‘Difference of Opinion’ a talk show for braver minds
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February 11, 2007“Most TV producers aren’t interested in finding solutions…their main object is to choreograph drama & create conflict….you can’t just fill up a studio with people who loathe each other, that’s really the producers writing the storyline. We want more than that,” says Jeff McMullen.”
‘Difference of Opinion’ a new ABC talk show, hosted by former Four Corners and 60 Minutes reporter Jeff McMullen, will be a vigorous debate between experts with vastly differing views… free of talking heads high on hype but low on substance, AND there will be no token celebrities enlisted for light-hearted relief or to bump up the ratings. The show will be filmed on the night it airs and undergo minimal editing.
Jeff, a journalist for 40 years, has devoted the past six years to charity work with Ian Thorpe’s
- Fountain of Youth, a NonProfit whose purpose is the alleviation and treatment of illness and disease in children under the age of 20, and
- The Jimmy Little Foundation, established to help improve kidney health in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across regional and remote Australia.
Both organisations are devoted to improving education and health in remote Aboriginal communities.
There will be 12 episodes of Difference of Opinion, with topics including water, terrorism, health, education and global warming, all serious issues in their own right, but all linked.
The first panel will feature three diverse academics:
- Dr Anita Heiss – an Aboriginal academic with theatrical experience, and a prolific novelist on history and culture;
- Dr Helen Hughes – a Czech-born immigrant who is opposed to the current concept of multiculturalism;
- Dr Ameer Ali – a Sri Lankan-born immigrant and enthusiastic Australian active in groups such as the Muslim Community Reference Group, the World Muslim League and Australian Federation of Islamic Councils.
About to turn 60, Jeff says he reached a point when simply reporting an issue wasn’t enough, but it was the plight of Aboriginal communities in remote Australia, in particular childhood obesity, poverty and a lack of education, that pushed him to act.
Why is it that Aboriginal children have a life expectancy of 17 to 20 years less than non-Indigenous children?
“The answer is in their poverty, their lack of opportunity and their lack of education…with Ian Thorpe, we’ve been concentrating on the connection that if we can improve the education of the Aboriginal mothers, if you can raise their education over a single year, you add up to four years to the life expectancy of that woman’s first child.”
Jeff has continued his charity work while preparing for the show to begin and it remains his number one priority. He does all of his charity work gratis. The new show, he believes, will bring a level of expertise from the panel and honesty from the audience.
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The first show is on the ABC, Monday 12 February at 9.35 – I’m planning to watch. What about you?
2 Comments
This country has needed an intelligent debating program for decades. Commercial exigencies prevailed and we never got one. The deprivation went on for so long that it was only natural that when we did get one, it would be defective. The first test of a program that claims to have assembled ‘the finest minds’ is whether we’re going to be deluged with anocdote instead of anylsis and insight. We got the anecdotes – from both the panel and the audience.
The best example of the type of program this one wanted to be like was a French one called ‘Apostrophes’, animated by Bernard Pivot. A weekly event, it went for twenty years. Pivot got three authors in who could defend their subject, and three who could challenge them. That’s interesting. What’s not interesting – producers of Difference of Opinion please note well – is what an audience thinks. Especially an audience designed to promote multi-culturalism. What’s wrong with that? If ducks are to be interviewed so that canaries can learn about their situation, I don’t want to hear about it from canaries. This program was too loaded with people who are the recipients of the knowledge the program pretended to discuss, and too devoid of the anglo-celts who made the culture these people say they want to adopt.
This program will last four episodes, maybe five. It hasn’t got the production team needed to make a success of it. This sampling spelt death to what would otherwise have my full support. I found it tedious, uninformative, and far too politically correct to be of service to anybody watching.
I did watch the show and I think, unfortunately, your assessment is accurate. The French show sounds great – have you actually made this comment to the ABC?