ABC News has rejected the findings of an independent editorial review of Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire that found allegations of political corruption surrounding former New South Wales premier Neville Wran were “vague, anonymous, and unhelpful”.
Wran, who led NSW as Labor premier for a decade, died in 2014, aged 87. A group of his former staffers has been critical of the ABC documentary by award-winning journalist Caro Meldrum-Hanna.
The three-part series examined the fire at Sydney’s Luna Park in 1979, which killed six boys and a man.
The review, by veteran ABC journalist Chris Masters and academic Rod Tiffen, said the series did not establish a direct relationship between Wran and organised crime figure Abe Saffron but gave the “strong impression” that Wran was complicit in corruption.
Masters and Tiffin were critical of the use of a “dramatic” but “misleading” graphic that suggested “a strong and direct link between Wran and Saffron”, which the program did not prove.
“Throughout the program a storyboard graphic is used to link key characters,” the review said. “While a useful visual device, the technique overreached the evidence in one crucial respect … no such direct relationship between Saffron and Wran has been established.”
But in a response to the review, published on Monday night, ABC News director Gaven Morris denied the program asserted Wran’s guilt.
“ABC News doesn’t accept the reviewers’ opinion that the graphic was misleading,” Morris said. “The series did not purport to have proven the allegation. The review does not question the decision to include any of that material in the series but contends that viewers would have been left with the impression that the program was asserting Mr Wran’s guilt. That was not the program’s intention or assertion.”
Meldrum-Hanna also defended the program, taking to social media to detail how other media has reported historical allegations regarding Wran and Saffron repeatedly over the years.
This morning I’m looking forward to an avalanche of complaints about all the previous coverage by all other media outlets who reported the exact same allegation & Paul Egge’s evidence (but without contemporary interviews with him or other relevant police and judicial witnesses) https://t.co/GnOhWnXdnI
— Caro Meldrum-Hanna (@caromeldrum) August 30, 2021
The ABC has remained steadfast on the program’s accuracy, with its complaints unit clearing it of breaching editorial standards.
“As the review notes, the series has received much public acclaim and very few viewer complaints,” Morris said. “None of those complaints has been upheld by the ABC’s independent complaints investigation unit. We note that the review found no factual inaccuracies.
“The Exposed series, entirely appropriately in the view of ABC News, examined the same allegation, and pictured the same individuals as other media did in 2017.”
But the reviewers found the program did overreach on the Wran allegations, reporting the Wran material as an “allegation”, and “unproven”, and a “scenario” no fewer than 10 times. “The program makers have not succeeded in framing a conclusion that plainly stated their position,” they concluded.
“Well, if it were just a passing comment from a guest on The Drum maybe not that serious. But when it’s a glossy $2 million ABC blockbuster it matters.” #MediaWatch pic.twitter.com/tIFobJJ5EO
— Media Watch (@ABCmediawatch) August 30, 2021
Media Watch host Paul Barry delivered a critical review of the program, which was also scathing of Morris’s rejection of the findings.
“Frankly, we are dumbfounded by [the Morris] response,” Barry said. “To argue that the program did not point the finger at Wran and that these eminent reviewers have got it wrong is, in our view, indefensible.
“The ABC really needs to do better. In some respects it was a great program. In others it went too far.
“We’re told it will not be taken down and re-edited but, we hear unofficially, there will not be another series of Exposed and perhaps no more ‘true crime’ from ABC News.”
