ABC management praised Tom Joyner’s Israel reporting before David Anderson apologised for his ‘bullshit’ remarks

The ABC lauded the work of its Middle East reporter despite him being under investigation over his ‘bullshit’ remarks about babies being beheaded.

Tom Joyner ABC Journalist. Picture – Supplied

Hours before ABC managing director David Anderson said he was “sorry” that Middle East correspondent Tom Joyner described reports about babies being beheaded by Hamas terrorists as “bullshit”, news management at the taxpayer-funded broadcaster was praising his “powerful reporting” in Israel.

In an email seen by the Australian at 8.56am last Tuesday – three hours before Mr Anderson was questioned by a Senate estimates committee in Canberra – ABC news management told an aggrieved reader that at the time Joyner made the offensive remarks in a WhatsApp group, “there were good reasons to be sceptical.”

The reader described Joyner’s remarks as “egregious, uncaring, inhumane commentary” and said he should be removed from Israel.

Joyner is under investigation by his employer following the revelations of his comments by The Australian on October 13.

Joyner earlier this month told a group of more than 600 international media representatives on WhatsApp that stories that were being reported globally about babies being beheaded in Israel soon after it was attacked by Hamas on October 7 were “bullshit.”

But an email response to an aggrieved reader on Tuesday, signed by “ABC News Management”, stated that despite Joyner’s position being “premature” and his language “inappropriate”, he had done some great reporting on the war in Israel.

“Tom has done some of the most powerful reporting by the ABC regarding deaths to Israeli’s during the recent conflict,” the email said.

“His stories about Adi Maizel, a young Israeli who was at the Supernova Festival, were personal and horrific accounts of an Israeli killed and the family’s associated grief.”

Mr Anderson revealed at estimates that the embattled reporter had “rotated out of Israel and is taking a break”.

He also said Joyner would return to his normal base in Istanbul and not go back to Israel for the foreseeable future.

Despite Joyner’s “bullshit” remarks, Israel later confirmed the reports of babies being burnt and decapitated in Hamas’s assault on the Kfar Aza kibbutz on October 7.

Photographs were also shown to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The ABC was asked by The Australian why its news management team was defending Joyner despite his remarks being met with condemnation and prompting an investigation.

“The full (email) response (to the reader) says that Tom Joyner regrets his form of words in the WhatsApp post, is deeply apologetic for any offence caused and that his manager has spoken with him about the matter,” a spokeswoman said.

“It also says it’s worth noting that Tom is doing powerful reporting, especially regarding deaths of Israelis in the recent conflict.”

In recent days Joyner has featured in multiple Instagram posts in Israel alongside his colleagues including ABC South East Asia correspondent Lauren Day, who shared a picture of herself with Joyner and digital producer Riley Stuart and wrote: “Couldn’t have asked for a better team for the last fortnight in Israel.”

ABC staff including Riley Stuart, Middle East correspondent Tom Joyner and journalist Lauren Day. Source: Instagram.

At the time when Joyner made the comments, The Australian contacted him multiple times about his remarks but he did not respond.

The ABC later issued a statement and said: “Tom recognised the language of his comment was inappropriate and apologised to the group.”

The ABC also said his comments were “not on social media, published, publicly available, or intended to be shared or reported”.

Mr Anderson partly contradicted this at estimates, saying Joyner’s comments were on social media.

“I do think, given it is social media, it is something that we’ll be looking into and something we’ll be investigating. He has a right to procedural fairness.”

At the Andrew Olle Lecture in Sydney on Friday night, ABC chair Ita Buttrose spoke of the risks taken by journalists reporting in war zones including in Ukraine and Gaza and how “it’s becoming more and more dangerous.”

“The walls in Ukraine and Gaza show no signs of safety,” she said.

“I want to pay tribute to our media colleagues who are prepared to risk their lives to tell us and the rest of the world what is going on. I worry about the safety of our brave ABC journalists and other media organisations in these waters.”