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The Four Corners boss who oversaw two episodes led by reporter Mahmood Fazal that were removed by the ABC over accuracy concerns says he was shocked to learn the program had allegedly misrepresented the identity of an anonymous source.
In a statement to this masthead on Monday evening, Matthew Carney, who was executive producer of Four Corners from 2022 until earlier this year, says he referred both investigations – Cocaine Nation and Meth Highway – to more senior editorial managers before they were aired.
“[The programs] went through a rigorous fact check, verification and legal process,” Carney said in response to a series of questions from this masthead. “More than two years after broadcast [in 2023 and 2024] rumours emerged that a source could be compromised in one of these stories and I started an investigation.
“Late last year I received a confidential email outlining there was an allegation of misrepresentation of an anonymous interviewee,” he said. “I was shocked by the contents and did my own inquiries, and the ABC investigated the matter after I had retired.”
The episodes were removed by the ABC on Friday, with the broadcaster citing “veracity of certain sources used in both programs”.
But it has now emerged that one source was used in both episodes in different guises. In one, the person, who this masthead has chosen not to name, was presented as a drug dealer under one identity and the second time as an anonymous meth dealer named “Brendan”, but behind a mask.
The ABC said it had no further comments beyond the statement it issued on Friday.
Fazal, who the ABC sacked in May, did not respond to a request for comment. He has previously said he had not been told the nature of the ABC’s concerns with his reporting and branded the broadcaster’s decision a “worrying precedent”.
“Brendan”, the man who was in both broadcasts, did not respond to a request for comment.
While the ABC’s independent ombudsman is still preparing its investigation into the programs that were retracted last week, the ABC’s internal editorial standards department has also spent months investigating all the work produced by Fazal during his time on the show.
The ABC decision to remove the programs preceded a lengthy piece published by The Monthly on former ABC news director Justin Stevens’ tenure, which focused on the Fazal saga and included the sourcing issue.
The piece was written by Carney’s predecessor as executive producer of Four Corners, Sally Neighbour, who left the ABC in 2022 after seven years running the show.
Almost everyone involved in the chain of command during Fazal’s reporting of the two episodes has left the ABC, aside from ABC head of investigations Jo Puccini. Fazal, Carney and supervising producer Alice Brennan have all departed, as has Puccini’s boss Stevens, managing director David Anderson and chair Ita Buttrose. This masthead does not suggest any of the exits were related to Fazal or the investigation.
The ABC previously stood by Fazal following allegations published by this masthead in 2024, including that Fazal passed on threats from the Alameddine crime organisation to YouTuber FriendlyJordies, real name Jordan Shanks, and his producer, Kristo Langker, in 2024. But the broadcaster then suspended him after the launch of an independent podcast Fazal hosted with underworld media personality Ryan Naumenko.
Fazal’s public fallout with Naumenko over the financial terms of the podcast led to the public feud. The ABC said the podcast appearances did not receive final sign-off approval. They were published featuring advertising for an online crypto casino. Fazal has previously denied any wrongdoing relating to the podcast and has lodged an unfair dismissal case in the Fair Work Commission.
Since Fazal’s exit from the show, the ABC has installed a new executive producer for Four Corners, Joel Tozer.
Last month, this masthead reported that one of Tozer’s first acts as Four Corners boss was to overhaul the show’s commissioning and standards processes. Part of the overhaul included the newly created commissioning and standards editor position, appointing former 7.30 producer Patricia Drum.
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