The ABC doesn’t need redemption

Calls to defund Aunty, made by pundits who abhor cancel culture, are nonsense, according to Joseph Gersh. Pictures: (clockwise from top left) ABC headquarters at Ultimo, ABC chair Ita Buttrose, ABC managing director David Anderson is seen on a TV screen outside the ABC's Ultimo HQ, and 7.30 host Leigh Sales. Pictures: File

Chris Kenny has been a vigorous critic of the ABC while previously “resisting calls for its privatisation or abolition”, but after last week’s Four Corners, Media Watch and QandA he has asserted that it now “is beyond redemption”.

This follows similar calls from the Institute of Public Affairs and other respected organisations.

I cannot agree. I declare my centre-right bias; a long-time reader of The Australian, I was appointed to the ABC board by Turnbull government communications minister Mitch Fifield.

The ABC is frequently criticised and sometimes for good reason. Even the most passionate friend of the ABC could not argue that Aunty is beyond criticism.

Calls for the abolition or privatisation of the ABC (essentially the same thing) are a thought bubble for which there is no constituency on either side of politics. Each time it is repeated, it damages the ABC’s quest for the long-term, stable funding it needs and that underpins its independence.

Joseph Gersh says concerns about balance at the ABC are an entirely legitimate issue for debate. Picture: Hollie Adams

It may irritate the critics, but the ABC remains Australia’s most trusted source of news and current affairs. Who but the ABC can we rely on for emergency broadcasting, which attracted universal appreciation yet again in the most recent bushfires? Likewise with coronavirus.

Add to the list rural and regional Australia, Australian drama, comedy, children’s shows, women’s sport, music, Indigenous issues and the arts.

Unsurprisingly, the ABC’s political coverage attracts the most controversy. But how can it be consistent with liberal values to call for the ABC to be defunded every time a controversial story is aired? Cancel culture, which conservative columnists abhor, is just as absurd when applied to the ABC.

I do not share in the hysteria about Rupert Murdoch. News Corp, in my view, plays a valuable role, and if more media diversity is sought (and it should be) it can be achieved by encouraging as broad a range of competing voices as possible, including those that may require some taxpayer support.

But I do find it hypocritical when journalists and commentators conflate issues of competi­tion with issues of bias. News Corp is well able to deal with its commercial interests.

Concerns about balance at the ABC, on the other hand, are an entirely legitimate issue for debate and the views expressed in the columns of this newspaper should be heard; as should the views of others that may robustly differ.

The ABC is taxpayer funded, it does not accept advertising, and therefore it is not a commercial rival. Nonetheless, it competes for eyeballs and clicks. Some resent this. Freed of the obligation to satisfy advertisers or a proprietor, the ABC is able to do things others cannot do; things that may not have a commercial return but that have profound civic benefit.

The case for public broadcasting in today’s disrupted media environment and the era of “fake news” is stronger than ever.

Ita Buttrose, chair of ABC and David Anderson, managing director of ABC. Picture: ABC

I accept that some people were uncomfortable with Four Corners on Monday night last week. Four Corners often does that. By its nature, long-form investigative journalism can make those under investigation feel exposed. That goes with the territory. To demand intervention by the ABC board is misconceived.

The role of the board is to ensure that the ABC conforms to its charter, and it does so via its editorial policies as explained clearly by ABC managing director David Anderson at Senate estimates last week in an extraordinary exchange in which he was asked to justify a program that had not yet gone to air.

Critics often portray the ABC as a “conservative-free zone”. Yet Kenny’s greatest criticism of Q&A was the heated exchange between Malcolm Turnbull and Paul Kelly, two leading, respected men I would describe as conservatives. Agree with either, or neither, but what sin has the ABC committed in putting these important issues — climate change and media diversity — to air?

Kenny’s throwaway line, “Sorry Ita, we had high hopes for you”, apart from being inappropriate and patronising, fails to appreciate some of the bold and strategic thinking adopted under the leadership of Ita Buttrose and Anderson during a time of financial challenge.

This board has adopted a five-year plan to decentralise the ABC. Three-quarters of content-makers will be outside Ultimo headquarters by 2025 and enhanced recruiting guidance will encourage greater diversity on and off air.

These are not “woke” words. They represent a fundamental shift to make the ABC more representative of today’s Australia. People in different parts of the country and from different cultures and backgrounds see issues differently. In a measured and thoughtful way, this plan addresses the “unconscious bias” at the ABC that Buttrose identified early in her tenure.

The ABC does not require redemption; it accepts constructive criticism but needs support and stable funding. Believers in a robust media would benefit from dial­ling down threats to its funding and continuity.

Joseph Gersh is executive chairman of Gersh Investment Partners, an ABC board member and a former deputy chairman of the Australia Council for the Arts.