When the news hots up, commercial TV falls apart
It was a night where few people in commercial television covered themselves in glory.
Dr Mumbo refers of course to the small matter of the leadership spill.
Gold medal for the most disastrous coverage goes to Today Tonight and presenter Helen Kapalos.
She experienced every news presenter’s worst nightmare. No autocue, no script, and no idea where to go to next.
For an excruciating minute and a half she floundered:
“Obviously it’s firming up that Kevin Rudd obviously is getting the numbers with the support of Bill Shorten.” Obviously.
But at least she was kind of making sense at that point. But then:
“The same opinion.. and we’ll have to move on to our next story now… but all very interesting down in Canberra. Of course we’ll continue to bring you continuing coverage throughout the evening on our news but now we’ll also be crossing to our viewer poll shortly.”
At which point the viewer poll vanished from the screen.
Like a weak swimmer caught in a rip, Kapalos reached out for a lifebelt. Which in Today Tonight’s case is, of course, stories about Muslims.
“Now to a Muslim who was on his way to becoming a radical…”
At which point it began to get really agonising, as Kapalos peered down at her script, and appeared to find nothing more about her radical Muslim, no matter how desperately she shuffled through the paper in front of her.
Dr Mumbo would pay good money to know what was going on in the control room by this point.
‘I’m sorry, we’ll have to go to something else there. But it is all happening in Canberra as we can see,” floundered Kapalos who couldn’t really.
But good news. The Muslim was back on the agenda.
“Now to a Muslim who was on his way to becoming…”
Nope.
“I apologise for this. Okay. Now. We are heading to another story.”
There then followed nearly ten seconds of close-to-coherent speech.
“And just to quickly if you have switched on I’ll give you a quick summary. Bill Shorten has thrown his support behind Kevin Rudd. It seems the numbers are firming up for Kevin Rudd this evening in the leadership ballot, who is most likely to become our next PM before the election.”
“In fact that could result in an early election. We’ll bring you continuing coverage throughout our news this evening. Now something a bit different…”
If it’s any comfort to Kapalos, only 993,000 viewers watched her on-screen death.
With the end of Today Tonight much speculated about, Dr Mumbo wonders if he just watched its death knell.
Meanwhile, silver went to Nine for abandoning its coverage before the result was announced in favour of the build up to State of Origin. Viewers wanting to hear about Rudd’s ascension had to switch to GEM. If they had an HD set top box in order to do so.
And bronze went to Ten. For an odd reason, although it labelled its pictures of the leadership announcement as live, they were an a time delay of about 90 seconds compared to the other channels.
Happily for the ABC, it stayed out of medal contention for the biggest leadership howler. Although Leigh Sales’ promise to avoid speculation and stick with the facts was somewhat undermined by the graphics on the screen with her speculating that Kevin Rudd was about to become Prime Minister.
Still, Sky News were good.
A big hand for Australian journalism, ladies and gentlemen…
I thought they always had a “Bad Neighbor”, or “Dirty Shopping Trolley” cued and ready to play in case of emergencies.
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No great fan of SKY, but they nailed it. Top marks.
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Sky was just a hot mess of right wing nutbags. ABC News did a terrific job, calm, intelligent and on point.
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I know Channel 9 has been copping flack for crossing to the State of Origin, but my (admittedly limited) understanding of the anti-siphoning laws suggests they had to show it live. They couldn’t put it on a delay, and they certainly wouldn’t risk cutting back in midway through the game.
Seems like a logical decision to me, especially since EVERY other channel was already providing the same set of info.
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I thought Sky were terrific although i couldn’t cop Paul Murray.
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ABC News 24 – Hacks interviewing hacks interviewing hacks
Suffered a family revolt and was banished to secondary tellies so the kids could watch torrents.
Spongebob won the count apparently.
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Also, Leigh Sales bit about speculation was aimed directly at Sky, who were “reporting” that Rudd had won, even though the ABC cameras clearly showed that the corridor was empty and noone had left the caucus room. Not so good, Sky.
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Doesn’t take much to be a TV presenter nowadays obviously
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sad thing is its always the host who is left to push through the mess caused by other people. pretty obvious there was someone barking orders through an earpiece and no auto cue available. cut helen some slack she’s human and i think she did a great job pushing through it.
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Not even a radical muslim story could save TT. Where do they go now?
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The live crosses on Channel 10 were horrific too – one of the journalists relied on the word ‘um’ so heavily that I’m not sure much of the rest of her message was conveyed.
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Channel Nine’s coverage was very good and the ratings vindicate its (legally required) decision to switch to State of Origin. I now Mumbrella often struggles with reporting sport stories, but it should know that State of Origin is far more important in Australia’s first and third biggest states than who the prime minister is.
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I always get confused – it’s so difficult to tell Sky News from Fox News….
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Leigh Sales was brilliant!
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Yes, I’m sure Media Watch will make great use of the ABC’s big “Rudd PM” graphic and picture of the then-backbencher, accompanied by Leigh Sales assuring viewers they wouldn’t be speculating. It was delightfully juxtaposed.
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Channel 9 made the correct decision to cross to State of Origin. After all, no one is bigger than the game! Not even Kevin Rudd!
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Sky News nailed it. As per usual.
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What a great anchor Leigh Sails was and that chat with the brilliant Annabelle Crabb is what the ABC is good at. It was conversation with direction and substance NOT reliant on autocues. I loved it.
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*gasp* you mean TT is all staged? How will I find my quality, up to date current affairs of the bogan ville?
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And what about the 24 meltdown on Tony Jones – kept cutting in and out of speeches and then abandoned him completely to move on to regular programming. Shots of Tony Jones sipping water and frowning between coverage was gold. Truly entertaining television viewing last night – politics et al.
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Leigh Sales was great, until Tony Jones’ program came on and all hell broke loose. Microphone sound testing, images half cut off, Albanese’s speech cut mid-way…
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Sky News was outstanding as per usual, a range of opinions and people who know their shit.
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It was all happening on social media…immediate, brief and to-the-point commentary, announcements and amusing opinions. Excellent viewing of, and access to, instant public opinion. Who needs TV news?
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Australia – a place where rugby league has legislation to make sure it is played on FTA, but the country’s leadership battle can be relegated to any old digital channel.
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Lucky the 3 inches of makeup contains a red face
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Was on SBS from 6.30pm until 7.pm, then switched to the ABC, where I stayed until the end of Lateline. GREAT COVERAGE from everybody, but particularly from Leigh and Annabelle who held it all together while we were waiting for results and the odd appearing poli, commentator, whatever. Thank goodness for the ABC and its AAA journalists. The high point, Julia Gillard’s departure speech, dignified, pointed, and well delivered.
David Hannay
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Leigh Sales was outstanding especially considering the circumstances – particularly when Rudd showed up 30 mins late to his presser and ABC doesn’t have the luxury of cutting to commercial to give the host some respite.
I hope they give her a night off tonight as she basically had 3.5 hours non stop on camera in what would have been a very intense environment. Well done Leigh you are a treasure.
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Imagine of the hordes or rabid Queensland boguns didnt get to see the game, because of Juliar and Krudd. There would be a revolution
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I watched pre recorded Borgen. Danish politics beats Aussie hands down, and the girl who interviews the politicians on their TT show is very pretty. Suffice to say the female Danish PrimeMinister doing a great job with a small minority….but get this her marriage is falling apart…..
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My facebook feed was full of people from both sides of the border livid with the coverage cutting into the build up for State of Origin. And rightly so.
Some of us weren’t interested in either the ballgame or the political game and had to resort to recordings on our T-Box. This obsession with everybody showing the same thing at the same time has to stop. Some of us just want to ignore it in real time and deal with it when we can manage the content ourselves.
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Credit to Annabelle Crabb who was most impressive on the ABC, she appeared across all of the issues and was able to talk for lengthy periods without fumbling and repeating.
Quite possibly one of Australia’s premier Journo’s
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Hang on: you’re saying commercial TV falls apart when the news hots up?
The reality is that Australian commecial TV is only barely holding it together at al.
Anyone with half a brain (OK, so that leaves about hald of the population still watching) who spends even an hour flipping the remote between the free-to-air channels can sense TOTAL PANIC across all the commercials networks.
The people pouring this river of shit onto the flickering screens have no idea what to do to stop the stampede away from what used to be called mass media.
The default position of Australian commecial TV is fall-apart!
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