Channels Seven and Nine (Australia) think deaf people should drown.

[sami]

Recently, Australia has been hit by some severe natural disasters; in particular, Queensland was hit first by flooding, and then by the worst cyclone since at least the '70s. Cyclone Yasi was, in terms of the raw power of the storm, a more severe storm than Hurricane Katrina.

Accordingly, there were a lot of evacuations and preparations to try and minimise the death toll. The Queensland Premier was frequently on television giving updates to vital information about evacuation centres, risk levels, safety warning, etc.

In order to disseminate information effectively, she appeared with a sign language interpreter at her side.

However, as documented by Media Watch, our major networks decided that it would be more important to show more footage of the floods and storm, or just to zoom in for a tight closeup of Anna Bligh, cutting the interpreter out of the shot.

Channel 7's excuse? "For technical reasons we were unable to show you the person signing that media conference and we do apologise for that."

Stupid and craven.

Comments

[willow]

I laugh bitterly at the excuse 'There were difficulties getting the camera man to know to include the signer' - because that reflects a problem in camera operator training and media staff awareness and responsibility towards inclusiveness. And it is STILL A CRANIAL ISSUE.

There's someone doing sign language and the CAMERA OPERATOR gets to decide the signer is unimportant unless some PR or other executive staff person tells them the signer SHOULD be included?

Really?

[sami]

The cameraman deserves about 40% of the blame, probably, and the rest to the director, who should have yelled at him to stop that immediately. Unless the director told him to zoom in on Bligh, in which case the director not only needs to be fired, but he needs never to work in television again.

The really awful thing is that this isn't your normal case of being stupid about inclusiveness. It's not, like, a variety program they were dealing with. It was vital information about a situation of extreme peril to many thousands of people. The Premier's office had thought about this, and recognised the importance.

The press conference opened: "Clearly we want to make sure that everybody is getting the best information as quickly and as efficiently as possible so we thank our signer. Well good evening ladies and gentlemen..."

SHE OPENED WITH ACKNOWLEDGING THE SIGNER. The first words she spoke were acknowledging that the signer was an important contributor to their efforts at disseminating information and thanking her for being there.

:angry flailing: goes here.

(But credit to Bligh and the Premier's office, mind you, for having made sure of finding an AUSLAN interpreter in the midst of the chaos that was going on at the time.)

[willow]

Oh yeah, I totally get that. That it wasn't precisely a normal thing for her to appear with a signer and even so SHE MADE A NOTE OF IT. But the ablism was still so strong, that the camera persons thought nothing of excluding an individual signaled out as IMPORTANT.

And Camera People don't work alone these days, there's at least a tech with them, and there likely was a reporter there to ask questions.

[sami]

My point with noting the signer was more that that should surely have counted as an explicit message to the broadcasters that the signer's presence was important.

Regarding the normality of appearing with a signer - it's not really normal at all for a state premier to be making press conference statements like that. I have no idea if Anna Bligh would normally bring one; in general, if a press statement isn't urgent, it's fairly customary just to issue them in writing anyway.

Taking to television for extended public statements just isn't really how Australian government disseminates information. This was unusual, and the context was of an unprecedented crisis in public safety, so it was a case where it was a matter of urgency that the information get out as far and wide and as effectively as possible.

The Queensland government apparently put at least half a second's thought into what was necessary for getting the information out. The TV networks apparently didn't...