Andrew O’Keefe: “The whole thing is crass.”
Andrew O'Keefe tells producers he doesn't want to do interview Dr. Andrew Rochford for a Sunday Night story.
- Published by David Knox
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Andrew O’Keefe is the latest to voice his views on Sunday Night being on the ground in Nepal, telling producers he did not want to interview Health Editor Dr Andrew Rochford in Nepal via a live cross.
Daily Mail has published excerpts from an email he wrote to producers.
“Sorry to be a pain, but this thing is a bloody disgrace and I see there’s already a lot of public backlash about it,” O’Keefe wrote.
“The Nepalese authorities and Australian consul have specifically asked everyone to leave Nepal if they don’t have a need to be there. What do we do?
“We fly in and pester them for a chopper so we can make our show.
“The whole thing is crass and really naughty.
“I respectfully suggest that you don’t really want me doing this interview. And I think Sam feels the same, though I’ll let her speak for herself on that point.”
This week Australian Embassy chief Glenn White said, “Foreign Affairs is saying reconsider your travel to Kathmandu — that’s basically saying you should really think about getting out of this country,.
“Those that are thinking of staying should consider why they might want to stay in a place that is already stretched for resources and has already had thousands of people dead and injured – they do not want to become a burden on this country’s government.”
Yesterday Sunday Night executive producer Steve Taylor said, “We sent Dr Andrew Rochford so he could bring his emergency medical skills and expertise to the analysis of the injuries and the medical relief effort and to help where he could.
“Yesterday he was asked by local authorities to a remote quake-damaged community to do just that. Until his visit today the village has so far missed out on any medical attention.
“This is a powerful report about a terrible natural disaster.”
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20 Responses
I agree with Andrew also. They will be just getting in the way. There are lots of people trying to get out and adding to that chaos is not helpful.
I watched Sunday Night last night, expecting this particular report to be a train wreck. I agree with Andrew OK that it was in questionable taste to impose a media crew on a disaster area in order to assist someone looking for a lost relative. Seven left themselves wide open to accusations of using a natural disaster in a bid for ratings, given that Hugh Sheridan had a high profile with their network, due to his role in Packed to the Rafters. On balance, yes, it was pretty cynical, so no sympathy for the backlash against the network. However, the report was quite well done. It bought home the utter physical devastation of Nepal more than any other report I have seen, which is a good thing, and Sheridan’s role in searching for his little bro wasn’t over emphasised. And it rated, fourth most watched program of the night, it beat the Logies, which it was competing with, so the…
He has his right not to be involved in the story,but it is your job Andrew.Only so many times you can refuse to do a story i bet.Your not on a game show anymore
The battle for ratings has crossed the line. And to think tonight Chris Reason stood on a stage and accepted an award for jeopardising the lives of hostages by tweeting police logistics during a siege.
Every network has shown reports of a reporter standing in front of wreckage, boosting about how hard it was to get there (in a helicopter usually) in order to report locals complaining about the fact that no assistance, food, shelter or medical care has yet been delivered by the Government, with a complete lack of irony.
And the fact that the heat or cold or rain or sunshine today are making life things more difficult and catastrophic epidemics are sure to break out. Of course the worse epidemic was the cholera outbreak in Haiti which was caused by improperly screened UN disaster relief and peacekeeping forces.
They do it every disaster for the ratings. Providing medical care or a few sacks of rice and some water is a good pretext for being there, and guarantees exclusive pictures for a scoop as well.
AOK plays the court jester very well but listen to his words and he constantly proves himself to be one of the smartest people on TV.
He was a lawyer at Allens in Sydney until 2002, and does indeed appear as “one of the smartest people on TV”. Seems he never officially left the firm, but was given leave-of-absence 13 years ago.
Good on him for speaking out against another tawdry attempt to manipulate a tragedy for a ratings grab. I’m reminded of the time when Koch jumped into the back of that ambulance with the rescued miners.
SN saw an opportunity to do a story about a celebrity searching for their kid brother while ignoring the hundreds of other brothers and family members who were either missing or confirmed dead. The kid brother then inconveniently turned up safe and sound.
Since they’d already spent the money getting people there they then changed it to pretending that they were really there to help. Who knows whether this temporary token effort will be worth the extra drain on local resources caused by the presence of the film crew? Either way, this will no doubt be more disaster porn dressed up to make Seven look good. I certainly won’t be watching.
I find it ironic that O’Keefe of all people is making a comment like this when he is the one who always gets his kicks out of making fun of people suffering from disasters such as this.
Nonsense. O’Keefe is even Chairman of the White Ribbon Foundation, been very pro-active for other charities. “Gets his kicks” is a harsh indictment.
Well I know from personal experience so I take exception to my comment being called ‘nonsense’. Many people feel the same way about him. I can only make a comment if you agree with it David? Please remove my comments and I will refrain from commenting again.
There are thousands of comments here that disagree with me. Are you saying I can’t disagree with you? I took your comment to be a TV viewer responding to his on air performance. If it is something personal I would not have published it, as you have not put your name to it and he is not here to defend himself, nor can I verify it.
Just wow!!! When has he ever ‘made fun of people suffering from disasters’??
Speechless!
They sent Dr Rochford to Nepal to help boost ratings. Nothing more.
Seems like he’s trolling to me. He hasn’t seen the report yet, how could he know if it is crass, those travel warnings are directed at tourists not media. I’m sure SN would be equally criticised for ignoring Nepal.
He wasn’t talking about any “report”. He was talking about “telling producers he did not want to interview Health Editor Dr Andrew Rochford in Nepal via a live cross”. Nepal was well covered by Reuters, APTN, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, etc., and local stations – which Seven used, so they didn’t ignore Nepal, even though they gave the first 13 minutes of some of their bulletins to a couple of heroin importers, followed by “in other news” – the earthquake in Nepal.
Good on him. It’s a big call to bite the hand that feeds you and shows some morality.
Indeed.
“This is a powerful report about a terrible natural disaster.”
Thanks, but I’ll watch Dateline on SBS on Tuesday for that.
Agree with Andrew and as per my original point, I do not believe their initial intentions were to provide medical support and general expertise – this is what they’ve turned it into.