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.
This morning’s hearing featured a panel of nine chaired by broadcaster Philip Clark.
Occasional Gruen Transfer guest Jane Caro argued against presenters having to flag their affiliations every time they mention a sponsor, so long as it is worked into every show. She said: “Disclosure at the beginning and the end works for me.”
And Angela Clark, the former CEO of the Macquarie Radio Network which owns talk station 2GB, warned that radio faces being more regulated than other media. She asked why radio was under a particular spotlight.
Gawen Rudder of The Communications Council – which represents agencies – told the hearing: “They are uncecessarily complicating what should be a simple issue by demonising radio for something that happened ten years ago.”
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.
User ID not verified.
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.
User ID not verified.
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
User ID not verified.
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.
User ID not verified.
“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.
User ID not verified.
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?
User ID not verified.