Stan Grant has opened up about his exit from the national broadcaster. Contrary to public perception, he insisted that racism wasn’t the driving force behind his departure.
“Many have tried to paint my exit as a reaction to racism. That’s a misreading of the situation,”
said Stan Grant, seeking to set the record straight in an interview with SMH.
“The real culprit here is the state of the media, not an environment of racial bias.”
In the wake of his exit from Q+A this May, a wave of rallies broke out across the country, lending their support to Grant and voicing displeasure against the racism purported to be entrenched within the ABC.
Several colleagues of Grant also came forward with their own instances of racial discrimination.
However, Grant, who is currently transitioning into a role in academia, said that attributing his exit purely to racism would be a gross misunderstanding of the nuances involved. He emphasized,
“It’s the media that’s the real problem. There have been blatant lies and distortions. It’s this media climate that then trickles down to social media, fueling further toxicity.”
Discussing his time on Q+A, Grant conceded that the show still does “better than most” in creating a platform for public discourse, despite a notable dip in viewership numbers this year.
“There are dedicated individuals at Q+A who tirelessly work to assemble panels that are insightful rather than just confrontational,” he stated.
However, he voiced his dismay at the trend of featuring uninformed celebrities and politicians on the show.
“The show often devolves into a shouting match between people who have little to no understanding of the topic at hand,” he lamented.
Grant offered a reflective critique of the media’s time-worn methods, particularly those he witnessed on Q+A. While he credited the program for its attempts at maintaining quality, saying,
“Even with audience figures hitting a low in 2023, the show has certain merits,”
He also didn’t shy away from critiquing its faults. A particular concern was the show’s tendency to invite uninformed guests, be they celebrities or politicians.
“There’s a longstanding media approach to stoke tension for ratings. We put people on-air, often without the requisite knowledge, just to see sparks fly. But audiences have evolved and are weary of this outdated approach,” Grant opined.
He also highlighted that while Q+A’s formula – based on panel dynamics – was groundbreaking and successful in its prime, it now feels redundant.
“It’s clear from the waning viewership and engagement metrics across various media channels. People are no longer content with the old ‘conflict-for-views’ formula,” he shared.
Moreover, Grant expressed his reservations about the corrosive role of social media, which has been closely integrated with Q+A over its history.
“Social media platforms are unreliable arbiters for these kinds of conversations. They feed off the controversy and amplify it,” he said.
In his view, the most impactful episodes of Q+A were those that didn’t feature politicians.
“Politicians have an inflated presence in our lives. They are not our moral compass; they are supposed to serve the public and work towards societal betterment,” he pointed out.
Stan Grant has recently joined the Asia-Pacific arm of the Constructive Institute, based at Monash University in Melbourne. He is also spending six weeks visiting the Institute’s headquarters in Denmark, taking a step back from traditional media landscapes.
Tired of the existing media ecology, Grant is keen to use his new role to effect change.
“The current media model is broken and no longer fit for purpose,”
“I need something that reignites my passion for journalism, something beyond the horizons of television and daily news.”
As the ABC begins its search for a new chair, Grant had advice on what qualities the new leader should possess.
“Intellectual depth has taken a back seat in media organisations, and that needs to be corrected,”
he said. More importantly, he added that the new chair needs to consider the broader philosophical role that the ABC plays in society.
“Being digitally native isn’t the solution. The role requires someone capable of bigger-picture thinking that transcends just the ABC’s needs,” he concluded.
SOURCE: SMH
Grant Stan Ding has been his playbook, hardly journalism 😬