The ABC's Insiders program is claimed to be the country's top politics show, but with Patricia Karvelas at the helm on Sunday it resembled a ghastly car-crash.
Exactly why David Speers, the regular host, was not around on the day when Prime Minister Scott Morrison visited the governor-general is difficult to fathom. It speaks to the ABC's incompetence.
Karvelas seemed to be on the edge all the time, as excited as someone going out on a first date. Yet she has long been touted as a political veteran. She seemed to be obsessed by the plane on which Morrison was making the short journey from Sydney to Canberra: it's taking off (all planes do); it's flying (haven't heard of a plane travelling on a road yet); it's going to land (really?); the prime minister will be driven to the governor-general's residence (I can't recall a single instance when the incumbent prime minister has walked the distance) and so on.
What the bloody hell is wrong with ABC insiders this morning. Mining banality extreme with actions of the PM. I could not give a toss if he is getting in his car /plane whatever.
— Mal Peters (@peters_malcolm) April 9, 2022
Karvelas was so incoherent that she even started speculating on what refreshments Morrison would be served and whether sandwiches would be on the menu or not.
Add to this, there was a third-rate panel to debate the issues of the day, if there were any. Jennifer Hewett of the AFR, Gareth Parker of 6PR and Fran Kelly, formerly of Radio National, are not the hottest tickets on a day when an election is called – not if anyone wants to really generate some interest among viewers.
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The @PatsKarvelas train wreck interview on @InsidersABC did two things ...it put Karvellas in a poor position re objectivity during the campaign and made the focus of the interview about her rather than an underprepared Richard Marles.
— Tony Windsor (@TonyHWindsor) April 10, 2022
Sad.
Marles is generally not the most agile person during an interview, but Karvelas could not pin him down even on a single point.
Breaking.. The Governor General is delaying the process of finalising the calling of the election until appropriate discussions are held about Richard Marle’s political aspirations.
— Tony Windsor (@TonyHWindsor) April 10, 2022
Karvelas was so overcome by the occasion — which incidentally happens every three years or so — that she did not apportion time for one of the better features of the show: Talking Pictures, which takes a look at the cartoons and images of the week gone by. But then, as always, there were ABC apologists making out that Karvelas was doing a "stellar job".
And if one hour of this third-rate show was not enough, as soon as it was over, people were treated to the spectacle of Greg Jennett and Jane Norman taking over the coverage.
And @PatsKarvelas is doing a stellar job steering the @InsidersABC ship today.
— Louise Milligan (@Milliganreports) April 9, 2022
Jennett, as usual, had a beatific smile on his face all the time and kept doing his impression of a poor man's Stan Grant. [Even the normal Stan Grant is painful, so one can imagine what Jennett is like.] As for Norman, the only charitable way to describe her is "callow".
It says a lot about the whole morning that even a seasoned and erudite commentator like Laura Tingle could not rescue the proceedings from mediocrity.
Live shots of the PM’s plane landing in Canberra. Why do we need that?
— Anton Enus (@AntonEnus) April 9, 2022
To think that there are nearly 40 more days of this kind of garbage programming ahead makes one sick to the gills. Streaming services are going to experience a boom; maybe the ABC can ask for a cut, given that it would be contributing more than just a bit to the subscriber numbers.
The tabloid trash tv coverage from @abcnews' Greg Jennett and Jane Norman today was beneath contempt.
— Peter Murphy (@PeterWMurphy1) April 10, 2022
Norman commenting on Albo's new glasses and suits and Jennett mocking Albo for staying to answer every qn at his presser in depth was just insulting. ? #auspol #AusVotes2022 pic.twitter.com/gvkcUGlDtM
