As a 60 year veteran consumer of the ABC on radio, television and on-line, I am dismayed with the national broadcaster’s declining relevance, professionalism and integrity. The place is a mess, clearly made worse under the control of Ita Buttrose and David Anderson.
The Lattouf unfair dismissal case has shown the inner workings of an organisation more concerned with mainstream respectability and acceptance than a commitment to report facts and speak truth to power. Despite her denials in court, blind Freddy can see that Buttrose, in particular, was swayed by an orchestrated Zionist campaign to throw Antoinette Latouff under a bus for daring to stand up against the Israeli genocide in Gaza. It’s risible that Buttrose should try to smear Lattouf as an “activist”. More than that, she tried to spin her push for Lattouf to be sacked as some weird sort of face saving kindness. Buttrose, we see your falsity.
It is obvious that the undue influence of the Netanyahu lobby in Australia was the main driver of the ABC’s massive overreaction to the hate campaign against Lattouf. After all, the political zeitgeist across Australia is to normalise and present the perpetrators of war crimes in Gaza as the victims of a new holocaust. The ABC Board and management have yet to secure a renewed five-year funding deal from the government – a deal unlikely to happen if Peter Dutton is elected. That is particularly so when the court case revealed no less than six layers of ABC management were involved in handling Lattouf’s sacking. Clearly the ABC is management top-heavy, with a correspondingly lightweight offering in current affairs and investigative journalism. In such a climate, with diminished credibility in its mandated role, telling truth to power is risky, even dangerous. But taking risks in dangerous environments is what professional journalism and public broadcasting is supposed to be about.
If there is one silver lining in the ABC’s Lattouf debacle it is the revelation that the national broadcaster is sensitive to complaints. Perhaps that is why the ABC’s one-year experiment with an Annual Public Meeting in February, 2018 was abandoned before too many in the ABC “family” got to know it was happening. The broadcaster’s publicity blurb at the time is instructive:
“The ABC will stage its first Annual Public Meeting on 9 February, 2018 giving the community an opportunity to hear how the ABC is adapting to the future and delivering value for all Australians. The public are invited to register their interest in attending this important event to learn about ABC strategy and to pose questions to the ABC Board and Leadership Team.”
Apparently the carefully stage-managed online event was too much for the ABC Board. They ditched the experiment with direct accountability as fast as they risked creating it. The scheduled 2019 APM was “postponed”. It has yet to be resumed.
I know many people who have tried to complain, or just give feedback to the ABC. Believe me, it’s harder than complaining to a bank. To be fair, the ABC has created an in-house ombudsman to take some of the political heat from management and respond to genuine criticism. Late last year I complained in writing to the 7.30 producers, presenters and then to the ABC Ombudsman. My concern was about the failure of 7.30 to interrogate the sensational allegation that the Israelis had activated the Hannibal Directive on 7 October 2023 and shot dead or bombed hundreds of their own citizens rather than allow them to become captives of Hamas. The ABC Ombudsman eventually responded, confirming the veracity of the online report, but offering no explanation about why the story was not explored or run on national television, or why 7.30 had refused to respond to my complaint. The story has this week been confirmed by the deposed Israeli defence minister at the time of the Hamas attack, Yoav Gallant. I await the high-profile coverage on ABC television. After all, I am sure most Australians remain blissfully unaware of the IDF murder of Israeli citizens – all of which the Israelis have blamed on Hamas.
As a regular but reluctant watcher of Insiders, I must say the first programs for 2025 have highlighted the setting rot in the ABC’s political coverage. David Speers hasn’t improved over the long break. His on-air bonhomie only partly disguises his pseudo-intellectual smugness. He asks predictable questions of his interviewees and revels in talk-show banter with his on-the-couch journalist guests. Sometimes they are good and lift the bland horizons of the program; more often they display the now routine MSM convergence on the big issues of the day. We have a centre-right Labor Government in Canberra and we have a centre-right ABC to jog alongside them like a puppy. There is no hunger to interrogate powerful politicians when the big media issues are outside the self-censorship of bipartisan connivance or the ubiquitous Murdoch media line.
The interview with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton on the first Insiders program of the year is a case in point. Dutton made much of the numerous campus and public protests last year against the IDF’s war of obliteration in Gaza. Speers allowed him to smear the thousands of Australians, from all walks of life, who have come out to condemn the Israeli Government for its criminal conduct of that war. Dutton directly implied that the government should have stopped those protests – an essential manifestation of democracy in Australia. It is a right we claim distinguishes us from autocracy. Speers let Dutton get away with that without challenge. He was dead wrong to do so. Given his position he should either learn to conduct a searching interview or get out of journalism. The ABC would do well to review the 7.30 and Insiders offerings from top to bottom. Ironically, the high quality Public Broadcasting Service daily News Hour program from Washington leaves most Australian TV journalism gasping for air.
Alison Broinowski’s recent open letter in this journal to current ABC chair Kim Williams was timely. She called out the national broadcaster’s timidity on the ethical questions about Gaza and the obvious reluctance of ABC reporters to question the Albanese Government on its silence about Trump administration decisions. I endorse her critique and add the observation that Williams has a mandate to do better than Buttrose and Anderson. As she says, “a starting point must be a greater understanding of the wants and behaviours of our audiences, and some tough assessments about whether the ABC is fulfilling its audiences’ needs, interests and aspirations”.
So, let’s see the ABC earn its next five-year funding agreement. It could begin by announcing an independent review of its current affairs broadcast services, including the flagship 7.30 and Insiders programs, an evaluation of its standards of investigative journalism, an audit of its middle-management structures and the restoration of the once promised and delivered ABC Annual Public Meeting. The latter would be a fascinating exploration of the health of the fourth estate in Australia.
Kym Davey
Kym Davey is a human rights advocate and former Commonwealth and State public servant. He is a member of Labor Against War.