George Pell: ABC gatekeepers ignore story that doesn’t quite fit their narrative on Cardinal

Cardinal Angelo Becciu. PIcture: AFP

The ABC was criticised last week for not covering the latest corruption revelations from the Vatican linking the demotion of powerful Sardinian-born Cardinal Angelo Becciu to the transfer of $1.1m cash to Australia, a transaction three Italian newspapers and The Times of London tied to the failed Victorian pedophile case against Cardinal George Pell.

One senior ABC journalist, ABC RN Religion and Ethics Report host Andrew West, did stand against the groupthink at the national broadcaster. His colleagues would do well to listen to his piece last Wednesday. But don’t expect ABC editorial managers to behave like editors everywhere else in the media and insist the corporation’s mainstream programs cover the story with an open mind.

The ABC’s gatekeepers on the Pell story, Media Watch host Paul Barry and Pell pursuer Louise Milligan, made clear on Twitter last week that they believe there is nothing newsworthy in the latest chapter in the decades-long saga. Milligan expressed displeasure journalists were even covering the story.

The idea Pell could in fact be the victim here just does not fit the preconceived narrative at the ABC, which struggled in April even to report fairly and accurately the unanimous 7-0 High Court overturning of Pell’s conviction. Several senior staff at the time tweeted that the High Court decision did not mean Pell had been found innocent. It most certainly did.

Media Watch host Paul Barry.

ABC journalist Louise Milligan.

This column on April 13 criticised ABC editorial managers for not ensuring in advance full and frank coverage of the High Court verdict given the way showpiece ABC programs had pursued Pell and given credence to outlandish claims, many of which were thrown out before ever coming to trial. Senior editors with good judicial contacts should have expected the verdict delivered by the High Court. Management had a duty to viewers and listeners to make sure the ABC’s news services provided timely, fair and balanced coverage of what was undoubtedly a disappointment for some of the ABC’s most senior reporters. But the corporation is not run for its journalists.

For editorial managers who don’t have contacts close to this latest Pell story — that would include them all, I would guess — Andrew West summed up in a couple of sentences why ABC editors should ensure journalists are assigned to look carefully at the latest allegations out of the Vatican’s ongoing financial scandal.

“A lot of threads though are being pulled together. Whether they come together naturally is another question … the … effective sacking of Cardinal Becciu the return to Rome of Cardinal Pell … and now the recalling to Rome of the Vatican Envoy to Australia, Adolfo Tito Yllana …” West said. Indeed, why risk flying to Italy in the middle of a pandemic unless Pope Francis thinks the financial allegations are serious?

West did not say it but would have known, as was revealed in Catallaxy Files last Tuesday, that Becciu and the Canberra-based Apostolic Nuncio, Yllana, have been friends for almost four decades, having both joined the papal diplomatic service in 1984. For those who have followed the Pell saga there is another point: allegations Pell was being targeted by Vatican enemies for his role in trying to sort out the church’s financial troubles actually predate his formal charging by Victoria Police.

Cardinal George Pell arrives at Rome’s Fiumicino airport last month. Picture: AFP

Pell was charged on June 28, 2017. Pell biographer Tess Livingstone, an editorial writer at this newspaper, wrote here a year before that on June 8, 2016: “Cardinal Pell’s secretariat is engaged in a battle with the powerful Secretariat of State, after Italian Bishop Angelo Becciu, the number two official in that office, suspended an external audit of Vatican finances by international accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers …”

Livingstone in this paper and Andrew Bolt in the Herald Sun and on Sky News have made much of the running on the Becciu story in this country and on possible links to the Pell case claimed last week when three Italian newspapers, Corriere della Sera, Il Messaggero and La Repubblica, on the same day reported Becciu’s number two, Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, had revealed the wiring of $1.1m to Australia in connection with Pell’s charges.

This newspaper reported Pell on Tuesday denying he had received any money from the church for his defence. Viv Waller, the lawyer for the accuser in the Pell trial, has also denied her client received any money.

Bolt said on-air that he had seen documents concerning the acquisition of a house. He has not named the buyer of the house but did say he was surprised the person would have had enough money to make the purchase. This column is aware of social media connections between the buyer and the selling agent.

Bolt, Pell’s high-profile defence counsel Robert Richter QC and legal academic Mirko Bagaric, dean of law at Swinburne University, have all called for an investigation of the latest claims, at the very least by AUSTRAC, the federal government’s anti-money laundering agency. Yet the ABC news channels seem incurious.

Barry last Monday tweeted out separate excerpts of a report from the Catholic News Agency relying on Il Messaggero’s coverage of Perlasca’s testimony about a €700,000 transfer “to an Australian account” and another from Corriere della Sera. Barry concluded the CNA report was “still very thin” and of the Corriere della Sera coverage, he declared: “Not much here either”. Really? Nothing worth following?

There's more detail here on the claim that Cardinal Giovanni Becciu bribed witnesses in Australia to testify against Cardinal Pell on historic sex abuse charges. But it's still very thin. https://t.co/vpCv3oDrf0 pic.twitter.com/3QfnRXeT53

— Paul Barry (@TheRealPBarry) October 5, 2020

Milligan last Wednesday tweeted: “Organisation proven … to cover up rape of little kids … peddles conspiracy theory starved of basic evidence. Bank transfers easily traced … Cough up proof.” It’s the attitude of a journalist aligned to one side of a story. Where was the proof when Milligan reported an allegation Pell had molested boys in a public swimming pool in the middle of the day, all with no evidence of the long-term grooming usually associated with institutional pedophila.

Organisation proven, in courts of law & inquires, to cover up rape of little kids, from Ballarat, to Boston, peddles conspiracy theory starved of basic evidence. Bank transfers easily traced. Unlike historical crimes by powerful adults against vulnerable children. Cough up proof.

— Louise Milligan (@Milliganreports) October 6, 2020

That allegation was ultimately withdrawn by the Victorian DPP — presumably because she didn’t think she could secure a conviction — but that fact went essentially unreported despite the airtime the ABC gave the original story.

On October 4, Milligan tweeted: “There are some mental conspiracy theories, backed up by no solid evidence, being passed around right now. Even by some journalists. I won’t give them oxygen … journalists are being used by the cynical and the powerful.” Let’s hope Milligan, an excellent reporter, has not been one of them.

There are some really mental conspiracy theories, backed up by no solid evidence, being passed around right now. Even by some journalists. I won’t give them oxygen but it depresses me endlessly that standards are so low & journalists are being used by the cynical & powerful.

— Louise Milligan (@Milliganreports) October 4, 2020

Passionate reporters are rightly committed to their stories. But their editors have a wider journalistic duty. They need to ensure the latest claims are properly examined in the public interest, and by a separate, sceptical and senior journalist. Preferably that person should be from outside Victoria, have good financial skills, know their way around property searches and understand church politics.

Investigators of Vatican finances have long been concerned church bank accounts have been used to launder money for the Italian mafia. It’s high stakes stuff.

One reader of this column who complained to the ABC via its online comments section was told, “Our journalists are aware of reports in other media, and are seeking to independently verify these claims”. Let’s hope so.