The Newsroom

International News Presentation: Past and Present

(February 2007)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
WO
Woodpecker
fox1 posted:
A couple of things. Bear with me, I’m driving to work. One - I deleted the childish comment about 30 seconds after I wrote it, not because I don’t have an argument for why I think that, but to be polite. Second - the quote function on this site does this strange thing where it only seems to quote one post, despite multiple quotes showing up in your draft. It was more Mr Q I think who the word was directed to. To be continued.


Point taken - my apologies.
BA
bilky asko
fox1 posted:

It's worth noting, of course, that Sky News Australia wasn't always like that; for the first fifteen or so years on air, it was a decent (albeit very basic) news channel, with bulletins every half hour and the headlines recapped every fifteen minutes, along with regular simulcasts of Sky News UK, and various newscasts from the US; they also used to produce a New Zealand bulletin for one of the smaller terrestrial channels there.

This kind of commentary is childish. For those “straight news channel” years - described above as a “decent” news channel, their ratings were minuscule. Now, their opinion shows consistently make up make up the Top 5 programs on subscription TV.


But surely there is a lot to be said for the notion that popularity ≠ quality. After all, Fox News gets consistently decent ratings (for a cable news channel), while the prestigious, award-winning PBS NewsHour seldom makes any waves in terms of ratings. In the UK, Channel 4 News trails well behind both BBC and ITV News, yet it is renowned internationally for the quality of its in-depth journalism.

The same is often true for dailies. After all, The Sun in Britain's most-read newspaper! Wink


That's no longer true - The Metro now has a higher circulation than The Sun.
FO
fox1
The word “decent” for a news channel is subjective. I do think that describing Sky in terms of 17 viewers and “gut-feeling” based rants is childish. People are looking for these alternative sources of news in big numbers. Let them decide what is “decent”. At work now
BA
bilky asko
fox1 posted:
A couple of things. Bear with me, I’m driving to work. One - I deleted the childish comment about 30 seconds after I wrote it, not because I don’t have an argument for why I think that, but to be polite. Second - the quote function on this site does this strange thing where it only seems to quote one post, despite multiple quotes showing up in your draft. It was more Mr Q I think who the word was directed to.

That's a function of the mobile site to take up less space - it will hide nested quotes.
WW
WW Update
Live coverage of today's tornado outbreak in Oklahoma from one of the stations that isn't geoblocked:

https://okcfox.com/watch


We have a confirmed tornado on the ground (w/ live footage!) -- and many more are expected tonight.
FO
fox1
Mr Q posted:

Fox is absolutely correct. The ABC is unashamedly left wing. If you define "left wing" journalism as being calm, sober reporting based on facts and evidence . Perhaps a bit of investigative journalism every now and then. Good, solid interviews that hold people (regardless of any party affiliation) to account. It's really quite dull and dreary stuff.

By contrast, Sky News Australia specialises in shouty, talking-heads commentary, packaged up in a eye-wateringly awful format. A combination of shock jocks who are past their prime, or other newcomers trying to make a name for themselves. Oh, and lots of ex-politicians too - just to give them something to do. SNA does have some very good journalists in its ranks, but they're drowned out by the inane remarks of pundits who feel the 17 people watching should be blessed by their "insight" - that is, hot takes based on nothing more than gut feel.


Here's more from the "calm and sober" ABC lol. And by the way - who are the conservative hosts on any of ABC's five national radio networks or four national TV networks?:



Note:
Quote:
The Australian Communications and Media Authority found the ABC's political editor Andrew Probyn breached broadcasting standards of impartiality when he described former prime minister Tony Abbott as the 'most destructive politician of his generation' .


More:
Quote:
In March, the Tonightly show hosted by Tom Ballard mocked up a poster of Batman by-election candidate Kevin Bailey. In the segment, comedian Greg Larsen used the vile word to describe the former SAS soldier, who was running in the inner-Melbourne seat which Labor's Ged Kearney easily won. "There is no Batman anywhere on that poster so I've had to improvise and I put, "Kevin Bailey is a c***", ' Larsen said to Ballard.


And more:
Quote:
That skit aired in the same month an ABC Indigenous comedy sketch, mocking commercial breakfast television programs like Sunrise, repeatedly referred to white people as 'c****' .


https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/media-regulator-slaps-abc/9972246

https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/abc-censured-for-calling-tony-abbott-most-destructive-politician-20180501-p4zcp6.html?js-chunk-not-found-refresh=true

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5684799/The-ABC-refuses-apologise-calling-conservative-candidate-c-insisting-obeyed-rules.html
Last edited by fox1 on 21 May 2019 12:48pm - 7 times in total
CI
cityprod
fox1 posted:
Mr Q posted:

Fox is absolutely correct. The ABC is unashamedly left wing. If you define "left wing" journalism as being calm, sober reporting based on facts and evidence . Perhaps a bit of investigative journalism every now and then. Good, solid interviews that hold people (regardless of any party affiliation) to account. It's really quite dull and dreary stuff.

By contrast, Sky News Australia specialises in shouty, talking-heads commentary, packaged up in a eye-wateringly awful format. A combination of shock jocks who are past their prime, or other newcomers trying to make a name for themselves. Oh, and lots of ex-politicians too - just to give them something to do. SNA does have some very good journalists in its ranks, but they're drowned out by the inane remarks of pundits who feel the 17 people watching should be blessed by their "insight" - that is, hot takes based on nothing more than gut feel.


Here's more from the "calm and sober" ABC lol. And by the way - who are the conservative hosts on any of ABC's five national radio networks or four national TV networks?:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShUQtxp7PN0

Quote:
The Australian Communications and Media Authority found the ABC's political editor Andrew Probyn breached broadcasting standards of impartiality when he described former prime minister Tony Abbott as the 'most destructive politician of his generation' .


More:
Quote:
In March, the Tonightly show hosted by Tom Ballard mocked up a poster of Batman by-election candidate Kevin Bailey. In the segment, comedian Greg Larsen used the vile word to describe the former SAS soldier, who was running in the inner-Melbourne seat which Labor's Ged Kearney easily won. "There is no Batman anywhere on that poster so I've had to improvise and I put, "Kevin Bailey is a c***", ' Larsen said to Ballard.


And more:
Quote:
That skit aired in the same month an ABC Indigenous comedy sketch, mocking commercial breakfast television programs like Sunrise, repeatedly referred to white people as 'c****' .


https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/media-regulator-slaps-abc/9972246

https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/abc-censured-for-calling-tony-abbott-most-destructive-politician-20180501-p4zcp6.html?js-chunk-not-found-refresh=true

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5684799/The-ABC-refuses-apologise-calling-conservative-candidate-c-insisting-obeyed-rules.html


Compared to what other networks, news channels and newspapers have said about Tony Abbott, that was positively tame.

The Australian media landscape is very different, much coarser than even the worst of the press you find in the U.K. Don’t try to judge it based on our standards, it’s a very different beast there.
FO
fox1
From Sky News:


By the way, 3 things. I’m here.. in Australia. Second, the ABC is taxpayer-funded. Third, it’s required by law to be impartial.

Also, I don’t think calling a conservative candidate a “c***” - and in all-caps on screen as well just for good measure - is particularly tame, to use your word. Even if it is a ‘newstainment’ program.

Also, it may be “tame” to you but the Communications Authority found it breached its charter. That’s the point.
Last edited by fox1 on 21 May 2019 12:17pm - 7 times in total
FO
fox1
Lol

MQ
Mr Q
Fox - I'm sorry that you feel my comments were childish. Personally, I don't think it's juvenile to point out the gulf between the ABC's news and current affairs output and the shouty, opinion-led commentary that fills Sky's primetime (and increasingly daytime) schedule.

I have no problems whatsoever with SNA filling its airtime with ill-informed punditry. Australia's a free country, and Sky can do what it likes. However, I absolutely have a problem with drawing a false equivalency between what Sky does and what the ABC does. They are chalk and cheese.

As to the examples you cite: I have no concerns in saying that the ABC makes mistakes. And it is rightly held to account for those mistakes. But mistakes are not evidence of institutional bias. There have been successive arms-length reviews of the ABC, which have consistently found no evidence of institutional bias. I'm quite comfortable with that assessment.
JO
Jon
fox1 posted:
From Sky News:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBUOO9EeGQU

By the way, 3 things. I’m here.. in Australia. Second, the ABC is taxpayer-funded. Third, it’s required by law to be impartial.

Also, I don’t think calling a conservative candidate a “c***” - and in all-caps on screen as well just for good measure - is particularly tame, to use your word. Even if it is a ‘newstainment’ program.

Also, it may be “tame” to you but the Communications Authority found it breached its charter. That’s the point.

I’m not sure what the video you posted proves, as all the clips of the ABC are without any context.
WW
WW Update
WLVI; Boston, MA, U.S.A., 1993:

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