The ABC’s managing director has defended two of the network’s best-known journalists, Laura Tingle and Sarah Ferguson, after criticism of their coverage of the Bondi terror attack.
Hugh Marks released a statement on Monday night in which he described the shooting that killed 15 people and injured dozens more on the first night of Hanukah as “a shocking and traumatic event for Australia and especially for the Jewish community” and extended to the Jewish community “our deepest sympathy”.
But he said criticism of Tingle and Ferguson was “unfounded”.
The criticism towards Tingle relates to her appearance on a 16 December episode of the ABC’s Politics Now podcast, hosted by Patricia Karvelas, in which she said the alleged actions of the two gunman had “nothing to do with religion”.
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Marks said the podcast episode had “sought to tackle some of the issues that had emerged in the national conversation in the wake of the Bondi attack”.
He said Tingle’s analysis on the program “in no way sought to minimise the terrorist nature of these horrific events, or the needs for Australia to combat antisemitism, or the rights of Jewish people to feel safe”.
Ferguson, meanwhile, has been criticised for an interview she conducted with the former treasurer Josh Frydenberg on 7.30 on 17 December.
The 7.30 host asked Frydenberg about his speech at the Bondi Pavilion that day, in which he accused Anthony Albanese of allowing Australia “to be radicalised on his watch” and told him to “accept personal responsibility for the death of 15 innocent people, including a 10-year-old child”.
Ferguson asked whether the comments amounted to a “personal case against the prime minister” before Frydenberg’s “inevitable” return to politics.
“I’m deeply offended by what you’ve just said,” Frydenberg responded. “I’m deeply offended. That is an insult to say that there is any political motivation in this.”
Marks said Frydenberg had “previously made comments which sought to lay blame for the horrific attacks directly on the prime minister”.
“Sarah’s interview included a question on his potential return to politics which was a legitimate question for a journalist to put to him,” he said.
Liberal senator Sarah Henderson said both Ferguson’s question to Frydenberg, and Tingle’s earlier analysis, was “deeply offensive”.
“These remarks are absolutely appalling,” Henderson said of Tingle’s comments, as she called on the ABC to “unequivocally apologise”.
“The ABC from my perspective has completely lost the plot; it’s unacceptable.”
Former ABC board member Joe Gersh told the Australian that Tingle’s remarks displayed a “profound knowledge gap” unacceptable for a senior journalist.
Gersh, who is Jewish, said his community was “generally very proud” of Frydenberg’s “clarity” on anti-semitism.
“Sarah Ferguson’s questioning of his motivation was at best insensitive and at worst malicious because she was trying to attribute a motive to what it was that he was saying other than his genuine concern,” he said.
Gersh also accused the ABC of being “insensitive to the anti-semitic firestorm which has engulfed Australia.”
The Australian reporter James Madden wrote a separate opinion piece urging Marks to “step up” and enforce more editorial responsibility, citing “horrendously uninformed and ill-judged commentary from the ABC’s two most senior political journalists.”
Marks said it was “understandable at times such as these for the community to search for answers”.
“Questions about the role of the media, including the central role of the ABC, in sustaining a cohesive and inclusive society in a responsible manner are vitally important. These are questions we ask of ourselves on a daily basis.
“However, it is important that reviews are factual and accurate.”
