In today’s Sunday Telegraph, George Negus criticised his former employer Channel Nine for its news and current affairs, particularly 60 Minutes.
Negus was an original member of 60 Minutes along with Ray Martin and Ian Leslie in 1979. He has voiced concern of the mis-reported story by Peter Overton last week about a father marrying his daughter.
This comes after recent questioning of the show’s credibility with stories about Lisa McCune when the next night Nine debuted Sea Patrol 2 and tonight a story about David Attenbrough and tomorrow night a brand new David Attenbrough series, ‘Life In Cold Blood’ debuts on the network… coincidence?
Adding further fuel, 60 Minutes reporter, Liam Bartlett reportedly blasted the show to other staffers after Eddie McGuire's story on Sam Newman’s cancer scare, claiming it wasn’t a story.
Overton’s handling was brought to a head this week when 2GB Morning’s host, Ray Hadley criticised the reporter for his story and today’s item in the Telegraph has Negus seething.
60 Minutes has suffered in ratings, formerly attracting well over two million viewers and constantly winning Sunday night’s to now bouncing around the 1.2-1.4 million mark and being beaten by shows such as So You Think You Can Dance (Ten) and Kath & Kim (Seven).
Stories are no longer as ‘cutting-edge’ or investigative as they were, focusing on a lot of documentary pieces and celebrity interviews.
Seven and the ‘Adam Boland Effect’ on their news and current affairs formula has changed the landscape for news programming with Nine stuck in a hybrid somewhere between its old hard news to this info-tainment genre than Seven are using to win over viewers.
When Richard Carlton passed away and occasional reporter Martin left 60 Minutes, so did a lot of experience. ABC trained reporters and stemming back through Jana Wendt, Ellen Fanning, Mike Munro, Jeff McMullen, Jennifer Byrne, Charles Wooley and briefly, Paul Barry.
These reporters had experience and credibility that made 60 Minutes. Now Overton and Bartlett are still relatively inexperienced with Tara Brown and the experienced Liz Hayes. They are all fine journalists but need another more experienced, accredited reporter to join the team.
Ben Fordham has filed stories for the show before but is still too raw. A name such as Stan Grant who has worked for CNN, ABC, Seven and SBS has credibility and would add some much needed experience to 60 Minutes.
Moreover the program needs to decide where it is placed as either a hard news, cutting edge, investigative-quality news program or a weekend tabloid, current affairs show?
I’m hoping for the first option and I think there is still a place on Australian commercial television for such a show.
Negus was an original member of 60 Minutes along with Ray Martin and Ian Leslie in 1979. He has voiced concern of the mis-reported story by Peter Overton last week about a father marrying his daughter.
This comes after recent questioning of the show’s credibility with stories about Lisa McCune when the next night Nine debuted Sea Patrol 2 and tonight a story about David Attenbrough and tomorrow night a brand new David Attenbrough series, ‘Life In Cold Blood’ debuts on the network… coincidence?
Adding further fuel, 60 Minutes reporter, Liam Bartlett reportedly blasted the show to other staffers after Eddie McGuire's story on Sam Newman’s cancer scare, claiming it wasn’t a story.
Overton’s handling was brought to a head this week when 2GB Morning’s host, Ray Hadley criticised the reporter for his story and today’s item in the Telegraph has Negus seething.
60 Minutes has suffered in ratings, formerly attracting well over two million viewers and constantly winning Sunday night’s to now bouncing around the 1.2-1.4 million mark and being beaten by shows such as So You Think You Can Dance (Ten) and Kath & Kim (Seven).
Stories are no longer as ‘cutting-edge’ or investigative as they were, focusing on a lot of documentary pieces and celebrity interviews.
Seven and the ‘Adam Boland Effect’ on their news and current affairs formula has changed the landscape for news programming with Nine stuck in a hybrid somewhere between its old hard news to this info-tainment genre than Seven are using to win over viewers.
When Richard Carlton passed away and occasional reporter Martin left 60 Minutes, so did a lot of experience. ABC trained reporters and stemming back through Jana Wendt, Ellen Fanning, Mike Munro, Jeff McMullen, Jennifer Byrne, Charles Wooley and briefly, Paul Barry.
These reporters had experience and credibility that made 60 Minutes. Now Overton and Bartlett are still relatively inexperienced with Tara Brown and the experienced Liz Hayes. They are all fine journalists but need another more experienced, accredited reporter to join the team.
Ben Fordham has filed stories for the show before but is still too raw. A name such as Stan Grant who has worked for CNN, ABC, Seven and SBS has credibility and would add some much needed experience to 60 Minutes.
Moreover the program needs to decide where it is placed as either a hard news, cutting edge, investigative-quality news program or a weekend tabloid, current affairs show?
I’m hoping for the first option and I think there is still a place on Australian commercial television for such a show.
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