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Before Prince Harry and Meghan touched down in Melbourne on Tuesday, relations between the Sussexes’ media team and the Australian press had soured.

When Guardian Australia asked for details of the four-day tour we were told the itinerary would no longer be shared due to some media breaking the “strict embargo” on the information five days early.

“Media from the Daily Mail, The Daily Mirror, and Sky News Australia unfortunately reported on sensitive embargoed information, complicating and compromising security arrangements, we are therefore no longer sharing itineraries beyond the initial ops note with media for the remainder of their trip,” a spokesperson from Meghan’s PR team said.

A breathless story in the Daily Mail on 9 April said: “Under-wraps details about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s impending trip to Australia can be revealed for the first time, via a leaked document seen by the Mail.”

The Mail said the “operational planning notes” detailed an itinerary with stops in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney, and appearances included a homelessness shelter, a children’s hospital, an AFL club and Invictus Australia.

“The Mail is not disclosing specific details of dates and times outlined in the operational notes for security reasons,” the Mail generously added.

We wanted to ask the Daily Mail about the difference between breaking an embargo and “a leaked document” but they declined to comment.

The story has been taken down from the website, although a headline about “leaked operational notes” is still clearly visible on the site.

Not our fault, says Sky

But then the story turned. Sky News did not accept the allegation it had broken an embargo, and accused the PR team of misleading journalists.

“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s publicist misled journalists by alleging a key embargo had been breached, compromising the security and privacy of Harry and Meghan, before eventually backtracking on the claims,” Sky News said in its own “exclusive”.

“Sky News Australia had not received any information under embargo, meaning no agreement could have been broken. The information was in the public domain after being published by British media.”

The Sussex media team acknowledged in an email to Sky that neither Sky nor the Daily Mirror were “formally bound” by the embargo, but they still criticised them for choosing to report the details disclosed by the Mail.

“This clear disregard for basic journalistic ethics has had a tangible impact on the visit, complicating and compromising security arrangements. While other outlets recognised the serious implications and chose not to follow the story, The Daily Mirror and Sky News Australia amplified the report, further exacerbating the consequences of the original breach,” the PR team said.

Exclusively empty

When the arrival day finally came, the royal couple flew in on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner and dodged waiting media at Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport. This left the media pack disappointed, and the Daily Mail had to rely on revealing “exclusively” that they had seen the Sussexes’ security detail at the airport. And possibly the royal couple’s luggage.

“Members of the couple’s security team were later spotted exclusively by the Daily Mail exiting discreetly through a side door, flanked by Qantas staff,” the Mail said after they missed the couple.

“The guards were seen pushing a trolley laden with four suitcases, including one attached with a tag of the US flag.”

Mogged by reality

Nine’s 60 Minutes reporter Adam Hegarty got a big reaction to his interview with a social media influencer known as Clavicular this week, but it had nothing to do with the content of the interview.

Braden Eric Peters, who maintains a controversial online presence among “manosphere” circles, shows followers how to use extreme measures such as steroids, surgery and taking a hammer to one’s jaw to achieve conventional attractiveness.

Hegarty adopted a suitably sceptical tone when challenging “Clav” on these methods and his claim that being good-looking was the most important quality a person could have.

The subject became so enraged by Hegarty’s questions, and his wry smile, that he stormed out, declaring it “the worst sequence of questions” he had ever had.

60 Minutes clipped up the exchange for social media.

It wasn’t the dramatic walkout that got people talking and sent the interview viral online. The internet thought Adam Hegarty was hot.

“The interviewer being hotter than him,” said one.

“Smashing his face with a hammer for years just to get outmogged by a random middle-aged Australian reporter,” said another.

(For the uninitiated, if you “mog” someone, you are better looking than they are.)

“But notice that the more attractive person on screen was the one who hadn’t smashed his own face and turned to illegal drugs in an effort to attain the perfect physical appearance,” said another.

Suspect stats

The Daily Telegraph had an alarming story on Thursday claiming Australia’s unemployment had hit a 30-year high and economists were warning of recession.

The “exclusive” story said newly released analysis from Roy Morgan showed unemployment hit a record 10.5% in March.

Australia “hasn’t faced this level of unemployment since the 92-93 recession”, the Tele said without disclosing that Roy Morgan has only measured unemployment since 2019.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which follows international best practice in measurement, Australia’s jobless rate is steady at 4.3%.

There is a vast difference between 4.3% and 10.5%, and the tabloid did not explain to its readers why the figure they were quoting was so high.

The Roy Morgan analysis suggests a disaster that doesn’t gel with the ABS stats, and doesn’t match the observable and anecdotal evidence to the contrary.

We don’t know much about Roy Morgan’s methodology except that they survey Australians aged 14 years and over and classify them as unemployed if they “are looking for work” even if they don’t meet the strict availability criteria of the ABS.

The ABS surveys about 50,000 people a month – or about 10 times as many as Roy Morgan – and has a tighter definition of unemployed: you need to be without work, actively looking for work, and be available to start.

The Daily Telegraph’s editor, Ben English, was approached for comment.

SMH defends ‘wide variety of voices’

In her column on Sunday, conservative commentator Parnell Palme McGuinness quoted the men’s rights activist David Maywald to support her argument about the dangers of fatherless families.

Maywald, McGuinness said, quoted research that fatherlessness is connected to youth crime, mental health struggles and educational disadvantage.

Maywald’s social media activity shows he is an advocate for men and boys but it also betrays his attitude to women, including that we live in a “highly gynocentric” society in which men are at a disadvantage.

He shared a post on X about how women “abuse and control men” through the use of violence; and another about how the job market is “rigged” against men.

We asked the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, Jordan Baker, if Maywald should be cited as an authority, and she was nonplussed.

“Sunday’s piece from Parnell explored an important topic for our readers thoughtfully and with consideration,” she said. “It’s a debate of growing relevance to our community where a wide variety of voices should be heard.”

Happy birthday Herald

Baker is at the helm as the Herald celebrates its 195th birthday. The first edition was printed on 18 April 1831 and was titled the Sydney Herald.

Baker replaced Bevan Shields, who has returned as a senior writer. He somewhat set the tone for the coverage of Prince Harry and Meghan with a piece on Monday arguing the royal couple was using Australia “as an ATM”.

Many readers did not agree, with a typical comment being: “Personally, I am done with the persecution in the world press of H and M”.

A couple of days later, another senior writer Rob Harris offered a different take, saying the instinct to dismiss Harry outright “felt not just lazy and tedious, but wrong”.

2SER in peril

Community radio station 2SER, which helped to launch the careers of University of Technology Sydney alumni including Labor minister Tanya Plibersek and former ABC broadcasters Eleanor Hall, Richard Kingsmill, Michael Rowland, Robbie Buck, Julie McCrossin and Helen Razer, may not survive past July.

That was the devastating news delivered to staff this week after the station, which began broadcasting in 1979, failed to find a new partner after it was abandoned by its funding partner Macquarie University last year. Macquarie contributed $325,000 to the station each year.

UTS said they were working with 2SER to find another partner to replace Macquarie but the station may need to find another model to survive because the university could not increase its contribution of about $400,000.

“Whilst efforts to find a partner have not yet been successful, we are hopeful that other universities that share a commitment to student learning and community engagement may step in to support 2SER,” Alana Piper, the deputy vice-chancellor, told Weekly Beast. “We will continue to support the management team to explore all possible options to find alternative long-term partners for this beloved radio station, its staff and passionate community.”