Madden anger at ABC sport plan Madden anger at ABC sport plan

ABC sports presenter Angela Pippos.

ABC Television's plan to replace its weeknight sports bulletin with a pre-recorded national wrap from Sydney showed a lack of insight into the significance of Victoria's sporting culture, Sports Minister Justin Madden said yesterday.

Mr Madden, a former footballer, said he was not only concerned about the national wrap's impact on the coverage of AFL and other high-profile sports, but the viability of VFL, other sporting codes and women's sport, which were covered only on the ABC.

"We would be seriously concerned if it impacted on the presentation of Victorian sport, also if it compromised the presentation of sport all over Australia to give it a Sydney bias,"Mr Madden said.

Under the ABC's plan, former rugby league commentator Peter Wilkins will present a national sports wrap during the 7pm bulletin, and local stories will be presented beforehand by news anchor Ian Henderson. It is believed Wilkins was offered the role as a sweetener to stay at the ABC after his colleagues from The Fat defected to Channel Seven.

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said the ABC's 7pm bulletin provided unique sports coverage and he would be disappointed if the Wilkins wrap proceeded.

"I'm sure that we would be disadvantaged by someone who's not local dealing with local stories,"Demetriou told ABC Radio yesterday.

ABC TV and radio staff have rallied around Monday-to-Friday presenter Angela Pippos and weekend presenter Christine Ahern, the national broadcaster's first and only all-female sports team, who will become reporters under the new structure.

ABC staff will meet the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance today to endorse a letter of protest to be sent to the ABC's national editor of news and current affairs, John Cameron.

"Every journalist in here is outraged,"said an employee who could not be named for fear of being sacked.

Staff are angry that Melbourne will become a little fish in Sydney's pond, yet Pippos and Ahern will be responsible for filing the bulk of Wilkins' package, given that most big stories emanate from Victoria.

The ABC's Victorian head of news and current affairs, Marco Bass, said the national wrap would not mean a diminution of local coverage.

"In fact, it will give our sports reporters the opportunity to be more local than they are now,"Mr Bass said.

"They will still produce local sports packages every day and most days they will run ahead of the Wilkins sports package, if we go ahead with it."

It is believed pilots for the sports wrap have been made, a decision is expected this week and, if approved, Wilkins could be on-air next week. But Mr Bass said he had not seen the pilots and a decision had not been made.

Collingwood Football Club president Eddie McGuire said the national wrap was bad news for journalism and local content around the country. "I think this is shocking,"Mr McGuire said. "I can't see any upside for it. Collingwood is big enough and ugly enough to get its own publicity, but I feel for the Burnie Dockers in Tasmania or the Port Magpies or Glenelg in SA - they're the ones who will miss out."

Friends of the ABC Victorian vice-president Jack Clancy, former professor of communications at RMIT, warned Melburnians to be on high alert about Sydney controlling the news. "Anything that comes Sydney-centric has got to be approached with great caution,"Mr Clancy said.

ABC staff have scoffed at management's justification that the national sports wrap was a similar concept to Alan Kohler's national finance segment. "The Australian dollar is the same in all states but sport isn't,"an employee said.

Source: The Age
By Suzanne Carbone
February 10, 2004

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