And The Winner Of The Coveted ‘Most Complained About Program On The ABC’ Award Is…
A massive congratulations to The Chaser who have earned themselves the enviable title of Most Complained About Program On The ABC… for the second year running! If that last series was anything to go by, this is obviously the outcome they were hoping for.
Reports The Age:
The guerilla comedy program attracted a total of 4995 complaints in the year to the end of June, 4286 of which were in relation to the Make a Realistic Wish Foundation sketch that featured children with terminal illnesses.
Following the sketch and expressions of outrage that extended all the way to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the show was suspended for two weeks and the members of the group apologised.
If you’re interested in sook-related statistics, here are some numbers you may like to look at.
Next on the 2008-09 complaints list was the decision to axe various programs on Radio National, which generated 1379 complaints, many inspired by the on-air attack on the decision by Religion Report host Stephen Crittenden.
In total, the broadcaster received 32,130 complaints, including 3564 for bias or lack of balance and 1738 for factual inaccuracy. The total number of complaints was down more than 20 per cent from last year’s total of 40,246.
So there you go. Good job not inspiring as many complains this year, ABC! Good job inspiring more complains than ever, The Chaser!
Comments
Formal or informal complaints?
The reason why the commercial stations don’t post their figures is that the regulations still say you have to fax the complaints and the stations themselves have not agreed to take them via email/website. SBS and the ABC do, which is why they get more publicity.
Ringing up talkback radio does not count as a complaint.