You can give identical film footage, photographs or facts to two different film producers or print editors/journalists and end up with two entirely different stories. Judicious editing, with specific sounds or music added, can produce polar opposite outcomes (both well away from the truth, if desired).
Australian taxpayers fund the ABC so we have a free, nation-wide, objective source of news and information. The ABC’s job is to present us with all the facts, clearly, so we can make our own minds up. When we are being fed editorials (opinions), it’s supposed to be clearly identified as such.
Many have been dismayed by particular ABC Television programmes – in particular, Lateline and 4 Corners – running carefully timed material provided by an animal rights extremist organisation. With no objective analysis to be seen or hard questions asked of the assertions made, let alone the running of the other side of the story or providing unbiased information on the bigger picture. Many have asked the ABC for a thorough investigative piece on the aims and activities of the animal rights organisation behind the push to ban live exports. But to no avail.
Well-known documentary maker John Safran wrote the following in the Dec 2013-Feb 2014 issue of The Walkley Magazine:
“I remember, 15 years ago, sitting in an ABC edit booth with the editor, splicing together my first documentary story. It was set in an abattoir. The editor decided if he took the moos from cows in the paddock and overlaid them on cows about to be bolt-gunned inside, it made things more dramatic. But, but, but, I stuttered innocently, that’s not the truth. They’re not mooing inside! Pretty soon, you fudge a little here and a little there and you’re less journalist and more PT Barnum. A few years later I’d have happily gone into a booth and mooed terrified moos myself.”
It would be very interesting to know more about the above-mentioned documentary, such as which ABC programme it was being produced for.
But really it doesn’t matter; because it’s just one of many deliberately tricked-up “documentaries” – a mixture of fiction masquerading as 100% factual. The above comment is an exceedingly rare admission from someone within the industry, on the power of some simple tweaking.
Everyone has opinions which colour their judgement, so it’s unrealistic to expect complete and constant ABC objectivity. However if one extreme story is run, then the ABC has a duty to run a story showing the other side of the story, or at least a thorough critique. In recent years more than one ABC political journalist has left to stand for parliament. Invariably for the Labor party. (When Maxine McKew left to commence her short-lived official political career, as distinct from her years of taxpayer-funded Labor-promotion via the ABC, I heard my father say “I told you so, for years” from above.) But blatant political bias amongst a number of high-profile and thus influential ABC journalists, including many specialising in political broadcasts, has been around for a long time. As has some bias on environmental issues – in particular, global warming.
What is new is the voiciferous anti-farming agenda amongst a small but powerful group of ABC journalists. Naturally – they are mostly based in either of Australia’s two largest cities. Should taxpayers be forking out $355,000+ to Tony Jones so he can screen emotive misinformation provided by an animal rights extremist organisation, that openly engages in illegal activities?
Ultimately this unchecked subjectivity is a failure of ABC management. Certain producers and editors are not doing the job they’re being paid to do, properly. It’s their job to ensure viewers are given the full, factual story and allowed to make their own minds up; rather than be steered heavily but subtly in the direction of a particular conclusion.
The ABC regional and rural journalists I’ve met over the years have without exception been great people. Genuinely interested in every topic under the sun, genuinely interested in the truth and the practical realities of life. And passionate about telling the stories of real people, and making the world a better place. So I was extremely sad when a rural journalist told me recently that many people in the bush are now reluctant to allow ABC journalists onto their cattle stations, because they are no longer confident film footage obtained won’t be used in an anti-livestock farming programme at some stage in the future.
For the good of all; a few bad apples – ABC employees treating the ABC like their own fully-funded personal soapbox – need weeding out as soon as possible.
Australia needs a strong, healthy ABC.
Tags: Australian meat industry, Australian Beef Industry, Image of the bush, Australian outback TV and film, Vegans & Vegos