Day after day, ABC management reveals itself to be a mess of poor communication among the top echelons and having a lack of responsibility to its staff.
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But since the latest fracas, there has also been an unprecedented level of communication between board and management. In some respects, that's a very good thing. It is enveloped in a crisis.
The surprising news is that the ABC board is now considering a big shift in its social media policy, which would see an approach which would include the main ABC news accounts distributing stories, rather than individual journalists. It may also see a move to a much more one-way form of social media distribution.
You can hardly blame the board for wanting change. Already the organisation has engaged one person who supports journalists being attacked online. She even attempts early intervention (God bless her cotton socks).
But this is what we see online and particularly in the aftermath of the coronation coverage, where a man whose entire family suffered at the hands of the colonists dared to have an opinion. Stan Grant has taken leave from his gig as host of Q+A after an unparalleled avalanche of racist hatred.
Who could blame him?
And despite the fact that this story has been on every single news site, every single day, in Australia, it took the chair of the ABC Ita Buttrose a full week to come out of hiding and make a statement. Stan Grant's decision to step away from the controversial panel program has led most sites, including the ABC's, for a clear week and it has taken Buttrose a full week to respond publicly.
She told Brian Nankervis and Jacinta Parsons on ABC Melbourne that she "didn't know" what Grant was going through, and, she added, ABC management needed to make sure content makers subject to racial abuse were supported
I am dead.
For those of you who don't know, the role of a chair of any organisation is to run the board of that entity. And the duty of the board in the case of the ABC is to ensure that the functions of the corporation are performed efficiently and with the maximum benefit to the people of Australia.
But if you look at the annual report of the ABC, 2021-2022, target after target is not being met - the ABC's Elevate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) sets out targets for the representation of Indigenous employees at the ABC. Target not met (although it's been given an extension by a kindly force). The target for culturally diverse executives? Not met. The target for culturally diverse content makers? Not met. The target for employees with a disability? Not met.
Under standards, the plan says: "Where there is editorial justification for content which may lead to dangerous imitation or exacerbate serious threats to individual or public health, safety or welfare, take appropriate steps to mitigate those risks, particularly by taking care with how content is expressed or presented." Seriously. Did anyone in their right minds not recognise that the coronation coverage would set off all the racist lunatics in Australian - and in conservative media.
Now, it's true that Ita Buttrose's term runs out next March. She was appointed by the Coalition government in 2019. It's unimaginable that she should be reappointed and there are, nearly a year out, rumour mills and loud whispers. The board is filled with Coalition appointments, some of whom are far better than others.
Some generous souls tell me Buttrose didn't want to preempt the report of the ABC ombudsman's report into the coverage of the coronation, released on Thursday last week. There were nearly 2000 complaints, many of them along the lines of "it was a bad idea to schedule this discussion during coronation coverage".
The independent ombudsman said the broadcaster did not breach impartiality standards during its coverage of King Charles III's coronation. Of course not. It was 45 minutes in a freaking eight-hour broadcast, in which the most engaging aspect was trying to balance crowns on heads unused to them.
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Was Buttrose saying she wasn't aware there was racism on social media? Unlikely. Was she saying that she didn't know there was racism in the ABC itself? Has she had a long hard look at who is in charge and where?
Insiders tell me management is being dragged along slowly. All too often it would use the excuse that it didn't want the ABC to be the story. But that's a useless approach and speaks to management's risk aversion.
Great to stand up for Leigh Sales and for Lisa Millar, after years of abuse. Great, too, it stood up for Stan. Eventually. Maybe someone should let Ita know.
- Jenna Price is a regular columnist and a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.
