In the journalism business, defo can be an occupational hazard. That’s why the big media companies have in-house lawyers, to “legal” stuff that might otherwise land them in court. With over a billion taxpayer dollars a year in their pockets, Australia’s [taxpayer-funded leftist propaganda outfit] public broadcaster should be able to afford the very best.
Yet, even with all their publicly-funded resources, the ABC seems to have a hard time keeping their hacks in line. Hardly a month seems to go by without the ABC landing itself with yet another high-profile defo case. It’d all be laughable, if we taxpayer’s weren’t footing the bill.
The ABC’s failure to curb the enthusiasms of its activists-posing-as-reporters may well cost it again.
The organiser of an Alice Springs town meeting has lodged a legal complaint with the ABC following reports published by the public broadcaster that claimed the gathering displayed elements of “white supremacy”.
Resident and businessman Garth Thompson, who led the Save Alice Springs meeting in January alongside his mother, Michelle, has engaged lawyers over his on-air portrayal by the ABC, and he is in discussions with it over the matter.
Sky News
Out of the thousands of people who attended the meeting, the ABC reporter — who didn’t enter the meeting — somehow managed to find a small group who spouted evidence-free claims of “white supremacy”.
Unsurprisingly, these accusative and politically charged views were not representative of the substance of the meeting and were not reported as such in other media outlets […]
those sentiments were doubled down upon on The Drum where activist academic, Nareen Young, suggested that the Alice Springs residents’ meeting was like something out of Mississippi Burning – a movie about the Ku Klux Klan in the American south.
Sky News
Garth Thompson was far from the only person outraged by the ABC’s divisive, selective reporting.
The reports about the meeting aired on January 31, including one on ABC radio’s AM program, with the ABC ombudsman receiving 18 complaints about the multiple stories.
The ABC initially refused to apologise over the “white supremacy” claims, only to later back down, agreeing to re-edit and subsequently repost the AM story.
The Australian revealed in February that managing director David Anderson had conceded in correspondence to Senator Henderson that “we should have publicly recognised the flaws in the AM package earlier and apologised to audiences”.
And they wonder why people don’t trust the mainstream media, any more.
In the meantime, the ABC’s lawyers are earning their taxpayer-funded salaries on another front.
The ABC has dropped its truth defence in a defamation suit launched against it by former commando Heston Russell who claims the broadcaster gave audiences the impression he was involved in the execution of an Afghan prisoner.
A truth defence in defamation is where the defendant may or may not admit that the material was damaging to the complainant’s reputation, but it was true nevertheless. Tellingly, the ABC is giving up on that, and trying to argue that it was “in the public interest”.
An amended defence, filed to the Federal Court on Friday, shows the ABC removed defences of truth and contextual truth, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
The masthead’s report said that the national broadcaster would rely on a new public interest defence instead.
Mr Russell is suing the ABC, along with journalists Mark Willacy and Joshua Robertson, over stories published in 2020 and 2021 that he claims made it appear as if he was under investigation for shooting and killing a prisoner.
In February, judge Michael Lee found multiple imputations put forward held defamatory meanings.
The Australian
That includes the ABC reporting that, “Russell, as commander of November Platoon, was involved in shooting and killing an Afghan prisoner during an operation in Helmand province in mid-2012”.
Nearly every major media organisation runs the risk of getting hit with the defo hammer, some time. But why does it just keep happening to the ABC? And why, from allegations of RAN sailors torturing people smugglers, to false allegations against male conservative politicians, do the ABC’s “mistakes” always seem to work just one way?
Shouldn’t we expect better for our billion dollars a year?