Radio being ‘demonised’, ACMA’s empty cash for comment hearing is told
An audience of just 13 people showed up for today’s public consultation on cash for comment in commercial radio.
Those who attended the 160+ capacity venue were asked by staff to move to the front of the room “to give the illusion” that there were more people present.
The hearing at Sydney Museum was called by the Australian Communications and Media Authority as part of its review of the current regulations for how radio presenters disclose their commercial affiliations to listeners.
The review has been running for several months. Last year Fairfax’s 2UE was fined $360,000 for failing to properly disclose arranagements with sponsors of John Laws’ show. And it comes more than a decade after the ABC’s Media Watch broke the original cash for comment scandal which also featured Laws, along with Alan Jones.
How many more times can John Laws and Alan Jones behave in this corrupt and disgraceful way and still stay on the air?
It is pathetic. The people that hire them are pathetic, the people that listen to them are pathetic. The people that defend them are pathetic. Those two ageing corrupt old “personalities” are pathetic.
And it wasn’t “ten years ago”, Gawen Rudder: Laws was found guilty again in 2004, and again – as we see in this article – in 2009.
Pathetic.
And just how much cash did this cost ACMA to put on? The public has spoken, care factor is zero. This is all about acma looking for something to do and trying to justify their existence. Time for them to get out of the way.
The forum was webcast. For those who want to make their own call on the issue –and assess for them selves the value of this type of forum as a means of opening up the process of consultation to a wider group– you can watch the forum here:
http://webcast.viostream.com/?.....50b85f934e
Thanks for that link, Tom.
Do you have info you can share on how many people watched the webcast?
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Bring it to Brisbane, I might be one of the 13 attendees next time. Then again, I could have a dentist appointment that day.
“It is pathetic. The people that hire them are pathetic, the people that listen to them are pathetic. The people that defend them are pathetic. Those two ageing corrupt old “personalities” are pathetic.”
What’s also pathetic is the number of items PR agencies lob the ABC and that they willingly put to air. I’ve been told by ad people, can get you covered on the commercials and we’ll use PR to ‘get into’ the ABC.
None is better than the other and I put forward the ABC is worse since it is supposed to be adhering to its Ed Pol, whatever benefit that does bring.
Finally, John Laws retired in 2007, no longer employed and Jones was admonished only during the initial investigation.
Dear anon1 (whoever you are): Given that the ‘cash for comment’ issues occurred in the year 2000, would not ‘ten years ago’ be a reasonable arithmetic summation?