The ABC has ended its partnership with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) FactLab, with which it has operated the ABC RMIT Fact Check project for the past seven years.
On Tuesday afternoon ABC news director Justin Stevens notified staff via email that the national broadcaster would replace the partnership with an internal fact-checking team, known as “ABC News Verify”.
Stevens said Verify would be a “team of specialists with the ability to scale up to support our special coverage in times of crisis. It will be part of the Investigative Journalism and Current Affairs team led by Jo Puccini.”
“In parallel with our decision to establish our own specialist verification team we have also taken the decision to not extend our current participation in ABC RMIT Fact Check when our current agreement expires in the middle of the year,” he wrote.
Crikey understands RMIT management felt blindsided by the decision from the ABC, with sources saying it appeared that the ABC had concerns over pressure from fact-checking politicians.
One source told Crikey that the relationship between RMIT and the ABC had become one-sided in recent years, with the university taking a lot of criticism from conservative media over the Fact Check project.
It comes as the partnership and the ABC have come under significant pressure in recent months over accusations of bias following the Voice to Parliament referendum. In May, RMIT FactLab published a fact check of itself, refuting claims that the organisation was being “used” by proponents of the Yes campaign to “rig the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum”.
The organisation’s participation in Meta’s fact-checking program was briefly suspended last year after its accreditation with the International Fact-Checking Network lapsed.
The Australian reported last year that the ABC had spent $165,000 a year on the RMIT partnership since 2020, according to figures released in Senate estimates.
In budget estimates this year, One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts asked ABC managing director David Anderson about the make-up of ABC RMIT Fact Check in relation to the Voice referendum.
Anderson responded on notice that of the 17 articles published between June 1 and September 29, RMIT ABC Fact Check published two articles focusing on claims made by the Yes campaign or proponents, 10 on the No campaign or proponents, and five on claims made by proponents of both sides.
Anderson said “checkable claims more frequently surfaced from proponents of No arguments than from proponents of Yes arguments” in the ABC’s media monitoring process.
“When a Yes claim surfaced which was checkable and important to the national debate, Fact Check made sure it was covered in a timely manner.”
A spokesperson for RMIT said in a statement that the university was “proud of the long-standing partnership” with the ABC.
“The partnership between RMIT and ABC will conclude at the end of the current agreement [on June 30, 2024]. RMIT is committed to upholding the integrity of public information and will continue to do this through a range of activities,” the spokesperson told Crikey.
So there’s the problem – fact checking is biased and unfair unless it finds the same number of lies from both sides of the argument. Obviously!
Reminds me of the excellent 1950s US Democratic party leader Adlai Stevenson, who enraged the Republicans with things he said about them, but then offered an olive branch: “I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them”
Or the right under freedom of speech to spread transparent BS, whilefact checking catch up while more and newer BS floods the zone to game media, confuse audience and overwhelm many with information overload, precludes analysis and clear or critical thinking…..
The problem the right has in this country is that there is no “Right to Free Speech” and I fully support the laws which allow us to sue or prosecute those who lie about us, or attempt to gain an advantage by misleading.
Thank you fellow swimmer.
Another disastrous decision. Is the ABC seriously going to capitulate to Pauline Hanson’s Malcolm Roberts, a former mining manager? The importance of the ABC RMIT Fact Check project is greater than the sum of its parts. Is Ita Buttrose salting the earth as she withdraws?
Its got neo lib propagandist all over this ; sold Kitty Flanagan to his mates at Netflex sonce thats what the agenda is ; strip us of first ABC studios in Elsternwick ; mislabel is digital transformation what crap – and stifle equal and freecspeech by stripping us of any real journalistic rigour and talent by calling putting in mostly ” amateur novice inept part time reporters – zero gravitas mostly
It has got to the stage where I look to see if anyone actually has any credibility left.
Take the Insiders, because my favourite Sunday program has got to the stage whereby I wonder what David Speers has actually got going as an agenda.
There are no actual insiders on the program, and, most of the time we are hearing from 9 entertainment or Murdoch’s drones.
If I wanted to hear anymore from them, I would watch their channels or read the Fin or the Australian.
I await Kim Williams…………
Please never consider writing for a job.
condescending hello ; how to use a T w a t ?
yes indeed Camp Oven – an unusual moniker you do have some interesting advice for women called out for being
so called enviromental warriors with nutty policy suggestions – what a rocket scientist
https://billycampoven.blogspot.com/2011/03/power-without-mercy.html?m=1
Lol. That’s so old I forgot it even existed. Back in the day when trolling was fun.
I think that this decision comes to us via Justin Stevens.
I may be mistaken, however, the wells are being poisoned and salt is being ploughed into the all the arable land around the ABC
Why have an independent adjudicator when the ABC can lose all of its credibility by doing its own “Fact Free Zone”.
As for Malcolm Roberts, the climate change denialist, has anyone noticed that his blue eyes appear to be lit from inside?
Yes, that would be the ambient light entering his ears and is being enhanced by the completely shiny white space behind his eyes.
I suspect that “Our Pauline” has various programs she selects, as the occasion requires.
great – yep how dies that man represent any warm oerson ?
Never underestimate the power of the Conservative Lobby and the Jewish Lobby
There is no evidence that Jewish or Israeli lobby groups have sought to undermine the ABC’s fact-checking initiatives. Given the wealth of legitimate criticisms to be made of these lobby groups, your comment not only plays into antisemitic tropes but is also counter-productive to improving the current state of affairs.
And tepid management
Ita was Morrison and co pick ; she is amenable and compliant to the Neo lib corporate agenda / s – She knows shes going and lo She brings back Micallef next year to challenge their opposite govt in current executive
You know you’re doing a good job when the people being fact-checked grow more and more vocal and intimidating.
Doesn’t take much for the likes of Peta Credlin etc to intimidate ABC.. Can ABC please fact check Sky news ‘Alternative facts’
This nation becomes more pathetic by the day.
When will the ABC grow a pair? Time for Anderson to go. $165K a year with TMIT is a bargain – doubt they will staff a similar service for this amount!
*RMIT
yes we know its littke fat digits and a typo tis all sic ; little
mean boys
typo
What we need is a 4 Corners program, like the Colesworth one this week, done on the ABC itself.
They are said to be seeking a younger audience. Haven’t read any suggestion that that is succeeding. In the meantime the programs oldies in the demographic the ABC does reach see favourite programs steadily whittled away. Can The Drum but retain Insiders and Q+A? Whose brainfart was that?
The “younger audience” being sought are the click bait crowd.
Their attention span will need to improve for them to be able to seek the ABC.
what you mean the young liberals ? What a bunch of ageist sexist men – count the women herein
except have you noticed its across the board they bring on the same young and old neo lib consultant and ex pollie media class ? The Drum shoukd of been fixed ; by fixed I do not mean fixed ; count the neo lib agendas – “Paul – Mr Arts /he I hates graffiti ‘ did a hatchet job – talk about cultural vandalism
With the best intentions, the current CEO doesn’t have any judgment. He has never had an editorial role. Kim Williams, the new Chairman of the board, will have him sussed and out the door before the year is out.