MEDIA NEWS:
Several of the nation’s peak interest groups advocating for the rights of elderly Australians have complained to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation about the treatment of News Crap Australia columnist Greg Sheridan on Sunday’s edition of the political panel discussion program Insiders.
National Seniors Australia, the Council on the Ageing, and the Older Persons Advocacy Network have joined forces to write to ABC chair Ita Buttrose to express their concerns.
The focus of their attack was the persistent interruptions directed at Mr Sheridan by the program’s host David Speers.
A spokesperson for the three peak bodies said they believed Mr Sheridan’s treatment had bordered on elder abuse.
“Anyone could see that all Mr Sheridan wanted to do was to curl up in his comfy chair, wearing a woolly vest or possibly a cardigan under his coat, sip his cocoa or hot chocolate, and catch forty winks,” the spokesperson said.
“While he managed to do that on a couple of occasions (main picture), David Speers insisted on regularly interrupting his slumber to ask him impertinent questions.
“We appreciate that interrupting people is Mr Speers’ stock in trade – I mean, what else has he got?
“But the line should be drawn at disrupting and discomforting someone like Mr Sheridan who is so clearly in, or possibly past, his twilight years.”
An ABC spokesperson said the complaints from the three peak groups would be drawn to the attention of the corporation’s chair as soon as she woke up this morning at around 11.30am.
“In a strange fashion the complaints may actually solve a problem for us,” the ABC spokesperson said.
“We’ve been considering taking Greg Sheridan off our roster of panel guests.
“There is a lot of added expense involved when he appears, mainly in the form of extra cleaning costs to remove the stench of talcum powder and wee from the studio.
“We halved those costs when we knocked Gerard Henderson off the guest list a few years back, but there’s definitely room for more savings,” the spokesperson said.
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