Project Exec Labels Sunrise “Commercial TV At Its Worst”

The managing editor of Ten’s The Project took to Twitter yesterday to criticise Seven’s Sunrise program, labelling the morning show, “commercial television at its worst”.

Tom Whitty, who has held his position at The Project for almost a decade, slammed the program for “misrepresenting an idea and mocking it”, referring to a segment on the morning show where host Sam Armytage led a discussion on the Greens’ proposed welfare payment scheme.

The segment feature Armytage and two guest panelists, Radio 3AW’s Tom Elliott and Smooth FM’s Ron Wilson, hashing out the details of a “radical proposal” from the Greens, calling it a “welfare payment with no strings attached”.

She added, “taxpayers would foot the bill, for a minimum monthly pension to everyone, whether they work or not, it’s a hot topic”.

All Australians would receive a welfare payment with no strings attached under a radical proposal from The Greens.
Ridiculous or reasonable..? pic.twitter.com/5zLoctPnva
— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) April 4, 2018

An hour after the segment had gone to air, Whitty posted the following Tweet on his account.

Here’s commercial television at its worst. Misrepresent an idea and then mock it, with no attempt to engage with it or explain it to your audience. Automation is coming and an estimated 57% of the world’s jobs will become redundant. It won’t be commentators out of a job… 1/2 https://t.co/4trqn1XNg2
— Tom Whitty (@twhittyer) April 4, 2018

These three will be just fine. It will be truck drivers, labourers, factory workers, fast food workers, postal workers etc (basically Sunrise’s audience) who will be out of work due to a very few who own the automation that will cripple entire industries.
— Tom Whitty (@twhittyer) April 4, 2018

The Tweets drew a mixture of responses, with some Twitter users agreeing with Whitty, while others have taken a more ‘those who live in glass houses‘ approach.

Im sorry but anyone working on The Project has no right to complain about others being unbalanced and misrepresenting issues.
— Politikss (@barracudau) April 5, 2018

This is the first time Seven’s Sunrise has been in the press for all the wrong reasons.

In March, a segment where Armytage invited two notoriously conservative commentators on the show to discuss Indigenous adoption is now being investigated by the broadcasting watchdog on account of racism.

Immediately after the segment aired, Sunrise again found itself making headlines as viewers accused the morning show of blocking viewers from seeing a protest outside its Sydney studios.

Protesters were equipped with signs and chanting in disgust, forcing Sunrise producers to lower the blinds on the studios’ windows and running stock footage of Martin Place to block the protest from viewers.

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