Bringing in proper penalties for impartiality – not just fines paid for with taxpayer dollars – would force the ABC to adhere to its legal and moral responsibility to be objective in its reporting, writes Kel Richards.
Former Victorian Liberal Party President Michael Kroger claims the ABC ratings have gone down “successively” due to the network’s lack of impartiality.
“No one who watches politics seriously thinks of the ABC as anything like impartial or independent,” Mr Kroger told Sky News host Paul Murray.
“The bottom line is the ABC is not impartial, everybody knows that. That’s one of the reasons their ratings have gone down successively.”
The latest flashing neon sign saying “Fix the ABC” is Laura Tingle’s outburst attacking Peter Dutton and claiming his housing policies were encouraging migrants to be abused.
The ABC’s own managing director David Anderson admits she has “hurt the ABC’s ability to be impartial”.
But she won’t be sacked.
Which sends a message to the more than 3,000 staff at the ABC that you can chuck impartiality overboard and get away with it.
ABC Managing Director David Anderson says he is “quite regretful” Laura Tingle’s statements on Opposition leader Peter Dutton were “made without qualification”.
Mr Anderson fronted Senate Estimates on Thursday following uproar over Ms Tingle’s comments.
“I am quite regretful that these statements were made without the usual qualification they would normally have and, therefore, that actually hurt the ABC,” he said.
“I think Ms Tingle suffered for it, and I think that that it allowed that when these comments are put together sometimes, it allows for other people to take a debate into a different direction. I am generally sorry that that happened. I wish it hadn’t have happened.
“When political leaders put things out for debate, I think the course that that takes I can’t be sorry for because I can’t be accountable for what has said off an ABC platform. So, it’s difficult for me to apologise for that.”
Clearly the ABC needs fixing.
It is no longer doing its job.
The ABC’s job is “to ensure that the gathering and presentation of news and information is impartial…” That’s what the law says.
That’s what Laura Tingle ignored.
The ABC is broken and needs fixing.
And I have the answer. I have the fix.
In my long career in broadcast journalism I have spent about half of it at the ABC, and the other half working for the commercials.
That gives me a special insight into the brokenness of the ABC—and how to fix it!
When a very young Kel Richards joined the ABC for the first time, new staff had to attend an “induction course”.
(It took place in the old ABC training centre in Kellett Street, Kings Cross.)
“There it was drummed into us that ‘ABC staff do not express opinions’.”
The ABC’s managing director David Anderson has admitted Laura Tingle has “hurt the ABC’s ability to be impartial” after her outburst at Peter Dutton. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Martin Ollman
We were told that opinion journalism was legitimate (and could be very entertaining)—there was no place for opinion journalism on a broadcaster [1] funded by all taxpayers (of all opinions) and [2] that had a legal requirement to be impartial.
So when I hosted the ABC’s flagship national, daily radio current affairs show “AM” I was careful to report facts impartially, to report community opinions with balance, and never express my own opinions.
That’s how we pursued the goal of impartiality back in those days.
And it was a better ABC as a result.
That is what has been lost—and what needs to be fixed.
Why can the ABC blithely ignore its legal and moral responsibility to be impartial?
And get away with it?
Because there are no penalties!
The fix is to bring in penalties for breaches of impartiality.
This would require an amendment to the ABC Act, or a second short act to supplement it.
We need legislation that imposes penalties on the ABC for breaching its impartiality requirement.
ABC Managing Director David Anderson says he is “quite regretful” Laura Tingle’s statements on Opposition leader Peter Dutton were “made without qualification”.
Mr Anderson fronted Senate Estimates on Thursday following uproar over Ms Tingle’s comments.
“I am quite regretful that these statements were made without the usual qualification they would normally have and, therefore, that actually hurt the ABC,” he said.
“I think Ms Tingle suffered for it, and I think that that it allowed that when these comments are put together sometimes, it allows for other people to take a debate into a different direction. I am generally sorry that that happened. I wish it hadn’t have happened.
“When political leaders put things out for debate, I think the course that that takes I can’t be sorry for because I can’t be accountable for what has said off an ABC platform. So, it’s difficult for me to apologise for that.”
They can’t be monetary penalties, because they’d just be paid with tax dollars.
So, what would work?
What penalties would make both management and staff sit up, strive to be impartial, and strive to restore the standards of the old ABC I once worked at?
I propose the penalties should be—being taken off the air!
If a TV program (let’s say Four Corners) was shown to have breached impartiality the penalty should be taking the show off the air—for one week for a first offence, for a month for any second or subsequent offence.
And when the offending program was off the air the Act would forbid the ABC to broadcast anything in its place.
During its scheduled time slot black screen and silence would be required.
This could be adjusted for other media which are unlike television.
An ABC radio station, for instance, that was shown by have violated impartiality would be off the air for a day for a first offence, a week for a second offence, and a month for third and subsequent offences. (Completely off the sir—silence—no substitute programming allowed).
The same could apply to any ABC website that deviated from impartiality—offline, shut down, for a day for a first offence, a week for a second offence and so on.
There could also be a provision that any ABC staff member who could be shown to have practiced opinion journalism would have to be dismissed by the ABC—the management would have no choice in the matter.
Sky News host Chris Kenny says the “groundbreaking revelation” this week is the ABC is spouting “hard-left propaganda”.
“The breaking news this week is the groundbreaking revelation that despite its legal obligations to be impartial and objective,” Mr Kenny said.
“The ABC is actually spouting hard-left propaganda.”
There must be penalties—otherwise the ABC will have no reason to strive for objectivity, balance and impartiality.
Strong penalties would push the ABC back towards being the strong, national broadcaster it was when I was first there (many years ago).
But is it realistic?
Would any government be courageous enough to impose such strong penalties on the ABC?
Would the Albanese Government?
It seems unlikely, doesn’t it?
Would a Dutton government be this bold?
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
The ABC is broken.
We need someone with the political ticker to fix the problem.
Kel Richards is a veteran Australian broadcaster and author whose distinguished media career includes hosting the ABC current affairs show AM and his own talkback commercial radio shows. He is also a frequent on-air contributor for Sky News Australia.