Hey everyone, welcome back to Flashback Friday. There’s been quite a bit of news this week, so let’s get right into it.

First, we have the shock resignation of veteran SBS newsreader Lee Lin Chin. The newsreader announced her departure from SBS World News last night in an interview with veteran Channel 10 newsreader Sandra Sully, stressing that she wasn’t retiring, just taking a step back. She will still be working on several projects with Chris Leben and Daniel Hartley-Allen, her previous workmates on the SBS satire show The Feed. She also hinted at the potential for a move to the Ten Network staying that she would be ‘very happy to read the news on a casual basis’ and that she was ‘sure I could give Ten a ratings boost’, showing she still has a great sense of humour. Her resignation comes after the unexpected departure of SBS managing director Michael Obeid last week. Lee Lin Chin has worked at the SBS Network for almost 40 years. Her replacement will be Anton Enus, who will return to the SBS Network after a two year hiatus where he successfully battled bowel cancer. Lee Lin Chin will read her last bulletin for SBS World News on Sunday (29th July).

In more media news, it was announced this week that Fairfax Media, the media outlet owned by Rupert Murdoch, will be part of a merger with Nine Entertainment, where the Nine Network will practically take over Fairfax. The combined company will be called Nine, and will be operated by Nine CEO Hugh Marks. The new combined company board will be chaired by current Nine Chairman, former Liberal National Party Treasurer Peter Costello, with three current directors of Fairfax, and two current directors of Nine being invited to be on the board of directors. It has been revealed that Nine shareholders will hold 51.1 percent of the company, whilst Fairfax shareholders will have ownership over the remaining 48.9 percent. Shareholders welcomed the news of the agreement, whilst unions and advocates for media diversity criticised the takeover. Of particular note, former Prime Minister Paul Keating was not impressed, describing the deal as ‘an exceptionally bad development’. Current Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was, however, quite the opposite, welcoming the deal with open arms, even going so far as to practically take credit for it, when affirming that the only reason the merger was possible was because of the media ownership reforms he made last year. The Labor Party on the other hand has expressed their fears over greater concentration of media ownership and job losses resulting from the deal. Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood stated that the move would allow for ‘the continuation of quality journalism’. A lot remains to be seen.

In more Australian news, this time more political, the Super Saturday by-elections will take place this Saturday 28th July. These by-elections are taking place due to the continuation of the citizenship saga which claimed another five Labor Party politicians, one of which was a Senator, whilst the others all sit in the lower house and must contest by-elections in order to regain their seats in Parliament. The four by-elections will take place in the Federal seats of Mayo, Perth, Longman, and Braddon, with the Longman and Braddon by-elections tipped to be the ones that could potentially see a change of hands and a change of power. It also came to light earlier this week that the Labor Party seemed to have more of a chance of retaining these two particular seats if Anthony Albanese was the Labor Party leader, rather than current leader Bill Shorten. It has also emerged that One Nation leader Pauline Hanson will not be at the by elections in Longman despite fielding a candidate in the by-election taking place in the seat. Instead of being there herself, she has gone overseas on a pre-booked holiday to Northern Ireland, leaving behind life size cardboard cutouts of herself at the pre-poll booths and at the polling booths tomorrow. The One Nation candidate for Longman, Matthew Stephen, had promised the voters that they could get a real selfie with Senator Hanson on the day of the by-election, however, the voters are making do with the cutouts, taking pictures with them at the pre-poll booths. One Nation Leader Senator Hanson has also made it know that her Party will preference the Liberal National Party in the by-election.

And finally, in a bit of entertainment news, the annual coveted San Diego Comic Con took place earlier this week. The yearly event which sees the likes of stars from a variety of television shows and movies from a range of networks in the US featured panels and trailers giving fans a glimpse of what’s to come in upcoming seasons and films. The CW Network had a multitude of television stars that have roles in a range of shows across the network, including shows based on DC comics such as Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow, and Black Lightning as well as from their hit show Riverdale, and some upcoming shows like Legacies. Also of note was the cast of the upcoming sequel to the first Fantastic Beasts movie, The Crimes Of Grindelwald, the spin-off films of the world renowned Harry Potter books and films. Fans were excited to hear from the cast and crew of various shows, who gave insight into some of the events that would be occurring in the new seasons, and the fans were also treated to trailers of the new seasons, giving them something to really look forward to. Most, if not all, of the television series and films at the event will air in the later months of this year, around September and October. I’m sure a lot of people are excited already.

And that’s all for another Flashback Friday. Keep an eye out for more articles coming soon, and I’ll be back with more Flashback Friday next week. Have a good one!

JJ