What newsreaders really think about Novax Djokovic
Dr Mumbo yearns for the day when there is honesty again in news reading.
Clive Robertson nailed it in the 90s.
Robbo
In conversation with ABC Talking Heads about Robbo’s World Tonight, Robbo said:
I thought I’ll muck around and then they’ll take me off it, you see. And it didn’t work that way … I’d have to say the order of things especially at Channel 9, the order of news items. And if I said, “Look, this is really important”, I’d look at the camera and say, “This is a really important story” and set it up, and if it was an important story, then the audience think, “Oh this guy’s a good filter.” If you said, “Look, this is a silly item, I don’t know why we’re running it” and you run it and it is a silly item, you’ve got them. And it’s not a con. What that program did is different from most news programs is gave things what they really were worth … and did that go down well with the journalists? Have a guess Peter. “He’s ruining our station” and all that rubbish. I mean, we get a new item in at, say, 10.30 at night and I’d say, “By the way, you’ll see this at 6 o’clock tomorrow night” and they’ll say it’s the latest, “you know better”. “You can’t say things like that.” Well, you know, come on, so journalists are a bit thick as you know…
So it was refreshing for Dr Mumbo to witness an albeit background/off-the-record exchange [which turned out to be on-the-record, and what viewers wanted] between one of Australia’s most trusted and experienced correspondents with more than 30 international journalism awards – Seven’s Mike Amor and Rebecca Maddern.
Their robust discussion over Novak Djokovic has since gone viral, and Dr Mumbo for one applauds this new approach to news reading as we venture into the metaverse.
[Warning: locker room talk and fruity language]
