AUSTRALIAN MEDIA:

News Crap Australia right-wing commentator Peter Gleeson has again been accused of plagiarism as he resumes work with Sky News fronting a new “after dark” program.

Mr Gleeson was forced to take leave from his Sky News commitments and his newspaper columns have been suspended following recent revelations that he appropriated other reporters’ work in his columns.

But ABC TV has now accused him and Sky News of blatant and unauthorised appropriation of intellectual property associated with the national broadcaster’s successful Hard Quiz program hosted by popular Gold Logie-winning stand-up comedian Tom Gleeson.

ABC spokesperson Rose Itabutt said both Sky News and Peter Gleeson had been contacted by the ABC’s legal department and told to cease airing a new nightly program hosted by him titled Hard Right Quiz. (main picture)

“It’s a blatant rip-off, right down to Peter Gleeson being introduced by voiceover as ‘Peter Tom Gleeson’ with the ‘Peter’ being spoken so softly as to be almost inaudible,” Ms Itabutt said.

“Gleeson – Peter that is – has even gone so far as to shave his head so that he looks a lot like Gleeson – Tom that is.

“The format of the Sky News show is also a total rip-off of our own Hard Quiz, with four ‘contestants’ – all of them being other Sky News ‘after dark’ commentators Paul Murray, Peta Credlin, James Morrow, and Andrew Bolt –  answering questions in their personally chosen specialty subjects.

“For instance, in the first episode aired last night the four subject areas chosen by the ‘contestants’ were: Labor Party failures; Anthony Albanese’s failures; Dan Andrews’s failures and corruption scandals; and Liberal Party achievements and why they are always the best to manage any economy federal or state,” Ms Itabutt said.

Sky News CEO Paul Whittaker said he had reviewed last night’s Hard Right Quiz program and found no similarities as alleged by the ABC.

“It’s original programming all the way as far as I am concerned, right down to the winner declaring ‘Thanks for playing hard, right’ right at the end while holding aloft a big brass mug,” Mr Whittaker said.

“The complaint is just typical woke whingeing and more waste of taxpayers’ dollars by the lefties at the ABC.”