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Nine News had exciting news for Melbourne residents: a video showing a falling meteor lighting up the sky.

The video of the “meteor shower” broadcast on the Today show featured a bright light streaking through the sky which the newsreader said was “leaving locals scratching their heads as to what it could be”.

“Some took to social media to speculate whether it’s space junk, re-entering the atmosphere,” newsreader Lizzie Pearl said.

“However, the Lyrid meteor shower is the most likely answer, most visible across Victoria until the 25th of this month.”

The video was picked up by Nine Entertainment’s news websites for the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald with the headline “Meteor lights up Melbourne sky”.

But if only Australia’s biggest media company had asked one of its more than 500 reporters to pick up the phone and ask an astronomer to confirm if it was indeed a meteor.

Observational astronomer Michael Brown from Monash University told Weekly Beast it appeared Nine had picked the video up from social media posts, where it was circulating as a meteor sighting on Sunday. “The problem is this is clearly not a meteor but an airplane contrail,” Brown told Weekly Beast.

“This could have been debunked if they had contacted an astronomer (be it a professional or a dedicated amateur) but this obviously did not happen.

“There’s been an increasing number of posts of weather and astronomy groups with photos or videos of airplane contrails asking if they are rockets, meteors or space junk.”

After inquiries by Beast, the videos were deleted across the three websites where they had sat for four days.

“Thanks for flagging this,” a Nine spokesperson said. “The story has been taken down.”

Ahead of its time

On Monday, it is the 12-year anniversary of one of the most prophetic newspaper headlines of our time.

In 2014, the Australian Financial Review printed the apocalyptic “WORLD IS FUKT” headline on the front of its Anzac weekend bumper special edition, alongside several other eyebrow-raising mistakes.

It was a special treat for the newspaper’s Western Australian readers, given the issue was corrected before hitting the printing press in the east.

While the mistake was never fully explained, it’s clear an early front-page template, complete with dummy headlines, was accidentally sent to the printers.

Weekly Beast understands the errant front page may actually have been picked up early enough to rectify, but reprinting it would have cost an estimated $10,000 because delaying delivery trucks is a costly endeavour.

The AFR’s then editor-in-chief, Michael Stutchbury, apologised profusely at the time, but we think he should have backed the dummy headline writer, who wasn’t wrong, just early.

Twelve years on, as wars rage, inflation reignites and communities fracture, it feels fair to say: “Arms Buildup/Buys Planes/World is Fukt”.

Vale James Valentine

The outpouring of grief for musician and broadcaster James Valentine reminded Weekly Beast of the ABC audience’s heartfelt reaction to the death of another ABC star, journalist Andrew Olle, who died suddenly 31 years ago at the age of 47.

Valentine, a broadcaster and saxophonist, died on Wednesday, sparking emotional tributes from colleagues and the public alike, who said he was not only a great talent but a very kind man.

Through the intimate power of radio, both men developed a strong relationship with their audience, who came to think of them as friends.

Olle, who was diagnosed with brain cancer, was a mornings presenter on Sydney’s 702, then known as 2BL, but had a national profile as the host of Four Corners and the ABC’s election coverage.

The public filled the Sydney town hall to overflowing for his memorial service and the Andrew Olle Media Lecture was established to honour his memory and raise funds for the Brain Cancer Collective.

On ABC 702 on Thursday, listeners called in warm tributes after Hamish Macdonald announced the news. His children, Ruby and Roy, told the ABC they were touched by the glowing tributes flowing for their father.

The ABC chair, Kim Williams, said Valentine was a “creative polymath”.

“He was a writer, a terrific musician and a born radio artist, and somebody who had that very rare ability in radio, which produces so many gigantic egos, to use himself as a vehicle for his guests and a vehicle for his audience, rather than vice versa.”

The ABC will announce public memorial arrangements and opportunities to honour Valentine, who died aged 64, in the coming days.

Professional peculiarities

As details of Kyle Sandilands’ on-air rants were revealed in documents filed in the federal court this week, the Daily Telegraph declared itself firmly in the shock jock’s camp.

The defence documents filed by ARN Media allege Sandilands repeatedly berated Kiis FM executives, the radio station’s censors, critics of The Kyle and Jackie O Show and the Melbourne audience in expletive-laden rants.

The Telegraph editorial writers agreed with Sandilands, who has told the court he was doing the job he was hired to do as a “robust character”, presenting a “deliberately provocative” radio program.

“In any professional role, you want someone to do the job that they are expected to do,” the paper editorialised.

“You want a car mechanic to be capable at diagnosing an oil pressure problem. You want a ballerina to dance. You want a chef to whip up a roast, and so on.

“And if you hire Kyle Sandilands as a radio presenter, you want him to behave like Kyle Sandilands.

“Yet the shock jock’s bosses are now using their hire’s own words to justify his dismissal. It’s a little like firing a traffic cop for handing out tickets.

“Seems very peculiar.”