What are they doing to Radio National? God help us!
(Radio National is a valuable public asset of the Australian people -- a source of free information across the whole continent. Read about it at Wikipedia. -- PW)"An extraordinary opening comment by Radio National Religion Report presenter Stephen Crittenden this morning (listen to it here) was the first many ABC listeners will have heard about serious changes to the RN schedule planned for 2009. Former ABC religious broadcaster Paul Collins takes up the tale:
"Words tell you everything. When you hear 'interdisciplinary' you know it means 'dumbing down' and 'consumer focused' always refers to the lowest common denominator. This is precisely the rhetoric used yesterday by ABC Radio National management to describe their intentions for RN programming next year.
"Several specialist programs are being taken off-air including the Religion Report, the Media Report and Radio Eye. The Reports are flagship programs that deal with issues central to current culture. Apparently they are being replaced by a movie show and something about the future. Specialist broadcasters will spend more time responding to opinionated bloggers rather than making programs. God help us!
"Let's be clear what ABC Radio management is up to: it is a case of the bland leading the bland. Specialisation is out. Nowadays the belief is that any old (or, more likely, young) 'interdisciplinary' journalist can deal with any topic. Well, I've been interviewed literally hundreds of times on ABC radio and TV. My experience is that while most journalists make a reasonable go of it, they just don't know the detail and often have to be led to the key questions ..."
Read on at Crikey
The shows that have got the axe:
Religion Report
Media Report
Sports Factor
The Ark
Perspective
In Conversation
Street Stories
Radio Eye
Further info
ABC Board (at Wikipedia)
ABC Board (at ABC)
Managing Director, Mark Scott (at Wikipedia)
Contact ABC
Contact the ABC Board board@your.abc.net.au
Categories: dumbing, abc, radio-national, media
Pip Wilson posted item above at 3:12 PM | Permalink
1 Comments:
How outrageous. Like many, I can't afford and haven't time to read multiple specialist journals and rely almost entirely on R/N to keep me informed. It is obvious that ABC can not not extend its services with a diminishing budget. Come on Labor. Put some money where everyone care freely benefit.
Peter Geddes
Coffs Harbour
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