8 September 2008

The Capital Territory... more like Zimbabwe

| tabascoted
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After the post about the blood letting at WinTV I realized just how crap, the media that we have in Canberra really is! This really shows that The RiotAct is the only independent news in town.

Just look at the whole picture.

  • WinTV (our only hope) now under the ALP thumb, Zimbabwe style.
  • Canberra Times run by Ex-ALP staffers, and the only decent reporter that was showing up the Stanhope government for the rot they are was Megan Doughty and apparently she is getting lent on by the ALP heavies and is taking a ‘break’ for a while.
  • ABC Local News – no where to be seen I have been at lots of these election gigs and I have never seen them. We all know that the ABC has plenty of lefties in it but they should at least be out and about not just running every media release that the Government put out.
  • Prime TV news and ‘capital’ (cough) 10 News don’t care unless someone gets murdered
  • And Jorian from the (Sh)cityNews (not that many people actually read it) is the #1 fan and national president of the “We love Jon Stanhope Fan club”.

With the crap that the Stanhope Government has done in the past 4 years makes NSW look like a functional open democracy. What are we to do?

UPDATE: [ED – I have it on good authority that Megan Doherty is on leave rather than having been silenced.]

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Canberra media IS a JOKE!!!

But rather than blaming Stanhope and his cronies for getting someone sacked how about we take a look at the spinelessness displayed by management at WIN.

Support your staff and the integrity of your organisation or take the easy option, cave in the face of adversity and sack them?

I remember when journos would be supported by their managers even when faced with jailtime for not revealing sources, was it that long ago?

However, I think people who work in the media nowdays are naive in thinking that they are going to keep their jobs for an extended period of time in whatever organisation they’re a part of. Escpecially when you see how fickel the general public is.

Peterh – I just don’t agree that changing the Government will change the media, injecting some money into the media, spending up on journalists with integrity, and making Canberra the training ground it once was for aspiring journos is a good start.

Ged – Jessica might be boring to you but I think she does an okay job personally and certainly isn’t the worst newsreader in the history of the world. I think it takes a lot of guts to put yourself in the faces of thousands of people everyday and talk. I’d be interested to hear what newsreading experience you have to justify your points and perhaps put me in my place.

I think the best way to lend a bit more integrity to the news would be to have the rival stations start up their bulletins again, if they are competing the bar will be raised.

But seriously, how much stuff happens in Canberra that would warrant filling a half-hour news bulletin without putting us to sleep? Unless Jonhboy wants to do an investigative report on the quality of the muzak in car-parks… :o)

Eyeball In A Quart Jar Of Snot12:59 am 09 Sep 08

You think things are bad now?

Just wait until Zed Seselja begins rounding up the ‘non-believers’ and placing them in concentration camps…….

pure_blonde said :

Prime and Southern Cross have to be the biggest joke of a news service..

This culture of shithouse broadcasting extends to SC10’s inability to broadcast the TenHD channel because they don’t have the technology to broadcast two channels at once. This means we miss out on (amongst a great many other program) Live Formula 1 races and Qualifying!

I do acknowledge that 9/10 people couldn’t give a rats about F1 but anyway

I do think its interesting that every place in town including Prime and Southern Cross made the wrap of news places in Canberra but yet 2CC/2CA don’t even make a mention…

I did notice crikey mention 2CC and I have to agree, they seem to cover a lot of the ACT News, even some of the shitty stuff… But their political coverage seems to be pretty good.

Prime and Southern Cross have to be the biggest joke of a news service.. they do the bare minimum, I would barely call it news, let alone credible.

ACT newws used to be much better when all comercial channels had a proper 30 minute news bulletin, and the Canberra Times was a proper newspaper.

It is generally just under-resourced, rather than in people’s pockets I think (the WIN thing aside, which is dreadful).

and why should WIN bother trying too hard, when they are the only local news option on telly. I don’t count ABC – they are too elitist to cover anything but major stories – it is like world news with a cute Canberra story to close.

Deadmandrinking5:43 pm 08 Sep 08

G-Fresh said :

“We all know that the ABC has plenty of lefties in it”

We sure do tabascoted. My suspicion is that its easier to be a headline grabbing sensationalist manipulative arsehole if you have left wing views than if you’re at all rational and more centred in your opinions.

Today Tonight, A Current Affair. Wait, that might be crazy right-wing.

I actually thought CityNews had right-wing bias, but then again, I never really read the piece of sh*t.

But yes, it’s always the liberal media’s fault.

‘Reality has a known liberal bias’ – Stephen Colbert

* …I only meant that… *

Aaaaah, I only that meant comparing the Hermits to the ACT was unreasonably harsh and insensitive.

Maybe the fake Hermits should be compared to Zimbabwe, but the ACT certainly shouldn’t be.

DarkLadyWolfMother said :

Do we need to come up with a new version of Godwin’s Law now?

Fair point, DWM. It may need some tweaking. (I had to look it up, mind.)

Granny, how DARE you equate the flippant nature of this issue with the atrocities and horror that are ‘Hermangate’.

Ged said :

…it’s funny how so many of you subscribers seem to be commenting on stories in every forum!

Someone let me in on the joke… I need a chuckle.

DarkLadyWolfMother4:15 pm 08 Sep 08

Do we need to come up with a new version of Godwin’s Law now?

… and in promulgating the infamous ‘Hermangate’ affair.

It doesn’t matter what side of politics that you support the lack of media scrutiny and accountability in Canberra is a major concern.

The fact that a Government (Stanhope) can ‘lean’ on the media is a fundamental breach of democracy.

Queanbeyan City Council (under Mayor Pangallo) used to do the same by threatening to pull council advertising.

2CC seems to not have lost their balls in covering ACT politics.

“We all know that the ABC has plenty of lefties in it”

We sure do tabascoted. My suspicion is that its easier to be a headline grabbing sensationalist manipulative arsehole if you have left wing views than if you’re at all rational and more centred in your opinions.

I am only new to this system, but it’s funny how so many of you subscribers seem to be commenting on stories in every forum! As well as on my blog about Herman’s Phoney “Hermanless” Hermits.

Seriously, I agree that the local media, especially commercial TV news is dismal — as if we are not in the national capital, but merely an outlying province. When I came to Canberra in 1992, it wasn’t so bad. You had three competing commercial TV news programmes on Capital, Prime and WIN, with particularly good presenters like Greg Robson, Mal Grieve, Ken Begg, Melissa Doyle and Jessica Rowe, amongst others.

Of course, there has always been excellent local news on ABC-TV.

But then the whole system was castrated, leaving only a full bulletin on WIN-TV to represent commercial TV news, with the ever-bland Peter Leonard. He was replaced some time ago by Jessica Good, a person I consider to be the worst TV news presenter in the history of the world. Am I being cruel here?

Jessica is probably a very nice person, but as a newsreader she comes across as an expressionless, animatronic “reader” in the literal sense. Only that perpetual vacuous half-smile gives away the fact that she is alive, together with a turn of the head, when she’s finished talking down to the viewers in that kindergarten-teacher tone, to let Phill Small present the sporting.

I always thought news presenters were selected because they had some authority, believability and a presence — like Virginia Hausegesser, or Sandra Sully, or Chris Bath, to name a few. These ladies also have an on-screen PERSONALITY.

Really, is it only me, or do others feel the same way about our only full-time commercial TV news presenter?

Yep. Nothing like a bit of ostrich on your sanger to give you that bit of extra vim for ducking and weaving through a riot ….

The major problem with your thesis, as I see it, is this: wasn’t it actually the Canberra Times that broke the “WinTV is owned by the government” yarn?

south africa is better, though.

nothing like Boerewors or Biltong. Actually, Boerewors is perfect for the BBQ – surprised that it wasn’t taken up here…..

spiral sausages – who’d of thunk?

Granny said :

… meerkats and warthogs, even!

meerkats??

I am so there!

shame about the bloodshed and rioting (in a bad way) but meerkats are all good.

I (a lib) agree with tom-tom (AlP) on this matter. There’s not lefty ‘bias’ in the media, they are just giving the people what they want (or attempting to).

Our media is inept, not biased. They don’t have the competence to conspire against the poor widdle liberals.

you do realise all these agencies, except for the abc, are trying to turn a profit right? Its in their interest to run stories that their viewers are interested in, perhaps a percieved bias reflects more on what the audience wants to see, for instance instead of seeing pro alp bias in the ct I tend to see that the average ct reader isn’t interested in hearing about how horrible stanhope is.

But yeah I think local media are pathetic embarrassingly inept but not biased.

Zebras and some inspiring tribal music as well.

… and a crap cricket team.

… meerkats and warthogs, even!

Surely if this was Zimbabwe, there’d be more black people??

johnboy said :

People didn’t just wake up one morning and find they were living in what we now think of as Zimbabwe.

Subversion of the media to the point it never says anything that might offend anyone important is one of the early steps along the way.

the only way to ensure that the free speech of each canberran is heard is to listen.

we are far more free than zimbabwe – at least they don’t shoot you here for saying the wrong thing, being a part of the wrong party, or the wrong racial background.

they just heckle you to death on forums.

People didn’t just wake up one morning and find they were living in what we now think of as Zimbabwe.

Subversion of the media to the point it never says anything that might offend anyone important is one of the early steps along the way.

Submitter should venture outside ACT to see how bad things can get.

Should also watch out for rogue, commas.

What are we to do?

Get a sense of perspective?

amarooresident1:09 pm 08 Sep 08

You give the power of stanhope too much credit. And frankly comparing it to Zimbabwe is just offensive.

What are we to do? God only knows. For the end seems nigh if you are to be believed.

I’m not sure that the media is any worse here now than it is was in some idealized pre-Stanhopeian era. Certainly it seems no worse than the media in NSW, or anywhere else in Australia for that matter.

want to change the media?

change the government.

Duke said :

As rotten as Stanhope may seem to some he is not murdering and torturing his opponents

That’s what they want you to think.

More like Zimbabwe? Your fondness for hyperbole does your cause no good. As rotten as Stanhope may seem to some he is not murdering and torturing his opponents nor is there any proof (yet) that he is responsible for the sackings/discipline over at WIN.

I think it’s in rather poor taste to compare the horrors of Zimbabwe to the comparitively fair system of democracy we enjoy in Canberra.

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