Australians are ‘entitled to better’ content from ABC

Paul Murray: Well the ABC's released a six-months-long report looking at the way the public broadcaster handles complaints. (I wonder why it would take six months.)

Now you might not be surprised to hear that the majority of complaints the ABC received during the period of June related to balance, bias and accuracy. There was almost 2,000 written complaints relating to King Charles' coronation coverage. Well we've said enough about that haven't we. I mean that was disgraceful &mdsh;he way that was handled. And you can see why. Have a look at what the coronation broadcast actually looked like:

Video clip:

Grey-haired speaker: ... that they were at the heart of the dispossession of the stolen land of our First Nations people and of massacres and attempt to genocide in this country and others. That's really important.

Stan Grant: The Australia with an indigenous Heritage, a British foundation and the migrant richness of the migrant experience, is a lovely idea. I don't know where that Australia is. We haven't lived in that Australia.

Grey-haired speaker: You know they talk about genocide. You know they talk about crimes against humanity which they are now recognized as, but this may well be the start of a different Australia.

End of video clip.

Paul Murray: That wasn't a debate on the voice, that was the coronation of King Charles. Can you believe it.

Now the ABC Ombudsman Fiona Cameron, released the report had this to say after it was released.

Video clip:

Fiona Cameron: 'if you're talking about a diversity of opinions and you just or you just provide one opinion you're not doing what you should be doing and it's not fair and reasonable I think it's fair to say that the ABC has been a bit defensive. I think they need to shake that off and they need to understand that audiences actually appreciate when the ABC say 'hey we got that wrong' or 'hey we can do better' and we clarify here or we'll correct here or we'll apologize there.

End of video clip.

Paul Murray: Joining me in the man-cave now is former ABC chairman Maurice Newman. Maurice, in the three years leading up to 2022 I think the ABC ombudsman's report showed they averaged almost 24,000 complaints per year. And during a six-month period to June this year there are over 11,000 complaints. 45% related to bias and you're surprised?

Maurice Newman: No, no I think what the ombudsman's report tells us is exactly what we've been saying all along. There's no accountability. They just go on regardless of any of the complaints. I think there was something — what, eight percent of the complaints were upheld. But I mean we've had the situation in WA just the other day. ... they've subsequently been shown to have lied. They came up with a report on Friday at 4:30 saying that 'oh what we'd said previously about no collusion ...well, you know, maybe that wasn't quite accurate. And it just goes on and on.

We've had the same with that town hall meeting that was held in Alice Springs where we were told this was a meeting of white supremacists. When they were challenged and told that there might be an external investigation they said 'oh well perhaps there's selective reporting', and it goes on. I could recount another dozen examples.

Paul Murray: How disappointed are you with that?

Maurice Newman: Well I think we should all be disappointed because essentially what the ABC is saying to us, the public — forget taxpayers — the public. We're entitled to better.

I'll give you another example of the way in which they are just totally unaccountable. There was a Four Corners program 'Fox and the big lie'.

Paul Murray: Yes, three-part series ...

Maurice Newman: The Australia Communications media Authority found that they had breached their code of conduct on fairness and honest reporting. So notwithstanding that, they showed it again.

So again, I don't ... I'm saying it's totally shameless. They listen to no one. They're accountable to nobody. They put their finger up to the public, to the minister, to the parliament, to taxpayers, to all of us, and they're clearly broadcasting to a narrower and narrower group of people.

Paul Murray: You wonder how it got to this. I mean, you and I are old enough to remember. You know I grew up in the late 50s, early 60s and 70s and went into journalism in the early 70s, 80s. I cannot remember as a teenager, and then a young man, thinking the ABC is biased. I never thought that I ... it was the national broadcaster both on Radio and on television that you trusted. The trust's gone. It's gone.

Maurice Newman: It's gone. And with the trust leaving so is the audience. You can see that their audiences, especially in radio. [yeah]

And people aren't stupid. Now there'll always be rusted on, there'd be the nostalgic people. There'd be the people who are activists or of that ilk — inner-city cafe dwellers I call them. It's inevitable that there will be a core of people who will still support them but you can't justify 1.1 billion dollars being spent on such ...

Paul Murray: Is it fixable? Culture can't be fixed?

Maurice Newman: No. I don't believe so. I mean I would ... I've been there. I understand how it works. I asked him to be more curious. I asked them to be more balanced. For that I was pretty much ostracized. They knew they could wait me out. We had a few sort of committees and looked into all this and that ... but nothing has changed. If anything, has got worse.

And as I say, I think it's ... they're totally Shameless and accountable to no one. There needs to be a Royal Commission and someone should hold them to account.

Paul Murray: Well let's hope that it comes to that but I don't think it's going to come to that under this labor government somehow.

Thank you very much for coming in and joining us on this Wednesday night Maurice Newman. Thank you very much, as I said, for joining us.

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