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Day of Reckoning

Volunteers, emergency workers are joined by reporters, cameramen, and TV crews to keep us informed on an extraordinary day of live television.

Yesterday was an extraordinary day of Australian television.

It’s only at times like floods, bushfires, tsunami, political overthrows and terrorism that we see networks abandon normal programming.

It’s a time when vision and communication becomes crucial. Television, live radio, the internet and Twitter become essential tools.

The Australian spirit rises to the occasion. A common theme amongst those affected is “We are alive, that’s the main thing.”

Australian and Queensland mateship prevails.

Tireless volunteers, emergency workers, medical and logistics teams are joined by reporters, cameramen, lighting, photographers, runners, drivers, pilots, editors, admin, news directors and more -all of whom are battling weather, facilities, long hours, power, tempers, misinformation and an ever-changing situation.

Yesterday networks were updating their schedules across the day.

Channel-surfing various networks yesterday was a fascinating, if frequently grim, experience. It didn’t take long to see vision repeated. Cars riding waves down the streets of Toowoomba will be hard to forget. Families on the roofs of farmhouses as choppers flew overhead. People clinging to poles. One family tragically isolated in a 4WD before clamouring to the roof -an image of absolute despair.

I watched one network tell me their reporter was the only one to make it into Grantham, only to see another say the same thing. The use of titles, watermarks, “exclusives,” “First on 9” and “live” was probably used with abandon….

But the coverage was also exhaustive and in a time of crisis many Australian would have turned to their television sets for information, whether they lay in the path of the wall of water or watched from the safety of Tasmania.

The Nine Network abandoned normal programming to cover the event from the Today show to 11:35pm AEDT -an extraordinay commitment. It was hard not to notice that Karl Stefanovic was on air working unscripted from the afternoon to close of broadcast from the Nine Brisbane studios -but no doubt there were many more who worked just as long and just as hard. The Today show resumed today at 5am (4am Qld) until 10am.

Seven’s Sunrise was co-hosting from Brisbane hearing of dramatic stories that even reduced Grant Denyer to tears on air. It continued until 10:30am AEDT when Seven News took over. At 11am it switched to the Medibank International, but soon shifted the game to 7TWO to return to rolling coverage which continued until 7:30pm. Daylight saving changes saw Today Tonight delayed into Brisbane at a crucial time, but returned to coverage at 9:30pm. Seven did carry Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman’s press conference live. The unfortunately titled I Shouldn’t Be Alive was also screened last night. Sunrise‘s Melissa Doyle is back on air today while David Koch has cut short his holidays to resume from tomorrow.

For TEN the timing was awkward as it launched its new channel, ELEVEN. It was somewhat reminiscent of ABC being caught out by Spillard just ahead of it launching ABC News 24. TEN is seeking to reposition itself as a network that covers News -but not until January 24. It made no changes to its programming until it belatedly extended its News at Five to 7pm. It achieved this by having a rather casually-dressed George Negus at its Brisbane News desk in a form of co-hosting. Hugh Riminton also hosted from Sydney. Negus was also interviewed on The 7PM Project which dedicated its full show to the crisis. A later bulletin aired at 9:30pm. TEN’s morning news airs today at 6am.

ABC News 24 also covered the disaster uninterrupted, significantly its coverage aired in WA at the same time as Qld. At a time like this, that makes a big difference to the viewer. Its broadband coverage of one Press Conference by Anna Bligh was disappointing, but otherwise ABC seemed to keep viewers informed of the key events.

As I didn’t see enough of SKY News or SBS yesterday I will leave it up to readers to comment, suffice to say that SKY News has been covering the event with a dedicated channel.

The Weather Channel was also consulted widely yesterday including via interviews on commercial networks.

Yes, in any coverage of this scale there will always be some clumsy live TV moments. But let’s not forget lives have been lost, people have worked tirelessly to keep the information coming. I haven’t seen every moment from every channel and I am sure readers have some other moments that are worth pointing out.

As if anyone needs reminding, three quarters of Queensland are now a declared disaster-zone. Authorities advise that Brisbane’s crisis will reach its peak tomorrow, with 32 at-risk suburbs. There is much more to follow.

Donations: www.qld.gov.au/floods
Hotline: 1300 993 191
Traffics & Travel info: 131 940 www.191940.qld.gov.au
Lifeline crisis line 13 11 14

18 Responses

  1. David Knox,

    SBS One had a special five minute news update presented by Auskar Surbakti at 1pm (something they should do everyday either way). Other than that, it was usual programming.

  2. My thoughts and good ju-ju goes out to everybody affected by this awful event.
    I had a day off work yesterday and agree with David that it was a fascinating experience to surf the channels and the various reportage styles. Denyer choking on air got me.

  3. I saw Negus co-hosting the news yesterday, and it looked like they had just grabbed him off the street and threw him in front of the camera.. just a checkered openned top shirt while Bill wore the customary jacket and tie… Negus certainly stood out!

  4. Seriously, why would anyone watch commercial stations in times like this. The ABC is the only place I watched yesterday and their coverage was superb on ABC 24. The scratchy press conference was poor quality but the rest of the day was up-to-date and relevant.

  5. @ Dave
    I heard on the radio that the Mother & Son are alive but the Father is missing.
    I really do hope they find the Father alive.
    I cant get that picture out of my head.
    My prayers & thoughts go out to you all in Queensland.

  6. Do we really need to know about Melissa Doyle’s coat and that she didn’t dress to suit the conditions? It’s a shame – seven use to have an amazing precence in Brisbane, producing several national programs from their Mt Cootha studios. They really are lacking today. Mind you Larry has been impressive.

  7. I only really saw the daytime coverage between ABC24, Seven and Nine. I think Nine’s coverage was impressive and has done much to improve their news brand which, let’s face it, has taken a bit of a battering in recent times. Credit too to the newsreader, was it Wendy Kingston? handling it during much of the afternoon.

    ABC24 also I think deserves credit for an excellent continuous coverage even with the earlier hiccups like the media conference via webstream. While I haven’t heard much radio coverage I believe ABC has also done a great job with local radio and utilising digital radio and Newsradio and has also sent coverage internationally on Radio Australia.

    Seven AFAIK did an OK job in the daytime once they got the tennis sorted out on 7TWO but I think Nine has surpassed them here.

    Although Ten did a good job from 5pm I’m not sure why Ten weren’t into any daytime coverage yesterday, this sort of breaking news would have been the perfect test run for their expanded news profile. Maybe the full crews aren’t in place yet? Maybe the logistics of launching Eleven and getting that bedded down was too much to have Ten deviating from normal programming as well? They seemed to have a good coverage from what I saw though after 5pm and again this morning with the early news.

  8. @Dave. I really want to know what happened to them too. Seven yesterday had the reporter that was in the chopper saying there was nothing they could do which kept indicating to me that they had died. I heard that the Seven crew notified emergency rescuers but when the recue chopper went out they couldn’t see them anymore. That image really got to me of them sitting on their roof in the middle of all that water around them.

    The footage of the cars being swept through Toowoomba was incredible.

  9. Nicely said David. And well written too.
    I must say I’m a little bemused at the live coverage planned for the next couple of days. I don’t know what the journos will do other than play two-day-old footage from Toowoomba and look grimly at the camera. Brisbane isn’t expecting a flash flood – the water will slowly rise and then slowly fall – no cars or screaming people or helicopters. Hopefully!
    But not gripping television.

  10. Nine’s coverage has so far been exemplary and I’ve never watched so much news in my life. Congratulations should also be in palce to all the staff and crew working behind the news, very well done Nine!

  11. Channel Nine news has again shown that their commitment to news surpasses seven and ten. As Seven treated us to ‘Top 20: Boozers and Losers’, Nine continuted their floods coverage. Well done.

  12. well done to all journos, producers etc working in QLD to bring this story to Australia and the world. Some networks did a good job, others did not – but lets worry about that once this is all over

  13. Interesting to see all the coverage coming in live – No time delay for the Queensland coverage. They are getting it at the same time as the rest of the east Coast! No fan of Karl but I think he is treating this as a serious situation – can’t handle the “down-home” mumsy coverage on Sunrise!

  14. FYI:
    ABC News Breakfast started at 5.30am on both ABC1 and ABC24.
    (it appears ABC2 may carry ABC1’s usual children’s programming).
    Last nite ABC1 carried a special news bulletin (a feed from ABC24) from 10.30pm-12.00am.

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