The ABC has dismissed a complaint from Fairfax columnist Mike Carlton over a recent Australian Story profile of 2GB radio host Ray Hadley.
Carlton, a former colleague of Hadley at Sydney station 2UE, alleged the program misrepresented him by selectively editing his interview. He also claimed the overall program was biased and presented an overly favourable portrait of the divisive radio star. The ABC Audience and Consumer Affairs division did not uphold any aspect of Carlton’s complaint.
The Audience and Consumer Affairs division states in its decision:
“It was clear from the final broadcast that Mr Carlton was critical of Mr Hadley’s workplace behaviour and his broadcasting style. The program makers employed a reasoned and considered approach and the final program was not unfair in its presentation of Mr Carlton’s views …
“The program makers did not include every point Mr Carlton made in his interview in each of the different ways that he expressed himself, and there was no obligation for them to do so. However, the program was under an obligation not to misrepresent Mr Carlton’s views, not to unduly favour one perspective over another and to present news and information with due impartiality. Based on a review of the program and the raw footage of the interview, Audience and Consumer Affairs was satisfied that these obligations were met.”
The day after the Australian Story profile went to air, Carlton told Crikey the program was “chocolate-box television – all soft in the centre.”
“I said a lot of strong things about Hadley’s behaviour on and off the air – about his treatment of junior staff and his obsessive attacks on people like [Rob] Oakeshott and [Tony] Windsor,” Carlton said. “I described his program as a temple of hatred … By selectively and deceptively editing me, they recruited me into his fan club.”
Destroyed by Howard, the ABC is now a grubby cesspit of Coalition apologists..shameful.
we expect no less from the ABC. Hopeless.
I admit to complaining twice to the ABC about specific bias in news stories on ABC Online. Not the general framing bias, the campaign of niggling destabilisation of Gillard, the tabloid language, the poor research or any of the other general problems.
The second disappeared with no response.
The first I got a weaseling dismissal, with statements such as ‘word counts are not a measure of bias’, even though that wasn’t really the substance.
And the contention is crap to the degree the ABC use ‘word counts’ in excessive quoting of the LNP, sometimes > 25% of the story and always including the Labor Bad Government-Labor Waste-Stop The Boats talking points.
Substantive complaints are useless.
And Knott, Keane etc: You might save some time by just cutting and pasting from LNP press releases for much of the story. It works for the ABC where apparently there is lots of “due impartiality”, so why not here?
how ironic (and dishonest) that some vested interests still try to make out that trhe ABC has a left bias.
also there are three other arguments about objectivity/subjectivity anyway. one, word counts are no measure at all – it all depends on the words and language. two, and equally nonsensical, the concept of equal time/equal words is a nonsense anyway meaning that a completely dishonest and/or nonsensical argument would get the same time as a factual reality-based point of view.
and finally, given the pervasiveness of rabid right-wing views and of views of blatant self-interest in the media, the ABC should in fact be giving some sort of fact-based humainty-based counterbalance instead of morphing into News Ltd Lite. i just don’t get what they have become or why. it is a national disgrace.