ABC supporters across the country are dismayed and angry with the national broadcaster. The biggest threat to the ABC today is its craven and distorted performance in television current affairs reporting.

In 1997 I led a delegation to meet with Bob Mansfield, the heavyweight businessman who had been recruited by John Howard to wield the axe on the Australian Broadcasting Commission. The dirty task Mansfield was given was an early shot in the culture wars that have raged in Australia for the past 25 years. Widespread fears of the hatchet job intended to gut the ABC turned out to be unfounded. There was an avalanche of community support for the national broadcaster. Mansfield revealed himself as a common sense listener. He delivered a pithy 53 page report, The Challenge of a Better ABC, to a disappointed Coalition government. His verdict largely affirmed the role and performance of the ABC at that time.

Today many of those same ABC supporters across the country are dismayed and angry with the national broadcaster. To be fair, I acknowledge that ABC television generally does a good job with rural Australia and, these days, a much better job with First Nation stories. And, of course, ABC radio programs, from ‘RN Breakfast’, ‘AM’, ‘PM’, ‘The World Today’, ‘LNL’ and local radio offerings are still valued, even revered. But the biggest threat to the ABC today is its craven and distorted performance in television current affairs reporting.

‘The Drum’ has been axed. Nobody knows the reason why. ‘Four Corners’ is a shadow of its former self, while ‘Q&A’ and ‘Insiders’ are now lightweight floss pretending to present serious analysis of the social and political life of the country. ‘7.30’ remains the flagship current affairs offering, given just 2 hours broadcast time each week. Aside from the gold standard reporting of respected journalist Laura Tingle, the program is now correctly referred to as a ‘show’ by host Sarah Ferguson. It routinely throws together a pastiche of political gossip, continuous election speculation and celebrity profiles – and then takes Friday off to recover. Despite the promo claim from Ferguson that ‘7.30’ is ‘searching for honesty’ the result seems to be light entertainment rather than a must-watch serious review of matters political. For weighty and hard-hitting we have to wait for the excellent ‘Media Watch’ on Monday nights.

I declare an interest here. It’s one that also serves to highlight one of the ABC’s biggest modern flaws – the selective and dishonest reporting of news.

In September I wrote to ‘7.30’ producers, presenters, managers and, finally, the Chair of the ABC, Kim Williams, to ask a simple question:

Does the ABC stand by the story posted on-line by Eric Tlozek on 7 September 2024, wherein he reported on the ‘Hannibal Directive’, allegedly issued by the Israeli Defence Forces, which resulted in killing untold numbers of Israeli citizens on 7 October 2023? If so, why has the ABC’s flagship current affairs program ‘7.30’ not examined that sensational story as part of its coverage of the war in Gaza?

My question has been met with a wall of silence, and finally, a referral to the ABC Ombudsman to enable management to sidestep the issue. No answer has been provided. The question relates to the astonishing story, first published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in September 2023, that the Israeli Defence Force had fired on its own citizens killing many to prevent them from becoming the captives of Hamas. When the story resurfaced a year later on the ABC’s online platform its sources had undoubtedly been checked thoroughly by Mr Tlozek. It may not, of course, turn out to be true. But that is not the point. ‘7.30’ was obviously aware of the story on its sister platform but has steadfastly refused to cover it for the ABC’s main television audience. We all know the emotions unleashed by the events of 7 October 2023. How can that omission be other than selective reporting on an issue of huge interest to Australians? Who would not want that story to go to air on ABC national television?

The situation is just one example of the questionable professionalism of the ABC’s coverage of the war in Gaza. Suffice to say Aunty has lost considerable credibility for a succession of one-dimensional stories that often commence with the telling lead line: ‘The Israeli government says…’

There are many other instances of selective political reporting on the ABC. The negligible coverage of dissent within the ALP over the AUKUS pact is a case in point. Paul Keating was vilified by the Murdoch and Nine media and accused of being out of touch by Anthony Albanese when he condemned AUKUS as ‘the worst deal in Australia’s history’. Former Labor Foreign Ministers Gareth Evans and Bob Carr, along with hundreds of ordinary ALP members, have spoken out and supported his conclusion. Even Malcolm Turnbull and Howard era Foreign Minister Alexander Downer have denounced AUKUS as an expensive and undeliverable dud.

Keating is right of course. AUKUS is a policy fiasco and many ordinary Australians are now expressing doubt or outright opposition to the mad waste of $380 billion of scarce resources. But not Aunty ABC. Bipartisan support in Canberra has sealed the deal and it’s now deemed to be beyond question or re-examination. The ABC preoccupation is whether Donald Trump will cancel the deal when he takes power in January. Henny Penny…is the sky falling in on us? Look over there! What does The Donald think? What will the US Senate do about Australia’s desperate need to defend itself from the ever-dangerous China? It’s misleading and disingenuous theatre dressed up as major news.

AUKUS, Trump and the whole American obsession with ‘national security’ (read confrontation with China) seems to have transfixed the ABC’s current affairs producers. Once upon a time we even had a program on the ABC called ‘China Tonight’ hosted by Stan Grant. He went away, and so did any balanced reporting of Australia’s biggest trading partner, the ancient yet modern powerhouse of 1.4 billion people. True, we still get a flow of ‘China issues’ reported because Canberra is at odds with Beijing and the friction makes for a steady diet of worrisome news. But it’s not balanced with any consistent efforts to tell China related stories outside that conflict paradigm. The test: has there been an ABC television news report on anything positive about the Chinese people or their culture in recent times?

Along with the China panic, there has been a gradual erosion of in-depth ABC reporting of stories across the Asia Pacific region. From Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh – we hear only haphazard reports of coups, riots, floods or passing political dramas. Coverage of the civil war raging in Myanmar is an egregious example of neglect. In sum, there are few serious stories about the communities and cultures we know as neighbours. A small bright spot is the weekend ‘Asia News Week’ which does at least try to give a half-hour roundup of stories from Asia. A key problem is the lack of correspondents sent by the ABC to cover the countries of our own region.

In New Zealand there has been uproar in the parliament over the new conservative government’s move to unwind the Treaty of Waitangi and undermine Maori rights. The Treaty Principles Bill, introduced to appease the extreme right-wing ACT party, is a profound threat to the fabric of Kiwi society. The ABC has barely covered the issue. In Indonesia the incoming President, Prabowo Subianto, has vowed to pursue a non-aligned foreign policy – sending out mixed messages about our nearest neighbour’s relationships with Washington and Beijing. Prabowo, who is on his first trip since taking office last month, met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing last week. A maritime development deal signed by China and Indonesia noted they had reached common understanding ‘on joint development in areas of overlapping claims’. ‘Partnerships are better than conflict’, said Prabowo. That should be ABC news in Australia. For that coverage one turns to the SBS.

At the moment there is great uncertainty in South Korea about the ongoing strength of the 70 year old military alliance with the US and the balance of power with nuclear armed North Korea. South Korea has just signed an enhanced security and defence agreement with Australia. Almost no coverage. The Japanese government has imploded and Vietnam has just reported that Chinese defence firms will participate in an arms fair in Vietnam next month. A Vietnamese defence official has reported ‘a possible sign of deepening military ties between the two neighbours’. All good copy for the national broadcaster – but not covered.

Instead of being kept informed about developments relevant to our place in Asia we endure, ad nauseum, ABC reports on every aspect of what’s happening in the US. Trump’s Mar-a-Largo has become Imperial Rome, as pimped by Fox News. The obsession has political consequences. ‘Insiders’ recently had a 43-minute discussion on the US-Australia relationship that revolved around predictions of how much ‘butt-kissing’ and ‘knee-bending’ we now need to do in Washington. A key topic was reference to the fatuous domestic ‘debate’ about whether the Australian Ambassador to the US, former PM Kevin Rudd, should resign because a Trump minion has posted an hourglass image on social media alongside his name.

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley has criticised the wisdom of ‘breaking ranks with the US’ on Australia’s vote in the UN supporting a United Nations resolution recognising Palestinians’ permanent sovereignty over resources in the occupied Palestinian territories. The report implies sycophancy to a foreign power should be a norm Australia uses to decide matters of statecraft at the UN. Ms Ley’s comment is reprehensible enough, but her fawning nonsense is reported on the ABC without question or comparative commentary.

Australians travelling anywhere in Asia will quickly get a sense of a world we no longer get to see or hear much about at home. Despite having the benefit of millions of Asian and South Asian people living permanently in Australia, we are more uninformed than ever about the cultures, politics and environments of our regional neighbours. For its omissions, its lack of courage and its obsession with the ‘security’ of the Anglosphere, the ABC deserves a large whack of criticism. We demand better.

https://johnmenadue.com/disingenuous-theatre-dressed-up-as-major-news-why-the-abc-is-losing-credibility/

MEANWHILE:

A few of your many comments.

• I rely on ABC radio (Classic & RN) so much & I want to give something back. I turned to ABC classic during COVID 19, & it really saved my life!
• I want to see the ABC maintain a strong voice in the Australian media landscape.
• To stop ABC being dumbed-down and commercialised by both the Coalition  and the so-called Labor Party.
• To encourage the return of science and innovation informative programs.
• To ensure that Australia maintains an excellent PUBLIC broadcaster free from advertisers and their stated and unstated interests.
• I'm 88 and ABC has been central to my life since primary school broadcasts, The Argonauts Club, the Lawsons, the News, the Weather Forecasts & River Heights, the Cricket & Notes on the News from 79 years ago.
• Globally media outlets, except for a few public broadcasters, are extremely biased. The ABC is one of those scarce exceptions. I am saddened by cuts to the ABC’s funding hence programs and the bias in the majority of Australia’s media that verges on no more than blatant propaganda.
• Put pressure on ABC to retain excellent programs.
• I was invited to a meeting of the WA Friends...and ended up on the committee for the next ten years!

https://www.abcfriends.net.au/member_and_supporter_survey_what_you_told_us

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