ABC boss who approved Chaser sketch loses title, keeps job

ABC boss who approved Chaser sketch loses title, keeps job amanda duthie1The ABC editor who allowed The Chaser’s controversial dying kids sketch to go to air has been removed from supervising the corporation’s comedy output – but has kept most of her job.    

In a statement late this afternoon, ABC managing director Mark Scott said that Amanda Duthie had made “an error of judgement”. He said that she will retain responsibility for arts and entertainment programming but no longer be head of comedy too.

The Make A Reasonable Wish Foundation sketch generated widespread outrage after being broadcast last week. Early this week Duthie took responsibility for previewing the material and confirmed she had not referred it upwards.

Scott said: “The segment should not have been broadcast. We recognise that it caused unnecessary and unreasonable hurt and offence to our viewers and the broader community and we have apologised for this. We have determined this was not a breakdown in our editorial policy processes but rather an error of judgement.”

He added: “Where staff are concerned about the potential for satirical material to cause harm they should refer the matter to the next level of management. In this instance, the Head of Arts, Entertainment and Comedy reviewed the segment and did not refer it up. This was an error of judgement.”

ABC TV’s executive head of content creation, Courtney Gibson, will now take direct responsibility for comedy programs until a new head of comedy is appointed, the ABC said.

June 10th, 2009 at 6:41 pm

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Comments


  1. David Jackmanson
    10 Jun 09
    6:51 pm

    2. It’s not just her title that she’s lost. She’s had part of her job taken away.

    This bureaucratic, fearful reaction shows how badly we need to have alternatives other than the ABC. Why not give the people who were offended by the sketch 30 minutes of airtime to say why they think the Chaser boys are arseholes instead of this gutlessness?

  2. Jono
    10 Jun 09
    6:57 pm

    3. Only at the ABC could you get fired and still keep (most of) your job.

    Let’s hope there are no judgement calls to be made in arts or entertainment then.

  3. John Allsopp
    10 Jun 09
    7:14 pm

    4. Jeeesus,

    how much fuss about a joke in poor taste. There are plenty of genuine things in the world that need fixing.

    The whole saga has been pathetic.

  4. Anonymous
    10 Jun 09
    8:38 pm

    5. There is a big difference between losing your job and changing to the title on your business cards.

  5. Dan
    11 Jun 09
    10:03 am

    6. Good on The Chaser boys for pushing the boundaries and keeping Aussie TV interesting.

  6. Peter Bray
    11 Jun 09
    10:11 am

    7. John

    The issue is the impact that the “joke” has on kids that would have used Make A Wish. The problem is that now many kids may second guess themselves when it comes to making a request.

    It is an important issue. Sensationalised yes, but if the issue had been ignored and the ABC had not been held accountable, that would have been far worse.

  7. Matt
    11 Jun 09
    10:49 am

    8. There’s an interesting debate about this happening on the ABC’s news page at the moment:

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/sto.....594729.htm

    Some of the interesting points being made:

    * There are quite a number of people saying that even if the skit was a mistake, Duthie doesn’t deserve to lose even part of her job for making a single mistake. Vetting the Chaser is obviously a difficult job.

    * What does this mean for other ABC managers who make a single mistake?

    * Why did Media Watch decide to go after the middle manager who made the judgment call on this program, when the Chaser team and Mark Scott had already claimed responsibility for the show going to air?

  8. mumbrella
    11 Jun 09
    11:15 am

    9. Hi Matt,

    Thanks for your comment, and for the link.

    I’m not sure I agree with the “single mistake” argument.

    The senior management of the ABC aren’t being paid for the days when everythng is going smoothly, but to occasionally make a critical judgement call.

    Just like ariline pilots or surgeons (although it’s not life or death), they earn their money on making the right decision when the crucial moment arises.

    We still don’t know the whole story. Pesonally, I’d love to know whether letting it through was a finely weighted debate (I’m guessing not, as it wasn’t referred upwards) or something more casual. But I’m assuming that the ABC will share its findings at some point.

    This demotion looks somewhat cosmetic. With the exception of The Chaser, as far as I can see the ABC currently has no locally-produced comedy output in its peak schedule (I assume Spicks & Specks counts as Entertainment).

    Cheers,

    Tim – Mumbrella

  9. marc
    11 Jun 09
    11:34 am

    10. hi mumbrella, Locally-produced comedy also includes Lawrence Leung, Summer Heights High, Review with Myles Barlow, etc etc and other projects over the next year… Its not quite as cosmetic as you imply.

  10. Matt
    11 Jun 09
    11:52 am

    11. Thanks for your reply Mumbrella.

    I’m not sure I see the correspondence between surgeons, airline pilots and ABC middle managers. Let’s face it, no-one died as a result of that Chaser skit going to air!

    But it’s true that ABC management needs to be there to make a critical judgment call. The assumption I’m making is that somewhere over the past few series of the Chaser, Amanda has made that judgment call. Surely the Chaser have tried to push the boundaries too far before, yet there’s never been an outcry like this one. That suggests to me that Amanda Duthie would have made a number of critical calls before now.

    In fact, given the nature of the Chaser, she was probably making them every week, yet this is the only time one of their skits has blown up in her face.

    Also, it’s difficult to understand how she could be expected to know that skit would prove too controversial when, as Media Watch itself showed, similar skits have played out on Australian TV before, with barely a raised eyebrow.

    The ABC has been pushing the boundaries with its comedy in recent years, and I can only assume that Amanda Duthie has played an important role in nurturing the Chaser, Chris Lilley etc (in fact, I’m pretty sure I recall reading an article or two saying how crucial Amanda has been in nurturing talent like Chris Lilley). Surely her good judgment over that period counts for something in terms of counteracting “one mistake”, as I put it.

  11. Matt Moore
    11 Jun 09
    12:13 pm

    12. Just like ariline pilots or surgeons (although it’s not life or death), they earn their money on making the right decision when the crucial moment arises.

    I’m not sure that this analogy is helpful. We do not ask our airline pilots to be innovative – we ask them to be reliable. Keep your fancy new moves for practicing in a simulator. However we (alright, I) want the ABC to be innovative as well as reliable. That entails making mistakes. I think a KPI for a Head of Dept @ the ABC should be a minimum number of complaints per programme. If some people aren’t offended then you aren’t trying hard enough.

    Regarding the Chaser, I thought the sketch wasn’t that offensive but I’ve been reallydisappointed by many of the sketches this season. Would the outcry have been so loud or the punishment have been so harsh if the rest of the sketches were delivering in the laughs dept?

  12. Matt
    11 Jun 09
    12:29 pm

    13. Thanks Matt Moore… said it (much) better than I managed to with regard to the airline pilots and surgeons.

    I agree the Chaser hasn’t been as funny this year. It’s a difficult gig to sustain, especially now that they’re so well recognised on the street. They simply can’t keep doing what worked in earlier seasons because they couldn’t get away with it today.

    Although I strongly disagree with the decision to dump Duthie (although, as Mumbrella points out, we don’t know exactly what happened), I also find myself agreeing at least partly when reading the contribution from “Jack Robertson” at the end of this Crikey story.

    http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/.....edy-chief/

  13. mumbrella
    11 Jun 09
    1:31 pm

    14. Hi Matt & Matt.
    (Good link to the Crikey commenter by the way).

    I’m not sure we are talking about a single misjudgement. There was at least one sketch in that night’s effort that could also have created offense.

    And more so the previous week, which featured the lynching of a black woman. Like the dying kids sketch, it went far further than it needed to in order to make the joke, such that it was.

    But on my other point, which I didn’t make particularly well, is that you get people in certain roles who put in a huge number of flying hours where nothing much happens, so that they are equipped when thecritical moment arises. At that point they’re either up to it or they aren’t.

    Cheers,

    Tim – Mumbrella

  14. Matt
    11 Jun 09
    2:26 pm

    15. Tim,

    I’m sure there are some ABC managers who’ve put in a lot of ‘flying hours’, as you put it, but Amanda Duthie doesn’t strike me as one of them.

    She’s widely credited as being jointly responsible for commissioning and helping to foster some of the highest rating television on the ABC in recent years, as well as making jtv a reality.

    I don’t know her by the way, but do recall reading a profile of her and Courtney Gibson in the Australian not so long ago. In fact, I just Googled it. Go check out the story; it might help put your ‘flying hours’ theory to bed.

    http://www.theaustralian.news......94,00.html

  15. Matt Moore
    11 Jun 09
    4:33 pm

    16. And more so the previous week, which featured the lynching of a black woman. Like the dying kids sketch, it went far further than it needed to in order to make the joke, such that it was. Yeah, it wasn’t particularly funny, was it? A sick laugh to try to spice up a lame “pink Klan” gag.

    I was actually wandering round ABC HQ this lunchtime (mumbling into a meths bottle & dodging the security guards) and who should spring out of the lift but The Chaser crew with a camera gang behind them so they’re still at it. But to be honest I wish they weren’t. I really want them to go down the Chris Morris route (ever more surreal, ever more offensive) but that would mean ditching ABC prime time & losing the majority of their fanbase who see them as “cheekily satirical funsters”.

    Their current output is really a coded cry for help. A desperate plea to be put out of their light entertainment misery. Do it, ABC, pull the plug.

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