Watchdog barks up wrong tree

The latest RMIT ABC Fact Check imbroglio involving Dick Smith is a timely reminder that academics with predetermined views must not be allowed to position themselves as arbiters of public truth. Not for the first time, the fact check arrangement has erred on the side of wokeness to the point of inaccuracy. The public broadcaster apologised to Mr Smith on Tuesday night, hours after he wrote to ABC managing director David Anderson demanding corrections to an RMIT ABC Fact Check report on renewable energy that he claimed was “full of lies”. In its online mea culpa the ABC conceded the fact check “incorrectly stated that Mr Smith had rejected renewable-led electricity generation; this has been amended. The ABC apologises to Mr Smith for the error.”

In his letter to Mr Anderson, Mr Smith said he was “pro-renewables”. He had never “said or believed that wind and solar could not lead our nation’s energy transition”. Mr Smith told The Australian the fact check was “wokeness” that had “intentionally taken my really important statement that you can’t run a country completely on renewables to change that to just electricity”. In August last year, RMIT University’s FactLab – working “hand-in-hand” with RMIT ABC Fact Check – showed it was driven by ideology when it claimed reporting by The Australian commentator and Sky News host Peta Credlin about the length of the Uluru Statement from the Heart was incorrect. Credlin, using a Freedom of Information release from the National Indigenous Australians Agency, correctly pointed out that the statement was not a single page, as claimed by Anthony Albanese and other supporters, but a 26-page ­document. Among other points, it called for reparations to be paid by taxpayers to Aboriginal people, seeking “a percentage of GDP”, to atone for the “invasion” that began in 1788. RMIT is part of a global network that claims to assess the reliability of published information. Tech giant Meta was criticised for reinstating its partnership with RMIT FactLab after the unit had its international fact-checking certification suspended and then reinstated.

The ABC has announced it will end its longstanding fact-checking partnership with RMIT after a series of issues including accusations of bias in the content it checked. The latest example involving Mr Smith confirms the ABC made the right decision. But ABC management must ensure its own fact check unit does not repeat the mistakes of the RMIT joint venture. And politicians and global tech companies must be made aware that someone must always be there to watch the fact checkers.