Q+A is on life support. The ABC talk show is highly unlikely to be commissioned after this year, ending a headline grabbing 15-year run on ABC TV.
Two days after Stan Grant walked away from the hosting role permanently, Q+A’s executive producer, Erin Vincent, followed suit and quit the ABC on Wednesday to take up the role of chief executive of the Wheeler Centre.
RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas will continue as stand-in host for the rest of the year, putting in a marathon effort as she continues to front her breakfast radio gig from Tuesday to Friday as well. But Q+A now has no permanent host or EP, soft ratings and no longer carries the national conversation each week as it once did when social media and audience participation was a novelty.
Tony Jones and executive producer Peter McEvoy were the founding presenter and executive producer, and between 2008 and 2019 the program regularly made news and was written up every Monday by the Sydney Morning Herald and the Guardian, among others.
But the program’s later hosts were subjected to significant trolling, causing both Hamish Macdonald and Grant to walk away. Macdonald said it was a bruising experience because of constant abuse from social media.
The program was attacked by both the left and the right, with former prime minister Tony Abbott once banning his ministers from appearing and the left saying the show was wrong to give a platform to divisive and ill-informed speakers.
Paper cuts
At Sydney’s Holt Street headquarters of News Corp Australia, staff have been told they will no longer have access to print copies of the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Financial Review, which had been free to pick up from the mail room.
A spy showed us a note taped on the window in the mail room which said: “Effective immediately the mail room will no longer be supplying copies of the Sydney Morning Herald and the Financial Review for general distribution. Should you wish to receive a copy of either/both please submit an email request with your manager’s approval and we will happily organise a subscription for you. We apologise for the inconvenience.”
A couple of staffers who were keen to keep receiving copies took up the offer, asking for a subscription. Only, they told Weekly Beast, there was a sting in the tail. The subscription fee would be deducted from their pay.
Logies slimmed down
The 63rd TV Week Logie Awards will be held in Sydney on Sunday for the first time since 1986, after many years in Melbourne and then more recently on the Gold Coast.
The TV stars who are up for the popular categories are urging their fans to vote for them, including Tony Armstrong and of course the Gold nominees.
Fully respect the other nominees, but a vote for me is a vote that will keep you on the right side of history. Hehehehe. Vote at https://t.co/qCln70niTF pic.twitter.com/jkp59WLbpa
— Tony Armstrong (@Tonaaayy_) July 26, 2023
The broadcast has moved from Channel Nine to Seven this year and, in another first, will have a single host in comedian Sam Pang from Ten’s Have You Been Paying Attention?
In a pared down event with fewer guests and side events, there will be a single after-party, with all the talent and executives from rival networks in the one room instead of separate network celebrations. No media have been invited to mingle with them this year.
Sky sees red
Rupert Murdoch’s pay TV channel Sky News Australia launched a new channel on Tuesday dedicated to covering the Indigenous voice to parliament.
The channel launched with a comprehensive documentary fronted by Sky News Northern Territory correspondent Matt Cunningham, who discussed the referendum with Anthony Albanese, Peter Dutton, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Noel Pearson among others.
But apart from the doco, Sky News The Voice Debate has largely featured repeat material such as speeches from conferences, parliamentary committees and rallies. Promising to canvass all sides of the debate, the channel will likely do more live broadcasting and fresh material at a later date.
When Malcolm Turnbull and Sharan Burrow, co-chairs of Australians for a Murdoch royal commission, heralded the new channel with a critical piece in the Guardian there was white-hot anger at Sky.
This is demonstrably wrong and personally offensive.
— Laura Jayes (@ljayes) July 25, 2023
Let’s not forget it was you @TurnbullMalcolm who rejected the Uluṟu Statement from the Heart.
You conveniently ignore the brilliant work of Matt Cunningham.
Not to mention Chris Kenny is a member of the Advisory Group. https://t.co/djKyiTiTqr
Daytime news host Laura Jayes said the channel is doing what no one else in the media landscape is doing, “presenting both sides of the argument”, including live events, speeches, interviews and media conferences so that people are informed.
Andrew Bolt had an even more dramatic reaction to Turnbull and Burrow, declaring their comment piece had inspired him to delay retirement for another two years.
The 63-year-old said he had been “agonising” over whether to accept a new contract offered by Sky boss Paul Whittaker but “now that Turnbull’s done this, I tell you what you’ve inspired me and I’m going to send Boris, my boss, the text”, Bolt said.
“Malcolm you’ve got two more years of me to complain about. Suck that up,” Bolt told his viewers.
Awkward alliance
There was always going to be a tension between Nine’s journalism empires when the old Fairfax newspapers found themselves in the same stable as TV’s A Current Affair, and radio’s 2GB and broadcasters Ben Fordham and Ray Hadley. Nine Entertainment declined to comment on a decision by Fordham and 2GB to name former federal MP Lucy Wicks as the person behind the complaint against Taylor Martin made last week.
Wicks criticised 2GB for naming her as the Liberal figure behind the complaint that included allegations of harassment through “demeaning, degrading, and abusive texts”.
Nine’s no comment appeared on the same page in the Sydney Morning Herald as a large advertisement for Fordham’s 2GB radio show, calling it “Sydney’s Best Breakfast”.
Fit to print?
The Daily Telegraph said “no one should witness such a ghastly and violent scene, least of all children” but chose to publish a graphic photograph of children looking at a bloodied dead body on its front page on Friday.
Under the headline Innocence Lost: a grim walk to school, the photograph shows the aftermath of another gang shooting in the south-west of Sydney.
“An incredible picture captured by The Daily Telegraph shows the two boys looking on in horror at the bloodied body of a man who had been shot six hours earlier,” the Tele said. “We believe you should see this photo, as something needs to change.”
The paper editorialised that many factors are taken into account when publishing graphic images, weighing up “taste and acceptability versus newsworthiness and the public’s right to know”. In this case, the newsworthiness and the public’s right to know won out. The Daily Mail also published the photograph on its website with the description “sickening photo of dead body exposes the reality of Sydney’s gang war”.
End of an era
The final cohort of journalism students is completing the famous bachelor of arts – communications journalism degree at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst, which has churned out well known journalists for 50 years. Among its alumni are Andrew Denton, Melissa Doyle, Samantha Armytage, Hamish Macdonald, Chris Bath and ABC News Europe correspondent Nick Dole. The degree is ending after major cuts to regional university degrees announced in 2020.
Fanning the flames
The Australian Firefighters Climate Alliance has responded angrily to a cartoon by John Spooner in the Australian which ran the deniers’ line that the wildfire trend had declined since 1980.
“A quick glance at the science will show a clear link between climate change and longer and more intense fire seasons,” the alliance said. “The Country Fire Authority, CSIRO and World Meteorological Organisation are just a few of the organisations that back this claim.
Australian Firefighters Climate Alliance (AFCA) reaction to the @australian publishing Spooner's climate misinformation cartoon.
— Cam_Walker (@Cam_Walker) July 27, 2023
'Spooner’s armchair commentary is an insult to all Australians who will need to dedicate their summer to fighting fires.'https://t.co/PIuNahZTZ4
“It is nothing short of appalling for The Australian to continue to platform climate denial such as the Spooner cartoon of 26 July.
“As Australia prepares for the potential of a hard and long fire season due to several years of heavy rain and the return of dry and hot El Nino conditions, Spooner’s armchair commentary is an insult to all Australians who will need to dedicate their summer to fighting fires.”
The Australian was asked for comment.
Long innings for Chappell
Finally, a shout out to Trevor Chappell who has been hosting the ABC’s national talk radio overnight show for an incredible 23 years.
After 23 years keeping shift workers, insomniacs and revellers company, Trevor Chappell, is leaving ABC's national Overnights show.
— RN Breakfast (@RNBreakfast) July 27, 2023
Before he takes over as ABC Radio Melbourne and Victoria's Afternoons presenter, he joined @RNBreakfast to reflect.https://t.co/jKKJW4ymaL
Chappell is moving to ABC Melbourne’s afternoons program, replacing Jacinta Parsons, who announced last week that she was stepping away from the program.
