{"id":368144,"date":"2025-12-24T04:50:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T04:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/368144\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T04:50:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T04:50:13","slug":"mitch-mctaggart-on-tv-insiders-clickbait-copy-and-beef-wellingtons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/368144\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitch McTaggart on TV insiders, clickbait copy and beef wellingtons."},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\tIt’s not just what’s on screen that The Last Year of Television scrutinises, but press writing about it too.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Every year writer \/ performer Mitch McTaggart looks back on twelve months of Australian TV for his cult comedy special The Last Year of Television.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a must-see for those wanting a reminder of the Worst and the Best in local telly, usually in that order. McTaggart\u2019s take on the small screen output is a biting and surefire comment on what we\u2019ve consumed and what we\u2019ve missed.<\/p>\n

Referencing media articles on television (including from this very site), he also has plenty to say about coverage, particularly those of the clickbait kind.<\/p>\n

You know the type, a noisy headline with an article filled out with social media comments, often by those with next to no followers if it helps justify a headline.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s become a little hobby of mine. Whenever I see more and more articles that are entirely based around obscure social media comment it\u2019s so frustrating,\u201d he tells TV Tonight.<\/p>\n

\u2018I still have this expectation when I click on a journalist\u2019s article that I expect to see journalism. Time and time again there\u2019s just this click-baiting nonsense that has absolutely no impact to anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really, really want to meet some of those people who write those articles and just go, \u2018Are you happy? Are you okay?’\u201d<\/p>\n

McTaggart is already steeling himself for negative coverage of ABC\u2019s annual New Year\u2019s Eve event with social media blasts and a particularly frequent word hitched to the public broadcaster.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018ABC News Year\u2019s Eve Woke!\u2019 Every f***ing year. It\u2019s really giving the term \u2018media cycle\u2019 its name, isn\u2019t it? Because it\u2019s just repeating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exhibit A follows\u2026<\/p>\n

\"News<\/a><\/p>\n

One example this year is press quickly maligning 10 News+ with clickbait stories, which McTaggart summarises as \u201clazy journalism\u201d targeting \u201cearnest journalism.\u201d Given the network axing The Project for the low-rating 10 News+ it\u2019s not the angle many might have expected. But there\u2019s method in is madness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout the entire year, we just saw everybody bashing them, so we were thinking, \u2018What\u2019s the vibe going to be at the end of the year?\u2019 We just can\u2019t suddenly start bashing them as well, because everybody would be sick of it. So it kind of steered the narrative a little bit for us. What else can we say about it? What hasn\u2019t really been discussed?\u201d he asks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that really floored me was, literally, after a week of 10 News+ there were rumours of its axing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Young<\/a><\/p>\n

McTaggart found similar press targeting around Sam Pang Tonight after its debut, despite the clear need for more variety on television. The conclusion? Shows are under pressure to be \u201cflawless right out of the gate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis notion that we have of just bashing anything that\u2019s new and not really giving it a moment to settle in, irrespective of how deserving it is of actual airtime or whatever. It\u2019s like no-one has the patience to get used to anything now.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also has little time for press built around anonymously quoted \u201cTV Insiders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat an annoying thing to say. It just gives the article this validity that it otherwise wouldn\u2019t have. It could just be a man on the street?\u201d<\/p>\n

Also up for discussion this year are The Project, Q+A, Neighbours, The Block, Big Brother, Crime Night!, Liz Hayes leaving Nine, Alex Cullen\u2019s $50,000 windfall for a TV plug, news promos and Scott Cam hosting Australia\u2019s Most Identical Twins.<\/p>\n

There are two deep dives, one around Married At First Sight\u2018s treatment of a domestic violence topic after a participant punched a wall. There are concerns about reality content creating situations which it then morally cites as giving airtime to an important topic. As if the ends justify the means?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat position really frustrates me, and I did see a fair bit of that in responses from people who produce the show. But I genuinely think that they genuinely think that they\u2019re making a difference,\u201d he suggests.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they see the problem. I don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s telling fibs about it. I think they genuinely reckon they\u2019re making a difference, which is, I think, a bigger problem. Because no-one is really consistently calling them out, except for obviously, you and me and couple of articles in The Conversation or Media Watch. It\u2019s frustrating how we kind of keep travelling on that same road and not really doing much.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing what you can get away with when things are rating and things are making money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because the inciting incident was never screened by Nine, it was given the all clear from media watchdog ACMA.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce again, the conclusion is that ACMA are absolutely toothless,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n

Another deep dive surrounds how news and current affairs gave airtime to neo-Nazi groups, the very thing they seek. McTaggart\u2019s special masks faces, and declines to name them, in order to not add fuel to fire.<\/p>\n

\"Smiling<\/a><\/p>\n

In his analysis of competing Mushroom Murder docos, McTaggart notes overused talking heads appearing and reappearing, then compares beef wellington dinner re-enactments -including the stock footage used by 7News Spotlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to get into nerd territory, but I can really tell a 30 frame piece of video from a 25 frame. The colours are far too saturated for it to have been shot in Australia\u2026.I really enjoyed the description of that on Shutterstock\u2026 \u2018It\u2019s a masterpiece.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet given his specials screen on Binge \/ Foxtel how often does the host broadcaster come under scrutiny? Not a lot.<\/p>\n

DAZN\u2019s acquisition of Foxtel is a business rather than content tale.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur purview is predominantly Free to Air TV, because you could just get lost in the swamp at SKY\u2026. I don\u2019t have the energy to do that. I\u2019m glad that there is that self imposed boundary, because I think it would be boring if I kept referring to SKY. I think Media Watch do that a fair bit as well, and The Weekly,\u201d he maintains.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve mentioned The Last Anniversary very briefly, and I genuinely thought that was good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which brings us to the year in Drama.<\/p>\n

McTaggart is a fan of RFDS, Invisible Boys, The Family Next Door, Mystery Road: Origin (he admits to no mention of The Narrow Road to the Deep North or Playing Gracie Darling) and Apple Cider Vinegar -although he had to be won over.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched the first 20 minutes and was not impressed. There\u2019s this thing that I think streaming does, or maybe even just Netflix, where they make this high energy jangling-their-keys-in-front-of-you to try and hook you at the cost of actual artistic expression and filmmaking. It was just colours and shapes and that really frustrated me. But once that\u2019s out of the way, it really drew me in, absolutely genuinely. By the time I got to episode two or three, I just had to sit and watch all of it,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took me a little bit to get used to jumping around but then it hooked me. I can\u2019t remember exactly where it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

McTaggart even makes room to discuss ABC\u2019s Antoinette Lattouf problem, even though it was radio, for how it shone light on broadcaster management.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as I throw shit at the ABC, I\u2019m really bitterly disappointed in them and for them, that this is kind of the lead story for them for the year. Come on guys, I know we can do better.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would be remiss not to mention the special, directed by Ryan Thomas and produced by James Westland, is also filled with jokes.<\/p>\n

Oh and then there is Stranded on Honeymoon Island. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

The Last Year of Television Monday 29 December on Binge \/ 8:30pm on FOX8 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s not just what’s on screen that The Last Year of Television scrutinises, but press writing about it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-368144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}