I am not inclined toward conspiracy theories but a letter received in the post today, above (dated 24 August 2016, a month to cross the Tasman?) from Grant Broadcasters’ legal counsel now has me wondering — and my question is, Why?
With the latest developments around our Huon Valley Council, I note there is still some lingering resentment by members of our community over the appalling Mick Newell 7HOFM radio interview with Mayor Coad on 7 April 2016.
I for one no longer listen to 7HOFM.
http://oldtt.pixelkey.biz/index.php?/weblog/article/naive-at-best.-appalling-at-worst-/
http://oldtt.pixelkey.biz/index.php?/weblog/article/Please-Minister-Gutwein-time-to-step-in.-Listen-to-Mike-Newel/
Not content with the initial response from Col Taylor, GM of 7HOFM, I did write to the ACMA to register my complaint. The ACMA did take my complaints on board and a report was published on their website on 21 July. It is a comprehensive 18-page report, one of only 22 ACMA reports so far this year. However, when you review its reports over the years, very few find breaches of the Code.
On this occasion, the behaviour of 7HOFM were deemed not to have breached the Code.
http://www.acma.gov.au/theACMA/ACMAi/Investigation-reports/Radio-investigations/2016-radio-investigations
None of this is new information – and one could say it is all behind us, let it go. And, besides, Mick Newell was forced by his management to make an on-air apology: early on Wednesday 13 April. While I have yet to hear from anyone who has heard it, I have since heard the Newell “apology”. To my mind, it was a clumsy attempt. Mick Newell suggested he was speaking about the Mayor, and not about Peter Coad, and that his attack was not personal in any way.
It was broadcast once only at 6.50am — sort of drive time for some I guess — whereas the intimidating interview with Mayor Coad was replayed more than once on 7HOFM throughout the day(s) — and the link to the interview still exists as of today.
https://soundcloud.com/tasmanian-broadcasters/huon-mayor-peter-coad-unedited
When you listen to the earlier Mike Wilson interview, Mr Newell says, presumably of Coad, “He’s a disgrace mate”; and his comment about Council dysfunction is not what the Mayor said but what Minister Gutwein’s Board of Inquiry said (p4).
To me, Mr Newell’s criticisms were very much aimed at Mayor Coad.
Not content with the responses from Col Taylor of 7HOFM, and not entirely pleased with the ACMA report, I then made contact with the parent board of directors of Grant Broadcasters, based on the mainland. On the morning of 31 August, I received a phone call from a Grant director who seemed very keen to put the matter to bed.
He was extremely pleasant, offering to catch up for a coffee when next in Hobart, and he wanted me to know that Mick Newell had indeed been spoken to over the matter of the Mayor Coad interview.
It was determined that Mr Newell was “out of order” (my words) with respect to his attempts at radio journalism, when in fact he is an entertainer and not a journalist. It was acknowledged he is not skilled in this area. For the record, the “on-air apology” did not go there. And he said Mr Newell will never attempt such an interview ever again whilst he is under their employ.
The phone call and follow-up from the director did offer a transcript and an audio copy, but that offer was subsequently withdrawn – as today’s letter from legal counsel confirms: “we do not release audio files to private individuals”.
All along, I have wondered, if indeed a sincere apology was made by Mick Newell, why on earth would 7HOFM and Grant Broadcasting not want this apology to be made available either as an online link (the same as the interview), or in response to a request from the public.
The ACMA also advised me they could not provide me with a copy of the on-air apology given that it was beyond its jurisdiction to do so.
Curiously, through my earlier story in Tasmanian Times, I did have contact from an independent radio station here in Tasmania, which advised me it keeps a 6-month recording of all radio broadcasts in Tasmania, and it offered to assist me with an mp3 file copy of the “on-air apology”.
I was very pleased to hear this, and I did advise Grant Broadcasting and 7HOFM that a copy would be forthcoming. Since then, all has gone quiet. The person from the other station is no longer responding to my phone calls or emails.
Which leads me to wonder, has this independent station been contacted by someone; and are 7HOFM and Grant Broadcasting just wanting to keep me and others quiet? Do they just want this to all go away?
And, of course, there is still the outstanding matter of a police inquiry into how Mick Newell obtained a copy of the highly confidential Page Seager report (which cost us ratepayers more than $54,000) , and who made it available to him.
A report on a petition requesting release of the Page Seager reports was restricted to closed council which resulted in council still resisting the release of them.
And one more thing: I raised the issue of the “supposed candid main street interviews” conducted by Mick Newell. I advised I have a sound engineering background, and that I noted the absence of any background noise. The high level of editing suggested to me that, maybe, these were not “main street” after all, but possibly studio recordings.
I was told 7HOFM has a very expensive $1500 dual microphone, and they do use the well-renowned audio editing software Pro Tools …
• Geoffrey Swan in Comments: … Or maybe it is now back in the hands of the Director of Local Government given that Minister Gutwein has now finally made his, sort of, determination. We all know the council is not yet sacked. Will he, or won’t he make a final, that’s it, decision in mid-October? Gutwein is starting to look like a man who really doesn’t want to sack HVC but has been steadily forced into a corner. None of us must forget that it is stuff like this that brings governments down.
