The first response in the twittersphere/blogosphere to the Kerry O’Brien retirement announcement has been to ask who will replace him. The more pertinent question is what will replace a tired format?
Nothwithstanding Kerry’s verbal chess games with leading politicians, the 7.30 Report structure and content is dated and predictable – a longer version of the straight news report on the day’s events out of Canberra (supplemented by an inevitable slow-mo montage and 15 seconds of music overlay), a parish pump state story that 80 percent of the country isn’t interested in and a worthy-yet-tedious aboriginal/arts/health story told in a robotic manner by a drafted-in news hack padding it out with ponderous filler shots.
ABC current affairs 40 years ago was the preserve of the young, spiky iconoclasts of the national broadcaster (Peach, Carlton, Littlemore, Carleton), taking determined positions on the news of the day and coming at it from unpredictable angles. Those days are long gone and the program has settled into a comfortable rut.
One imagines that the hierachy will take the format to the News Ltd-approved Right, using Virginia Trioli perhaps to curl her lip and write loaded intros over the same elongated news grabs with reporters intoning in Jana Wendt-inspired oddly modulated singsong.
What’s really needed is a complete rethink. Perhaps ask guest producers and reporters to take a look at the issues of the day using unconvential narratives and reporting techniques: Chas from the Chaser, for instance, breaking into Villawood and climbing on the roof. Report the GDP numbers by sending an unemployed person to Port Hedland to see what they might command in salary; get kids around the country to keep video diaries on their experiences of climate change; keep a crew tagged on someone waiting for elective surgery in a public hospital; have politicians keep a video diary.
Whatever, they do, they need to throw away the old mould for television current affairs – which is really just hack journalism these days – stilted set-up shots, ponderous searching for meaning and spreading the already formulaic nightly straight news even more thinly.
7 Comments
Hillbilly Skeleton · September 24, 2010 at 11:01 PM
Mr Denmore,
You are so right about Virginia Trioli.She appears to equate condescension and mockery with probing questioning, when all she is doing is demeaning her interviewees in the now familiar tradition that the ABC has adopted, which, of course, only ever seems to apply to Labor federal government politicians and is excused with the lame excuse of their 'only' seeking to provide the sort of scrutiny that the public expects of them as journalists. Except, that same level of 'scrutiny' seems to disappear in a puff of smoke when Coalition MPs come on to spruik their Talking Points for the day, which they endlessly seem to be able to get away with, with, as far as I can see, Ms Trioli never cutting them off mid-sentence the way she peremptorily and routinely does to government Ministers. And I also don't buy the oft-quoted excuse that government MPs deserve more scrutiny simply because they are in government, and the Opposition less because they are not.
I also agree that the 7.30 Report has become a tired and outdated format, I think especially so since ABCNews24 came on line and Lateline has been doing pretty much the same thing as the 7.30 Report lately. But also because most politicians have so much media training these days that they can deflect tough questioning and just keep on mouthing the Talking Points unashamedly. Anyway, won't it be the case that it has to fold completely and finally when the Analog signal is switched off? So better to ditch it now, I reckon.
Syd Walker · September 25, 2010 at 2:02 AM
The format is largely irrelevant Mr Denmore; without glasnost, it's not journalism. It's PR/propaganda.
Until programs such as the 7.30 Report cover issues such as 9-11 with even-handed intellectual curiosity and a desire to help establish the truth, that program – along with all other ABC news and current affairs – should be regarded as propaganda, not journalism.
http://tiny.cc/1n911
crabbometer · September 25, 2010 at 5:50 AM
Great blog, Mr Denmore.
Okay, I don't think things at 7.30 are quite as bad as you do, but you definitely have a point that it has gotten stale. The interviews and reports are usually too conventional. Your “guest producer” idea is excellent – what is needed is some reporters who have a passion and intelligence for getting to the truth of an issue. People like Possum and Keane from Crikey should be invited to do a report or interview when they write an incisive article.
But 7.30 does still have some quality stories, and shouldn't be axed. They just need more zing like you say they once had. One young journalist who has the kind of gumption you're looking for is Steve Cannane – he should be doing pieces for 7.30 instead of being wasted on the Drum. I know it's not the main question, but who do you think should be the new host, Mr Denmore?
Mr Denmore · September 25, 2010 at 8:13 AM
Thanks for the feedback crabbometer. I think the concept of a “host” is a bit tired, as well. You don't necessarily need a single host. O'Brien was basically there for the heavy interviews. But as we've seen, politicians are so media trained these days, the interview becomes like a game of chess. I'm not really sure it's that useful.
The best interviews are the ones where it really isn't characterised as such. More of a conversation. I DO like the idea of using some of the Hungry Beast crew.
Stop Murdoch · September 25, 2010 at 9:45 AM
Please! NOT Steve Cannane! If he really wants to graduate from the Drum he'd be great for “Sky”.
Mr Denmore, generally agree (200% re: Trioli) but surely an interviewer who could get Tony Abbott to admit he tells fibs, or catch him out about what he meant when he fibbed about visiting Pell, or rattle Rudd's cage to such an extent that he lashes out about 7:30 report land etc.. would be worth keeping some kind of proper, grown up interview format?
Agree, there's no point if we're just going to get fawning or feral, but is there not room for the deadly waltz of O'Brien at his best?
Mr Denmore · September 25, 2010 at 1:09 PM
O'Brien is a great interviewer, no doubt. But it became a show for political tragics only under him. Sure he got Abbott to admit he's economical truth, but what were the electoral consequences?
It just became a battle of wits between two individuals – great entertainment for some of us, but hardly watched at all.
Anonymous · September 26, 2010 at 12:01 AM
This is the sort of interview the so-called news media should have run in abundance before the election when Abbott was running off at the mouth with spurious talking points about “debt”.
It says a lot about the diseased state of 'our' media that it took a comedy program to break ground by being one of the few to actually challenge Abbott, using a clear and simple graph, on the dodgy premises of his slogans.
Meanwhile, the so-called “news” media made themselves missing in action in the months and weeks leading to the election – both allowing the Opposition to pass off their spin as 'gospel truth', and navel-gazing between themselves in an unilluminating groupthink herd mentality.