Caviar, missiles and Mar-a-Lago: Inside Panahi’s birthday bash

March 13, 2026 — 5:00am

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In this week’s On Background, Rita Panahi learns to stop worrying and love the bomb, an ABC news boss has a front-row seat to a reporter’s rant, and D-Day looms for The Kyle & Jackie O Show.

‘I’m in Miami, bitch’

One of News Corp’s top personalities, Rita Panahi, sure has been living it up recently. While she didn’t receive an invitation to Rupert Murdoch’s 95th birthday cocktail party last week in New York, she arranged a decent consolation prize for herself: a visit to Mar-a-Lago.

Panahi, whose parents fled Iran’s repressive theocratic regime for Australia in 1984, has had much to celebrate recently. She hailed the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last week by calling him a “son of a bitch” on her Sky News show, which promptly made global news.

But the celebrations didn’t stop there. Panahi jetted out to Florida the next day via the Qantas First Class Lounge in Melbourne to mark her 50th birthday. Enjoy the big five-oh, Rita!

The multiple Instagram stories tagging the Qantas First Class Lounge weren’t enough to nab her an actual seat in first class, however.

On Background got the tip-off last week Panahi would be making the dream trip and put questions to her. She didn’t reply, but just couldn’t resist flaunting it on Instagram.

It looked like some trip. Just mere hours after Rita and her besties were out documenting their bottle-serviced best lives, a gold-plated ballroom appeared on their socials.

The rococo palace has become a pilgrimage for anyone who is anyone on the right, but alas, President Donald Trump himself did not appear for Panahi and co.

Also on the itinerary, the Sky host had a luxury day out on 88-foot super yacht the Sirena 88. There was a full spread cooked by private chefs, a misspelling-riddled mock newspaper front page in honour of Panahi’s birth year, and caviar – the whole kit and caboodle!

Highlights in the paper marking 1976 include Jimmy Carter defeating “Gentil Ford” for the US presidency, the Sex Pistols bursting “oote the music scene” (shout out Canada!), and Mark Edmondson winning the “Instralian Open”. Nice to see News Corp’s AI policy getting a good workout.

Oh, and a birthday cake with the tabloid columnist and TV presenter riding an AGM-88 HARM missile, a US-made weapon designed to neutralise air defence systems. These essentially break the doors down before they drop the real heavy-duty bombs.

The AGM-88 and its more updated variants have been used in some of the recent US strikes on both Venezuela and Iran. So far, more than 1300 civilians have been killed in the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, according to the regime.

So it’s a classy image for Rita.

But back to the boat. A bit of online digging came back with the price tag to rent the vessel for a day trip. It’s a steal at $25,000.

They must pay well at Sky.

The professional agitator

The Rita Panahi Show airs nightly at 11pm, where the audience can’t exactly be huge, but online is where Panahi plays her role as a professional agitator to maximum effect.

That comes in the form of the segment Lefties Losing It, where Panahi highlights an instance of a person or group, usually “woke”, well, losing it. In its essence, this is professional rage-baiting.

The strategy is working. The daily “losing it” segments, published on YouTube, receive hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of views. The host herself has amassed more than 500,000 followers on X alone and begun using increasingly loose and offensive language like the word “retard” in what looks like a gonzo attempt to drive people on the left to distraction.

Reporting shows that particular word has gained a footing in the consciousness of far-right agitators and the “manosphere” with the help of figures like Joe Rogan, Elon Musk and Kid Rock, according to The New York Times, CNN and NBC.

It has also now been commandeered by white nationalist Nick Fuentes and the right-wing commentators Derek Hunter, Steven Crowder and Tim Pool, according to the Times, while a professor from the University of Florida, Julie Ingersoll, told CNN the purpose of harnessing the term is largely about “owning the Libs”.

“I think that they are flaunting their ability to offend and confront,” Ingersoll said.

If people with a disability feel belittled and demeaned along the way, Panahi, Musk and the others don’t appear to care. It’s the clicks that count.

We asked Sky about all of this, and whether the trip or online language breaches News Corp’s policies for social media use. But again, crickets.

There are two deadlines fast approaching for Australia’s most talked-about media company, ARN, next week.

One is the end of the 14-day window Kyle Sandilands has to “remedy” his alleged contractual breach following an accusation of serious misconduct after his on-air tirade toward his co-host Jackie “O” Henderson on February 20.

The second, we’re told, is that sometime next week the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will finally deliver the long-awaited outcome of its investigation into the KIIS show previously hosted by the duo, and what additional licence conditions it plans to place on the Melbourne and Sydney stations. Sandilands and Henderson already have extensive form in breaching decency rules monitored by the authority.

We’re into somewhat uncharted territory here, so there isn’t a clear example of what new conditions the authority might place on KIIS’ licences.

But it’s curious timing and makes On Background wonder whether it could be another nail in the coffin Sandilands is trying to get his career out of.

Surprise witness to ABC reporter’s foul-mouthed rant

Last Thursday, the ABC’s premier investigative team gathered in Sydney to send off Four Corners executive producer Matthew Carney, who has retired, replaced by former7.30 boss Joel Tozer. On Background hears it was quite the piss-up.

Staff flew in from across the country, including Brisbane-based reporter Mark Willacy. After sticking around in Sydney for an extra night, Willacy found himself in the headlines only a few days later when he was featured on Potts Point institution Lady Chu’s social media pages.

While out for dinner at the inner-east Sydney Vietnamese restaurant, he went on a foul-mouthed rant about NSW, all captured by the establishment’s proprietor, Nahji Chu, for her “Banh Mi TV” series of videos, and promptly republished by The Australian.

To be clear, it was all in good fun, and the ABC explained that Willacy didn’t consent to the video, in which he played along criticising the City of Sydney’s attempts to curtail street dining, from being published publicly. Add to that, we even agree with Mark!

But On Background sources in the area spotted what The Oz missed: who Willacy was dining with.

That would be Jo Puccini, the ABC’s head of investigations and current affairs.

As his boss’s boss, we can only wonder whether she shares the Gold Walkley-winning reporter’s views.

Speaking of Tozer, Aunty has found someone to replace him at 7.30 this week.

Kyle and Jackie O ‘back in contact’ as days count down to his $100m ouster

The more than qualified journalist taking the role is Dani Isdale, a veteran SBS and Network 10 journalist and correspondent, who has spent the past decade at British public broadcaster Channel 4.

But what interests On Background most is that the program is being shifted out of the investigations and current affairs division under the aforementioned Puccini and into the digital and national news division, led by Lee Glendinning.

When Isdale starts in June, she and her team will report to the managing editor for national news, Sam Clark, ABC director of news Justin Stevens recently told staff. Clark currently has oversight of Insiders, Parliament House coverage, Afternoon Briefing, sport, and business.

We know, we know. There are endless titles to remember; you aren’t alone, reader.

With a growing remit, Glendinning, a Guardian and Sydney Morning Herald alum, is tipped as a potential ABC director of news in the future. Her name has also been bandied about as a potential candidate for the vacant Guardian Australia editorship that Lenore Taylor just quit.

In fact, the window to apply online for the top at the primarily online outlet has officially shut.

While external candidates remain a bit of a mystery, two of the senior staffers to have applied already are deputy editor Gabrielle Jackson and major projects and investigations editor Marni Cordell, On Background hears.

Acting editor David Munk, meanwhile, is likely to head back to the UK headquarters once the appointment is made.

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© The Sydney Morning Herald