The ABC is in danger of losing its way and is drifting closer to a commercial model, former TV host Kerry O’Brien has said on the eve of Ita Buttrose’s departure as chair of the national broadcaster.
Buttrose will leave the ABC on Wednesday after five years in the role. She will be replaced by former News Corp Australia chief executive Kim Williams.
Her departure has been overshadowed by ongoing legal action taken by Antoinette Latouff who claims she was sacked from her casual presenting role on Sydney’s Mornings radio program due to her political views and her race.
Speaking to the ABC on Tuesday, O’Brien said the “absolutely fundamental” role of the ABC board was to protect the broadcaster’s independence and ensure it received adequate funding.
The founding host of the 7.30 Report and Lateline said the leaders of the ABC needed clarity of thought in an increasingly complex world.
“The thing that I would observe, without talking specifically about Ita, the thing I would observe most, is that the greater the complexity you face in an organisation like the ABC, the more vital the clarity of thought that you’re applying to that complexity,” O’Brien told Sally Sara on Radio National.
“And I think at times the ABC has been, I think right now it is still, in danger of losing its way.”
O’Brien said the corporation’s focus on marketing strategies, ratings, demographics and “chasing ambulances” had been disastrous and led to the public losing trust in the ABC.
“I think over a long period of time, the ABC has drifted more and more close to a commercial model,” he said.
O’Brien singled out the use of social media by journalists as another problem – and suggested ABC journalists should be barred from posting personal opinions in the same way judicial officers are.
“I don’t understand how senior management and the board have allowed a process to develop the way it has to the point where it’s caused so much pain and aggravation to the place and to its image,” he said.
According to the ABC, Latouff was taken off the air because she “failed or refused to comply with directions that she not post on social media about matters of controversy during the short period she was presenting”.
O’Brien said on Tuesday he had detected dissatisfaction among ABC audiences who felt they were not being served by the public broadcaster.
“We should be able to look to our public broadcaster with confidence as one of the beacons of our democracy that we can rely on and I think that there are too many of the ABC audience … that have a sense of unhappiness and unease about the state of play at the ABC.”
His former department, ABC News, did not escape criticism, with the award-winning journalist saying when he watched the news now he “regularly has questions to ask about what I see”.
“But I just keep coming back to applying clarity of thought and having a very clear view about what the role of public broadcasting is and how you apply it, about what the values and principles of public broadcasting are and how you apply it.”
