The revamped ABC sports reporting is about better coverage for all states

We at the ABC could probably play around with the way we handle our political coverage and get away with it. And we know for a fact we can insert finance maestro Alan Kohler into our news bulletins and spark nothing more than a few appreciative murmurs. But then there is sport, the sacred cow.

Suggest an upgrade to our sports coverage and you open the door to shock and horror. That door is ajar at the moment, and flowing through it is a frenzy of half-baked, uninformed hogwash.

We, in ABC News and Current Affairs, caused this free-flow of misinformation - in newspapers and on talkback radio around the nation - by proposing a new approach to covering national and international sports stories in the ABC TV News at 7pm.

It became a classic case of not letting the facts get in the way of a good yarn.

Feasting on a diet of a few media-fed lies and half-truths, politicians, sporting officials and ordinary punters screamed foul.

The Victorian Premier reportedly described the "move" as outrageous. "It's their ABC," squealed the Herald Sun. In Adelaide, The Advertiser declared the ABC was "pulling the plug on local sport".

And so it went on, and still does. Even on the ABC's own radio airwaves.

For those who care, and it seems an awful lot of people do, the facts are these:

For years, ABC News and Current Affairs has been trying to lift its game in the tricky area of reporting sports-related news stories in its prime-time TV bulletins.

We firmly believe we can't afford to simply be an imitator or reflector of the same sort of sports news packaging that goes to air on the commercial channels one and two hours before us. Most of our viewers have already seen a commercial bulletin by the time they switch to the ABC.

From our point of view, the "commercial" approach is a tired recipe anyway, often not based on the same news values applied during the rest of the bulletin.

And the scripting and presentation standards of our present coverage inevitably vary from state to state, remembering that much of the sports-related news you see on your local ABC actually comes from elsewhere (Brisbane, possibly, or the dreaded Sydney).

So, what we are proposing is an enhanced packaging of that material into a segment that allows a truer news-value treatment, with consistent presentation standards and a snappier, more engaging style. We're piloting the concept with one of Australia's most experienced and talented sports commentator/journalists, Peter Wilkins.

"Why would you have a rugby league player reporting on Victorian AFL and VFL football?" asked Steve Bracks, in another example of fiction v fact.

Wilkins is a 25-year veteran in the trade, with credentials stacked to the rafters across a range of sports.

More than that, he's a bloody good journo, a man attuned to what's news and what's not - whether it be footy or farnarkeling.

The Wilkins report will aim to capture the major news of the day from the wider sporting arena, whether it be on-field action or "harder" news, such as a drugs controversy or a funding crisis.

This will allow us to concertina the present style of coverage into a more relevant form, allowing more time for localism.

In Victoria, for example, that should lead to a greater concentration on issues of local importance. And that is the truth that has been the casualty.

Melbourne reporters will be hunting and gathering the stories that matter locally. Those stories will go to air around the national/international package, and even interstate, depending on the news agenda of the day.

I'm not sure how this reasoned approach to better journalism and greater localism amounts to killing off state rights.

It should be noted this approach is a weekday one. Weekends will remain a more traditional diet, with locally presented sports packages on the events of the day.

It's interesting that historically, and again in this case, any hint of change is immediately characterised as a Sydney takeover of all things locally good and proper. Once again, it is paranoid nonsense to conveniently toss up this Sydney-centric tag.

We haven't the slightest desire or motivation to damage the fabric of the very successful ABC News flagships.

Our regional presence is paramount, and I can share that most of my ABC working life has been spent in the fiercely sporting-proud maroon colours of Queensland, rounded out with a little sense-correcting time at Ripponlea and Southbank in the nation's sporting capital.

The bottom line in all of this is a better product for our audience.

We are upgrading and evolving, not downsizing.