As @Dona Ferentes wsaid, "well he would say that wouldn't he".ABC managing director David Anderson has rejected claims the taxpayer-funded broadcaster is biased and said reporting on issues including the Israel-Gaza war has been fair and balanced.
Appearing on ABC’s Radio National breakfast program with Patricia Karvelas on Wednesday morning he told listeners: “I don’t see systemic bias at the ABC, I haven’t in the five years that I’ve been managing director.
“There are times when we don’t get it right, we own up to that.
“I don’t think there’s bias in our reporting.
“Some of the criticisms around our coverage of the Israel Gaza War and the humanitarian catastrophe that’s unfolding in the Gaza Strip, I think our reporting has been very good.”
His comments come just one week after ABC staff who are members of the media union, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, passed a motion, 128 votes to three, for a vote of no confidence in Mr Anderson over the handling of matters including the sacking of fill-in radio host Antoinette Lattouf, lack of support for staff who receive public criticism and issues relating to the broadcaster’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza war.
the CEO of ABC says he sees no bias at the ABC.
From Evil Murdoch press
As @Dona Ferentes wsaid, "well he would say that wouldn't he".
The problem is not about coverage of the Israel Gaza war, the problem is the lack of diversity of opionion in the ABC full stop.
(stick whichever adjective suits your bias) perspective is correct , or whether you think that the conservative/rightwing/tory/nazi/nationalist/fascist (stick whichever adjective suits your bias) perspective is correct , it matters little if only one perspective is given air time.
And that is the issue with ABC, there is nobody who would be even remotely classed as a conservative who reports, analyses, presesnts or edits within the ABC ranks.
ABC is no better than SkyNews.
Mick
He may want to give us some data on how many pro Voice people got air time on the ABC compared to the other side.
About 90%/10% in my estimation.
There is one glaring falsehood, since the voice... seriously.Jacinta was invited 52 times and refused all opportunities...
The problem for the no vote advocates was they couldn't justify the falsehoods... seriously.
There is one glaring falsehood, since the voice... seriously.
In reality the Yes campaign couldnt answer any questions, it was their responsibility to sell it, the planning and presentation was appalling and the post referendum vacuum really shows the lack of heart and commitment behind it.It's a fact none of the no campaigners faced up to scrutiny due to them running falsehoods none , zero, SFA.
Even now its Peter "who" Dutton.
In reality the Yes campaign couldnt answer any questions, it was their responsibility to sell it, the planning and presentation was appalling and the post referendum vacuum really shows the lack of heart and commitment behind it.
It isn't a good look, all of a sudden what was the most important issue facing us, doesn't even rate a mention in the media.
Well if you are setting the bar with Dutton, you are selling Albo short IMO.Obviously the yes campaign failed but they did repeatedly face questioning and did answer the questions unlike the no vote, when you refuse interviews 52 times you have something to hide or simply cannot defend the BS.
As for lack of heart Dutton spent $30 mil locking up a family with two little girls and when the heat got too high the coward backed down.
Probably because Yes perceived the ABC to be biased, because they were.Jacinta was invited 52 times and refused all opportunities...
The problem for the no vote advocates was they couldn't justify the falsehoods... seriously.
No wonder the ABC is losing its traditional audience.My dream for a culturally safe working environment at the ABC
As one who was both aghast and distressed to learn the ABC fosters an oppressive and dangerous environment for people of colour and other minority employees, I was relieved to hear that management has finally taken the first step towards ameliorating their Dickensian working conditions.
The driver for this was a no-confidence motion in managing director David Anderson passed last week by ABC employees who are also members of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA). One hundred and twenty-eight of them, to be precise, or around 2.6 per cent of the ABC’s workforce. Among other things, they have demanded management provide a “culturally informed process for supporting staff who face criticism and attack,” and take “urgent action on the lack of security and inequality that journalists of colour face”.
In response, ABC News director Justin Stevens emailed editorial staff, imploring employees to “stay united”. He announced he intends “holding listening sessions with culturally diverse staff in News” given they are “finding it difficult to freely express their views”. In addition, he has appointed Indigenous Affairs editor and Dja Dja Wurrung/Yorta Yorta woman Bridget Brennan to “co-ordinate an urgent piece of work” to examine “international best practice on providing support in culturally safe newsrooms and bringing ideas and recommendations to the News Executive.”
This move cannot come soon enough. According to MEAA acting chief executive Adam Portelli, “the progress that has been made in diversifying the ABC has gone backwards”. When I read that I checked ABC’s annual report for last year. To my horror there was scant reference to improving diversity. Aside that is from the ABC’s Diversity & Inclusion Standing Committee, the Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Plan, the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan, the Diversity and Inclusion Report, the News Diversity Advisory Group, the Screen Diversity and Inclusion Network, and the ABC’s partnership with an Indigenous organisation to ensure “supplier diversity”.
In fact, ‘diversity’ was mentioned only 73 times in the 284-page report. We are talking blink-and-you’ll-miss-it references. My dismay was compounded when I discovered that only 12.9 per cent of the ABC’s non-casual workforce are LGBTQIA+. Then there is the dastardly patriarchy. Women fill only 55.4 per cent of executive roles and 54.9 per cent of the ABC’s workforce. Indigenous employees make up 3.3 per cent and workers with a disability 5.4 per cent. If those figures represent diversity going backwards at the ABC, Adam Portelli, what on earth were they before?
View attachment 170033ABC fill-in presenter Antoinette Lattouf was sacked over social media posts on Gaza.
Ah, you say, but the real issue is cultural diversity and empowerment. Well, no. Over a quarter of the workforce – 25.7 per cent – are in the “culturally and linguistically diverse background” (CALD) category. These employees occupy 20.4 per cent of executive positions. And 24.2 per cent are in content-maker roles. For the last five years they have had a dedicated network group (ABC Belong). Its charter is to “increase awareness and representation of cultural and linguistic diversity” in the workforce and content and “to provide a safe space for the CALD community and its allies to meet and support one another.”
Suffice to say this is not a workplace where the staff canteen offers only steak and three veg for lunch.
Nevertheless, there could be something in this cultural safety racket for yours truly. Having an Irish background, I tend to be forthright. It is very difficult, in fact nigh impossible, for me to hold my tongue in certain situations, particularly when grifters, race opportunists and censorious ideologues presume to tell me how to think and act. In the unlikely event I ever get offered a job at the ABC, I look forward to pointing out a few home truths both on air and internally. This of course will result in numerous complaints, but I need only to invoke my cultural safety immunity. All good?
Since the Brennan review has been announced, we have already seen an example of this playing out. The employee concerned is none other than Brennan. Appearing on ABC News Breakfast during a live cross on Australia Day, she went on an activist bent.
“For First Nations people, for my people, this is a very important day to remember our ancestors and those who fought for many decades to improve the living standards for our people and remember that it always was and always will be Aboriginal land,” she said.
So much for ABC editorial policies which require that presenters “Gather and present news and information with due impartiality” and forbid them from presenting analysis and commentary as ABC editorial opinion. But when that was put to the national broadcaster on the day, a spokeswoman made it clear that managerial gumption is non-existent at the organisation.
“The ABC backs her completely,” she said. In other words, Brennan has a culturally safe get out of jail card. Any guesses as to what her review findings will be?
View attachment 170034ABC News Director Justin Stevens recently emailed editorial staff, imploring employees to “stay united”.
In short, demands for a culturally safe workplace are sophistry. They hold that minority employees who screech oppression and victimhood have a higher calling. Culturally safe means editorial policies requiring accuracy do not apply to them, because what they say is their “truth”.
Culturally safe means they do not have to answer to the ABC complaints process. Culturally safe means they get a platform for their prejudices, whether that is by accusing Israel of genocide, or browbeating white people about their privilege, or ranting about stolen land and reparations. Culturally safe means they are a victim of racism, misogyny, or Islamophobia when their extreme views result in audience backlash, and that ABC management must take urgent measures to ‘protect’ them.
Culturally safe means that mainstream Australians, the very people these presenters despise, must fund their activism and livelihood. And the good news for their allies is they too, no matter what their seniority, can stand under the culturally safe umbrella. Witness for example the blatant declaration of ABC global affairs editor John Lyons, who reportedly said at last week’s MEAA meeting that he was “embarrassed” at the organisation’s “pro-Israel bias”.
This is what happens to public institutions where employee entitlement and management timidity define workplace culture. In a statement last week, outgoing ABC chair Ita Buttrose was outraged at the no confidence motion in Anderson, saying “It is abhorrent and incorrect that people would suggest that he has shown a lack of support for independent journalism and journalists”.
This is your legacy, Ita Buttrose, and you have left one hell of a mess for your successor, Kim Williams to clean up. If only you had spent the last five years enforcing the ABC charter instead of being a cipher for a workers’ collective. The more you try to appease the entitled and the outraged, the more they will take advantage of you. That is human nature. Always has been, always will be.
The Mocker,
The Mocker amuses himself by calling out poseurs, sneering social commentators, and po-faced officials. He is deeply suspicious of those who seek increased regulation of speech and behaviour. Believing that journalism is dominated by idealists and activists, he likes to provide a realist's perspective of politics and current affairs.
Probably because Yes perceived the ABC to be biased, because they were.
Rubbish Rum, Jacinta Price went on Insiders after her and Dutton did the Alice Springs child sexual abuse photo op slagging off under resourced under funded child protection workers talking to people in shopping centres (white people only) about the issue (no meetings' with local Aboriginals none, nada, yep 0) and got the softest interview with Dave Speers ever it was cringe worthy.
Fact is other than that episode the ABC has people who actually ask hard questions 7.30 being a case in point, Dutton has avoid any hard interviews such is his BS in comparison Howard always turned up to defend the undefendable.
Jacinta Price rejected 52 ABC interview requests during Voice campaign
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price rejected 52 interview requests from the ABC during the Voice to Parliament referendum campaign, with the public broadcaster citing its futile pursuit of the senator as an example of its efforts to cover the campaign fairly.
The report, authored by Mark Maley, chair of the ABC’s Referendum Coverage Review Committee (RCRC) and editorial policy manager, said Price did not agree to a single interview on any major broadcast program over the course of the campaign (August 30 to October 14). It added that the ABC had faced significant challenges in getting voices from the No camp to present their argument as opposed to those from the Yes camp.
“Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, for instance, declined at least 52 interview requests with the ABC and did not agree to a single interview on a major broadcast program,” the report said. Major broadcast programs include any national show across radio or television.
In response, Price told this masthead in a statement that she and the No campaign had gone to great lengths to reach as many Australians as possible, but it was not her job to make herself available to the ABC “whenever it suited them”.
“My role in this campaign was to ask Australians to vote No to division, not boost the ratings of a failing activist ABC,” Price said on Monday.
Price did make some appearances on local ABC channels, including ABC Radio Adelaide in October, where she called the broadcaster’s approach hostile.
“My experiences with ABC interviews are often hostile, and I’m treated with contempt on many different platforms. Whether it’s ABC Breakfast, or whether it’s [Radio National], [Patricia] Karvelas and [Hamish] McDonald, they’re particularly hostile towards me,” she said at the time.
A lack of public advocacy was a feature of the No campaign’s media strategy the Referendum Coverage Review Committee report stated, with fewer high-profile individuals associating themselves with the campaign. There was also a deliberate push by No advocates to focus on social media and engage with “friendly broadcasters”, the report said.
‘My role in this campaign was to ask Australians to vote No to division,
not boost the ratings of a failing activist ABC.’
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price
The report pointed to the Afternoon Briefing TV program as a “standout example” of the No campaign refusing to engage with the ABC. Most high-profile potential No interviewees in Canberra never fronted the program despite repeated requests.
“The effect was a wide disparity on a program that produced a lot of content, although for a relatively small audience.”
Maley, the report’s author, said a 50/50 balance of advocates was not required as a benchmark to judge the fairness of the ABC’s coverage of the referendum. Instead, the broadcaster’s key role was to ensure that audiences were provided with the main arguments for and against the issue across all its platforms and within a reasonable time. Maley added the ABC had been broadly successful in achieving that.
Chief politics correspondent for 7.30 and staff elected board member Laura Tingle called out the broadcaster’s obsession with false balance “nuts” at a book launch two days before the referendum vote in October.
“But somehow, the way the numbers have worked tells people that the Yes case has been wildly overrepresented on the ABC, and as a result, it affects the way we structure and report stories because they say if you can’t get somebody who’s a No, you can’t put on somebody who’s a Yes,” Tingle said.
Price appeared at the National Press Club in mid-September during the campaign. Tingle, who is also the club’s president, said at the time it had been hard to secure confirmation dates for Price and fellow No activist Nyunggai Warren Mundine. Price’s speech attracted controversy over its broadcast scheduling but eventually aired on the ABC’s main channel.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had the highest share of voice across the campaign.CREDIT:RHETT WYMAN
According to data from Isentia, externally commissioned by the ABC, voices advocating for a Yes vote drew a combined 51 per cent share of coverage over the six weeks across radio, television and online, compared with the 23 per cent share attributed to No advocates. Neutral voices commanded 24 per cent while undecided was 2 per cent.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had the largest share of voice across the entire campaign, while Mundine had the largest share of voice for those advocating for No.
The ABC received 383 complaints relating to its coverage of the Voice, 315 of which were claims of lack of balance or bias; 250 claimed the ABC’s coverage unduly favoured the Yes campaign.
Of the 121 complaints investigated by the ABC’s editorial ombudsman, four were found to be in breach of the broadcaster’s editorial standards. All four breach findings related to an inaccurate reference in a 7pm TV news report about the 1967 referendum having granted Indigenous Australians the right to vote.
it lost me , over a decade agoNo wonder the ABC is losing its traditional audience.
Hasn't the ABC closed down a few of its current affairs programs and sacked a few reporters?No wonder the ABC is losing its traditional audience.
We are the same, haven't watched the ABC news or current affairs programs for years, still watch shows like Vera etc.it lost me , over a decade ago
wouldn't even know what current programs it has ( and i don't care about not knowing )
Yes, The Drum has been axed. I stopped watching that when it was obvious it was run by feminists. Andrew Probyn was sacked and is now with Nine. Ashley Raper left and is now with Ten. The aforementioned Ticky Fullerton was heard to say she left because she wasnt a communist or a lesbian and there was no place for her!Hasn't the ABC closed down a few of its current affairs programs and sacked a few reporters?
It means that the highest-profile chair in Aunty’s history, certainly the only one to get the TV miniseries treatment, will go out with a whimper.
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