BBC’s Trump edit scandal holds ‘real lessons’ for media, ABC boss says
The head of the ABC says there are ‘real lessons’ for the broadcaster after a scandal involving the editing of a Trump speech cost BBC executives their jobs.
The editing scandal that prompted executives at the BBC to resign has “real lessons” for Australia’s own national broadcaster, ABC boss Hugh Marks says.
Donald Trump threatened to sue the BBC for US$1.5bn after its flagship current affairs program Panorama edited a clip of the US President addressing supporters on the day of the January 6 US Capitol riots in 2021.
The edit portrayed Mr Trump as overtly calling for violence.
Speaking at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Mr Marks said there were two key takeaways for him.
“One is, I think sometimes we don’t quite recognise the way that the ABC has been set up through our act and the importance of independence,” he said.
“And if I look at the BBC and I see a lot of the commentary that’s been going on around what’s happened to them, not just in the last event but over time, you see there are things that have been chipping away at that independence.”
He said having senior management independent of each other gave staff “the opportunity to do their best work without fear of second guessing”.
“Am I doing the right thing? Treating the right interests? Have I got the politics of this right?” were not questions staff had to ask themselves, he said.
Mr Marks said the second lesson was in owning mistakes.
“We have to not cower, but we can’t be defensive when we make a mistake – own it,” he said.
“It’s not hard. People accept this is a fast moving world. People accept journalism operates on a very fast cycle.
“People are under pressure to file and get stories up and that’s what the public needs because they need to be informed.
“Sometimes mistakes happen. When mistakes happen, we acknowledge them, we own them, we make the correction, we move on.
“We don’t defend at all costs.”
The ABC has weathered several high profile scandals in recent years, from unfair dismissals to doctoring material and allegations of bias.
Commentators last week began accusing the broadcaster’s Four Corners program of editing Mr Trump’s January 6 address in a similar fashion to the BBC.
The ABC has pushed back, with a spokesperson saying the edit “did not change the meaning”.
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Originally published as BBC’s Trump edit scandal holds ‘real lessons’ for media, ABC boss says
