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“Watch SBS News”, says Paul Keating.

"If you want to watch a good news service, watch SBS news," says former PM before getting stuck into ABC.

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Former Prime Minister Paul Keating is the latest to weigh in with criticism of the ABC.

Speaking at Melbourne University, Keating praised SBS News at the expense of ABC.

“In the case of the ABC news, if you want to watch a good news service, watch SBS news, which tells you what’s happening in Iraq, what’s happening in the US election, what’s happening with Donald Trump,” he said.

“What you get on the ABC is: ‘A truck has just overturned on the Pacific Highway’. It’s like in the 1970s. The ABC is letting Australia down in terms of news presentation.

“In the case of the 7:30 Report it is a news magazine, instead of a hard news breaking operation.”

His comments follow Indigenous leader Noel Pearson accusing the public broadcaster of stories build around misery and tragedy. The comments were made at a book launching a Keating biography.

“He’s taken the view that Aboriginal people are best when they are able to earn their own income and live their own independent lives and that welfare diminishes their standing and inner confidence,” Keating said today.

“It may be true to say — and I am not saying it — that the ABC promulgates the view that the shift away form the welfare basis was the wrong way to go.”

ABC rejected Mr. Pearson’s views defending that the ABC provides more coverage of Indigenous issues and has a broader Indigenous staffing profile than any other Australia media outlet.

Source: Fairfax

8 Responses

  1. Whether he’s right or wrong doesn’t really matter but there is a really worrying trend now of politicians in developed countries trying to dictate how television covers the news.

  2. The news media now seem to be preoccupied not with doing proper research and reporting the facts but with pushing their opinions as facts. Overwhelmingly the media failed (deliberately or otherwise) to see Brexit as a real possibility and almost all had Hillary Clinton as a dead-cert for the US Presidency. How can we trust news media that have lost their objectivity? SBS is no exception.

  3. SBS News is 52 mins and has more time to cover world news and weather. Taking out local finance, weather and sport will leave around 22 mins for the ABC to cover news items. If Mr Keating wants comprehensive news he should watch ABCNews24 which contains BBC News and Al Jazeera bulletins as well as normal ABC News content.
    It takes guts to face Leigh Sales on the 7.30 Report, obfuscation and mis-direction are not tolerated. Some politicians don’t have the intestinal fortitude and refuse invitations to appear, so the program fills in with magazine style segments.

    1. Codswallop!-ABC news is extremely comprehensive, covering local, national and international topics with a little extraterrestrial stuff as well-and no damned ads! Keating is a curmudgeon of epic proportions these days whose opinions are of limited interest, which only stirs him on further.

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