In the wake of Four Corners’ recent episode on the situation of refugee children on Nauru, part of the government’s criticism was that Immigration Minister Peter Dutton had offered to do a live interview on the program, but the ABC had turned him down.
The ABC responded by saying it had offered Dutton an interview on Lateline, or on AM the next day — both offers were declined.
Now Debbie Whitmont, the reporter behind Four Corners’ documentary, has further explained the ABC’s reasoning, saying that allowing Dutton to chew up minutes wouldn’t have been the best use of time.
“Four Corners is the only one program on the ABC that’s a long-form crafted documentary program,” she said on 2SER’s Fourth Estate on Thursday night. “We have many other outlets with live interviews. We’re structuring a documentary. It’s not going to work to take 10 to seven minutes off the end to have an interview that may go nowhere in that seven minutes, and there are many other outlets on the ABC where that can occur. And the minister was offered a live interview on Lateline or AM – both were declined.”
“This play has occured before,” she added. “The ABC should be seen as a whole entity.”
The most disappointing thing about the criticism of the program, Whitmont says, was that the children interviewed by Four Corners would have seen it.
“I felt really bad for the young people we spoke to. They’re really very smart, they follow the Australian media, they know what’s gong on. I felt awful that response to this program was — rather than looking at concerns they had raised or anything they said — to criticise the ABC. That’s not the first time it’s happened, but that’s the most disappointing thing.” — Myriam Robin
That has to be one of the most stupid excuses I’ve ever heard.
The ABC airs a documentary designed to show Australia’s border and immigration policies in the worst possible right, and then denies the Minister responsible, the one being criticised, the right to state the opposing case.
It appears that on Four Corners the only voice to be heard is their’s, with a dissenting voice told to “take it elsewhere”. This isn’t journalism, this is advocacy.
This is why the ABC needs to actually enforce the charter to ensure that the ABC, which is funded by all Australian taxpayers, delivers balanced news and current affairs, not acting as mouthpieces for one particular lobby group, in this case refugee advocates.
The program that delivered hard hitting stories like Moonlight State, without fear or favor, has fallen to new lows.
Umm – you missed the bit where “it had offered Dutton an interview on Lateline, or on AM the next day — both offers were decline” ?
Dutton has had many opportunities to “state the opposing case” – I have yet to see him succeeding at doing so
If anyone would chew up valuable time in an interview it’s Dutton – like Pyne & Turnbull he has the ability to say something in 300 words which could be comprehensively condensed to 50.
As no other participants in the programme were live (& were edited) the same conditions should apply to Dutton. An even playing field.
Dutton had the opportunity to respond on alternative ABC current affairs programmes within 24 hours but chose not to do so. It would’ve given him extra time to rehearse & finesse his answers – not to mention permitted extra on-air time – & would’ve been a wise option. One suspects he knew the Four Corners producer would reject his offer & this would afford him something to gripe about & take a predictable swipe at the national broadcaster.
It is obvious what happened. Dutton offered the live interview with a show that doesn’t do live interviews, so he could say he was turned down. So of course he turns down the other offers for an interview.