NOW SACK JUSTIN MILNE, POLITICAL HACK
Justin Milne should now resign: "ABC chairman Justin Milne told former managing director Michelle Guthrie to sack high-profile presenter Emma Alberici following a complaint from then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull... 'Get rid of her. We need to save the ABC - not Emma. There is no guarantee they [the Coalition] will lose the next election.'”
ABC chairman Justin Milne told former managing director Michelle Guthrie to sack high-profile presenter Emma Alberici following a complaint from then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull...
Mr Milne’s comments were contained in an email sent to Ms Guthrie on May 8... The chairman was replying to an email from Ms Guthrie that outlined a complaint from Mr Turnbull about Ms Alberici’s political coverage.
“They [the government] hate her,” Mr Milne said in the email...
“We are tarred with her brush. I think it’s simple. Get rid of her. We need to save the ABC - not Emma. There is no guarantee they [the Coalition] will lose the next election.”
Alberici is biased. She made mistakes. The ABC should indeed crack down on bias and errors, and Guthrie failed to do so properly.
But this is outrageous.
We have a close mate of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who got him the job, taking up a personal beef Turnbull had with one staffer to demand her sacking, when Alberici's failings were not sackable offences.
Worse, Milne makes perfectly clear in this email, as reported by Fairfax, that his sacking call is driven by political considerations more than by concerns about journalistic standards or the ABC charter. He wants Alberici gone to placate the Government led by his mate, and suggests that the possible return of the Turnbull Government makes that sacking more necessary. That also implies that Milne would not find it necessary to sack Alberici under a Labor Government.
This kind of political calculation is disgraceful. Shame on the board for not quashing it immediately.
Milne must go.
UPDATE
And the ABC staff - like Jon Faine - who have danced on Guthrie's grave, claiming she did not defend them properly from the (much-merited) criticism of their bias should apologise to her and also explain why they are so poorly informed even about their own organisation.
I noted yesterday this clash in interpretations of staff and Milne about why Guthrie had to go - Milne suggesting Guthrie didn't do enough to hold staff to account, the staff complaining she didn't defend them. As I said to Sharri Markson on my show last night, this would be a gulf that would turn into a huge story.
Indeed. That story will be that Milne must go.
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