The first full year of the new email-based complaint-making process has seen an explosion on moans and groans and worse from viewers.
A Current Affair
The latest news and current affairs about Ray Martin
Comedians sent him up for being a slick newsreader, but Ray Martin says he never pretended to live up to his squeaky clean image in this interesting interview about his media attitudes (and he gives Crikey a shout out!).
Bye George (Negus), it wasn’t that bad, just not enough viewers
6:30 with George Negus died a slow death by viewer indifference. Negus, however, said that at least Ten had a go and the product he fronted most nights wasn’t that bad.
ACA’s Afghan ‘war rug’ story pulls the wool over viewers’ eyes
Last week loyal ACA viewers were treated to a special investigation. It seems star reporter Damian Murphy had got his mitts on a Afghan “war rug” depicting the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers and was keen to inflame some public sentiment.
Media briefs: Osama and the media … Easdown quits Hun … Mercury keeps its subs …
In today’s Media Briefs: Logies or Osama? … Who got him? … September 11 2011 … Google’s Osama Bingle and more ….
Digital media convergence: where legal and ethical lines blur, too
Once upon a time reporters gained stories through their contacts, by wearing out shoe leather or burning up the telephone lines. These days, they are just as likely to suck the content off social media, which blurs regulatory and ethical lines.
Simons: TV ratings war … just who is bullying whom?
So two TV channels seriously pretend that they have some kind of moral standing in this bullying debate. In fact, it’s child abuse.
You blur their faces but give their names
Two schoolkids — one 12 years old, the other 15 — have been shamelessly used by the national media this week as ratings fodder, after a schoolyard fight was filmed and uploaded to the internet. The current affairs shows are the real bullies here, writes Jeremy Sear.
Wankley Awards: And the Wankley goes to… current affairs Houso’s war
An uncensored, taxpayer-funded TV show about housing commissions. By gee, if that’s not a recipe for tabloid TV gold, then nothing is.
How Hoges used PR to beat the taxman
He may not have made an international box office hit since the Crocodile Dundee series, but Paul Hogan certainly proved one thing over the last couple of weeks — he still knows how to win over a crowd.
Want to invest? Beware the Today Tonight Effect indicator
While indicators such as relative strength or dividend yield or Elliott Waves are sometimes used to forecast where the sharemarket may be heading, there are other, perhaps less-conventional means of gauging whether equities are over or under-priced.
Tips and rumours: Tips and rumours: Just pretend you voted for the Greens
Behold one of three new ads in the Australian Sex Party’s new campaign. I bet you can guess what the other two are…
Which current affairs shows actually talk about current affairs?
A Current Affair and Today Tonight may brand themselves as the two big national current affairs programs, but when it comes to discussing real news, The 7pm Project wins hands down.
Wankley Awards: Ben Fordham: he’s no Laurie Oakes.
We love Ben Fordham. Almost as much as Channel Nine loves Ben Fordham, which has lately boosted him up the network’s increasingly rickety star ladder. But he’s well deserving of a Wankley.
Wankley Awards: Gerry Harvey, the master salesman
Tabloid TV is in bed with Gerry Harvey, the affable billionaire who can self-interestedly rattle off at length on anything to do with furniture at very low prices. Like bedding bargains in his own store!
Tabloid media reaches a new (even lower) low
Clearly many stories on A Current Affair et al are driven by PR, but one PR professional has bluntly described just how easily she got her company on air. So why aren’t we shocked by this anymore? asks Christopher Scanlon.
Media briefs: ACA jumps the gun on MasterChef … 2UE program boss aims for Sky
A Current Affair launched an embarrassingly premature attack on a MasterChef contestant that was booted hours later. A South African journo shows how a Q&A should be done, fashion advice for The Oz and other media news.
Wankley Awards: The twisted virus that is Dog Man
Dog-gone, the internet is a funny thing: you can be eccentric talent on Australian tabloid TV one minute, a global multi-media phenomenon the next. This week the Wankley goes to the Dog Man madness.
Posing as a hitman, Ben Fordham puts hidden recording to the test
A Current Affair has a good chance of avoiding conviction over alleged breaches to the Listening Devices Act, a surveillance expert has told Crikey. But the media watchdog is another story, writes Tom Cowie.
Wankley Awards: Hey Ratings! the TV sex scandal
A Current Affair hit the jackpot this week in airing actress Sarah Monahan’s allegations that she was subjected to sexual abuse on the set of Hey Dad!. For its ratings-driven exploitation, the show is a clear Wankley winner.
Hey ACA…! Did you have to live up to stereotype?
A Current Affair has been running hard all week on allegations of child sex abuse in Hey Dad…!. But did they have to play the ‘ambush the alleged’ card? It turned a serious issue into a tabloid beat up, says Dan Barrett.
Jack Marx: We’re all losers if Tracey Grimshaw wins Journo of the Year
A Current Affair’s Tracey Grimshaw has been shortlisted for the prestigious Australian Journalist of the Year gong. Jack Marx rips her “tabloid” interviewing to shreds and says if she wins, the entire journalistic profession will look the fool.
ACA and NSW Police digging a hole over fake hoon story
Nine’s A Current Affair has been forced into an embarrassing backdown over a “hoon driver” story, after Crikey exposed it as a sham.
I auditioned for the Stig; all I got was ACA lies
A Current Affair’s road safety crusade could be about to enter slippery legal territory after it used recycled footage from a two-year-old Top Gear audition tape in a faked attempt to “trap” a hoon driver.
