ABC boss slams ‘opportunistic’ attempts to conflate BBC crisis with Four Corners report

The ABC’s managing director and news boss have denounced “opportunistic” attempts by News Corp and Liberal senator Sarah Henderson to conflate its own Four Corners report on Donald Trump and the January 6 Capitol riots with the unfolding saga engulfing the British public broadcaster, the BBC, which has claimed the scalps of its two most senior executives.

Hugh Marks backed the 2021 Four Corners investigation led by 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson, ‘Downfall,’ which used footage from Trump’s address on January 6, saying its investigation and use of the footage was consistent with the ABC’s high standards of factual, accurate and impartial storytelling.

Hugh Marks has hit out at the “opportunistic” attempts to bring the ABC into the BBC, Trump saga.Credit: Nathan Perri

The BBC’s top executive, director general Tim Davie and BBC News CEO Deborah Turness both resigned this week after an internal memo was leaked to London’s Telegraph, criticising the splicing of two grabs from Trump’s January 6 address by its flagship investigative program Panorama.

“Comparing the BBC’s Panorama program to the ABC’s Four Corners program is opportunistic and false,” Marks said.

“The grab on Four Corners, taken from the speech President Trump made during that day, was used accurately by the program. The editing did not change the meaning of that section of the speech and did not mislead the audience.”

The ABC’s news boss Justin Stevens similarly criticised coverage by both The Australian and Sky News Australia in their attempts to conflate its own program.

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“The opportunistic attempt to seek to engineer a similar crisis here to the BBC’s is transparent and doesn’t stack up,” Stevens said in an internal email on Wednesday afternoon, seen by this masthead. Stevens did not mention either outlet by name.

“Alongside legitimate criticism, both organisations are subjected to sustained and inaccurate campaigns that seek to chip away at the public’s belief and trust in what we provide as a public service,” Stevens continued.

“Independent media represents a threat to commercial media and our journalism causes grief for powerful and vested interests.”

Sky News’ Chris Kenny claimed Four Corners had manipulated Trump’s speech during a broadcast this week, a claim which was then republished by The Australian.

Kenny called the ABC’s program an “almost identical act of deception” during his Monday night show, with Henderson calling for a Senate inquiry into the ABC over the program on Tuesday.

More to come.

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