In this video, note how the young boy is talking on his cell phone at the beginning of the interview.
And in this video (at 10:35) we see a teenager/young woman texting while the interviewer is talking to her.
Is it common for interview subjects on Australian TV to conduct their personal business on their cell phones while being interviewed? Or is it just coincidence that I’ve seen this in the two Australian TV videos I’ve seen?
To me, the first one seems to be part of the tabloid-y lead-in to the story - emotional phone call from his mother, poignant music - rather than him randomly taking a call during an interview.
Even if it was (and it’s not), we do have “Editors” and “Producers” and all those sorts of people here who are capable of, well, editing the “raw” footage to make it suitable for broadcast.
Your actual mistake is thinking we have have TV journalism worth watching in the first place here, because generally (IMHO) we don’t.
You need to be aware that Today Tonight and A Current Affair are the trashiest forms of TV masquerading as ‘current affairs’ programs. They are on rival networks in the same timeslot so any big story is either copied or attempted to be discredited by the other. (as here - with one netwrok having Casey on, and the other trying to make a sympathetic figure out of the bully)
IMO - I think the first clip particularly is obviously a case of “It’ll make a better storey if we show the poor little boy in tears talking to his mum”
The second, not sure, but do you think the editors would leave that in if they didn’t want it there?
I think the ABC still has some good stories form time to time. I haven’t completely given up on Four Corners and the 7:30 report 
I think the ABC is quite good for “General Coverage” of stuff (especially ABC News 24), but I’ve long been disappointed by their “in-depth” stuff, and they’re (IMHO) far too politically focused for a public broadcaster. SBS is better but the Japanese-American woman they’ve had on lately annoys me (seriously, we don’t need another American accent on TV here) and the less aid about 7/9/10 and their “News” the better.
Is the second perhaps a connection from the computer scene before it, implying she’s reading or texting about the kid?
It’s part of the Australian news reporting visual language.
Also, what GreedySmurf said. You can flip between the two shows and often find them showing competing versions of the same story at exactly the same time. Both “exclusive” of course.
That is a vile accuracy.
The commercial channels have no interest in political coverage deeper than a dried up puddle, so if it weren’t for the publically funded channels there’d be basically nothing at all on politics of any substance. I think the ABC does a good job of filling the void.
Personally- and I stress this is purely MHO- it wouldn’t bother me in the slightest if there was nothing of substance relating to politics on TV. Obviously if you live in Canberra or you’re a political junkie/activist you’re going to think differently, but for the most part I honestly think most of the people who are that way inclined are going to be pretty tech-savvy and quite capable of using The Internet to keep up with it, and therefore it shouldn’t be the subject of quite so much attention on ABC.
By which reasoning there is not much reason for TV to exist. What can’t be distributed over the internet?
As long as it exists it is going to get used and given that ABC News and current affairs programs rate pretty highly (by ABC standards) they are going to keep producing them. Even leaving aside the view that it is a good idea to have a non-commercial channel providing quality, non-tycoon influenced news.
Exactly. Give it a few years… I’ll be interested to see where things go.
Oh, I agree completely with that part. I just wish the ABC was more like the BBC and less political. (And yes, I know the Beeb is accused of having a political bias at times, but IMHO it’s not nearly as obvious as the ABCs seems to be to me).
I knew we’d get down to what really bothered you about the ABC news sooner or later.
I didn’t think there was any mystery about it, to be honest.
At least the ABC doesn’t start its news with a story about some boofhead footballer’s groin injury, which the commercial channels often do.