The ABC is finally stepping up its defense, with managing director Michelle Guthrie yesterday giving a speech to the Melbourne Press Club, saying the ABC was not a “political punching bag”.
The speech was mainly notable as the first substantial defence Guthrie has given of the broadcaster since the federal budget was handed down, with a funding freeze that will amount to $83 million less funding over three years.
Guthrie responded to recent calls to privatise the ABC, and cited a preliminary report from Deloitte she commissioned, which she said found the ABC contributed $1 billion to the economy and indirectly created 2500 jobs.
A long silence
Disquiet at the silence from the ABC, from both within and outside the corporation had been growing, culminating with high-profile ABC Melbourne presenter Jon Faine last week criticising Guthrie and management on-air for being “remarkably quiet and reluctant to engage”.
Faine asked Guthrie after the speech yesterday why she hadn’t been more of an advocate. “We do not understand why you are so reluctant to do more of what you have done today,” he said. “We need a public champion. The public own us, we have to engage with them, and that’s what we look to you to do. I can’t get you on my show, nor can any of my colleagues or rivals.”
Judging by her response, this may not be an anomaly in how the ABC is going to respond to any further political attacks. “I’m one of those people that think the more you speak, the less you’re heard,” she said. “Speaking with impact is really important and that doesn’t mean I have to do it every week, but I think that does mean you’ll be seeing more of me, whether you like it or not.”
Guthrie also responded to questions about attacks from commercial competitors by comparing 7.30 host Leigh Sales’ number of Twitter followers to those of The Australian, and saying the ABC wouldn’t be distracted by the “noise”. “I think we’re OK. We do have to put it in context. It’s extremely important for us not to be distracted by the noise,” she said.
Correcting the record
But, in response to that “noise”, the ABC has been quietly stepping up its communication department’s response to any criticism. Last month, it set up a new Twitter account for its communications team, which it hadn’t previously had. The new account posts responses and clarifications (mainly to stories run in The Australian), and other corporate announcements and speeches.
Then, yesterday, the ABC debuted a new “microsite” called “Future of Your ABC”, described as the “home of news, information and stories about the ABC’s contribution to the community and the future of public broadcasting in Australia.”
So far, it’s hosting Guthrie’s speech from yesterday, an opinion piece written by ABC chair Justin Milne last month, and some ABC stories about cuts to the broadcaster.
An ABC spokeswoman told Crikey that the corporate Twitter account was usual practice as a “free and efficient communications tool”. She said the microsite was “designed to engage with audiences and provide information on the value of the ABC and public broadcasting”, and the ABC hadn’t allocated additional funds for the initiatives.
All well and good. BUT. It hardly makes sense to battle the neolibs on their grounds – the one that says money-making trumps all else. And for all the praise, not one cent of the $83m has been restored.
Let’s keep in mind what is important here – cuts to the budget of our ABC. Abetz, piling in to the ABC on the ABC this morning is receiving as much attention as Guthrie.
Yep, defensively playing the neos at their game is a guaranteed losing tactic.
A passing mention perhaps, just to show that even on that trivial side issue they are wrong. But the main thrust should have been a repetition of the sound that never was – a confrontive demand that the neolibs look to their own house and stop their transparently partisan interfering in the only mass media institution that, however muted, at least makes an effort to inform, rather than misinform, the Australian public. That the corporate rightists have deliberately weakened a fundamental component of democracy and subverted the right of the public to be meaningfully informed about the issues that affect them.
But ideally the best time for that was years ago, probably decades, and meek submission has become ingrained.
Hopefully its still not too late but Guthrie’s speech is not the answer.
I grew up with only the ABC although we could hear the commercial stations in Perth at night. Yesterday I had a quick look on line at a commercial program on Chinese influence in the Pacific. I lasted five minutes. It sounded like crass propaganda. (Not that Chinese influence in the Pacific shouldn’t be countered, certainly it should and Australia and Japan as the local rich boys should be doing more, but you don’t have to paint China as the devil in the first five minutes.) The ABC’s relatively balanced reporting has more value after a glance at the corporate alternative. I sometimes manage to listen for ten minutes or so to the pap from US public radio NPR relayed by ABC News Radio. I can only guess the ABC broadcasts that as a horrible example of what public broadcasting can become without proper Government support.
Funding, or lack thereof, is no guarantee as the BBC demonstrates.
Despite its licence funded revenue & immunity to government cuts, the proclivity to identify with the dominant paradigm has turned that once robust & mostly fearless broadcaster into a thin gruel slop, fit only for a deracinated & increasingly ignorant population.
The buckets of gold have been wasted on truly obscene salaries for some “stars” (2.4M quidlets to a DJ who couldn’t tie his shoelaces without several assistants to help being just one example… a DJ on the Beeb FFS!) and to hell with standards and integrity.
Institutional capture, Stockholm Syndrome, call it what you will but once people get their feet under a well laden table they are reluctant to disturb those above the salt.
Agreed, funding’s no guarantee of independence but without funding you’ve got NPR. I’d rather have the ABC even in its present parlous state than NPR.
Guthrie has a long, long way to go to convince most of us that she’s anything but a Murdoch stooge at the helm of the ABC. A token public comment is not sufficient.
One swallow does not a hunger slake.