Veteran broadcaster Fran Kelly has issued a stern warning to her colleagues at the ABC and other media outlets to stick to the facts.
Kelly, who presented Radio National’s flagship breakfast show from 2005 to 2021, didn’t hold back when delivering the annual Andrew Olle Media Lecture in Sydney on Friday.
“Facts can be manipulated, distorted and denied,” he said. Call it what you want. It used to be propaganda.
‘Now it is misinformation, misinformation. Or false facts… An Orwellian contradiction in terms that is increasingly reshaping our realities.’
His speech came just weeks after ABC news chief Justin Stevens admitted doctored gunshot audio used in a news report about an Australian Special Forces operation in Afghanistan “should not have happened”.
An audio expert has revealed how video released by the ABC was altered to add five additional shots, making it appear as if an Australian soldier was shooting at an unarmed Afghan man.
Stevens said the audio had been “incorrectly edited” and has since been removed from all ABC online platforms.
Although Kelly didn’t mention names in his lecture, some in the audience no doubt felt very uncomfortable about what he said.
Veteran broadcaster Fran Kelly (pictured) has issued a stern warning to her ABC colleagues and other media outlets to stick to the facts.
“What could once be categorically proven is now subject to bitter and sustained debate on a scale that was simply impossible to achieve before we all moved online,” he said.
‘Arguments abound that facts no longer matter… only perception. Just emotion.’
Kelly, however, said he was not specifically alluding to the ABC’s discredited coverage of the story about Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan.
“It was clear in my speech that I was not referring to any particular story or issue, but rather the decline in trust in the mainstream media in general,” he told Daily Mail Australia on Monday afternoon.
Kelly also cautioned his media colleagues about what matters most to them in doing their jobs.
“As journalists, verified and irrefutable facts are our commercial asset, our only credential is the truth,” he said.
“And as the waters of misinformation swirl, we must seek it out, retain it, and lift it above the waves.”
He also said media reports should include “less commentary, more reporting.” Less telling, more investigating.
Former 7.30 presenter Leigh Sales (pictured) delivered a similar message at the Andrew Olle conference last year.
Kelly added that “we have to continue to present the facts, not facts that come with ridiculous labels like true or false, real or false, but facts.”
‘Verifiable facts. Facts verified by us.’
Her ABC colleague, former 7.30 presenter Leigh Sales, delivered a similar message at the same event in 2023.
“Too often, too many journalists across all media outlets are abandoning the values espoused by people like Andrew Olle, for a variety of reasons,” he said.
‘One is that some journalists prefer to be activists and crusaders rather than straight researchers or reporters.
‘They enjoy their heroic status among social media tribes or among their subscribers. I’m not sure they can even identify their own bias.
‘The job is not to tell the public what to think; it’s about giving them the most complete set of facts possible so they can decide for themselves what to think.’
