Discussion: ABC news
in: SusC; SusC > 2012-11-18
Nov 18, 2012 10:52 PM
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I didn't know anything about it, but my colleague says she saw you on TV last night - was it a story to do with refugees learning English?
Nov 19, 2012 3:59 AM
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SusC:
Homework Club, yes. There was a short segment. I thought it was just our local news but apparently not?
Nov 19, 2012 10:38 AM
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Susanne - you're a star! Yay! http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-19/homework-clu...
Nov 19, 2012 11:33 AM
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Pretty sure ABC doesn't produce a local news bulletin in Adelaide on Sundays (frustrating when you want to know about a bushfire, for example), so they pick up all sorts of 'human interest' stories for a nationwide bulletin.
Nov 19, 2012 10:16 PM
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How many minutes did they need to film for to get 10 seconds' worth of quote?
Nov 19, 2012 11:00 PM
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Also, never underestimate the ability of something recorded for one bit of the ABC to spread far and wide. An interview I did once with ABC radio in Tennant Creek ended up going the length and breadth of the country, although this may have had something to do with the fact that I accidentally contradicted the then-acting Prime Minister in the course of the interview.
Nov 20, 2012 12:42 AM
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SusC:
Maybe 5-8. Think I suffered from an inability to be concise to fresh questions but I had pre-empted that particular one. Was very paranoid about saying 'um', 'so yeah', 'you know' etc etc!
Nov 22, 2012 12:27 PM
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Zed:
Does that mean that was an instance of the prime minister being inaccurate? The other alternative doesn't seem likely!
Nov 23, 2012 8:50 AM
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Not exactly inaccurate, just a matter of emphasis. It was in early 2003 (coming off the severe El Nino drought year of 2002), the call came at 9.15 on my first morning back from having been away at an O training camp, and it seemed a routine seasonal outlook one, in which I noted that it was rare for an El Nino to continue into a second year and that we would expect it to break down during the late summer or autumn.
All seemed fairly routine until they asked the question "so, do you think the acting Prime Minister has got it wrong?". Not having read the papers or heard the news that morning, I didn't have a clue what the acting Prime Minister (John Anderson, then the leader of the Nationals) had said and told them so. It turned out he'd said something warning of the severe consequences if the drought continued for a second year - if I'd known that, I'd have said something along the lines of "it's unlikely but it's not impossible, and it's prudent for governments to prepare for the worst-case scenario". As it was, I thought I'd fudged it, but obviously not very successfully because within an hour the headline on the ABC news website was "Government scientist at odds with acting PM".
Fortunately, whatever I might have thought of his ideology, John Anderson is a very decent human being - there are ministers (on both sides) who would want heads for something like that. (Probably didn't hurt that he knew my mother because his son was at the school she was working at at the time, either).
All seemed fairly routine until they asked the question "so, do you think the acting Prime Minister has got it wrong?". Not having read the papers or heard the news that morning, I didn't have a clue what the acting Prime Minister (John Anderson, then the leader of the Nationals) had said and told them so. It turned out he'd said something warning of the severe consequences if the drought continued for a second year - if I'd known that, I'd have said something along the lines of "it's unlikely but it's not impossible, and it's prudent for governments to prepare for the worst-case scenario". As it was, I thought I'd fudged it, but obviously not very successfully because within an hour the headline on the ABC news website was "Government scientist at odds with acting PM".
Fortunately, whatever I might have thought of his ideology, John Anderson is a very decent human being - there are ministers (on both sides) who would want heads for something like that. (Probably didn't hurt that he knew my mother because his son was at the school she was working at at the time, either).
This discussion thread is closed.