Nine dopey to downgrade news: Ray Martin

THE Australian and the ABC are among the few media outlets still investing in quality journalism, Ray Martin declared last night.

COMMERCIAL television has abandoned its commitment to news and current affairs, with The Australian and the ABC among the few media outlets still investing in quality journalism, Ray Martin declared last night.

The TV stalwart, in delivering the annual lecture in honour of the late ABC broadcaster Andrew Olle, said the Nine Network, where he worked for 30 years, had made a "dopey" decision this year to dump its best news and current affairs programs.

"Business Sunday got the chop first. Given the state of the world right now, how prescient was that?" Martin said.

"Then Nightline was flicked. Saddest of all, the Sunday program was ingloriously dumped, despite picking up five Walkley Award nominations last year.

"Ross Coulthart's story on the Butcher of Bega has to be one of the short-priced favourites for the Gold Walkley this year. Sunday was a vital part of the cherished Nine brand, until it lost both its budget and its biggest backer in Kerry Packer."

Martin, who left Nine in February, said Packer might have saved Fairfax, too, had he been allowed to buy it, because Packer had a lifelong passion for "good, investigative news stories, and costly, pro-active journalism". "Just consider where we might all be today if the Packers had been allowed to risk their considerable family fortune in buying Fairfax instead of casinos?"

Martin said Rupert Murdoch's passion for newspapers allowed for an investment in quality journalism, "which is why we get the most comprehensive and the most insightful coverage of, for example, indigenous affairs in the pages of The Australian".

"(News Limited chief executive) John Hartigan is one old newspaper hack who has long campaigned for fair and honest reporting - warts and all - on reconciliation and a wide range of indigenous affairs," he said.

"Nicolas Rothwell continues to turn out exquisitely written, sensitive and insightful pieces for The Oz from the Territory, along with Paul Toohey. As Michael Gawenda, the long-term editor of Melbourne's Age, said the other night in a public speech, 'Imagine Australia without a paper like The Australian'."

Martin said an unwillingness to invest in journalism elsewhere had seen "sackings and forced redundancies, newspapers closing and TV programs dumped".

Yet there was a market for news. "If Tony Jones's new Q&A program (for the ABC) - even with politicians on the panel - can beat The Footy Show, well, who knows? It might mean there's an audience out there."

It had "turned out to be almost a good thing" that 70per cent of newspaper assets were held by News Limited. "By comparison with so much of the Australian news media right now, the News Limited stable is alive and robust," Martin said.

"Gerald Stone could not have sold 100,000 copies of a book about "Who Killed BHP?" or "Who killed Woolies?". Who cares?

"But Australians do care about television. And they certainly cared about Channel Nine."