Caroline Overington has yet another whinge about ABC news coverage in The Oz today. She doesn’t like ABC News 24. Their publisher has ownership in their competition, Sky News. We get it. There’s no need to continue ABC News bashing at every given opportunity, even when it’s really not warranted (such as in this case).

ABC News 24’s Joe O’Brien was on the air at 12:47 reporting that word was coming out that the recently scheduled Obama media conference was in relation to Osama and that it was being reported by the NYT that Osama was dead. What would be the benefit of going live with detailed coverage at that point when there really were no further concrete details?

ABC News 24 started an AJE simulcast at just after 1:06pm. Was there a need to go live with this coverage on ABC1 too prior to the Obama address? They have a dedicated news channel for coverage on developing stories. And whats wrong with ABC News 24 broadcasting an AJE feed over BBC? AJE was certainly a heck of a lot more relevant.

For the record, as a media consumer in 2011, I found that the best coverage prior to the Obama announcement was by way of US news talk radio channels. WBAL and WMAL provided some great coverage of details as they emerged (well ahead of cable news channels like CNN). Contextual discussion (on The Drum) and reportage (on The World) later that evening on ABC News 24 also provided some great coverage.

Yes, the ABC dropped the ball with the Rudd coverage in June last year. When they drop the ball in a significant manner again, by all means, go to town on them. Keep the ABC accountable. These frequent whinges, however, increasingly feel petty.