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In defence of Lateline

Former news boss says ditching or dismembering Lateline would strike at the heart of ABC news and current affairs.

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2014-09-25_0119A former ABC executive has championed ABC news shows in their hour of need.

Peter Manning was Head of ABC TV News and Current Affairs from 1989 – 1992. He was Executive Producer of Four Corners and began Lateline in 1990.

Writing in Fairfax he says, ditching or dismembering Lateline would strike at the heart of ABC news and current affairs:

Tony Jones is the ABC’s most senior current affairs nightly interviewer and an excellent one at that. To extract him from his home base and leave him with one show, Q&A, would be a slap in the face for their best and brightest.

If the ABC has to make savage cuts, it might like to think of the old wharfie principle: last on, first off. Why is there a big Factcheck unit at the ABC? I thought journalists were supposed to do their own checking of facts? Why have salaries grown to commercial levels in the ABC? How about some savings from those on $200,000 plus to save some programs? How many middle managers are there with overlapping duties (think: Utopia)? And, least popular, can the ABC afford a quality News 24 at all when they are cutting staff at such a rate?

He also defends state-based 7:30 editions, which were revealed this week to also be in the firing line of ABC cuts.

“In its anxiety to please, the managers are dumping the Charter,” he adds.

Recommendations are understood to have been put to the ABC Board for consideration this week.

Peter Manning is now a Professor with the University of Technology, Sydney.

You can read his article in full here.

5 Responses

  1. Why shouldn’t Scott threaten the Abbott regime with programming cuts? It’s one of his negotiation weapons to use against one of the worst governments’ we’ve had in living memory. He might like to take this opportunity to re-jig ABC1 for younger demos, while blaming it all on Abbott & his cronies at the same time (personally I wouldn’t like to see this happen).

    The real villains here is an out-of-control government that hate public broadcasting (or public anything), not ABC management.

  2. Peter Manning is spot on with his criticism of the heavy load of overpaid middle managers there on salaries and conditions very few could expect to get in the commercial world. Not to mention a top heavy legal department which proceeds at a snail’s pace and an assortment of business managers. A massive clean out would more than pay for Lateline and a lot more. But it does surprise that Lateline is reported to have a staff of 17. If true this is excessive.

  3. Of course Manning is going to defend his empire.

    The Lewis report and the ABC’s own internal PwC report both identified back office and middle management that Scott will cut and replace with outsourcing or share with SBS.

    The plan was not to axe Lateline. The plain mentioned several options including nothing, cutting investigative reports and concentrating on Jones’s interviews (the shows strength), moving Lateline to News 24 at an earlier time to boost the channels credentials. Axe it is was only one, and like designed to get the staff open to change and put pressure on the Government ala Peppa Pig.

  4. Just what the Abbott Government wanted. One of the very few insightful, searching programs, unafraid to ask real questions of all sides of politics, gone. What a disgrace but not really a surprise. Control the media, control the masses.

  5. Peter Manning is spot on when he asks as to how many middle managers with overlapping duties exist in that place! Remove around 70% of the middle management there, and presto with the money saved, they need not cut program makers positions or programs.

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