Timeoff Magazine 1997 March http://www.timeoff.com.au/ Paul McDermott I read the news today, oh boy They say no news is good news, but Paul McDermott would probably disagree. To him, all news has positive possibilities. The late-breaking story is music to his ears, and the more improbable it is, the better. As the incomparable compére of the ABC's Good News Week, McDermott spends a lot of time sifting through the triumphs, tragedies and hilarious cock-ups that make headlines, and turning them into laughing matters. To McDermott and his team of co-writers, no cows are sacred, and no story is too controversial to touch. Take, for instance, the untimely demise of Diana, Princess of Wales. McDermott was performing live in Brisbane soon after Diana's funeral, but felt obliged to tackle the story. "You have to do it, you have to get out there," he says. "It's one of the biggest stories of the year, so if we avoided mentioning it, it would be like 'They're scared to touch that story'. I think any story is okay to talk about, as long as you find a good way to talk about it. We were talking about the press involvement with it, that aspect of it, rather than the actual death of Di. There is a lot to criticise and parody and be satirical and ironic about when it comes to the way the press did hound and harass her all over the world." McDermott and the Good News Week crew have just made their first joint foray into the record stores of Australia. Unplugged: The Good News Week Tapes, Volume 1 is a selection of the main man's monologues, both from GNW and the odd live show he performs. Moving through everything from Thredbo to Tamagotchis, and featuring a hilarious round-up of the year that was, the CD is a great collection of insightful sledging and top one-liners. Initially, though, it wasn't even planned to put it into the shops. "Originally the CD was just going to be a bit of a family and friends thing," McDermott explains. "We were just doing it as a fun end-of-the-year thing to put in the Christmas stockings of the people who'd worked on the show. It ended up with a bit of a head of steam, so now we have product. "I think it's quite a good document of the year, because quite a lot did happen last year. And a lot's going to happen this year..." To keep on top of all the news that's fit to ridicule, the GNW team have quite a behind-the-scenes organisation. Basically, they're equipped with their own newsroom, getting stories as they break via the Internet or the more traditional wire services like AAP and Reuters. It's a little different to your average television newsroom, however. "It does get fairly hectic, but instead of people writing articles about these events they have to write comedy about them," says McDermott. "That creates a different atmosphere." There are still deadline pressures, of course, and there can be some serious adrenaline surges when big stories come through at the last minute. "When Thredbo happened, we weren't sure whether we should cover that in the first week," McDermott recalls, "because it had only just happened. Other things have happened just as we've gone to air, and we've missed them. But you forget that a lot of people aren't as up-to-the-minute as you are with what's happening, so we sometimes do stories that are in the papers but haven't actually broken until a few days after we've done them. Sometimes it seems like we have the gift of prophecy. "Sometimes things come in right at the last moment and you have to put something together to crowbar them into the show." Can that be exciting, or is it a headache? "No, I think it's great. One thing about this show, it would be a fantastic thing to go completely live with it, but the problem with that is we'd probably leave ourselves wide open to a lot of litigation cases. The guests tend to get a bit excited and sometimes go on about, say, media magnates, and people they really shouldn't go on about. So we've got to pre-record a bit so that sort of thing doesn't go to air. We normally record on a Thursday, but ideally it'd be great to go live to air like we used to do with The Big Gig. Even if something was happening right at that minute, you could be talking about it. That's always a fantastic feeling, but it's just a bit dangerous." As a Doug Anthony Allstar, of course, McDermott was always outspoken on media issues anyway. He's always had a healthy disregard for the way the news is presented to the public. "I've always been very cynical about the news, and the thing is with something like Good News Week, at least you know from the start it's entertainment with news in it. I think when you're watching some of the commercial stations, you're not quite sure if you're getting entertainment or news, and you're not even aware of the editorial bias, that most of those programs put a spin on their stories." While McDermott believes it's possible to get a reasonably well-rounded version of what's going on in the world - chiefly by perusing a good selection of newspapers - he's still not about to believe everything he reads. "I think you've got to be aware that any news you're getting is always filtered and controlled at some point, but we're probably more open and honest than a lot of countries." Especially when you're able to give the Government shit on ABC TV? "Well, on any network you can give the Government shit, but the others tend not to, for whatever reason. To be fair with the ABC, it gave the Labor government a fair trot for its money when it was in, too. It's fairly indiscriminate, in the way the barbs fly. I think it's important to have a news service that keeps a close eye on things." Not to mention comedians who keep a close eye on them. Good News Week screens Friday night, 8pm on ABC. Unplugged: The Good News Week Tapes, Volume 1 is out now on ABC Music, through EMI.