An ABC legend has criticized the public broadcaster and its new staff for using social media in a way that exposes them to accusations of bias.
Six-time Walkley Award winner Kerry O’Brien appeared on ABC Radio National on Tuesday morning as President Ita Buttrose celebrates her final week in office after five years at the helm.
But O’Brien was scathing in his assessment of the state of the public broadcaster in recent years, particularly ABC stars’ penchant for promoting themselves and their work on apps like X.
“If you’re an ABC staff member, if you’re going to work for a public broadcaster, your role (as journalists) is to report and analyze news,” he said.
“(It’s not) expressing personal opinions about a story or about broader topics.”
Six-time Walkley Award winner Kerry O’Brien appeared on ABC Radio National on Tuesday morning as President Ita Buttrose celebrates her final week in office after five years at the helm.
O’Brien addressed the argument that journalists have the right as individuals to speak their minds, saying that some industries, such as judges or lawyers, are limited in the opinions they make public due to the nature of their work.
“We cannot personally express, whether we like it or not, our support for this or that aspect of our life,” he said.
“That may well lead some people, at some point in the future, when you’re writing a story that’s relevant to the comment you made on social media, to say, ‘Well, look, they said this in 2023, they can’t report it.’ on this topic objectively.”
O’Brien said it was natural for journalists to have private opinions that can be separated from their work, but cautioned against expressing them publicly because “you can give the impression that there is bias in your reporting.”
“I think you can apply that thinking very simply to how ABC staff use social media,” he said.
“Now they are on the right path, but for quite some time it seemed to me that discipline was lacking.
President Ita Buttrose resigns after five years in charge
“I’m not referring to individuals, but to the lack of discipline in the ABC’s thinking on this issue.”
Overall, O’Brien said he is concerned about ABC’s future and suggested it had “lost its way” amid a much-publicized rebrand and attempt to appeal to a younger audience.
He said: ‘Internally, there are clearly problems and some of them have come to the surface.
‘I wouldn’t want to be the head of ABC right now. “I wouldn’t want to be the head of news and I wouldn’t want to be the head of programming right now.”
Despite not singling out or naming any staff, several high-profile ABC identities have come under fire over the years for their use of social media.
Most recently, the broadcaster terminated Antoinette Lattouf’s short-term contract early after she allegedly “failed or refused to comply with instructions not to post on social media about controversial matters during the short period that was presenting”.
Lattouf was outspoken in his support for Palestine during the current crisis and shared Human Rights Watch’s accusations that Israel had used starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.
She has taken the matter to the Fair Work Commission and is seeking reinstatement and compensation.
Similarly, star radio presenter Patricia Karvelas was “warned” for “bias” for a selfie she shared with X alongside Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney on the night of the 2022 federal election.
And Weekend Breakfast host Fauziah Ibrahim took a break from her hosting duties in 2022 amid a media storm over two lists she kept on her X profile: one titled “Labor Trolls/Thugs” and another titled “Lobotomized Sh**heads.”
Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting O’Brien was directly referring to any of these ABC stars, only that they have faced accusations of “bias” and criticism for their social media presence in recent years.
Most recently, the broadcaster terminated Antoinette Lattouf’s short-term contract early after she allegedly “failed or refused to comply with instructions not to post on social media about controversial matters during the short period she was on.” presenting”.
Both Fauziah Ibrahim (right) and Patricia Karvelas (left) have faced criticism from trolls and the general public for their social media presence over the years.
The former Four Corners presenter described these jobs as “incredibly difficult and complex” at a time in global history that is “more complex than ever”, with “an unprecedented level of intensity”.
“When you talk about the times in which we live, we feel overwhelmed, we have the feeling that democracy is threatened, of living on quicksand,” he said.
O’Brien said Australians should be able to “confidently view our public broadcaster as one of the beacons of our democracy that we can rely on”, and instead we have an ABC “in danger of losing its way”.
“Sometimes they’ve gotten too caught up in being more obsessed with marketing and the demographics of younger audiences versus older audiences, rather than applying that clarity of thinking,” he said.
Despite what Mr O’Brien describes as “still strong news and current affairs”, journalists appear to be “chasing different platforms… the brilliant variety of program embellishments on different services”, while the broadcaster ”is closer to a “model” commercial, which in turn has caused “a feeling of panic” about this trend.
O’Brien was scathing in his assessment of the state of the public broadcaster in recent years, particularly ABC stars’ penchant for promoting themselves and their work on social media apps like X.