

The AFR View

The AFR View

What is the point of the ABC in the 21st century?


After losing both its managing director and now chairman within days, a dark cloud remains over the entire ABC board. After all, board members backed former chairman Justin Milne's sacking of MD Michelle Guthrie even in the knowledge that he had pressured her to sack certain ABC journalists who supposedly had upset his former colleague Malcolm Turnbull.

This messy drama points to a more existential question: what is the point of the national broadcaster in the 21st century information age? To remedy market failure and provide public interest journalism that the commercial television channel's won't? To provide local news to parts of regional Australia that can't commercially support local TV news services? To be a voice for Australia – a channel that reflects Australian values back at the citizens who paid for it? To be a digital archive of on-demand Australiana, as Mr Milne pressed for? Or does the ABC exist to counterbalance to the so-called right wing views of the Murdoch press and radio shock jocks with the priorities of left-progressive Australia, as its staff seem to suggest?

The ABC is a mostly high-quality organisation that produces much quality content, including in documentaries, drama, science and comedy. Australians have invested tens of billions of dollars into building up the organisation's capability. But its mostly protected revenue base encourages an inward focus on defending existing fiefdoms. Surveys show Australians hold the ABC in great trust. But the ABC pitches its content at certain demographics, ensuring that many Australians do not watch, listen to or read its content.

ABC Chairman Justin Milne did not sufficiently understand his role as ABC chairman. Nick Moir

As the internet has broken down the old barriers between radio, TV and print, the ABC has expanded into areas of digital convergence. While it would not make sense to restrict any media outlet to any particular platforms, that convergence means that the ABC now competes more directly against the likes of cable TV and newspapers. That sharpens very real questions, such as whether the ABC should spend taxpayers' money to pay Google to lift the search rankings for its content. And, by the way, whether the second public broadcaster, SBS, should be subsidised by taxpayers to compete in the advertising market with private media outlets as its expands way outside its original purpose as a multicultural broadcaster.

Confusion over the ABC's purpose starts at the top. Mr Milne seemed confused about his role in leading a public broadcaster that, by law, must maintain independence and integrity. A former Google executive, Ms Guthrie appeared confused over what to do about the real and deep-seated journalistic failings her chairman pointed out, along with how to manage both government and staff expectations that it inevitably come with a public corporation.

As we have pointed out, failures in the ABC's editorial processes have been exposed by the instances at the heart of Mr Milne's complaint. These failings in turn reflect the multiple biases within its newsroom: such as the insistence that stories about business should mostly be about the faults of business, such as not paying tax even when they are running losses.

Because it is taxpayer funded, the ABC doesn't need to please paying customers or make a return for shareholders. That has allowed its journalists to capture its news agenda, operating as a collective that refuses to accept managerial direction as impinging on editorial independence. These journalists are professional reporters who should take direction from editors operating under structure set by management. After high-fiving over Ms Guthrie's sacking, they now find she defended them against political interference from Mr Milne. As a journalist by training, former managing director Mark Scott played the role of editor in chief. But Ms Guthrie's lack of journalistic experience – and the lack of an actual editor in chief – allowed the journalist collective to further conflate management decisions – such as staffing, restructuring its out-of-date work practices and employment contracts or attempts to cut costs – with editorial judgment calls. Unfortunately, the necessary rethink over the role of the ABC likely won't happen because Prime Minister Scott Morrison will want to move briskly on from this distraction left by his predecessor.

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