Humble servant of the Nation

TV news ain’t news.

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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.

555 Comments

  • Carl on the Coast says:

    A loaf of unsliced bread would potentially have reason to get mad more often than a snake.

  • jack says:

    meanwhile, the EU blunders on,

    Niall Ferguson,

    “Increasingly, I believe that the issue of migration will be seen by future historians as the fatal solvent of the EU………..

    I used to be sceptical of the argument that Brexit was about leaving a sinking ship. I am now reassessing my view. “

    • Milton says:

      it’s not the race, it’s the religion. Secularism is the heart of the matter and the main reason people are fleeing towards it in droves, not to mention the free room and knackwurst. Rather than have them living on benefits Merkel could train them up to reclaim their country??? Or better still, Merkel should get in touch with reality and live amongst the people. Be it refugee camps or elsewhere to prove the recent diaspora could be contained within the middle east. The oil rich Muslim nations are surely in a position financially to provide succour to the needy. I suggest the EU, like the eastern Europeans, grow a pair and tell the Muslims to get their house in order and stop inviting the ghettoization of a new Europe.

      s

    • Jean Baptiste says:

      Yeah well, Niall old boy, you’d better assess the life boat too.
      They’ve been known to go down before the ship. And sometimes when the ship doesn’t sink, the crew reboard it from the lifeboat with egg on the face.

  • Henry Blofeld says:

    We may have to do a whip around of your Bloggers, Mr Insider, as Federal Liberal senator Lucy Gichuhi caught out saying $200,000 per year not enough to live on! “Not a lot of Money” she whines! Strewth
    https://tinyurl.com/ybuhtb98

  • Milton says:

    Due to the high elevation of Mexico city it would seem unlikely (I imagine) for those who got through their group stage in US and Canada would compete at the next stage in Mexico city. If so I would imagine those who advanced from their would have some sort of advantage as they could be acclimatised.

    Good win for the Mexicans last night, the German’s couldn’t break them down. Looking forward to the England/Belgium game.

    • Jean Baptiste says:

      Unlikely, I imagine, some sort of, could be.

      You are probably right, or maybe not.

    • Dwight says:

      Interesting observation. I would guess a lot of teams will be practicing at high altitude–and the Bolivians would have an advantage.

    • Henry Donald J Blofeld says:

      I can’t wait till tomorrow, Milton, when that super team Russia plays Egypt. If Vlad is in the audience expect a big scoring win from Russia. Vlad’s promise to them of an all expenses paid holiday to Siberia if they don’t win has certainly fired the lads up! Cheers

      • Trivalve says:

        And if they win there’ll be a free trip to Egypt! Sharm el Shaik is nice this time of year (if you like it hot)

        • Mack the Knife says:

          Except when bombs are going off, then it’s cool man, to the fundamentalists anyway.

          • Trivalve says:

            Yeah, well, we missed that by about 6 weeks. At least three places hit where we’d been every night for months. Been quiet since as far as I know – they do have some heavy security on the entrances. (Oh, apart from the planeload of Russians that got blown out of the sky)

  • Boadicea says:

    Vic police advising women not to walk alone in parks late at night seems very sensible. So why the uproar? Damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

  • Henry Blofeld says:

    I say Mr Insider, Canadian Astronaut, Chris Hadfield has poured cold water on NASA, SpaceX and anyone else so inclined, saying we simply can’t take Man to MARS. Goodness me Chris, of course, we can, we did 6 super successful Moon Landings and MARS a natural and achievable progression big boy! There is only a handful of Moon Landing doubters and to not be too cruel they are about 10 Shillings short of a full Pound. Strewth
    https://tinyurl.com/ybz2z3jc

    • Trabvitch says:

      Where are you JB – you can’t let this go unchallenged!

      • Henry Blofeld says:

        Goodness Trabvitch was it the “10 Shillings short of a full Pound” that may rope the very astute in do you think? Cheers

      • Jean Baptiste says:

        Well actually! I’ve found God Trab. He came in through the bathroom window last night all glowing like.
        THE SEPPS DID LAND ON THE MOON! It was a miracle!
        “My best miracle yet” gushed God, “It was tougher than creating the whole bloody universe but I got it done. One giant step by your Creator and one small step for mankind.”
        “All it takes is a little faith JB, and you can believe anything.”

        Me mum was right, just believe what you’re told and life is a doddle.
        Hallebloodylujah! I’m going to buy a lotto ticket on the strength of it.

          • Jean Baptiste says:

            One of my all time favourites. Cheers!
            Couldn’t say Mack. That didn’t occur to me . When I say glowing, he she or it was so brilliant I couldn’t make out any features clearly even with my auto darkening welding mask. Now that I think of it the voice was commanding but more of your non specific gender type. A bit like my dominatrix.

            • Mack the Knife says:

              There are so many genders these days I think the word should be struck off the record. Who cares, be free with whomsoever you want, gender is a 20th century concept anyway. Free love, like the hippies promoted in the sixties is the go. Have fun, you know you want to. We’ll all be rooned in a few years anyway with global warming. Mind you it got down to 1º here last night. About 9º below normal.

              • Jean Baptiste says:

                As predicted, extreme weather events and temperature fluctuations. We will have colder snaps but the cumulative heat in the system will increase inexorably.
                Expect to have the coldest days ever in the hottest year ever.

                As for free love and the sixties, not now Mack. One must be very circumspect about putting the hard word on the objects of ones desire these days.

    • Trabvitch says:

      Actually the lack of quality building sand is an issue in Sydney.. As they say, sand ain’t sand! You can’t just use any old sand.

      • Milton says:

        poor old sod’s you Sydney siders ! who you going for in the world cup, Trabvitch. And the missus as well.??

        trabvitch

    • The Bow-Legged Swantoon says:

      The Americans had to import sand to Saudi Arabia to fill sand-bags in the first Gulf War – the local stuff wasn’t suitable for stopping bullets, apparently.

      Gosh-durned A-rabs cain’t do nuthin’ right!

        • The Bow-Legged Swantoon says:

          Yep. One of the things I realised in my brief time in the south of Iraq is that they don’t really get sand-storms. The ground covering is more of a coarse dust. When the winds get going (and they go for days) it’s bloody awful stuff, mixed with the exhalations of worn-down oil refineries in Basra, residue from earlier Kuwaiti oil-well fires and whatever-else-I-don’t-want-to-know-about, courtesy of Saddam’s campaigns against the Marsh Arabs.

          One of these days something will explode out of my lungs like that scene from Alien . . .

        • Jean Baptiste says:

          Now that’s got Haliburton written all over it.

          • Mack the Knife says:

            Biggest cementing company in the world, you got that right JB, I’d bet on the fact they had the contract.
            Sand is a fickle thing, when they built the Burj Al Arab & the Jumeirah Palm is Dubai I would have thought they would have used desert sand. Nup, too fine. They had to dredge it from the bottom of the gulf.

            • Jean Baptiste says:

              Yes. From the harbours of Vietnam.
              To the citadels of Afghanistan,
              Taking the good old Stars and Stripes to the cleaners.

    • Trivalve says:

      I can tell ’em where there’s an awful lot of the stuff

  • Henry Blofeld says:

    The 35th Negative, Consecutive Newspoll for the absolutely hopeless dishevelled Turnbull government, Mr Insider. Ex ousted PM Abbott starting to look like a Novice beside Turnbull, he only scored 30 before being shown the door by his Party. Onward and Outward for you dear Malcolm, we Australians simply arnt listening!
    https://tinyurl.com/y7sa8xty

    • Jean Baptiste says:

      Hey sport, it’s not Abbotts fault he peaked out at 30 negative polls. That boy had talent, if he hadn’t been done down he could have easily established records that would never be broken.

      • Henry Blofeld says:

        Indeed, Mr Baptiste, the calc at the time was his government would be wiped out possibly losing 45-50 seats. Turnbull might lose 15-20 on present numbers as Bruvver Shorten staggers toward the line looking more dishevelled daily. Cheers

    • Henry Blofeld says:

      Correction, Mr Insider, make that “34th” apologies

  • Tracy says:

    Boa, re my previous on the Salbutamol.
    WADA set an upper limit of 800mg but that can easily be exceeded in the event of breathing problems for which the competitor can claim an exemption (can’t remember the exact term) they claim that it can help build muscle bulk hence the limit but there is no medical evidence for that claim and that’s what Froomes lawyers are pursuing.
    Prudhomme has said he is free to ride the TdF even though he could stop him riding.
    He is one of the most scrutinised cyclists because of all the past cheating, other cyclists are usually quick to point the finger but there doesn’t seem to be any whispering or backgrounding going on, Froome can climb and time trial but we don’t see the day after day performance that you used to see with Armstrong, Contador etc

    • Boa says:

      Well let’s hope he (and SKY) isn’t cheating Tracy. He will get a tough reception in France (as always I guess!). I’ve always liked him – I met him and Richie when they were down here training together a couple of years ago. Nice guys, both of them, but I think the close friendship between them cooled when the Sky team took Richie out from a winning position in that race last year. Can’t remember which one it was. Froome wasn’t going to win it and Richie was a cert until the last day. But then again, BMC should have been on the alert.

      • Tracy says:

        SKY published the tech figures on Froomes Giro performance and apart from when he made that superb break his stats were on a par with second place Dumoulin.
        In previous cases with Ventolin/Salbutamol only two riders have been banned, Ulissi and Petacchi others have continued to ride with no sanction it’s a dogs breakfast.
        Unfortunately for Porte he’s a good domestic but will never win a major race unless a team backs him and I don’t think BMC does that, Aussie riders get short shift more often than not over their European counterparts.
        Look out for the Yates brothers and Geraint Thomas in the TdF they are in excellent form, don’t know where Quintana’s been hiding, Movistar seem to be saving him for TdF

        • Boadicea says:

          Good to see Richie win the Swiss. I agree, Tracy, he does not seem to have that little bit extra to go the long haul – and is always a bit nerve-wracking to watch on the downhill. Same happened in Rio. But he’s such a nice guy and I would love to see him on the podium. Froome owes a lot to Richie for his past TDF wins.

  • Tracy says:

    Have had the Le Mans 24 running on the tv today, amazing the positions spectators/competitors/crew can sleep in when necessary.
    Leaves F1 for dead, it’s nothing but a borefest these days.

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