A host of radio and tv shows said earlier this year that Australia could not sustain a Daily Show type program because all the journalists know each other too well, and even with the range of opinions various establishment media will give voice to, there just isn’t the diversity of views to create adequate fodder for an entertaining tv experience.
I suspect he’s right on the first count, and that alone.
The nightly news on any commercial tv station is filled with laughable vocabulary problems, most recently a Channel Nine reporter claiming that his sources (for a story that had proven to be completely erroneous) were ‘impeachable’. The reporter was shooting for ‘impeccable’ I’m guessing. I still treasure the news I heard over the radio a few years ago that Aboriginal ancestors were performing welcoming ceremonies in the Botanic Gardens.
Talkback hosts either don’t understand arithmetic, statistics, or both. Recently I heard a talk show host announce that it would take most people 10 years to earn a million dollars after tax. Based on current tax rates and the current average annual wage (around $50,000), the number he was looking for was closer to 26 years (or, in more mathematical terms, he was about 40% right).
Today’s Sydney Morning Herald has an opinion piece that claims the state premier, Nathan Rees, urged a change of flag for the state. The speech being referred to in fact stated that there was no reason to change the flag. Yet the opinion piece goes to print as if the complete bollocks it contains is gospel truth.
At least Malcolm Turbull’s hapless media advisor, who hadn’t a clue what ‘concocted’ meant and happily looked it up on an internet dictionary site while the tv cameras rolled, has been moved on to other employment.
Probably as a reporter with Channel Nine’s nightly news.
Elissa Milne 