There’s an old rumour that on the day of the moon landing, a local Australian radio racing station broke into coverage of the momentous event to announce that “the weight is good at Wyong.”
A lot of time has passed since then and, yes, it may well be a witty anecdote highlighting the nation’s fastidious commitment to the tracks. But it also sheds light on a newsroom’s decision to interrupt regular programming.
Over the weekend, US President Donald Trump survived his third assassination attempt when a man stormed the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Now, before getting into the nitty-gritty, let’s be clear – this isn’t about Trump per se. You, dear reader, are free to love or hate him as much or as little as you wish. This is about understanding why one of the biggest news events of the past several months wasn’t deemed significant enough for networks to interrupt regular programming to update Australians.
Let’s rewind.
Back in 2018, when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle first visited Australia, every network broke into programming to announce both their arrival and their walk at the Opera House. Of course, that story had two things the Trump incident didn’t – it was local, and it involved royalty. But the Trump story carries two things their visit didn’t: relevance and national security.
Now fast-forward to the present day.
The incident occurred at around 10:35am AEST. Here’s what the networks were airing:
Seven – “The Morning Show: Weekend”
Nine – “Wide World of Sports”
Ten – “MasterChef Australia”
Both Sky News Australia and ABC News moved quickly, with Sky News Australia interrupting a live broadcast of “The Outsiders” to stay on the story.
For not one commercial network to break, or even dip, into coverage (or at the very least an announcement) of an assassination attempt on a sitting US President, against the backdrop of a global conflict with profound implications for both the world and Australia, is perplexing.
The argument could be made that the assailant was quickly apprehended, removing the need for rolling coverage. But here’s the rub: no one – not even those at the event – knew that at the time.
Around 20 to 30 minutes of chaos unfolded before word of his capture began to filter through.
Then there’s the argument that surely, journalists at home would seize the opportunity to cover their comrades abroad who may have been in danger. Not so.
One may, of course, invoke the media cliche that all news is local. True enough, but considering Trump’s actions on trade, tariffs, war and the Middle East affect us all, then his fate is surely of vital importance to every Australian?
Just asking.