Hated by the right, a cowed ABC is now killing off its support in the centre

What if the right-wing plan to destroy the ABC was a little more intelligent than credited?

Destroying a national broadcaster with levels of trust far higher than virtually any other major institution in the country is a huge challenge for the large swathes of the Liberal and National parties, News Corp and far-right lobby groups like the Institute of Public Affairs that want to abolish or privatise it. But what if the ABC could be persuaded to destroy that trust itself? Then you might have more luck.

One should always prefer a cock-up to a conspiracy when seeking explanations, but the ABC spent much of recent months undermining trust in its newsgathering and presentation. And it has continued to do so since election night during which, as legend Barrie Cassidy noted, its coverage was characterised by a remarkable tone-deafness and craven pandering to anti-Labor sentiment.

That’s the result of relentless public Coalition, right-wing and News Corp attacks on the ABC, constant private pressure from government ministers directed at the chair, managing director and senior executives, funding cuts and the very clear threat that the ABC budget would be hacked further.

The ABC, and especially ABC News, responded by internalising the Coalition’s accusations, privileging complaints from Coalition staffers, driving out more experienced and independent-minded journalists likely to embarrass the Coalition and business, echoing Coalition talking points in its news coverage, taking its editorial leads from News Corp, and routinely giving a platform to unrepresentative right-wing groups such as the IPA, with no transparency as to their funding or links.

Indeed, at times the ABC has looked a lot like a less entertaining wing of News Corp, with News Corp staffers invited to run Coalition talking points on-air, News Corp stories followed up by ABC journalists and Coalition/News Corp coordinated attacks on Labor given prominent coverage.

The trend continues after the election, with Alexander Downer invited on to chat show Q+A this week. Downer has been out of politics for 15 years, and his solitary noteworthy contribution during the campaign was a piece of misogynist drivel about independent female candidates depriving great Liberal men of seats.

His presence on the national broadcaster is particularly offensive given that Bernard Collaery, at least for the moment, remains on trial for revealing Downer’s and John Howard’s evil act of bugging the Timor-Leste cabinet to help Downer’s future employer, Woodside (one wonders if the ABC will dare ask Downer to account for this disgusting crime — the only possible reason to give him air time).

The result is a growing view among centrist and progressive audiences that the ABC is no longer trustworthy, that its eagerness to please the Coalition has debauched basic journalistic standards and distorted editorial choices, that a number of ABC journalists and presenters are either biased or so cowed that they are no longer capable of providing independent newsgathering and presentation.

What happens when the ABC starts to alienate the bedrock of its audience? Support will ebb, and there’ll be no pickup in support from the right: the entire concept of the ABC is despised on the right. The only public media the IPA and many Liberals and Nationals want is News Corp, generously subsidised by taxpayers and given tax-free status.

How long before the cry of “defund the ABC” goes up on the left, in anger that it’s little more than a more moderate News Corp? Then the right-wing campaign to destroy the ABC will really be in business.