Media Watch baulks at ACMA decision
"How anyone could conclude anything from this one, other than that the regulator is an ass, I have no idea," says Jonathan Holmes.
- Published by David Knox
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Media Watch last night tackled three topical subjects: ACMA’s decision on the Seven News report outing David Campbell, Mark Riley’s interview with Tony Abbott and finally, 6PM with George Negus.
Host Jonathan Holmes has joined a growing wave of critics who have disagreed with ACMA’s decision that Seven’s David Campbell story ‘explained’ his resignation.
“So let’s get this straight. According to ACMA, the use of a ministerial car didn’t justify the invasion of Mr Campbell’s privacy. The possibility that a former Minister of Police could have been blackmailed didn’t justify it. Campbell’s portrayal of himself as a good family man didn’t justify it,” he said.
“What justified it was this: Seven’s story made clear that Mr Campbell’s sudden resignation had nothing to do with recent criticism of his performance of his public duties, but was because Seven was about to expose his private life.
“Talk about circular reasoning!”
He added, “These decisions by ACMA set precedents for future cases. But how anyone could conclude anything from this one, other than that the regulator is an ass, I have no idea.”
Holmes also criticised Mark Riley’s interview with Tony Abbott, not because it was an “ambush” (the interview was agreed to) but because the issue was raised in the first place.
He was particularly critical of the introduction used by Seven presenters:
“So Riley did present the context. But Tony Abbott was right too, because Seven certainly suggested that he’d been making light of the death of an Australian soldier,” he said.
“In every state, Seven News presenters read this introduction:
Chris Bath: Good evening, opposition leader Tony Abbott has been caught on camera making an insensitive remark about the death of one of our soldiers during a visit to Afghanistan.
“But in numerous radio interviews the next day, Mark Riley, who didn’t write that intro, had trouble justifying it.”
Holmes went on to comment on the morality of the supposed story.
“I don’t think it’s a journalist’s job to put the worst possible interpretation on everything politicians do and say,” he said.
But he kept some love for 6PM with George Negus offering an alternative to what passes for News on other networks, despite the sluggish numbers.
“But if you really want more meaty news at 6pm, switch over to George on Ten. Before it’s too late.”
Source: Media Watch
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- Tagged with 6pm With George Negus, Media Watch, Seven News
10 Responses
I thought 6pm with George Negus was supposed to be about important things, but then there was the story about Shane Warne and Liz Hurley.
Real important?
I switched off. Same old, same old.
I love this show and thought they were fantastically concise in their criticisms of all these issues.
In my years of dealing with networks I aways find it surprising that many of them expect you to take a for or against side on a given issue. When you end up sayihg “this was right, but that was wrong” it confuses them. They can’t quite get their head around the fact you can champion one show in one breath and slam another the next. I do this with regularity and no apology. So I concur with Holmes’ ability to say Riley did not ambush, but that it was a crappy story idea anyway.
Great MW last night. Holmes’ commentary was incisive and entirely balanced. He stood up for Seven and Riley where appropriate (interview was arranged not an ambush and Riley was not responsible for a line producer’s decision to run with an abhorrent and insensitive lie as a headline), but he didn’t hold back when calling Seven out for the beat-up or when criticising ACMA for their illogical and irresponsible decision.
The disturbing result of this latest example of ACMA’s continuing wastage of public funds, is that the decision might later be used as a precedent for determining rulings on similar future cases. I’m pleased to see that MW didn’t pull any punches here and rightly declared them to be an ass.
Sadly, with the state of the current state of journalistic ethics in reporting, Media Watch could easily extend to a half hour (or longer) episode each week.
I missed it, but I’ll catch it on iView. Very decent to plug 6pm with George Negus.
“…Before it’s too late.” : can that be interpreted as the show being threatened with cancellation already because of sluggish numbers?
Interesting to have Jonathan give a plug for Ten… is it proper for ABC to be seen to be endorsing a commercial product?
Then again, I guess Molly Meldrum did it for so many years under the guise of “Do yourself a favour”….
ACMA are a complete joke. Whether it’s decisions on radio or TV, they never get it right. Absolutely hopeless.
I’ll have to catch it on iView, or watch it later tonight when they re-run it on ABC1 along with Four Corners.
Good show last night, and with such awful journalism on air these days the call to support 6pm was very appropriate. My advice is to boycott Channel Sleaze at the same time.