Considering that in Australia, unlike the UK for example, insignificant news rolls on for days and days and weeks as there is no other hot topic to replace it - why shouldn’t it be covered?
Whoever released the video from inside 9 obviously wanted to highlight Amber’s behaviour - he/she didn’t do it to give everyone a laugh. Why should bad behaviour, and the fact Nine tolerates it, be swept under the rug?
They came up with the joke two weeks ago, then had to use it on the first episode back as Pickering couldn’t think of anything new. I think that’s it!!
The person that was potentially to be fired IIRC was the person who sent it to Mumbrella rather than the one who circulated it via internal email (assuming they were different people).
It would seem to me that the clip must have been sent to dozens of internal staff, since Nine can’t seem to find out which of those then sent it onto Mumbrella.
Whoever sent it externally must have used their own mobile phone to do this as to cover their tracks.
It sounds like they have actually found out which staff member it was who sent it out. But they don’t want to discipline them because they are well-known, on-air talent.