Déjà vu on the ABC

Sixteen years after “The Wood for the Trees” program I am still unable to watch Four Corners; indeed I have not been able to watch any television current affairs programs since then without a feeling of betrayal. I have seen how the journalists work, experienced first-hand the editorial trickery, the deep bias, the loaded questions, the uncritical acceptance of absurd nonsense from people with the “right” ideology, and the selective interviewing.

For me, the Four Corners attack on forestry in WA was the moment when ABC current affairs journalism lost its credibility. I realised then that a “crusading” journalist was one who closes one eye in order to see better with the other. From this perspective, even though it hurts to admit it, “Lords of the Forest” was simply déjà vu.

PS Within a few days of ACMA’s findings on “Lords of the Forest” and its advice to the ABC to review its procedures for preparing current affairs television programs to ensure impartiality and accuracy, the Stateline program in Western Australia broadcast a program which tried to demonstrate that logging in the jarrah forest would destroy quokkas.

I won’t go into the details, other than to say that I have lodged an official complaint which describes 11 separate instances in the program of bias, misrepresentation, selective interviewing, factual error and failure to undertake basic research. What this tells me is that unprofessional journalism and the penetration of environmentalist influence within ABC current affairs is systemic and probably inoperable. The disease is even yet to be diagnosed within the Corporation, let alone addressed.