Terrorism stoush boosts Q&A as Aussie Wimbledon presence fails to fire for Seven
Q&A’s week of controversy over the Zaky Mallah affair saw the ABC show add an extra 230,000 viewers last night to see host Tony Jones apologise for allowing the former terror suspect to ask a question last week.
The show at 9.35pm had 797,000 on a big night for TV, up from 560,000 last Monday evening, helping the ABC to a 16.5 per cent audience share along with Four Corners at 8.30pm which had 863,000 viewers.
Nine’s The Voice won the night but dropped on its second outing, grabbing 1.397m viewers, after debuting on Sunday with 1.557m according to OzTam overnight metro ratings. While preliminary figures show new US show Lip Synch battle had 1.124m viewers at 9pm directly after The Voice that number is likely to be adjusted for overrunning of the singing show.
It was very interesting on Q&A last night, watching John Howard’s intelligent response to a question on a previous Q&A compared to what happened last week when one of the guests tried to act like a school bully.
If you think Steve Ciobo acted like a bully, then you need to harden up.
Stating – in plan, non-inflammatory language – your position and why you feel that way isn’t bullying.
Ouch Robbo I’m such a softie. Ciobo inflamed the situation by not engaging in debate. His thuggish response showed exactly why politicians should not have the power to decide citizenship status in these cases. It was personal, emotional and without the facts in front of him. ZM asked a perfectly reasonable question but was not given a reasonable response then it was downhill from there. I have to agree Ciobo could learn from John Howard on how to be a gracious guest and show some political savvy. What an intelligent and level headed response. The same could be said of Tony Jones last night- intelligent and level headed in the face of some huffing and puffing from Wilson and Kelly. Last night Q+A was the ABC at its best.
I love John Howard!
Robbo, Paul Kelly went to a lot of trouble last night to point out the problem with Q&A was having Mallah on live with Ciobo. Nothing wrong with Mallah as he was welcomed in the pages of The Australian – where Kelly has worked for decades.
While Mallah did not put his case well two Mondays back, it was Ciobo trying to bully him that caused all the fuss. Last night covered much of the same ground that was covered last week, but without Ciobo it remained a very civilised discussion. Good point were made for all points of view.
The reality of all this is it is the Government that needs to harden up if they can not take to comments Mallah presented (regardless of them being right or wrong).
“Harden up” … I love innovation too!
Tim Wilson the noted free speech advocate seemed to be arguing against free speech.?! Go figure. Then got himself upset over a ‘snide remark’. No snide remarks allowed under free speech Tim?
‘night woman’ short summary: left good, right bad.
The question was, at best hypothetical, as it referred to a fait accompli.
Its factual outline was also incomplete, requiring additional questioning and explanation, to clarify what was fairly obviously a case of obfuscation, regarding what was and what was not both charged and proven.
It seems to me that Ciobo was grandstanding, and also fueled by righteous indignation, when he let out with his arrogant reply, which may well be his personal view, but was hardly clever given his political standing.
As for the Q&A’s boost in viewers, this is hardly surprising. The old adage that “any publicity is good publicity so long as they spell your name right” does not stand for nothing, and the ABC has much more support with the people than either Mr Abbot or Mr Turnbull seem to imagine.
In my mind’s eye, I see an imaginary out of ten score as: ABC and the people of Australia 10. Australian Politicians and rival media: 2.5
Hey Token left /right/ soft/hard ? I think nuance gets you to a smarter place.