To the ABC board, veteran TV personality Ray Martin seemed like the ideal candidate to review Q&A. Martin is an experienced journalist who has a deep knowledge of broadcast television. He was a distinguished US correspondent for the ABC and last year he made First Contact, a series about attitudes to Indigenous Australians for SBS. He is a progressive who has worked hard for the republican cause, reconciliation and the Fred Hollows Foundation. But in the popular mind he is still the former host of A Current Affair and the king of tabloid TV. And he made his millions at Channel Nine off the back of a populist TV show. He won five Gold Logies for his work on ACA and the Midday show and has been widely parodied for his folksy presenting style and his love of the everyday Aussie.
So, when it was announced on Wednesday night that Martin would examine the last 22 episodes of Q&A and review audience and panel selection, subject selection and social media strategy, it was his work on A Current Affair that dominated the reaction. “The report is expected to recommend that the ABC focus exclusively on stories about dodgy builders & miracle diets,” was one typical Twitter response. ABC radio presenter Philip Adams was incredulous. “Ray? Ray Martin? That Ray Martin? With his record in tabloid television? from folly to fumble to farce to fiasco.” Comedian Tony Martin said “Ray Martin’s first recommendation is that #QandA adopt his ‘Top Blokes and Aussie Sheilas’ format.”
Ray Martin's first recommendation is that #QandA adopt his 'Top Blokes and Aussie Sheilas' format.
— Tony Martin (@mrtonymartin) July 1, 2015
The noise around Martin’s appointment drowned out the news that former SBS managing director Shaun Brown would join him in reviewing Q&A. The New Zealander’s six years at the helm of SBS was marred by an ugly dispute with legendary newsreader Mary Kostakidis which led to her departure after 20 years.
He is also the man who introduced advertising to the public broadcaster. Regardless of the content of the report the two men write, it seems inevitable that Q&A will be moved out of the television division and into the news and current affairs division where it will be subject to stricter protocols.
‘I was an idiot’
The day after Q&A on 22 June, the ABC pulled a pre-recorded interview with Zaky Mallah that was part of a news package about the issue on Mark Colvin’s PM. A transcript of the interview, seen by Weekly Beast, reveals that Mallah explained how his question to the Q&A panel was edited and reframed by producers for space and relevance: “The producers called me back up and got back to me and said ‘look we are going to restructure your question, take some things out, add some things in’.” He responded to the furore: “I was just simply expressing my views and that’s what I done and then everyone is hating on me. I thought Australia was a country of free speech.” Finally he is asked by reporter Peter Lloyd if he is a terrorist. “No, I do not support Islamic State. I am not a terrorist sympathiser nor am I a terrorist. Oh yes I do I do [regret my past]. I was young dumb and full of shit [beeped out]. I was an idiot and I said a lot of stupid things.”
After the drama … the dramas
Just when you thought you’d had enough of drama on the ABC, the broadcaster has confirmed the returns of a good list of dramas soon to be rolled out. On your screen this year or next will be Janet King, starring Marta Dusseldorp, The Doctor Blake Mysteries, with Craig McLachlan, Richard Roxburgh in Rake, a second series of The Code, the political thriller set in Canberra, and Guy Pearce in Jack Irish.
Not so full English
SBS is celebrating 40 years of radio and in recent days has picked up several awards for its radio news, including a gold award for best human interest story at the New York Festival’s International Radio Awards, for Naomi Selvaratnam’s story about rape victims. Selvaratnam’s feature, “Blackmailed: Sexual assault victims held to ransom with footage of their rape” also picked up one of five gongs at the Premier’s Multicultural Media Awards in NSW. But on Wednesday Andrew Clark, the executive producer of SBS World News, delivered some bad news for SBS radio. The two hour-long flagship English news bulletins, broadcast at 6pm and 6am, were being cut to just one 30-minute bulletin from 17 August. Two journalists will lose their jobs. The original bulletins will be replaced by BBC World Service news. A spokeswoman for SBS told Weekly Beast the change was part of transitioning to “an innovative, fully integrated newsroom”.
Hockey case spurs call for libel reform
The chairman of the Australian Press Council, Professor David Weisbrot, has weighed in on the debate over defamation law after treasurer Joe Hockey sued Fairfax Media for defamation and was awarded $200,000. A former president of the Australian Law Reform Commission, Weisbrot says reform is urgently needed and defamation should be the last resort for “bruised feelings”. “If we are serious about free speech and freedom of the press in Australia, then we must tackle defamation law reform as a high priority,” he said. “The current law seriously inhibits investigative reporting and robust political debate and, make no mistake, politicians of all stripes are heavy users of defamation writs.” Weisbrot offered to lead the reform process on behalf of publishers.
Motherish intuition
Mia Freedman appears to have survived her cover story “There’s something about Mia Freedman” in Fairfax’s Good Weekend, which depicted her as a polarising figure. And her digital publishing empire is still intact. We noticed that her parenting site iVillage, launched in 2012, had been renamed The Motherish, which seemed a strange name. We asked editor Alys Gagnon why Motherish: “We found, despite strong growth and performance, that the idea behind the name iVillage wasn’t very easily communicated to our audience. The Motherish is a much better way to describe the community that has built up around the site.” The website features parenting news and opinion pieces such as “Don’t judge me, but … I want to charge my no-show wedding guests.”
