Extract from The Guardian
‘There is an art to interviewing,’ Mark Scott tells Senate estimates
when asked whether Emma Alberici and Leigh Sales were too hard on
politicians
ABC managing director Mark Scott
has defended presenters Emma Alberici and Leigh Sales in Senate
estimates saying they were “fine professional journalists” who were not
too aggressive when interviewing politicians.
Scott spent much of Wednesday before estimates, answering questions ranging from the political hue of the broadcaster’s programs and journalists to the impact of the Coalition’s recent budget cuts.
Quizzed on whether he agreed with News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt’s assertion that Alberici and Sales were too aggressive, Scott said he disagreed and he was confident ABC journalists were on the whole thorough and fair.
“There is an art to interviewing,” Scott told the communications committee hearing in Canberra. “I don’t think we should simplify it. Our journalists on the whole do an outstanding job holding the government to account.”
It was often the commercial broadcasters who lacked civility, Scott said.
Of Bolt’s criticism of ABC journalists Scott said it reminded him of the quote: “We teach best what we most need to learn.”
Scott said advance copies of Sarah Ferguson’s three-part series on the Labor leadership, The Killing Season, were in “hot demand” by both sides of politics.
The Killing Season, an account of Labor’s leadership during the Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard years, will air on ABC TV early next month.
Redundancies and the restructuring of the ABC were still underway, the managing director said, although 200 of 400 staff made redundant had already left the organisation, at a cost of $48m. He addressed the staff outcry over the “Hunger Games” style of picking which journalists would lose their jobs, saying staff were shocked to discover they were put into a “pool”.
“I am advised it was worse in apprehension than it was in reality,” he said. “I appreciate it wasn’t a happy time for staff.”
Scott said most of the staff in the content and programming areas had already left their jobs and the next wave of redundancies would be in the support areas.
A newspaper report that he had asked the ABC board for an extension to his second five-year term was incorrect, he told the committee.
Scott has been managing director of the ABC since 2006 and will step down in July next year after a 10-year stint.
SBS’s managing director, Michael Ebeid, followed Scott’s appearance and the senators focused on questioning him about the controversial program Struggle Street and the success of the Eurovision Song Contest for the broadcaster.
Ebeid conceded it was a mistake to post the much-maligned Struggle Street promo on the SBS website, but stood by everything else to do with the documentary.
Ebeid, who revealed that he had grown up in Mount Druitt – where the documentary was filmed – took aim at the main critic of the program, the mayor of Bankstown, Stephen Bali, accusing him of inflaming the situation.
“We accept that such topics can be polarising,” he said.
The managing director refuted suggestions SBS was moving away from covering football, saying “we are 100% committed to football” and only a “catastrophic” event would cause us to pull out of broadcasting the Fifa World Cup. He did however confirm he was in negotiations about the future of A-League broadcasts. Ebeid confirmed SBS had secured the rights to the next two Fifa World Cups, but suggested the rights could be sold if the government were to cut SBS funding any further.
On the subject of the cost of Eurovision to SBS, Ebeid said the cost of the entry fee for Australian wildcard entrant, Guy Sebastian, to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest was paid by Sony Music.
SBS paid the standard broadcast fee which was a “pittance”, Ebeid said.
Scott spent much of Wednesday before estimates, answering questions ranging from the political hue of the broadcaster’s programs and journalists to the impact of the Coalition’s recent budget cuts.
Quizzed on whether he agreed with News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt’s assertion that Alberici and Sales were too aggressive, Scott said he disagreed and he was confident ABC journalists were on the whole thorough and fair.
“There is an art to interviewing,” Scott told the communications committee hearing in Canberra. “I don’t think we should simplify it. Our journalists on the whole do an outstanding job holding the government to account.”
It was often the commercial broadcasters who lacked civility, Scott said.
Of Bolt’s criticism of ABC journalists Scott said it reminded him of the quote: “We teach best what we most need to learn.”
Scott said advance copies of Sarah Ferguson’s three-part series on the Labor leadership, The Killing Season, were in “hot demand” by both sides of politics.
The Killing Season, an account of Labor’s leadership during the Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard years, will air on ABC TV early next month.
Redundancies and the restructuring of the ABC were still underway, the managing director said, although 200 of 400 staff made redundant had already left the organisation, at a cost of $48m. He addressed the staff outcry over the “Hunger Games” style of picking which journalists would lose their jobs, saying staff were shocked to discover they were put into a “pool”.
“I am advised it was worse in apprehension than it was in reality,” he said. “I appreciate it wasn’t a happy time for staff.”
Scott said most of the staff in the content and programming areas had already left their jobs and the next wave of redundancies would be in the support areas.
A newspaper report that he had asked the ABC board for an extension to his second five-year term was incorrect, he told the committee.
Scott has been managing director of the ABC since 2006 and will step down in July next year after a 10-year stint.
SBS’s managing director, Michael Ebeid, followed Scott’s appearance and the senators focused on questioning him about the controversial program Struggle Street and the success of the Eurovision Song Contest for the broadcaster.
Ebeid conceded it was a mistake to post the much-maligned Struggle Street promo on the SBS website, but stood by everything else to do with the documentary.
Ebeid, who revealed that he had grown up in Mount Druitt – where the documentary was filmed – took aim at the main critic of the program, the mayor of Bankstown, Stephen Bali, accusing him of inflaming the situation.
“We accept that such topics can be polarising,” he said.
The managing director refuted suggestions SBS was moving away from covering football, saying “we are 100% committed to football” and only a “catastrophic” event would cause us to pull out of broadcasting the Fifa World Cup. He did however confirm he was in negotiations about the future of A-League broadcasts. Ebeid confirmed SBS had secured the rights to the next two Fifa World Cups, but suggested the rights could be sold if the government were to cut SBS funding any further.
On the subject of the cost of Eurovision to SBS, Ebeid said the cost of the entry fee for Australian wildcard entrant, Guy Sebastian, to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest was paid by Sony Music.
SBS paid the standard broadcast fee which was a “pittance”, Ebeid said.
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