We were used to ABC TV having a permanent weekday news presenter. Long time Victorian newsreader Ian Henderson retired and handed over the baton to the two Marys, a job share kind of arrangement with one Mary presenting two nights a week and the other three nights a week. Then there was a permanent weekend newsreader.
Well the idea of a permanent newsreader has gone to hell. It could be anyone of about eight different people. That's fine in a way, as they are all competent at their jobs, but we've lost the trust and the reassurance we used to have by having one permanent trusted newsreader. It's all about the ?? I can't think of the right word. Maybe a trusted familiar comfort is a way to express the feeling.
Then there is the guessing game of whether there will be a dedicated weather presenter, or will the weather be presented by the newsreader?
ABC TV viewers and ABC radio listeners like consistency of presenters. We form an attachment to them. This applies to commercial media newsreaders too. Iskhandar Razak has almost become a permanent newsreader, and that's good.
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I haven't watched TV news in decades so I don't have an opinion. I was quite fond of Hugh Riminton.
ReplyDeleteThe ABC ain't what it was
Kylie, I can remember him from radio.
DeleteI hardly watch the TV news now, as I am continually online for news. But I do really like Iskhander Razak. The new weather guy I can't take to; Paul Higgins was more reassuring.
ReplyDeleteJ, I agree with you about the new weatherman. And he always seems at a distance, like he does want a close up of his face. Like it or not, weather presenters need to have a large personality. Higgins, yes, missed.
DeleteI think you described the sentiment well. While I don't watch network news any longer, I still can picture certain familiar faces. In particular, meteorologist Dick Goddard's love of animals endeared us all.
ReplyDeleteBecause of your post, in fact, I just found a lovely 2020 obituary on a Cleveland, Ohio newspaper website. I didn't know he lived to the age of 89. It brought back a lot of memories, so thank you. Best wishes!
Darla, how nice that it stimulated some memories.
DeleteI haven’t watched our local ABC 7pm news for quite a while now. As you said, there isn’t a regular M-F news reader and I’m not going to take the chance of hearing the female (T…) who took over from Ian Henderson. Dislike her intensely.
ReplyDeleteSo we tend to click on 24 and enjoy Joe O’Brien even though it’s a national broadcast rather than local
I do remember reading a comment Paul Higgins had made just before he left about management going in a different direction. The BOM app serves its purpose well
Cathy, I don't mind T. Joe is good to watch and hear. While I mentioned the weather, I never absorb more than what the day's weather has been. If I want to know the weather, it is a couple of seconds to check on BOM's app.
DeleteA lot of different ways to get the news these days. That probably makes it hard for any TV newscaster to attain a following.
ReplyDeleteKirk, it is certain age bracket here who still watch evening tv news, and I am among them.
DeleteI feel that there to much news.
ReplyDeleteDora, in one ear and out the other, mostly.
DeleteI think the days of cable news are over. I haven't watched in years. Streaming has beaten them all.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
WWW, there are so many ways to get news. Unfortunately some watch very bad news presentations.
DeleteI don't watch ABC so this is not important to me. I usually watch Ch 7 news and the presenters are mostly the same Monday to Friday and a different one on the weekends. They only change when one retires I think.
ReplyDeleteRiver, much how it is here still with the commercial tv news.
DeleteI don't care for the chopping and changing of news readers, I become very critical unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment we watch Channel 7 news and the same women (mostly) reads the news, and the same man at the weekends and it's read from Launceston. In the future I think it's towards the end of May our news from Channel 7 will be read from Hobart in their new premises which means probably a new news reader - have to wait and see.
Margaret, there has been so much cost cutting with newsrooms, with many closed. There is worse than having your news come from Hobart. I guess there will be some local content for you.
DeleteA friend originally from Melbourne was totally blown away when we were in China in the noughties and saw Edwin Maher reading the news for the Chinese Govt (confusingly CCTV) English Language TV channel.
ReplyDeleteI think for me the ABC still means John Chance or James Dibble. To me it's kind of comical and even a bit pathetic the way we get attached to on-air personalities. It's almost a cargo cult.
MC, I know Maher was in China for a long time, but is now back in Melbourne. I assume he presented English language news. He did read the news too here at times, but he became famous for his collection of pointers used in his weather presentation.
DeleteI am not sure why, but I do remember James Dibble presenting the news. Perhaps at times he read a national bulletin.
I don't watch TV news anymore. It's too difficult for me anyway as the subtitles lag too far behind the spoken words and I lose track when they switch to a different story.
ReplyDeleteOnline headlines are enough for me these days. Reading too far into the details is too depressing.
JayCee, you've kind of stolen a post from me. AI is astonishing, yet tech can't get subtitling right yet, with the lags as you say, and wrong words used.
DeleteI don't watch news on tv anymore. only on YouTube
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting choice, Roentare.
DeleteI have never watched the news on commercial channels. It often seemed that that news could be influenced by the commercial companies who were paying the channel for the ads.
ReplyDeleteABC and SBS, on the other hand, could not be influenced by commercial interests.
I watch commercial news for the metaphorical car crash stories.
DeleteHere, so much of the news simply cannot be believed. CBS has reinvented itself to appease Trump. To a lesser degree, so has ABC. We watch PBS newshour and listen to Canadian CBC and the BBC.
ReplyDeleteDebby, I am full of admiration at your choices of news sources.
DeleteHe has done a fair bit of presenting on local radio too, and I think he's fantastic. Reading news is a great thing, but when you have the capacity to show some personal and engagement with the news is awesome too.
ReplyDeleteJames, it is a fine balance and I think Iskhandar gets it right while many of his commercial counterpoints take it a bit too far.
DeleteWe watch our local CBC (Canadian) every evening and we are lucky to have the same people on most nights. Familiarity seems to be comforting these days, Andrew.
ReplyDeleteI still buy a newspaper on the weekend!
Paat, from what I understand CBC is quite good, and it has a strong connection to our ABC.
DeleteI only watch the first 10 minutes of my Montreal TV news. Just to be informed on what is happening here and for the weather. That is it.
ReplyDeleteHow do we know if they're even real anymore? Just being dramatic.
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