The Greens oppose the CPRS not because it is too weak, but because it will point Australia in the wrong direction with little prospect of turning it around in the timeframe within which emissions must peak, says Senator Christine Milne.
Is Tracy Grimshaw the most powerful person on TV?
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Tracy Grimshaw has taken control of A Current Affair in a way no other presenter has done since Jana Wendt. So far she has bagged two big scalps: Matthew Johns, the errant Rugby League footballer, and Gordon Ramsay, the foul-mouthed cook who she was playing up to only a year ago. No more of that for our Tracy, who is now the most powerful person on Australian TV. She suddenly has more clout than “Red” Kerry O’Brien at The 7.30 Report, Tony Jones at Lateline/Q&A and Kochie and Mel (or Karl and Lisa) in the mornings. The row over comments made by Gordon Ramsay has allowed her to take the upper hand over the producers and management of the program and Nine’s News and Current Affairs division, John Westacott and Mark Calvert. From now one They’ll “bone” our Tracy at their peril. Her move to grab control and assert her leadership coincided (some say was prompted) by the change in management at the program when executive producer Darren Wick was shifted to head up Nine’s faltering 6pm news in Sydney and the less experienced Melbourne producer of ACA, Grant Williams, was named EP. Grimshaw and Grant Williams are close: ACA has been all but based in Melbourne since Grimshaw moved back in June last year. There’s also a sense that Grimshaw’s assertiveness has method to it: by turning the focus on the host in her new Keith Olbermann mode, the program has risen out of its ratings rut. There’s also a sense of the Melbourne office of Nine asserting itself over Sydney (that’s the continuing Eddie McGuire/Jeff Browne grouping). Ever since Grimshaw took a stand over the Matthew Johns story the ratings have remained high, staying out of the zone 900,000 to 1.1 million they’d been getting on Thursday and Friday nights earlier in the year (which is the best yardstick). Last month Grimshaw editorialised about his’ lack of accountability — in her opening monologue she said she wanted Johns to answer questions about the apology he had tried to give in a short interview on the NRL Footy Show on Nine about the claims made in the Four Corners report. “Even though no charges were ever laid, (the woman’s) experience should rightly redefine the notion of consent and whether a star-struck 19-year-old could even be deemed capable of consenting to the scenario she ultimately endured,” Grimshaw said on ACA on May 12. “Unfortunately a man we all know, and I personally like, Matthew Johns, has been heavily implicated in this event, and I believe he needs to step up, face some hard questions and talk properly about it, rather than just a few uncomfortable lines delivered on The Footy Show.” It was a personal editorial, presented to camera, with frequent use of the word “I” instead of “We” which would have signified that this was ACA talking. Instead, Grimshaw took a leaf out of the Keith Olbmermann style of news presentation and sprinkled it with a touch of Howard Beale by personalising the message — she made herself and the program one and the same:
The next night Matthew Johns and his wife appeared with Ms Grimshaw and she earned good praise for the toughness and unflinching nature of her questioning. Monday night’s editorial getting stuck into Gordon Ramsay for his comments about her at the Melbourne Good Food & Wine Show over the weekend were again couched in the first person. Grimshaw maintained that she was attacked (as she was), and said she didn’t like Gordon Ramsay. She also slammed his as a “bully”. It’s a very skilful transposing of her role on the program as the host, into the personification of the program.
It’s something we haven’t seen for years. Ray Martin tried it, but was usually satirised or derided for his attempts. He was seen as elitist, over paid and lacking the obvious common touch that Ms Grimshaw hasn’t lost in her long years in TV journalism as a reporter and as the host of Today, which was a tough task. This morning Gordon Ramsay was brought to his knees: a spokesman claims he apologised unreservedly to, not Tracy, or Channel Nine, but to an old UK friend, Sky News in Britain. For Ramsay, Sky News is a much more important outlet. His main market is still the UK where his verbal battering and jibes of Ms Grimshaw, and her return assault, has made front page and top of bulletin news. The SMH reported:
So will Mr Ramsay front ACA tonight and do the deed in person, with the most powerful person on Australian TV? Regardless of whether he does, I bet Ms Grimshaw won’t be starting any future interview with him with the “F” word, as she did in June of last year. Those days of being the puppet of a production team are well behind her. Of course those from the grassy knoll say it was a plot concocted by Nine and Ramsay to boost ratings. But if that was the case, it’s hard to think of Tracy Grimshaw as a willing victim. |
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13 Comments
The whole thing has been cooked up by channel 9 just to provide free publicity of two of its shows in order to boost their flagging ratings.
Maybe they should take Gordon;s advice and just both fukc off.
Perhaps I missed something but I fail to see how Tracy is really a victim. By putting herself in harms way she has ultimately benefited massively. Pretty simple ploy really, set up big bad English man to be mean to “our Tracy” gain a whole lot of sympathy from mainstream audience. Gordon goes home with even more reputation than he arrived with and Tracy elevated to heroic reporter status. Everyone wins!
Given that both Ramsey and ACA need publicity badly its understandable,but Grimshaw acting as the moral arbiter of the land is some kind of very bad joke.
It along with TT would be two of the most unintelligent, dumb, stupid, shows on TV,god know why anyone would bother watching.
Another hunter for her 15min of fame,whatever happened to Robson,why anyone with a brain takes any notice of these plastic people is beyond me
Did you say Gordon Ramsay was a “foul-mouthed cock”?
If so, I would just like to remind everyone that not all cocks are like him.
Good on you Tracy.Keep up the good work!
What’s with Ramsey anyway?Basically a “cook” probably paying good money to a publicity agent on the basis that any news is good news.
The Herald Sun is obviously promoting him(suprise suprise, his recipies are widely featured in their “newspaper”) and had him today on their front page-despite all sorts of important events to report.Amazing!
Don’t take Ramsey or the Herald Sun seriously.Both are obvioulsy full of self promoting hot air!
Tracy is hardly a victim.
She’s in the early stages of Eddie-fication and I must say, I’m already sick to death of her.
http://screamedia.blogspot.com/2009/06/grimshaw-vs-ramsay.html
I find out that Shell paid out USD$15M over the Saro-Wiwa assassination and what do I find on the front of Crikey - Tracy-fuckin-Grimshaw.
Perspective people, perspective.
If a woman’s boss or co-worker made comments, such as those made by Ramsay, she’d have a legal case against them. Ramsay doesn’t know how to stop himself and has no sense of what’s inappropriate. May his fall be steep and fast.
COREENA
Posted Thursday, 11 June 2009 at 2:43 pm | Permalink
If a woman’s boss or co-worker made comments, such as those made by Ramsay, she’d have a legal case against them. Ramsay doesn’t know how to stop himself and has no sense of what’s inappropriate. May his fall be steep and fast.
Good for you Coreena! ! I heartily agree! He’s a rude, arrogant misogynist, who needs to learn some manners, and acquaint himself with the laws of this country re discrimination. I’m no campaigner for ACA, and I’m not silly enough to watch his brand of ‘entertainment’, but I’ve had enough of so-called men who don’t know how to behave - and he has daughters! Scary!
I’m damned sure Tracy Grimshaw isn’t a victim, and more power to her for giving it back to him - he deserved it!
I’m not surprised by the attitudes displayed by the majority of males here, who completely miss the point. Lots of women, including Tracy have had a gutful of the male ‘superiority’ behaviour displayed too frequently. He was bloody rude and offensive, and by thinking he could get away with it just makes me boil - rudeness is rudeness - full stop!
A 49-year-old woman abused her position to pacify her mum on national TV! Tracey’s mum found it all to hard to deal with Tracey’s sexuality being attached in public that she urged her adughter Tracey to do some immediate damage control. What it did instead was make Tracey look like a little Missy Prissy of Channel Nine, the network that allowed her to trash precious news space on healing bruised self-esteeem. Funny. It is the same Tracey who made Ramsey who he is with the help of Channel Nine bosses because Ramsey’s and similar low-life shows pay their wages. On the night of the interview she giggled and blushed like a school girl and she is an experienced, cool professional, 49 years old? Wow. If anything, this act has definitely got Nine of my list of even ‘bearable’ channels. How hypocritical and sad to air self-defense and impose it as a news-worthy issue. Channel Nine might hike ratings as the new TV celebrity ego-laundromat!
And to Coreena and Liz…well I am not a male and I am not a male in the female body either but I find Tracey cheap and hypocritical. It’s like a school girl flirting with a bad guy and hoping for a platonic relationship who then runs crying to her mamma because he made fun of her during recess. C’mon! She should either get a man or a woman who’ll teach her some class and there’s no class in tit-for-tat! Even less so in pretending to be moralistic yet accepting to work the streets for living - metaphorically spoeaking of course. So, what’s new? He apologised. Why? Not because he means it but because he needs to save his tour and keep his shows alive. Tracey’s acceptance of apology - equally fake because she set him up for the blame game and played it out. Anyone with some above average IQ would dig it eeeasily.
Isn’t it strange, that even though it was Ramsay who was so damned rude in the first instance, it’s Tracey Grimshaw who’s being castigated for her “flirting” or some such - which reads, she asked for it, got it, and then started to whinge about it. Now where have I heard this tactic used before? Oh! yes, the young woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted outside her place of residence by another resident, who played Rugby League for Manly. The trick then too, was to demonise her father??Then the young woman re Matthew Johns disgrace - a so-called ‘colleague’ came out of the wood work questioning her version of events, her morals, accusing her of being paid etc. Deliberate actions to ‘shoot the messenger’. I’m also old enough to recall Judges from the bench blaming rape victims for being out after dark, or wearing mini skirts, or drinking alcohol, and that it was impossible for a prostitute to be raped, or being raped while unconscious wasn’t as serious a crime as being awake during the attack? In a world of change, some things never do, or do it so slowly, that women like me get frustrated, angry and pissed off!
The bottom line is, Gkunstler, that neither you nor the majority of males on this site were disgusted by Ramsay’s behaviour; and spent your time using the same sexist clap trap that others have used before you - for decades, no centuries - ‘shoot the messenger’! I don’t watch ACA or their news programs, or any other commercial channel’s news or current affairs if I can avoid it, but I’ve had a gutful of men like Ramsay who think that the usual rules of decency don’t apply to them, and if a woman complains, the ‘man wagon’ hitches up and demeans her! Seen it too often, experienced it too!
GKUNSTLER - I’d strongly suggest that you read, “Damned Whores and God’s Police” by Anne Summers. Follow this with another of Anne’s books, “The End of Equality” . Then you may understand, that “anyone with some above average IQ would dig it eeeasily”?
To Liz 45:
Why don’t you just start an Anti-Ramsey foundation to get Ramsey off our TV screens across Ausralia and yes, write to Mr Packer and Murdoch to ban his name ever appearing in the press too? And as for your other comments, true, decent women have no place in the pubs after midnight or tailing footy players to parties and then playing ‘hard to get’. Maybe you should stay out in the Sun a tad longer to let your hemispheres ripen a little. I’ll leave the reading of the pro-chauvinist propaganda to you, you seem to have a lot of healing to do and it’s no way near completition because you’re dabbing your wounds with the wrong dressing dear.