An extraordinary opening comment by Radio National Religion Report presenter Stephen Crittenden on October 15 was the first many ABC listeners heard about serious changes to the Radio National schedule planned for 2009.
By Paul Collins
Words tell you everything. When you hear “interdisciplinary” you know it means “dumbing down”; and “consumer focused” always refers to the lowest common denominator.
This is precisely the rhetoric used by ABC Radio National management in October to describe their intentions for Radio National programing next year.
Several specialist programs are being taken off-air including ‘The Religion Report’, ‘The Media Report’ and ‘Radio Eye’.
The Reports are flagship programs that deal with issues central to current culture. Apparently they are being replaced by a movie show and something about the future.
Specialist broadcasters will spend more time responding to opinionated bloggers rather than making programs. God help us!
Let’s be clear what ABC Radio management is up to – it is a case of the bland leading the bland.
Specialisation is out. Nowadays the belief is that any old (or, more likely, young) “interdisciplinary” journalist can deal with any topic.
Well, I’ve been interviewed literally hundreds of times on ABC radio and television. My experience is that while most journalists make a reasonable go of it, they just don’t know the detail and often have to be led to the key questions.
Take religion for example. There are no more than half a dozen specialist religious journalists in Australia. Two work for Fairfax (Linda Morris and Barney Zwartz) and the rest for the ABC which has had a religion department since the beginning of the corporation.1.
Stephen Crittenden [who disappeared from ‘The Religion Report’ after 15 October], John Cleary and Rachael Kohn are able to cover a complex spectrum of beliefs, practices and theologies from a wide cross-section of traditions precisely because they are specialists.
Nowadays religion is a mainstream political, cultural and socio-economic issue with enormous impact on world affairs. To cover it adequately you need specialists.
That is precisely what Stephen Crittenden has done on ‘The Religion Report’. He knows what the issues are and where the bodies are buried. Sure, he has upset some powerful people, but that’s the nature of a free media.
I’m not paranoid. I don’t see this as an attack on religion. It’s more a lack of appreciation of specialisation, derived from the half-witted, postmodern conviction that everyone can do anything.
Sure, they can ask a few prosaic, “man-in-the-street” questions. But that’s not the task of Radio National. If you think it is, get a job with the commercials.
It effectively spells the end of
religion as a specialisation
in the ABC
We need to be clear where this is leading. It effectively spells the end of religion as a specialisation in the ABC.
If you only have a couple of minor, essentially life-style programs on air you don’t need people who know their stuff. All you need is an “interdisciplinary, consumer-focused” approach, produced by the type of journalist who doesn’t know the difference between an Anglo-Catholic and an Evangelical!
Paul Collins is a former specialist editor (religion) for the ABC.
This article first appeared on www.crikey.com.