial” by the ABC ombudsman after a coordinated campaign of 56 identical complaints were emailed to the ABC board and executive.

The week after it was reported that Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil was killed in Israeli strikes, the ABC’s global affairs editor wrote in her analysis that there “appears to be no normal guardrails” on Israel’s actions.

“The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported in February that Israel was responsible for two-thirds of all press killings in both 2025 and 2024, two consecutive record years for press deaths,” Tingle wrote last month.

What followed were dozens of emails to key individuals at the ABC rather than the usual filling out of a complaints form, a practice that is becoming increasingly common, Weekly Beast understands.

While these complaints are investigated, they do not receive individual replies.

Among the objections to the piece was that the context of the presence of Hezbollah was not adequately represented in the article. The ombudsman noted that Tingle did say: “Journalists, by the nature of their jobs covering war, are at additional risk, and some of their deaths could have been accidental.”

The ombudsman said Tingle included Israel’s explanation about Khalil’s death.

“The Ombudsman’s Office reviewed the article, the concerns raised in the complaint and considered the content against the impartiality and diversity of perspectives standards as they relate to analysis content,” the report said.

“In consideration of the format of an analysis article, the attributed claims and perspectives presented in the story, we are satisfied the article is duly impartial as the standards apply to analysis content.”

A week earlier, the ombudsman also dismissed 19 complaints about the ABC’s broadcast of Israel’s ambassador Hillel Newman’s National Press Club address.

One concern was that the ABC should not have platformed an Israeli government representative, that he made inaccurate claims about journalist and other civilian deaths and used offensive language to describe Palestinians.

ABC News told the ombudsman that senior editorial staff factchecked the speech and Tingle provided further context in an on-air segment after the broadcast.

The ombudsman found that the broadcast did not breach editorial standards.

Old digs and new honours

While the treasurer put the finishing touches to the budget on Monday night, retired journalist Laurie Oakes delivered a masterclass in political reporting at Old Parliament House for the opening of a new press gallery exhibition.

The Nine News legend, who retired in 2017, accepted a lifetime achievement award before an audience that included hundreds of veterans of Old Parliament House’s cramped press quarters. The old digs housed the federal press corps from 1927 to 1988 before they moved to Capital Hill.

This week marks the 125th anniversary of the first sitting of federal parliament, in 1901. Press gallery reporters have covered every sitting since that momentous event.

Oakes quoted a legendary reporter and former member of the gallery in 1928, Warren Denning, who wrote that the good political journalist’s attitude to politics was like that of a trained musician to their instrument. “He relies on feel and touch, on an innate subconscious directive,” Oakes, 82, said.

“The journalist assigned to this work has to be alive to every pulse beat in the parliamentary body, able to detect the slightest trace of abnormality, able to sense that things are going wrong, something’s out of tune, somebody is up to something.”

Also honoured with a lifetime achievement award was gallery doyen Michelle Grattan, the chief political correspondent with the Conversation.

Grattan and Oakes are the first journalists the press gallery committee has recognised with a lifetime achievement award.

Vice-president Katina Curtis said the former Age political editor had broken more glass ceilings than anyone, including as the first woman to edit a metropolitan newspaper in Australia when she was appointed to the Canberra Times in 1993.

“The word trailblazer gets thrown around a lot but the current generation of female political journalists, including myself, is truly privileged to work alongside one in Michelle,” Curtis said.

True to her reputation as a hard worker with a singular focus on politics, Grattan, 81, declined the invitation to attend the event because it was “the night before the budget”, a big day for political journalists and politicians alike.

But someone else who was having a big week – the prime minister, Anthony Albanese – did find time to attend.

Albanese congratulated Grattan and Oakes, whose career spanned 14 prime ministers, and included the most notorious budget leak of all time: in 1980 Oakes read then-treasurer John Howard’s budget speech live on television, a day before it was due to be handed down.

Curator of the exhibition at the Museum of Australian Democracy, Amy Lay, spent two years sourcing old office equipment and tools of the trade including typewriters, teleprinters, microphones, phones, files and notebooks.

Sky gets quizzical

If Sky After Dark’s lineup of rightwing “shock and awe” commentary is not your thing, this Sunday night Sky News Australia will launch a new current affairs quizshow called Quizzical, which promises to take a lighter look at the news cycle.

“It’s the perfect way for people to unwind on a Sunday night, catching up on the news of the week in a light-hearted, highly entertaining format,” Sky said.

Hosted by James Macpherson, who has written a book called Notes From Woketopia: Laying Bare the Lunacy of Woke Culture as well as a biography of Avi Yemini, the team leaders are News Corp’s regular funnyman Joe Hildebrand and Daily Telegraph columnist Lucy Zelić.

Macpherson, whose CV includes writing for Rebel News Australia, says his show is the “perfect way for people to unwind on a Sunday night”.

“I’m especially looking forward to seeing everyone’s Sky News favourites in a different setting where they are working together, and against each other, to see who’s most up to date,” Macpherson said.

Viva la 2SER

The grassroots fight to keep community radio station 2SER afloat is stepping up with a special broadcast on Monday night by ABC radio veterans Robbie Buck and Richard Kingsmill, who are returning to the microphone to celebrate the station’s role in Sydney’s music scene and to discuss its future.

Along with Labor minister Tanya Plibersek and former ABC broadcasters Eleanor Hall, Michael Rowland, Julie McCrossin and Helen Razer, Buck and Kingsmill are former alumni of the University of Technology Sydney and got their start in radio at the 2SER studios.

The station is struggling to stay afloat after failing to find a new backer when it was abandoned by its funding partner Macquarie University last year.

A public meeting last month heard from angry staff, volunteers and alumni who expressed their frustration with the board’s apparent lack of vision and sense of urgency.

Although Macquarie flagged its withdrawal late last year, requests for funding weren’t sent to the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales until March. UTS shocked the 2SER community when it said the station may not last past July.

UTS says they are working with 2SER to find another partner to replace Macquarie but can’t fund the service on their own.