Susie O’Brien: ABC boss sorry not sorry for coronation coverage

After her network’s coronation coverage prompted a flood of complaints, ABC chair Ita Buttrose became the latest prominent Aussie to deliver a word-perfect non-apology apology.

ABC chair Ita Buttrose is the latest in a long line of prominent Australians to deliver a word-perfect non-apology apology.

Buttrose issued a tepid excuse to the Australian Monarchist League about the broadcaster’s excoriating coverage of King Charles’s coronation, which was dominated by tales of genocide and slavery rather than celebration. Viewers who tuned in to watch the Westminster Abbey spectacle were instead greeted by a vicious diatribe on the extermination of Indigenous Australians.

The coverage led to nearly 2000 complaints and an unprecedented petition of complaint from 10,000 signatories. The monarchists, not surprisingly, wanted Buttrose to apologise, but her limp offering fell short of what was required.

Susie O’Brien says Ita Buttrose responded to a flood of complaints with a tepid apology. Picture: Ryan Osland

As The Australian newspaper revealed, Buttrose conceded in a leaked letter: “There are always lessons to be learned from covering significant live events and this event is no exception.

“I do acknowledge that there are members of our audience who sought to watch the ABC to view and focus on the live feed of the arrivals and were subsequently disappointed.

“I am sorry they were disappointed with our coverage,” she wrote.

Buttrose needs to read her own book on etiquette. It’s not an apology if you talk about “lessons to be learned” without explaining what those lessons are.

It’s not an apology if you say you were sorry others were disappointed, without acknowledging that your own actions caused disappointment.

And it’s not an apology if you don’t actually say sorry or admit you got it wrong. Her non-apology also didn’t address the fact that even in late May ABC managing director David Anderson continued to insist the coverage was “justified, relevant and appropriate”.

Buttrose’s half-baked half-apology is reminiscent of similar offerings from Eddie McGuire, who once criticised a former journalist and double amputee for a bad coin toss. Amid a national outcry he said: “I just want to apologise if this was communicated in the wrong way.”

There was also former lord mayor Robert Doyle, who spent three years calling his female accusers liars, before admitting: “I see the need to say sorry … I’ve listened, I’ve heard you.”

As singer Demi Lovato might say, it’s a case of Sorry Not Sorry.