ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie addresses bias claims

In a wide-ranging interview Michelle Guthrie concedes there are perceptions of bias at the ABC, and is planning a shake-up.

New ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie rejects suggestions most of the broadcaster’s journalists have a left-wing bias.

The ABC’s new managing director, Michelle Guthrie, has conceded the national broadcaster “can do better” at presenting a wider range of political views - while hitting back at critics who believe its journalists have a left-wing bias.

“I don’t see that as true at all,” Ms Guthrie said in a wide-ranging interview with The Weekend Australian Magazine, published tomorrow.

“People view any organisation from their own biases and my sense is that I think we do a very good job in covering the gamut of opinion. But I always think we can do better.

“That’s why I’m very conscious of making sure we are very reflective of the Australian population. I feel we do have a lot of editorial processes in place and we just need to make sure we adhere to them. I feel very confident those processes are well adhered to.”

The former Star TV and Google executive is planning a shake-up, saying she wants to “unleash” ABC content across as many media platforms as possible.

“We need to see digital as an opportunity to connect with many more people than we currently do with our existing platforms and think about it as a way of connecting beyond Australia as well,” she said.

As a teen, Ms Guthrie wanted to be Jana Wendt but, at the insistence of her Chinese mother, she studied law instead.

Thirty-five years later, she steps into the top job at the national broadcaster with no journalism experience beyond a short stint of work experience at the now-defunct Sydney tabloid The Sun in the 1980s.

“The funny thing is I was determined I wanted to be a journalist, so it feels like I’ve come full circle,” she said.

Her lack of experience in content creation has focused attention on whether the roles of managing director and editor-in-chief will be split, as recommended by then communications minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2014.

But Ms Guthrie defended the present arrangement. “I think the current structure seems to work very well,” she said.

Read Megan Lehmann’s exclusive interview with Michelle Guthrie in The Weekend Australian Magazine tomorrow.