Brekky Kelly misses grand chance to nail war crim

It must be hard to get up at 4am five days a week and present the Breakfast Show on Radio National. How Fran Kelly does it, I have no idea. And quite a lot of her interviews she conducts well for someone at that time of the morning.

All I wish is that she got her priorities right (more caffeine needed perhaps?) and that when interviewing war criminal Tony Blair (remember, the man who said Iraq must be invaded because it posed a direct and imminent military threat to Britain) she brought to the job some of the enthusiasm she lavishes each day on the throwing and catching of balls, and other forms of competitive games. What was Fran's problem? Was she star struck by the PM with the funny voice? Mister Bean has as much charm, so it can't be that.

If we could just hear Fran fawning over Blair and Bush's 150,000 massacred Iraqi men, women and children the way she does over muscle-bound, millionaire-sports-granted Australians, she might have a decent brekky show. Until then, it's marshmallow for the brain and, frankly, a disgrace to the ABC, many departments of which are working like the blue blazes to expose what's going on in the world. I wish one of her colleagues would slip a note on her desk: "Fran, you're making us all look pissweak".

Ms Kelly's bio says she comes from a background in entertainment. OK, Auntie, I don't mind if she sings, but please don't give her the hard interviewing jobs like tackling notorious world leaders like Bliar. We could use more penetrating interviewers like the ABC had 20, 30 years ago. Ms Kelly is probably a fine woman, but she just doesn't uphold ABC traditions of quality, and the show is daily growing more a sportsfest instead of a reflection of the real world we inhabit.

Please, Fran Kelly, less flummery, footy, fandom, foolery and flattery and more flagellation of the flagrant felons. It's a real world dying out there.

Tagged: abc, progressive, war, tony+blair, radio, broadcasting, australia, radio+national, journalism, investigative+journalism