Taxpayer funded ABC has let down Stan Grant and its own audience but, true to form, tries to pin blame on others

Stan Grant, Picture: Nick Cubbin

The ABC has badly misjudged its audience and let down a star performer, but rather than admit its mistakes it has followed the inflammatory path of looking for scapegoats. As is often the case, bashing commercial media, notably this newspaper and Sky News, has been a handy substitute for admitting the truth of its own failings.

Even if the subject matter of colonial impact on Indigenous Australians is a worthy topic for debate, and we think it is, using the King’s coronation broadcast to have it showed a tin ear by ABC programmers to the expectations of their audience. This is clearly demonstrated by the fact the program received 1700 complaints from viewers, a high number.

As a result, a star broadcaster with decades of experience across all forms of media in Australia and internationally has stepped away from the microphone, citing a lack of support from ABC management against what he says has been an onslaught of unsavoury messages on social media.

Stan Grant is collateral damage from the ABC’s unworldly behaviour.

Stan Grant hosting the ABC’s Q+A. Picture: ABC

In a display of collegiality, other ABC staff have shown their support for Grant publicly and high-profile ABC hosts such as Patricia Karvelas, a former reporter at The Australian, have been willing to conflate the online trolling complained of by Grant with the legitimate public interest shown in the furore by other media.

Karvelas was quick to encourage her on-air guests to denounce comments made by newspaper readers but did not offer a single example to justify her claims of racial bias. As is so often the case, critics presume to know what is happening in the well-argued pages of a newspaper dedicated to presenting diverse opinions without actually bothering to read it.

Other media outlets have been quick to join the pile-on. Nine Entertainment has shown a breathtaking hypocrisy in using its newspaper pages to attack its commercial rivals at News Corp Australia without acknowledging the inflammatory positions taken by its own commercial broadcasters on talkback radio.

ABC director of news, analysis and investigations Justin Stevens.

ABC director of news Justin Stevens said Grant had borne the brunt of a tirade of criticism, “particularly in the usual sections of the media that target the ABC”.

He said reporting on Grant’s “contribution to the panel discussion has been unfair, inaccurate and irresponsible. It has contributed to fuelling horrendous personal and racial abuse”. Stevens’ criticisms are misdirected.

As News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said on Tuesday, 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.

Mr Miller said Stevens’ misleading claims were being repeated across the various broadcast arms of the ABC and he should correct the record.

Our position is bolstered by comments made on the ABC’s Media Watch program that the ABC should review the way it encourages some of its star journalists to walk the impossible line between news, analysis and opinion, and whether that is in line with public expectations.

The case was made by media veterans Stuart Littlemore and David Salter in an opinion article that said the ABC had catastrophically undermined its authority and independence by permitting journalists to post personal commentary on the corporation’s digital outlets, and to parade their egos on social media.

“Thus, we get defamatory stupidities on Twitter that cause huge reputational (and financial) damage to the ABC. Thus, we get the Stan Grant debacle,” they wrote. None of this is the responsibility of a competitive mainstream media.

Stuart Littlemore QC has written a fierce criticism of the ABC

The lies and distortions being peddled by ABC management must not be allowed to stand. Given the subject matter and the state of current debate over a referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament, it is important the facts are kept straight. At The Australian, we respect Grant and do not condone or permit the sort of racial attacks he accuses the ABC of failing to protect him from.

But we will continue to air views that run counter to those that many at the ABC would consider to be self-evident. That is what diversity is all about. We will not allow our masthead, journalists or readers to become scapegoats for an ineffective ABC management that should pay more attention to sticking to the truth and delivering what its audience demands.