News Corp executive chairman Michael Miller says ABC should focus on its ‘internal problems’

The executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, Michael Miller, says the ABC should focus on its own serious internal problems instead of criticising rival media organisations over their news coverage.

The executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, Michael Miller, says the ABC should focus on addressing its own serious internal problems — namely, allegations of entrenched racism within the public broadcaster — ahead of criticising rival media organisations over their news coverage.

“The ABC needs to stop passing the buck and blaming others for its own internal problems,” Mr Miller said on Tuesday.

“ABC director of news Justin Stevens has made a raft of unsubstantiated claims about News Corp’s reporting of how the ABC covered the coronation, and the ensuing fallout that Stan Grant says contributed to his decision to stand down as host of Q+A.

“Mr Stevens’ misleading claims are being repeated across the various broadcast arms of the ABC, and he should correct the record.”

Mr Stevens accused News Corp of running a “campaign against the ABC”, and suggested the media company’s recent news coverage of King Charles III’s coronation had contributed to Stan Grant’s decision to stand down as host of Q+A.

The coronation coverage has so far drawn more than 1700 complaints from ABC viewers, with the majority of the negative feedback centred around the 45-minute panel discussion that was dominated by anti-monarchy sentiment in the immediate lead-up to the coronation service.

Grant was one of the five guests on the panel on the evening of the coronation on May 6.

The Australian has been told that no other television program in the history of the ABC has attracted more viewer complaints than the coronation coverage.

In an interview with ABC Melbourne Drive host Rafael Epstein on Monday, Mr Stevens said the ABC was under “attack”, and singled out News Corp as the main offender.

‘‘It’s a completely different ball game now for us. Sections of the media, particularly in News Limited (sic) will do anything they can to campaign against the ABC,’’ he said.

Mr Stevens’ remarks were published on the front page of The Age on Tuesday.

ABC presenter Stan Grant is standing down from duties following the backlash over the Coronation coverage.

ABC director of news, analysis and investigations Justin Stevens.

Mr Stevens also accused un-named media outlets of “piling on … with a clear agenda” of attempting to undermine trust in the public broadcaster.

“We should be subjected to a great deal of scrutiny but it should be based on facts and it shouldn’t be a relentless campaign just because they are trying to chip away at people’s sense of trust in what we do because we threaten their business model,” he said.

“Australian media broadly need to have a good hard look at themselves at what’s in the public interest and where are their journalistic efforts best served for the public.

“If it’s sending multiple questions to the ABC day after day about various things … on the weekend for instance we got four or five dispatches of questions from media outlets about specific things relating to the ABC, one of them was from The Australian newspaper because they, or someone for them, have pored over the social media of one of our Indigenous journalists and asked questions about that.”

The Australian vehemently denies that the social media accounts of any journalists were “pored over”. The Australian put questions to the ABC on Sunday about a post on one journalist’s social media account, and an ABC spokesperson responded that the reporter in question had been reminded to adhere to the public broadcaster’s social media guidelines. This masthead chose not to publish a story.

During the radio interview on Monday, Epstein told Stevens: “I’m glad you’re calling out News Corporation, you’re right, they’re trying to chip away at our credibility.”

Mr Miller said Mr Stevens should tackle the pressing issues within the ABC, especially given the public broadcaster’s concession earlier this week that an urgent review into racism within the national broadcaster was needed.

Last Friday, Grant penned a column on the ABC’s website, writing that “no one” at the ABC had “uttered one word of public support” for him in recent weeks.

“I don’t hold any individual responsible; this is an institutional failure,” Grant said.

Grant hosted his last Q+A program on Monday night before taking indefinite leave from the ABC.