The ABC doesn’t need News Corp — News Corp needs the ABC

Everything News Corp touches, it breaks. Right now it’s broken the ABC, cowing the public broadcaster into a “don’t hit me” defensive crouch that cedes all power to the bad faith of its corporate enemy.

As ever at the ABC, change starts with a staff revolt, like this week’s walkout over racism. It’s a good start, as was the belated call-out of News Corp by ABC director of news, analysis and investigations Justin Stevens. But it didn’t last.

By the time it was reporting its own boss’s comments, the culprits had been watered down to some nameless “other media outlets”. By the time the story came to be chewed over on The Drum, it had morphed into the most anonymous of enemies: trolls on social media.

Sure, social media is a problem. But if it’s going to survive, the ABC needs to call it as it is. News Corp is the problem. It’s the driver of the intimidation and abuse, relying as it does on the amplification of its ugliness through being liked on Facebook, shared on YouTube, retweeted on Twitter — and platformed on the ABC. 

Culturally anchored in the nether regions of the US hard right, its Australian arm has eagerly embraced its role in encouraging anger and social fragmentation, now egging on the sheer nastiness of the Voice’s antagonists, like Dutton in Parliament this week or the sudden surge in racist bullying on the social media platforms, noted by both Thomas Mayo and Sally McManus. 

But it’s not this abuse that’s broken the ABC. It’s News Corp’s weaponised bad faith that demands its political campaigning be taken seriously as “news” and its extremist views be accepted as reflecting the sensible mainstream.

 As AI makes online search smarter, any day now you’ll be able to go hunting for an explainer of “disingenuous” and it will take you straight to The Australian this week, as it’s pivoted to being shocked and appalled at reports of racism in the ABC. It’s been the hot dog guy meme brought to life with News Corp deflecting criticism of its role with a “We’re all trying to find the guy who did this”. 

The ABC’s fate lies in its own hands. It needs to see News Corp’s bad faith for what it is — a political operation that relies on others believing in its clout to force attention. Instead, the ABC seems to have convinced itself that giving space to the view from News Corp — with, for example, an apparently reserved seat on Sunday morning’s Insiders — is the price of doing business, perhaps as an argument for funding from Liberal governments or a shield against right-wing attacks in Senate estimates.

It is time to get tough. The ABC doesn’t need News Corp. News Corp needs the ABC.

News Corp has bullied the ABC into letting itself be used as the Delaware-based company’s major publicity channel. Unless you’re part of the declining grumpy old man demographic prepared to pay for the resentment hit hidden behind the News Corp paywall, your only regular exposure to the view from News Corp will be on the ABC through its television and radio talk programs.

Deliberately disingenuous, News Corp also relies on policing both what the ABC reports and how it reports it, fighting against diverse viewpoints which would force us all to recognise just how extreme its point of view is.

It was News Corp as content police that drove the fake hysteria against the (widely held) observations of Stan Grant over the hard politics of the Crown and colonisation. Right now it’s working hard to push the ABC (and Nine media) into legitimating its attempts to turn the Voice into some sort of existential threat that can be averted only by replacing its promise with some anodyne ritual of recognition.

News Corp is terrified of competition. That’s why it uses its political allies to bully the ABC out of supporting new media, discouraging it from platforming new media journalists or by collaborating in new ventures. (By contrast, in Murdoch-free New Zealand, support from public institutions including Radio New Zealand has been central in the growing diversity of its media ecosystem.)

It is time for an ABC reboot. Look beyond the self-interest of commercial media for commentary on radio and television; build — and use — internal expertise based on the joy of real diversity. Abandon the tired framework of the old media Insiders flagship. Embrace the responsibility of helping build and support independent media.

Above all, recognise that News Corp is a paper tiger. Maybe it mattered once, when it did actual news. But not any more.

Can the ABC disregard News Corp’s narking? Should it? Let us know by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.