Thursday, October 26, 2006
Frank Devine drives by Australian ABC's "Media Watch" today (see post below):
(New ABC MD Mark Scott) plans, as his first action, to review Media Watch, a trivial but emblematic ABC program that purports to offer weekly analysis and criticism of media performance ...Regarding the bigger picture of ABC reform, Devine believes the mere fact of Scott fashioning himself as an identifiable buck-stops-here figure could have a dramatic effect on the broadcaster's culture:
(MW being characterised by tedious) presenters wallowing in a fantasy of being editors-in-chief of everything and castigating other media for not having the high standards and enlightened viewpoints of the ABC.
(The appointment deals) a heavy, conceivably crushing, blow to the featherbrained collectivism that took root at the ABC 30 or so years ago and, triffid-like, slowly engulfed it ...He provides the hilarious example of ABC committees upholding 47 complaints about bias in the ABC's Iraq war coverage (from Richard Alston, former communications minister) - and then ruling that there was no case to answer, because some other complaints from Alston were not upheld.
... Hitherto nobody has really been in charge at the ABC ...
... Faced with criticism of programs, their procedure has been to call for reports from department heads and conclude from them that no sin has been committed.
Not funny, really.
