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When is it ok to touch on TV?

Sometimes ok. Sometimes not. It's been a bad week for keeping yourself nice but context is everything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFhQNNy2m4c

When is it ok to get touchy-feely on TV?

These are questions we find ourselves asking after a week of awkward moments on Live telly.

Yesterday Seven sports presenter Hamish McLachlan was forced to apologise after a brief embrace with new Weekend Sunrise recruit Monika Radulovic, who just happens to be Australia’s recent entrant in the Miss Universe contest.

McLachlan later explained to viewers he was ‘just trying to have some fun’ -words not dissimilar to Chris Gayle’s explanation that his interview with TEN’s Mel McLaughlin were “just a joke.”

Radulovic had told viewers “Hamish does not want to leave my side,” before a brief embrace was met with “Professional, please!”

After a week of debate over Chris Gayle’s comments (including on Weekend Sunrise itself as recently as yesterday), producers were forced to include a follow-up chat with both.

McLachlan said he had received a phone call saying “people were making a lot of” what happened.

“I understand people have made stuff of it on social media and if I’ve offended anyone, I’m apologising for that absolutely.

“But more importantly, I apologise if I’ve offended you,” he told Radulovic directly.

“I was just trying to have fun, but it is my fault if I’ve offended you. Have I offended you?”

“Not at all,” Radulovic said.

“I’m so sorry as well, guys,” she said.

“I did not think twice about it. Like Hamish said, we’re colleagues and friends and we were just chatting like we normally do off-camera.”

Welcome to Live TV, Monika…

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Also this week SBS sports presenter blasted social media comments that questioned him embracing his 8 year old daughter during the national anthem at a Liverpool Legends football clash.

“Shame my 16 yo girl and 18yo son couldn’t be there as well. I certainly would have hugged them very close too. Special for a father,” he wrote.

“My wife was there, as well as extended family.”

He later explained how nervous his daughter was and how criticising public figures should never impact on minors: “I shielded her as a fiercely protective father. Thankfully she is only 8 and will know nothing of what people are capable of in her father’s professional and public life until she’s much older. For those with their mind in the gutter, however, your depravity only has my sympathy. Thank you all for your kind and heartfelt support.”

Other comments this week over Chris Gayle questioned why a female presenter (Sunrise‘s Nuala Hafner in 2014) could flirt with a man on a beach without it attracting the same barrage of criticism as Gayle -and indeed whether this week’s interview has been blown out of proportion.

The latter is a fair question.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn2KWorqqSs

But the answer to all of the others is: it’s all about the context.

It’s not a matter of saying ‘being tactile / affectionate’ is wrong on TV. It’s not inappropriate, any more than it is in life. But it is about who is doing it, how they are doing it and in what social situation. All those points about gender, who initiates it, whether it was invited, whether it was welcomed, whether it went too far must all be judged on their own.

A father embracing his daughter on TV is just that …a father embracing his daughter.

A cricketer flirting with a sports presenter -who was clearly uncomfortable with it- is obviously inappropriate.

A female presenter flirting with a man on the beach was done with humour and no offence appeared to be taken.

Presenters and sports stars make judgment calls about what to say and how to act every day and are paid handsomely accordingly. That’s what they’re hired for.

They should know what is an appropriate context because they are professional, and they should also know when it can be misread by viewers. They are paid for that too.

This appears to have been the biggest mistake by Hamish McLachlan. You don’t embrace a Miss Universe entrant on air in the same week as Chris Gayle’s controversy, even if you are new best friends. You throw your producers and the show under the bus in doing so. Thankfully Monika was not offended, and some quick-thinking producers made sure we knew it.

But confused viewers and social media trolls would do well to look at context and not just where everyone’s hands are going.

11 Responses

  1. So if another female reporter would laugh off the same comments then there would be no problem? As long as you can predict how every single person will react on Live TV that’s fine. What about if it was some larikin sporting hero like Warner? He’s gotten away with punching a rival in a bar while drunken with less trouble.

    McLaughlin was thrown but continued with the interview. She later said it wasn’t a big deal. Gayle apologised for any offense caused to her at the next possible opportunity. None of that was deemed relevant.

    Miss Universe was clearly uncomfortable during the interview but then said it was nothing. After producers had an opportunity to convince her that saving their guy was in her best interests.

    It is all completely subjective and there are double standards all over the place. It depends largely on whether or not twitter, and some activist bloggers,…

    1. re the Sunrise segment, I must admit I was ready to judge the incident from the screen grab but having seen the video it does give some context but it’s still clumsy. Any sort of contact like that in any other workplace would not be deemed appropriate.

  2. In case of McLachlan, Hafner, and any other reporter doing news reports and weather, just report it! I’m sick of these reporters trying to be our BFFs, just be professional.

  3. That exchange in the video above between the Weekend Sunrise guy and Miss Universe contestant was not bad at all – gosh some people are hypersensitive. The cricket guy I agree was inappropriate but even that has been overblown

  4. You have to know where the line is before you cross or don’t cross it. Sadly some people do not know a line exists. Comes back to respect and the awareness of other people and their feelings.

  5. You especially don’t do it when the Miss Universe concerned is clearly inexperienced and out of her depth. Made the whole incident appear much worse than it was – which can be best described as “clumsy”.

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