Australian Penthouse

Celebrating 40 years in journalism, George Negus is an Australian TV icon, and a damn good bloke, as CAMERON MURRAY discovered over a beer in Sydney

You were a school teacher before you became a journalist. Why did you make the switch?

I got tired of clashing with the authorities. I was an angry young man, politically, culturally and socially. I grew up in Queensland in the 40s and 50s, where the three things you were told you couldn’t talk about were sex, religion and politics; I worked out at about 18 that sex, religion and politics were the only things worth talking about! Suddenly, the whole media thing hit me, so I wangled an enrolment in journalism at Queensland Uni and ended up being offered a job with The Australian. I couldn’t even type!

What do you think of what’s happening now in print media, with all the editorial cutbacks?

It had to happen, and if you believe the doomsayers, it’s gonna happen to all of us; even those of us in the audio-visual media are gonna get run over by the technological bus. But I think that’s bullshit. Newspapers have survived the first 10 to 15 years of the multimedia revolution. They wrote off free-to-air television, and that hasn’t happened. I remember years ago there was a cover story in Time magazine about the cassette revolution; that life will never be the same again because of the cassette. Now, if people use them at all, it’s to keep the kids quiet in the car.

So you don’t think the Internet’s a threat to traditional media?

Putting my tongue in my cheek, how can you take the cyber world seriously when two of the most important words in our language at the moment are ‘Google’ and ‘blog’? It’s only very recently that somebody would say to you, “Google it” or “do a blog on it”. I mean, it sounds like a really bizarre sexual habit. But it’s here and I think it’s very good for those of us who didn’t grow up with it to adapt. However, let’s not kid ourselves that it’s the answer to our prayers – it’s just another form of the media, and what remains the same is the quality of the people producing the information and opinion on it. I must admit that the quality of the slagging I get is better on blogs than it’s ever been anywhere else!

Do you think the standard of journalism in Australia has dropped over the past 40 years?

I think there’s always been good and bad. I don’t know that it’s any better or worse than it’s ever been, I think there’s just more of it, and therefore the chances of there being more garbage is higher. What we’re not giving young people a chance to do is acquire experience; we throw them too quickly into positions of considerable journalistic responsibility without them having the experience to back it up. I think a lot of journalists grow up in the job, and I don’t know if that’s necessarily a good thing. I’m not saying it’s wrong, but I think one of the reasons for my longevity is that I knew what I was talking about before I became a journalist. I was almost 29 when I started in journalism, and I had a few opinions already.

You’re obviously enjoying Dateline…

I’m enjoying it enormously. If it didn’t exist, I’d invent it! It’s always exciting, that’s probably the secret, and we’ve got this unusual combination of youth and experience. We’ve got an old bastard like me riding shotgun on this bunch of very bold, adventurous video journalists.

You’ve interviewed a number of political leaders from all over the world. Is there one thing they all have in common?

Yeah, they’re normal. They’re frighteningly normal. People expect them to be abnormal, and they’re not. We have to remember that if we believe that democracy works, then we’re gonna end up with ordinary people. They are us. Politicians that really worry me are the ones who believe their own bullshit – then we end up with Margaret Thatcher!

Who would you most like to interview now?

Probably Obama. But, again, this is a bloke who was elected because he was new, young and fresh, and overnight he’s expected to behave as though he’s been there all his life. That’s rubbish, it’s just false expectations. I think the most important thing about Obama is that he listens and he’s got a view. I’d rather have a politician with a view and an ideology than a politician who doesn’t stand for anything. Obama’s making it up as he goes along, but he’s actually talking to a lot of people before he opens his mouth. I think he’s a step in the right direction.

You lived in Italy for several years and even wrote a book (The World From Italy: Football, Food and Politics) about the place. What’s the fascination?

It’s sort of my fantasy country. I’m a football fanatic, I’m a food fanatic, I’m a political fanatic, and Italy’s got all three – the Holy Trinity of life! In Australia, we’re shocked when politicians get things wrong. In Italy, they’re shocked if they get it right. They don’t expect perfection from their politicians because they don’t expect perfection from themselves. I just love going there and pretending I’m an Italian.

Speaking of football, what do you think of the A-League?

As a long-time supporter of the game in this country, I’m delighted. I think they’re doing a great job.

Do you think we’ll get the World Cup in 2018?

I don’t know. We can do it, there’s no doubt about that. It’s not about whether we’re capable, it’s go to do with international football politics, which makes ordinary politics look like a Sunday School picnic! I think football’s importance is underestimated. As an international political journalist, the two things I know I’m gonna see wherever I go anywhere in the world are Coca-Cola, which we can do without, and football, which we can’t do without. It’s one of the few totally universal things in the world, and it’s potential for good is untapped. When Israel can play Palestine in a qualifying match for the World Cup when Palestine doesn’t even exist according to the United Nations, who’s running the world?

Dateline screens nationally on SBS, Sundays at 8:30pm.

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