Morale on ABC’s Four Corners ‘is at an all-time low’
Four Corners isn’t a happy place. Two of its senior journos, Louise Milligan and Sally Neighbour, are ‘at war’ with David Anderson and Gaven Morris.
Right now, Inside the Four Corners Bubble is not a happy place to be.
The two most senior journalists on the ABC’s flagship current affairs show, Louise Milligan and Sally Neighbour (the program’s executive producer), are said to be “at war” with the national broadcaster’s managing director David Anderson and the organisation’s news director Gaven Morris over the decision to delay the airing of a Four Corners episode about Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s alleged links to a known supporter of the QAnon far-right conspiracy theory.
Milligan and Neighbour, who collaborated on the story, thought it was editorially sound. Morris wasn’t convinced, so he “upwardly referred” it to his boss.
Anderson, who is recognised as the organisation’s editor-in-chief despite having no journalistic experience, brought out his metaphorical red pen and cut the piece to shreds.
“It’s not ready,” he conveyed to the journalists.
Milligan and Neighbour are understood to have been furious at the ruling. The decision was also said to have been “very poorly received” by other senior members of the Four Corners staff.
“Morale is at an all-time low,” one insider told The Australian.
Another Four Corners staffer said it was the view of the Milligan/Neighbour faction that Anderson and Morris had hung the program out to dry, by “making nice” with the federal government following the brutal political and legal battle with the former attorney-general.
It is against that backdrop that Mr Anderson will find himself before a hastily recalled Senate Estimates hearing at 9am Monday when he will be grilled by a cross-party committee on the legal costs arising from the defamation suit brought by Christian Porter, as well as the ABC’s social media policy, and, no doubt, the thinking behind his decision to press pause on the airing of Four Corners’ latest investigation.
Newsroom bust-ups are, of course, nothing new.
But this falling-out between four of the ABC’s most influential editorial figures is potentially very damaging within the broadcaster’s walls, as the quartet have enjoyed a tight professional relationship in recent years. They have remained loyal to each other in the face of much criticism from the federal government and other sections of the media for the ABC’s coverage of certain subjects, most notably the airing of allegations against Cabinet ministers Mr Porter and Alan Tudge last year.
Known within the ABC as a “safe pair of hands”, Anderson has been supportive of Four Corners journalists, despite attacks on their editorial rigour, telling a hearing in November ahead of the controversial Inside the Canberra Bubble episode: “It is absolutely in the public interest.”
But one source of frustration for ABC hierarchy has been the postings on social media by ABC journalists, including Milligan and Neighbour. It is understood that the decision by Milligan and Neighbour to tweet as soon as the settlement hearing in the Porter matter was adjourned on Monday angered people in the upper echelons of the organisation.
The Australian sent a series of questions to the ABC, but a spokeswoman said there was “nothing to add”.
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