ABC ombudsman hands down scathing review of ABC RMIT Fact Check report on Dick Smith

The public broadcaster’s ombudsman said the RMIT ABC Fact Check unit should have ‘exercised more caution’ over businessman Dick Smith’s comments about renewables.

Dick Smith threatened to sue the ABC over a report written about him and published by the ABC RMIT Fact Check unit. Picture: Nikki Short

The ABC ombudsman has delivered a scathing assessment of the RMIT ABC Fact Check unit in the wake of its botched report about businessman Dick Smith’s on-air comments on nuclear and renewable energy.

The ABC received 11 complaints about the fact check titled, “Can a country run entirely on renewable energy?”, published on March 22, that delved into Mr Smith’s public statements on energy including renewables and nuclear.

In the report, RMIT ABC Fact Check rejected Mr Smith’s comment that “no country has ever been able to run entirely on renewables”, prompting the well-known businessman to write an urgent letter to managing director David Anderson demanding corrections.

But in a two-page finding published late last week, ABC ombudsman Fiona Cameron determined that the fact checkers “had inaccurately asserted that Mr Smith’s support for nuclear-generated power meant that he rejected renewable-led electricity generation in the process”.

“We think the RMIT ABC Fact Check should have exercised more caution before fact checking a potentially equivocal statement (about renewables),” she said.

“The broadcast breached the media organisation’s editorial standards for accuracy”.

The ABC fact check report, edited by Ellen McCutchan and approved by editorial lead Matt Martino, claimed Mr Smith supported calls to introduce nuclear energy in Australia but rejected “renewable-led electricity generation”.

Ms Cameron found this was false.

ABC ombudsman Fiona Cameron.

“Mr Smith is a renowned and long-time supporter of renewable energy with many public statements confirming that fact,” she said in her report.

“While he has expressed support for nuclear power generation in the current debate around that issue, he is also on the record ­arguing about the need for a ­hybrid mix of energy sources.”

The fact checking unit is taxpayer-funded by both RMIT and the ABC, and on its website it says it informs the “public through an independent nonpartisan voice”.

Mr Smith told The Australian last week that the RMIT ABC Fact Check unit made no attempt to contact him before publishing its report, which he said breached journalist standards.

“I want him (Mr Anderson) to issue a correction saying ‘Dick Smith was correct with his statement that no country has run completely on renewables’,” he said prior to an apology and correction being issued.

“And the statement that I’m against renewables is completely untrue. I’m a supporter of renewables.”

ABC managing director David Anderson was sent a letter by Dick Smith demanding corrections to an RMIT ABC Fact Check report.

The ombudsman also agreed with Mr Smith’s assessment of the failings by the ABC journalists and said he should have been contacted before the report was published.

“We believe that as the premise of the article was not entirely clear, RMIT ABC Fact Check should have made reasonable ­efforts to approach Mr Smith before publication, to clarify and confirm his position on the matter, before seeking to contest it,” Ms Cameron said.

Mr Smith also threatened to take defamation action last week if the errors were not corrected.

Initially RMIT last week stood by the fact check and when the ABC was contacted about the matter by The Australian last Monday, a spokesman did not respond. It was not until after Mr Smith conducted multiple media interviews and threatened to sue the ABC that he was contacted by Martino, who attempted to resolve the matter.

Finally – in an embarrassing backdown – the unit made numerous amendments to its analysis in the fact-checking report and apologised to Mr Smith.

Originally published as ABC ombudsman hands down scathing review of ABC RMIT Fact Check report on Dick Smith