Trump’s no saint but he deserves objective reporting

It’s misinformation for the ABC to run such erroneous sludge and present it as objective reporting.

In this file photo taken on January 06, 2021, Trump supporters battle with police and security forces as they storm the US Capitol building in Washington, DC. - President Joe Biden slammed his predecessor Donald Trump Monday in a prerecorded video address to The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) for watching his supporters riot for hours on January 6 while police at the US Capitol suffered through a "medieval hell." (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP)

This is shaping up as one of the most newsworthy years in recent decades. What with the attempted assassination of Donald J. Trump leading up to the US presidential election in November, the general election in Britain, the elections in India and France, the forthcoming Australian election and more besides. Including the Ukraine-Russia war and the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Yet ABC news and current affairs is very much out-for-lunch, to borrow a cliche.

Look at it this way. Late last year ABC management junked its 6pm television program The Drum. The official reason given turned on the fact that its ratings were poor. In fact, The Drum was increasingly boring primarily because it lacked viewpoint diversity.

It has been replaced, temporarily it is said, by repeats of Hard Quiz that are rating better than The Drum. To be fair, the program’s presenter, Tom Gleeson, is a rarity at the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster in that he is a funny comedian. Most are of the non-humorous kind.

Meanwhile, ABC TV’s Q+A has been off-air since June 3 and will not return until August 12. Since the end of last November it has been off air for twice as long as on air. Q+A also suffers from the boredom factor since it reflects the ABC’s reality as a conservative-free zone.

It is rare that a political conservative gets a run on the panel and the audiences are invariably leftist stacks. Programs when almost everyone agrees with everyone else on everything are just dull. Q+A has been replaced temporarily by Monday’s Experts. It presented as a funny sports commentary program. It fails on both counts and is rating no better.

The taxpayer-funded public broadcaster’s management boasts that the ABC is Australia’s most trusted news source. Yet its main evening news bulletin finishes behind the Nine and Seven networks. Which suggests most Australians are so silly that they watch news bulletins that they trust less than the one they trust most.

ABC TV’s 7.30 is presented by Sarah Ferguson, who did the three-part documentary titled Trump/Russia that she described as “the story of the century”. In fact, Ferguson’s (conspiracy) theory that Trump had defeated Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016 on account of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interference in the campaign was completely discredited by the reports of Robert Mueller and John Durham in 2019 and 2023 respectively.

Laura Tingle, 7.30’s chief political correspondent, was counselled not so long ago for having released a tweet accusing the Coalition government in 2020 of “ideological bastardry”. Enough said.

Last Sunday, the ABC TV Insiders program – which was presented by Patricia Karvelas – lacked depth and spark. Of the three panellists, The Daily Telegraph’s Clare Armstrong immediately understood that Trump had been subjected to a serious assassination attempt and addressed the topic professionally.

But Karvelas said early in the program “we don’t know if he’s been shot at”. This despite the fact footage had been shown of the former president grabbing his right ear and ducking down before being taken to the ground by his security detail and emerging with a bloodied face. Did the Insiders presenter believe that Trump had been stung by a bee carrying a capsule of blood?

SBS national Indigenous editor John Paul Janke expressed concern that “people are starting to tweet that God saved Trump”. Meanwhile, chief political correspondent for business publication Capital Brief, Anthony Galloway, declared that Trump “never lets a good opportunity go to waste”, while pointing to Trump’s post-shooting “image”. He added: “I mean, this is a guy …” before being interrupted by Karvelas, who concurred. With this level of lightweight discussion, Insiders runs the risk of going the way of The Drum and Q+A.

Recently the formation of ABC News Verify has been announced – presumably to correct what the ABC journalists like to present as the “misinformation” and “disinformation” of others. Yet Monday’s Four Corners program titled Retribution – Part 1 indicates that, as the biblical saying goes, the ABC should cast the beam out of its own eye before beholding a mote in its rival’s eye.

Part one of Retribution, titled The Battle for Democracy, was presented by Mark Willacy. As reported in the TV Tonight blog, the Four Corners team went over to the US for around six weeks. What a waste of taxpayers’ funds. Wil­lacy’s many pieces to camera were nothing less than an anti-Trump rant with respect to what was called the former president’s “second coming”. Get it?

Sure, some Trump supporters were interviewed, but the focus was on his enemies. They included one-time US Department of Homeland Security public servant Miles Taylor, who told Willacy that Trump was a “f..king idiot; he’s just a f..king idiot”. A Trump hater with a limited vocabulary, it would seem.

The first in the Retribution series misquoted Trump as saying that if he “didn’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath”. Implying that if Trump does not win the November election US democracy is at stake. In fact, Trump was referring to the future of the domestic car industry.

It’s the same with the allegation that when Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that, if elected, he would be a dictator for a day he meant dictator for life. In fact, Trump was talking about signing an executive order on his first day in office to close the US border and begin drilling for oil. That’s all.

Willacy told viewers that during the January 6, 2021, riot at Capitol Hill – he called it an insurrection even though no one had been charged with such a crime – at least five died in the attack. In fact, the only person killed in the riot was a 35-year-old US Air Force veteran, Ashli Babbitt, who was shot dead by a US Capitol Police officer.

And all this from a public broadcaster that claims to be the enemy of misinformation.

It’s misinformation for the ABC to run such erroneous sludge and present it as objective reporting. Trump is not a secular saint, but he is entitled to professional and serious reporting. As are ABC TV viewers.