ABC Managing Director Mark Scott has acted boldly to bring the internal dimension of The Chaser affair to a head, removing Amanda Duthie as Head of ABC TV Comedy.
A release from the ABC said:
The decision, made with the ABC’s Director of Television, Kim Dalton, followed a review of the processes which led to the screening of the Chaser “Make A Realistic Wish” segment last week.
“The segment should not have been broadcast. We recognise that it caused unnecessary and unreasonable hurt and offence to our viewers and the broader community and we have apologised for this,” Mr Scott said. “We have determined this was not a breakdown in our Editorial Policy processes but rather an error of judgement.”
Mr Scott said the processes are clear and amply set out in the ABC’s Editorial Policies. “Where staff are concerned about the potential for satirical material to cause harm they should refer the matter to the next level of management. In this instance, the Head of Arts, Entertainment and Comedy reviewed the segment and did not refer it up. This was an error of judgement.”
ABC TV’s Executive Head of Content Creation, Courtney Gibson, will assume direct responsibility for comedy programs until a new Head of Comedy is appointed. Amanda will continue to be responsible for Arts and Entertainment programs.
The Chaser responded later in the evening, saying:
20/20 hindsight is easier than 20/20 foresight.
We’re sorry we put the sketch forward and we think it’s a harsh call on Amanda who had, and has, our full support.
Sad days, at least she had the guts to say she OKed it.
Unlike those smarmy, smug, self-righteous little pricks on the Chaser
If ABC policy failed Duthie its the broadcaster who need to accept their system failed in this case Duthie and viewers. These days accountability ends with those holding the licence. If that means losing broadcasting rights so be it.
What did you think they would do? Take ownership for the fuckup?
Get real
It really does reduce The Chaser team to that hoary old chestnut ‘tenured radicals’, this. Jumping the shark is one thing, but once your take-no-prisoners satire has got someone else sacked (while you keep your job) any subsequent claim you make on subversion or cutting edgery is a lame pose. ‘The Chaser: fearlessly risking other people’s jobs’ just don’t cut it in the Lenny Bruce Dept.
Actually, political satire of the middle-class palatable kind – and there’s an oxymoron if ever one imploded – has been more-or-less dead for at least a decade, on just such TR grounds. You know the genre’s gone squiffy when the political lint-pickers’ tactic of first resort is good-humored – even eager – assimilation. If the absence of Charles Firth – the Brian Jones of The Chaser backstory (the true anarchic groundbreaker, the Real Deal nutter geenyus, the logical-endpoint boundary pusher, etc etc)* – didn’t white bread it into the comedy grave, Rudd’s nerd-cheery permission to jolly well ‘satirise us pollies, boys, we’re fair game’ has. Private Eye catchphrases invoked playfully in Westminster, Fey and Palin mirroring-up on SNL, our ‘boys’…come on, it’s all a bit like mum showing you where dad hides his wank mag stash, isn’t it (‘Do feel free, dear…’). Thus, the underwhelming spectacle of contemporary ‘edge-cutting’ in the only way left: evermore obnoxious middle-class wannabe Peter Cooks (Exhibit A-1 of the mo’ being Sacha Baron Cohen) light on talent, heavy on chutzpah, overweight on production values and morbidly obese on ambition, browbeating the increasingly bemused (and bored) non-satirical meeja and general public into playing obliging stooge to evermore ponderously, unfunnily elaborate set-ups.
It’s really all just a bit bleh. When irony’s a social default position it and all wot turns on it ceases to be. It’s not that satire’s dead – it’s just f*cking exhausted. To stop a complete collapse it needs to be supported by the tangible Show Biz talent of a Tim Minchin, a Wharf Review squad, a Lehrer. Give it a rest, everyone else, for gawd’s sake. If The Chaser boys are for real they’ll walk, tomorrow. Do something else for a while. In reality they never jumped the shark: they were lobbed casually over it in passing a couple of years back, when Malcolm Turnbull shrugged off an attempted ambush with the killer punchline: ‘Sorry, I’m not interested in playing your straight man…’ And so say all of us, ‘satirist’ dudes. Say, here’s a cutting edge idea: how about you tell some jokes, do some funny voices, and maybe a little dance?
(* I reckon…Reucassel = Jagger, Licciardello = Wood, Morrow = Wyman, Taylor = Watts, Hansen = Keef. Dom Knight is poor, stage-unfriendly Stu Sutcliffe, banished to play keyboard from the wings…)
Pathetic. A couple of days publicity over a questionable gag and the serious heads sack someone. Our society is becoming increasingly anaemic and controlled. It worries me now where the new line will be drawn. Mis-judgement is now a sackable offence, and I can’t imagine Duthie’s replacement is going to allow anything slightly controversial, which may result in her looking for a new job. Welcome to the new ball-less Chaser, where everything that made them good disappears up it’s own second least offensive perfumed arse.