Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows Richard Ackland, presenter of Media Watch, alleging that radio personality John Laws sought payment from the Australian Bankers’ Association (ABA) to change his on-air opinions. Voice recordings and transcripts of Laws saying he was approached by the banks are juxtaposed with a confidential ABA document showing that Laws’s agent had in fact made the approach. Laws’s claim that his opinions had not been bought is contrasted with his agent’s proposal that the ABA pay Laws to make positive comments and end negative comments.

Educational value points

• This Media Watch item that went to air on 12 July 1999 was one of the news scoops of the year, breaking new ground in the ‘cash for comment’ scandal with its proof that John Laws (1935–) had not only sold his on-air opinions but had instigated the sale himself. Suspicion that Laws had been paid surfaced in the early months of 1999 when he suddenly began to make favourable comments about Australian banks after years of negative comments.

• Investigations by the Media Watch team had gradually uncovered the extent of financial dealings between Laws and the ABA. Seven weeks before this program, Media Watch had revealed that the financial deal between the ABA and Laws was worth $1.35 million. Of that, $500,000 went to Laws personally and the remainder to radio station 2UE for 150 ‘live read’ commercials giving a positive spin on the banks that were introduced and read by Laws.

• The announcement of the leaked ABA document seen here escalated the scandal, leading to speculation that the leak was engineered to switch the media spotlight off the banks and onto Laws. Banks had been attracting bad publicity since deregulation in early 1980s, with negative public perceptions that profits and executive salaries were excessive and customer service poor. This left the banks vulnerable first to Laws’s negative comments and then to his proposal.

• The clip’s revelations had significant outcomes for both Laws and Media Watch. An Australian Broadcasting Authority inquiry found Laws guilty of numerous breaches of the industry code. The program makers won the Gold Walkley Award for journalism, the first time an investigative story about ethics in the media industry had won such an award. The judges felt that the ‘cash for comment’ programs had exposed major issues of propriety within Australian broadcasting.

• The clip reveals Media Watch's investigative capabilities. Its presenter Richard Ackland, lawyer, journalist and media commentator, was the program’s first presenter to be supported by a production team able to undertake investigative journalism. The program’s 15-minute format has been used by Ackland and subsequent presenters to scrutinise and comment on the news media, with ‘cash for comment’ remaining an ongoing focus of investigation.

• Laws continued in radio until his retirement in 2007, remaining unrepentant about the ‘cash for comment’ scandal to the end. Laws’s point of view, which he consistently maintained on air and before the Australian Broadcasting Authority inquiry, was that he was an entertainer, not a journalist, and that the industry code did not apply to entertainers. The Authority did not agree, ruling that Laws had to inform listeners whenever he made a comment that had been paid for.