Many years ago, an acquaintance of mine opined that the reality program, Survivor, was the best television show ever made. I didn’t share her excitement and replied, “I saw a man walk on the moon on television. I thought that was pretty good.”
Needless to say we are no longer on speaking terms but it’s reasonable to conclude that what occurred on Sentosa Island Singapore yesterday lies somewhere between the two.
While my memory of Neil Armstrong placing his right foot on the Sea of Tranquillity may be a little hazy, I distinctly recall the coverage of what remains the most outstanding event in human history, was not appended by almost endless commentary and addle-headed speculation from journos and other so-called experts.
The reporting of momentous events has changed considerably, and I think for the worse.
Yesterday I spent the day watching the coverage of the summit on Sky News and a range of US cable news channels on my iPad while ABC 24 was on the television in the background. The ABC’s dedicated news channel was hard pressed. During the many long moments of waiting for anything of any significance to occur, news presenters various sought comment from reporters on the ground in Sydney, Singapore or Seoul.
The fact is the reporters knew almost as little about what was happening than I did. They were forced to stretch as they say in the biz, waffling on about what may or may not be happening and how an outcome they could not possibly know might affect the world in the short and long terms.
It was filler, plain and simple. Most of it worthless commentary or pointless speculation.
The US and North Korean delegations were behind closed doors. The photo-op of President Trump and Chairman Kim shaking hands for the first time had come and gone. Cameras rolled revealing a closed door where Trump and Kim would emerge eventually. They were late as the subjects of press conferences or photo ops often are, leading to even more panicked cutaways to more reporters adding their eight cents’ worth.
For once I would like to see a reporter under questioning from a news presenter offer the succinct three-word reply, “I don’t know.” It might not make for great television but at least it would be honest. The reporters did not know. Not one reporter, commentator or talking head present in Singapore or indeed anywhere else in the world, did. They did not know what had been agreed to by the two delegations or indeed if anything had been.
Even after the two leaders had signed a memorandum of understanding, no one was quite sure what they had signed up to. On ABC 24, the questions put to reporters were of the tedious “Is it good that Trump and Kim have met?” variety. The answers from the reporters on the ground invariably were yes with a but or no with an if, often played over the top of a lot of file footage of missiles being launched, possibly from North Korea but they could have been from anywhere.
Is it good that Trump and Kim have met? Unequivocally yes. The fact that the two nations were on the verge of a nuclear exchange just three months ago and now the two leaders were shaking hands and generally glad handing each other is very good news. It takes the temperature out of arguably the world’s most dangerous hot spot at least in the short term. Beyond that, who knows?
See, I could have answered that question and many others like it promptly and I was four and a half thousand kilometres away at the time.
When something unusual did happen, it was overlooked. After Trump and Kim did finally emerge for the signing ceremony photo-op, a North Korean guard wearing rubber gloves stepped forward to examine Chairman Kim’s pen, presumably to determine if it was some lethal CIA gimmickry, some ghastly tool of assassination. Satisfied it was merely a harmless writing implement, he placed it back on the table and Kim commenced scribbling his ornate autograph.
This was barely discernible on ABC 24 where the camera operator had opted for tight shots on the two leaders but elsewhere it was more obvious. It raised the question, were the North Koreans so paranoid they thought their supreme leader could be knocked off by a poison pen while the rest of the world looked on?
Call me old fashioned but I pine for the days when a network would cut from regular programming to a major news event and then once reported, the scheduled program would resume. I noticed SBS did this yesterday. They ran some old repeats of Nigella Lawson whipping up some scrumptious offerings in the kitchen and interrupted only when something important was happening in Singapore.
But ABC 24 can’t do this. During quiet moments the channel can and does revert to other news which essentially is news that is four hours old or older and therefore not news. The same could be said for scheduled bulletins elsewhere on the ABC like the corporation’s flagship 7.00pm bulletin.
If you spent the afternoon watching ABC 24 as I did yesterday (albeit with a bit of bored flipping to a bit of Nigella on SBS) by the time the seven o’clock bulletin came on, you’d have already seen everything, even some of the lightweight magazine guff that runs between the sport and weather that we in the news caper like to refer to as “cat that does the ironing” segments.
Do yourself a favour and examine the lag between television reporting of an event and what appears through trusted news sites on the web like this one. You’ll find what comes up on the web is at least an hour faster. Worse, once that news is reported on television, it will be reheated and rehashed, almost always without revision sometimes for a day or more.
While the debate rages over the diplomatic and geopolitical consequences of the summit, one question was answered: television news is often not news at all.
Pies into the top four, doing it harder than I hoped against the Blues. Other Blues take the origin series the hard way, botching it every time they got an opportunity to make some significant ground. A difficult day to be a fan but we got there!
The Pies yet to play Sydney or the Weagles (who are dipping). Top eight beckons, top four not so sure.
Used to enjoy a pie
The humble pie up my way has hit $5 and over in some places!
Something I am told they make for 35c a pie
Are wages for staff THAT expensive?
Milton says:
JUNE 24, 2018 AT 2:39
YOU SAY:-” It was Keating that introduced mandatory detention”.
Maybe, Labor has never politicized refugees, used them as election fodder and linked refugees with ‘national security’ to scare old ladies. Labor has never denied refugees medical attention; demonised them and accused them of having the most terrible diseases and even trying to kill their own children by throwing them into the sea; denied us any knowledge of the processes clouding the whole refugee issue in secrecy and using the ‘national security’ lie as an excuse; sent them to distant islands for 6yrs; lied consistently calling them “illegals” and separated genuine refugees from their families. Trump summed it up when he said to Turnbull “You are worse than me” regarding the treatment of refugees and wanted to know what they had done wrong to be banished to the islands for years when they were genuine refugees who had committed no crime. A wonderful endorsement the Liberals must be proud of. One thing…how many more elections are the Liberals going to make hapless refugees the focus of their campaigns? How much longer can they milk this? Al of this was unheard of until Howard found the bottom of the barrel and those after him latched onto it like a dog with a bone. Never about boats…only votes and racism.
A long awaited win to the Blewz 18-14 with only 12 men!! Toads played great. Could have been anybody’s game Bald.
Collingwood in the top four The Blues giants knock knock knockin on the cellar door. Buckley might get another extension before the year is out. Crazy season. Adelaide look gornnn. They have to play mostly top eight sides on their run home. something is wrong at the Crows. Any team that has and McKay and Gibson playing in front of about half a dozen young guys who have done well each time they have played will never win a premiership. Sydney ? You never know.
Had an interesting chat with someone who has some insight into Adelaide last night. problems for sure.