2UE’s John Laws spoke to Monica Attard on ABC Radio’s Sunday Profile program last week about his call to Steve Price and his thoughts on his talkback program.

This week’s Media Report followed up the interview with analysis from
Graeme Turner from the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies at Queensland University.

When asked whether the audience were put off by talkback hosts who were paid to espouse some opinions, Turner said:

“Look I couldn’t categorically say one way or another. My sense is that what happened to the ratings after Cash-for-Comment would suggest that if people were not aware of this, they didn’t mind.

That really neither of those hosts suffered dramatically from the exposure of those activities. I think talk radio looks to me from the work I’ve done so far, to attract a great deal of loyalty to the host, and the personality of the host does seem to be an incredibly marketable commodity. And so it doesn’t seem to me as if their credibility has been affected by the issues that were raised in the Cash-for-Comment inquiry, and they are able to construct their authority in different ways.”

Attard and Laws both gave and good as they got in the Sunday Profile program as they debated this topic and others.

You can hear the interview by clicking below.