Adelaide viewers criticise Sunrise for belated fire coverage
Updated: Adelaide viewers accuse Sunrise of ignoring fires for 2 days before finally reporting on a "small grass fire."
- Published by David Knox
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— Sophie (@barbietheturtle) January 4, 2015
Sunrise has copped a truckload of complaints on social media from Adelaide viewers who have accused it of ignoring fires in South Australia for 2 days, before finally reporting on a “small grass fire.”
Fires surrounding Adelaide, described by authorities as the worst conditions since the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires, have destroyed 12 homes with fears for 20 others, injured 23 people and destroyed 13,000 hectares of scrub.
Weekend Sunrise did include a full news report and live Press Conference, but locals were incensed at the lack of coverage over the preceding days, and in particular the wording that “Meanwhile more than 300 fires have started in Victoria over the past two days.”
It’s a rare misstep for the network given its ratings dominance in South Australia and where David Koch as Chairman of Port Adelaide.
On the Sunrise Facebook page, viewers let rip:
Maureen Hall “Have been watching Sunrise and Channel 7 news for years, but feel very let down over the last 48 hours over their lack of coverage of our South Australian fires.”
Amanda Lovatt “If you want 100% coverage on the so called “grass fire” and If you have access to Foxtel, put on channel 600 and or 601, Sky News has been keeping me informed since it started. Oh and ABC News. Don’t bother watching Sunrise, th.e reports are misleading and inaccurate”
Kass Lehmann “Wow sunrise, I used to watch you all the time but over the years I’ve stop due to this type of crap. We are all Australians and it would be nice for once to stop hearing just about Vic, NSW, QLD and maybe equal amounts of our whole country because in case you didn’t know SA, WA and NT are also part of this country.”
Tracy Heasman Bettridge “You finally report about Adelaide. . Then make Melbourne sound worse with 300 fires.. what a joke!!! U disgust me sunrise”
Scott Sharland “I guess it isn’t “a small grass fire” after all Sunrise. You are a joke ch7!!”
Aimee-Adele Cece “‘Meanwhile in Melbourne’… So basically no big deal for the South Australians who have lost homes, animals the huge risk on our firefighters trying to save those affected. We have lost complete suburbs in our fire at the moment. Isn’t one of ur hosts the chairman for one of our football teams? what a true supporter for our state! Sorry what were you saying about ‘meanwhile back in Melbourne?'”
Megan Megsy Brooks “Just a little grass fire as Justin Felkel Said! Only just 11,500 ha & 175klms total perimeter but it’s tiny I guess because South Australia has a bigger land mass than Victoria! Sunrise u disgrace Me! And I normally watch ur show Too!”
Mitchell Heard “Took you 3 days!! If this were happening in Sydney or Melbourne it would be non sto coverage and a special extended edition of Sunrise. Nope, Adelaide and SA must not exist to you guys Hashtag Morons!!!!”
Tania Robertson “Loving Today’s (on nine) coverage of the fires in SA, am so far away from family and friends in SA and Today have done such a great job of making it a priority, I now wake up with Today!!!”
Carol “Young why isnt Channel 7 covering this continuously like they do when there are fires and floods in the eastern states. Hello we are just as important here in Adeliade, there is more to Australia than the eastern states you know. I am so annoyed that I am going to probably wath another cannel from now on…….wake up”
Lee Pixie “Mean while fires have been started in Victoria it shows who you really care about… Everyone South Australia doesn’t exist to Chanel 7 let alone to sunrise”
Steph Stewart Matt Little “Oh thank god I’m not the only one who feels this way…. When the siege in Sydney was on Sunrise televised every minute of it… Yet now something that is threatening so many is happening and I have to wait for the news to see what is going on….poor effort Sunrise… My thoughts and prayers go out to the families effected”
Sarah Hart “Couple days late sunrise, I’d love to know what would be headlines if half of SA didn’t say something…”
Adam Blom “Very poor effort Sunrise? Why was this not considered news worthy? If this was a Melb or Sydney fire you would have been there in a flash & spent entire broadcast from “ground zero”. I guess it was all too hard…maybe Mel Doyle – the self-appointed ‘news breaker’ wasn’t available?”
Mathew Nicholson “Thanks for that 1 minute coverage of the SA fires. What a joke.”
Rebecca Long “Pathetic Sunrise, the coverage was 10 times better on CBS, CNN etc. It seems the Adelaide “BUSH” fires rate as news to the rest of the world.”
Gabi Ashmeade “Finally. Only took 3 days. Were all watching ABC now…”
Sara Reynolds “Bit late to the game sunrise.”
Twitter also vented against the show:
Andrew Osborne @ervefel
@sunriseon7 Hang-on.. The fire has been going for 44hrs & has >170km frontage, yet this is the first we hear of it…?!
Jacqueline Ogilvy @luvjacqueline1
@sunriseon7 wow your fire coverage is terrible.Have a read over your tweets below,mostly immature headlines.Unfollowing #prayforadelaide
∞turtles∞ @ainsley_mae
@sunriseon7 This fire has been gone for many days now and only now you mention a little bit,such a disgrace
Kaz Bar @princess_me1983
@sunriseon7 not such a “small grass fire” then is it?
Johnny @SouthOzJohnny
@sunriseon7 So now you give it some coverage…
Brendan Collyer @brendanc84
@sunriseon7 really? Just a small grass fire is that what they had to say?
Veronica @blondie4rhino73
@sunriseon7 a case of better late than never NOT!
Kate Wall @TheKateWall
this morning they covered all about vic but SA’s fires were just small grass fire, which has been big n uncontrolled for 2days
Chri$tine @Stinemachine13
@sunriseon7 lol You finally woke up! No worries Sunrise, we don’t need you anyway. The good folk of South Australia are fine on our own!
To Ny @madtat
@TheKateWall @sunriseon7 its 7 they wont bother unless they can show footage its all about ratings they dont care otherwise
Ashley Warren @Ashley_Warren1
@sunriseon7 a bit late what a disgrace. “small grass Fire” is it. “under control” is it. time for a public apology.
SA Bushfire Recovery hotline: 1800 302 787
Update:
Sunrise advises “Weekend Sunrise had the most comprehensive coverage of the SA bushfires, including going Live into SA on Sunday and doing an extra 30 minutes on that day just for that market to keep them updated on the situation as it changed. The story dominated Weekend Sunrise rundowns on both Saturday and Sunday, and indeed this morning, with live crosses to reporters and fire officials across the city. The blazes were described at all times as out of control when they were. Our reporting was informative and accurate.”
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- Tagged with Sunrise, Weekend Sunrise
28 Responses
@Russell – My point exactly. Are Adelaide stations no longer ‘local’ TV stations providing comprehensive breaking local news coverage as they used to in the past, to their ‘local’ audience or do they now have to wait and rely on someone in Sydney or Melbourne to do it for them – after Sydney or Melbourne decide that it may be something useful to fill between their commercials, promos and ‘advertorials’?
@boy_wonder – News is news is news, No one really gives a stuff who reads it (off the autocue, written by someone else), and many resent seeing (insert 6pm autocue reader’s name here) elbowing in on a story that others have been reporting quite well, and are up to speed on.
On standby sounds harsh, but it’s their choice of profession. NBC’s Brian Williams never gets drunk in case something big breaks.
This is what watching the tide turn looks like!!!
I guess it’s not much different to this time 12 months ago.
Out of control bushfires ripped through the Flinders Ranges. The Bangor fire burnt 19,000 hectares. Also the Barossa Valley Eden Hills fire burnt 24,000 hectares.
Homes, property and people/animals were very much affected, there was little media coverage even on the Adelaide news, and there was very little support from the Government with assistance. There was only 4-5 air fire units made available between the two fires.
The SA CFS, MFS and local farmers with their own personal fire fighting equipment were amazing. We had several sleepless nights, defending properties.
The NSW CFS were amazing, their knowledge and skill saved my father in laws property.
The Sampson Flat fire in the Adelaide hills has burnt 12,500 hectares, it is still not as large as both of the bushires in Country SA in 2014. There was almost no media…
@Pertinax
Adelaide has 1.29 million people and not 1.2 million. It is this short changing by eastern states that started all this to begin with (tongue firmly in cheek by the way) I know it is nit-picking but isn’t this what it is all about? I got no news from 7 so I went elsewhere.
A national network news show should provide news coverage of such an event for a national audience, but the local affiliate SAS7 in Adelaide should be the station charged with providing comprehensive love local coverage and information for a local audience.
With local crews, knowledge resources and expertises – they are the ones best equipped to do this – not a crew in Sydney.
Call me old-fashioned, but doesn’t SAS-7 or NSW-9 have their own newsroom, own reporters, own anchors, to cut away and do their own thing? Realise everything is now played out of Syd/Melb but surely local stations still have enough resources to put their own coverage of local events together. Maybe not as many resources as previously but then again, more resources than way previously, before everything was ex-Syd/Melb.
I think our South Australian friends do have some cause to complain about this.No doubt if the fires were in the Sydney area,we would have seen wall to wall coverage on all of the commercial networks.Let’s face it,the national media is Very Sydney centric.Anything that happens in Sydney or New South Wales is treated 10 more importantly than anywhere else in the country by the media.
Due to the hours I keep…I rarely watch morning shows….
But I have ABC News and ABC24 on Facebook….so constantly updated on news events…
I am an ex 7 employee and am truly disgusted by 7 and their pathetic coverage of the SA Bush fires. I hope seven really suffer in the ratings this year, maybe then they will sit up and take notice of the viewing public all over Australi not just NSW, Vic and QLD. I thought maybe this year we would get something decent to look at, but no, same old tired cheap crap.
Seven you have lost me
I live in Sydney and I watched Weekend Sunrise and i’m sure that they had reporters Deanna Williams was one. James Tobin was there as well.
I agree 7 had comprehensive coverage and Mel Doyle did an excellent job. I think it could be seen that their news service in Sydney is significantly struggling in the ratings, and for major news events, it may help to have their highly promoted news hosts on standby. Of course, they deserve their holidays.
@SAgr8 – “Where was Mark Ferguson and Chris Bath?”
Like Peter Overton during the Martin Place seige – on holidays (Overton on Hamilton Isl.)
“during the Sydney siege, it was really Mel Doyle to run the whole coverage.” Incorrect. Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies covered it til 10:45am until they were evacuated. Chris Reason was in the Martin Place news centre all of the time, when no one else was allowed in. Nick Etchell took over anchoring to 3pm until Sydney set up a “studio” in the Pyrmont admin centre. Melissa Doyle anchored 3pm to midnt. Sean Berry in MP at 2.10am. Susannah Carr covered 2.10am- 5am when Sunrise hosts David Koch and Natalie Barr took over. All other 7 Sydney reporters were at the scene or at news conferences.
As an Adelaidian now based in Sydney, I was disappointed by the lack of coverage on Sunrise and flicked to Today. Althought 7 News in Sydney is really hard to watch these days, they did provide a good coverage of the Adelaide situation on Saturday and Sunday night with updates throughout the whole bulletin. 9 News, on the otherhand, didn’t make it their top story.
I think what annoys me mostly is the switch off by 7 news over the Summer period. They’ve cut their 4pm news down to half an hour. And during the Sydney siege, it was really Mel Doyle to run the whole coverage. Where was Mark Ferguson and Chris Bath?
I understand the need for TV people to take holidays, but when big news breaks and Seven has no one there, they will naturally lose viewers.
Seven covered the Sydney siege comprehensively (in fact they had Live coverage from Martin Place before it was clear what was going on), so I think it’s a bit unfair to say “where were Mark Ferguson / Chris Bath.” Are you suggesting they interrupt holidays (possibly from overseas) to take over from staff who were qualified and capable and on the case? News is always a team effort.
Surely if you “want news”, or a commercial station’s interpretation of “news” without 30 minutes delay, you would change channels? Try ABC24.
Cool meme that she got there!
I am from Adelaide… but who cares? If one channel isn’t showing news about the fires, use your remote and change to one that is. I wouldn’t be watching Sunrise for to-the-minute news anyway.
Saying that, there has always been an eastern states bias in every show produced out of NSW/Vic, and always will be. Seven news in Adelaide showed 15 minutes on the Adelaide fires and about a minute on the Victorian fires… I wouldn’t expect anything less.
Maxxdude: I Agree Today has always had a better news coverage.Sunrise show like a comedy show.
Great to see Tim from Perth on for 3 weeks.
Oh look western states get ignored. Colour me shocked.
Wait for the carefully worded apologies when there’s enough bad PR to ignore…
The fire raged out of control on Friday and Sunrise reported it on Saturday morning. Why would you expect a national early morning light entertainment show (featuring a cash cow) and shown on a 30 minute delay to keep you well informed on breaking local news? Much of which happened after it?
Of course Sky and the ABC will have better news coverage of local events. Though Nationally the ABC website didn’t report the SA fires as a serious emergency with houses lost till Saturday either.
So once again an ignorant mob on twitter with no idea what really happened, spouting lies and getting outraged about something because it makes them feel important and suits their agenda.
Adelaide has population of 1.2m compared to a combined 12.4m for the other 4 mainland capitals. So wouldn’t expect more than 1 in 12 cash cow calls from Adelaide.
This is strange given their penchant for ambulance-chasing.
Today had extensive coverage of the SA fires. If I want news I would always choose Today over Sunrise.
Because they don’t care, unless it happens in Sydney or Melbourne it’s like people in other states don’t exist.
But with YouTube and social media you can no longer hide, you will be exposed.
Thank goodness for ABC News 24 and ABC Local Radio for providing coverage around the clock.
This doesn’t surprise me. They so rarely call Adelaide viewers for the Cash Cow segement either, I’ve seen so many complaints on their Facebook page about this before. They are more keen to see increased Sydney and Melbourne viewers than anywhere else.