Election Timing and ABC

Other commentators have drawn attention to an editorial comment posted under an opinion piece at The Drum by former politician Peter Reith.

The comment reads: "*Editor's Note: While the ABC maintains due impartiality and balance in its coverage of politics throughout the year, the formal campaign begins in August when the writs are issued. That is when we will begin monitoring and recording "share of voice" and determining free time for the relevant parties."

Firstly the notion that ABC "maintains due impartiality and balance in its coverage of politics throughout the year," is highly contested. Given it does not have a single conservative commentator maintaining "due impartiality and balance" appears an impossibility.

Secondly it seems the editor's reading of the relevant legislation is open to question and if so we may see ABC forced into providing equal time for the major parties.

From the act, the red highlighted text along with the PM's public announcement of the election date, makes it pretty clear ABC's Drum editor is simply wrong. 

AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION ACT 1983 - SECT 79A

  Broadcasting of political or controversial matter

             (1)  Subject to this Act, the Corporation may determine to what extent and in what manner political matter or controversial matter will be broadcast by the Corporation.

             (2)  If the Corporation broadcasts political matter at the request of another person, the Corporation must, immediately afterwards:

                     (a)  if the matter was broadcast by radio--cause the required particulars in relation to the matter to be announced; or

                     (b)  if the matter was televised:

                              (i)  cause the required particulars in relation to the matter (other than the particulars referred to in paragraph (c) of the definition of required particulars in subsection (5)) to be announced; and

                             (ii)  cause all the required particulars in relation to the matter to be transmitted in the form of images of words.

             (3)  The Corporation must, in relation to political matter broadcast at the request of another person, keep a record of the name, address and occupation of the person or, if the person is a company, the name and the address of the principal office of the person, for the required period and must give to the ACMA any particulars of the record that the ACMA, by written notice, requires.

             (4)  For the purposes of this section, a person authorises the broadcasting of political matter only if the person is responsible for approval of the content of the political matter and the decision to present it for broadcasting.

             (5)  In this section:

"election" means an election to a Parliament or a local government authority of a State or Territory.

"election period" means:

                     (a)  in relation to an election to the Legislative Council of Tasmania, or an ordinary election to the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory--the period that starts 33 days before the polling day for the election and ends at the close of the poll on that day; and

                     (b)  in relation to any other election to a Parliament--the period that starts on:

                              (i)  the day on which the proposed polling day for the election is publicly announced; or

                             (ii)  the day on which the writs for the election are issued;

                            whichever happens first, and ends at the close of the poll on the polling day for the election; and

                     (c)  in relation to an election to a local government authority--the period that starts 33 days before the polling day for the election and ends at the close of the poll on that day; and

                     (d)  in relation to a referendum whose voting day is the same as the polling day for an election to the Parliament of the Commonwealth--the election period in relation to that election; and

                     (e)  in relation to any other referendum--the period that starts 33 days before the voting day for the referendum and ends at the close of voting on that day.

"Parliament" means:

                     (a)  the Parliament of the Commonwealth; or

                     (b)  a State Parliament; or

                     (c)  the legislature of a Territory.

"person" includes a political party, a corporation and any other association (whether incorporated or unincorporated).

"political matter" means any political matter, including the policy launch of a political party.

"referendum" means the submission to the electors of a proposed law for the alteration of the Constitution, whether or not the proposal to make the submission has been announced.

"required particulars" , in relation to a political matter that is broadcast, means:

                     (a)  if the broadcasting was authorised by a political party:

                              (i)  the name of the political party; and

                             (ii)  the town, city or suburb in which the principal office of the political party is situated; and

                            (iii)  the name of the natural person responsible for giving effect to the authorisation; and

                     (b)  if the broadcasting of the political matter was authorised by a person other than a political party:

                              (i)  the name of the person who authorised the broadcasting of the political matter; and

                             (ii)  the town, city or suburb in which the person lives or, if the person is a corporation or association, in which the principal office of the person is situated; and

                     (c)  the name of every speaker who, either in person or by means of a sound recording device, delivers an address or makes a statement that forms part of that matter.

"required period" , in relation to the keeping of a record in relation to political matter, means the period of 2 years commencing on the day on which the matter was broadcast.

Before the ABC: Labor Routed

The Argus Monday 21 December 1931, page 7

Inspired by: Voters owe Labor nothing, says Abbott

see also "A crushing defeat"

Before the ABC: an occasional snapshot of news in the days BABC

Free ads for ALP

ABC HEADLINE: "Unions launch ads against WorkChoices" News online posted July 28, 2010
ABC REPORTED: ABC covered the launch of the ACTU's election advertising campaign. The ABC notes "Labor's closest friend and confidant, the unions, have launched their advertising campaign promising to do their best to see that Tony Abbott is not elected as the next prime minister."
THE COMPLAINT: Factual error: the Unions are not only Labor's "best Friend" they are members of the ALP.
Lack of Balance: Will ABC also be providing free advertising to members of the Liberal Party?
OUTCOME: Pending
COMMENT: Seems like the ALP has friends in the right places.

World Today: two versus one

ABC HEADLINE: ABC's World Today program broadcast "Political veterans chew the campaign fat" on Friday 23 July.
ABC REPORTED: The report featured commentary on the election campaign by Former ALP politician Cheryl Kernot, retiring South Australian Liberal Senator Nick Minchin, and retiring ALP member for Fraser and Parliamentary Secretary for Development Assistance Bob McMullan.

Looking at the transcript, we count a total 2227 words spoken by the two Labor party commentators versus 1213 words from the one Liberal party commentator. Program host ELEANOR HALL is credited with 1467 words. 

THE COMPLAINT: Not only was the program biased in favour of the number of ALP commentators, the amount of time given to ALP politicians outweighed the Coalition by almost 2:1. Can ABC please explain how this program meets editorial policy in regard to balance and lack of political bias?
OUTCOME:
Received 10/9/2010
I refer to your email of 24 July 2010 alleging a lack of balance in a discussion broadcast on The World Today the previous day.
The ABC's editorial standards for balance and impartiality focus on the content of programs.  Compliance with these standards is not determined by counting the number of contributors who participate, or the number of words uttered by each party.
The relevant editorial standards are found in clauses 3.4 and 3.5 of the ABC's Code of Practice (and their equivalent clauses in the ABC's Editorial Policies):
3.4     Content will be impartial.  Editorial judgements will be based on news values.  One perspective will not be unduly favoured over others.
3.5     Balance will be sought but may not always be achieved within a single program or publication; it will be achieved as soon as reasonably practicable and in an appropriate manner.  It is not essential to give all sides equal time.  As far as possible, principal relevant views on matters of importance will be presented.
In response to your email, ABC News has commented: "It is not possible to use a word count to establish whether balance has been achieved in a particular interview or discussion. What one person can say in ten words, it may take another 100 words to say. The news value of those ten words could be ten times more influential on an audience than 100 words.  In pre-recorded or packaged interviews, comments are used on the basis of their news value , not their length, and to a certain extent this applies in live interview situations as well but in a live panel discussion  there are too many variables to expect that absolute equality of words spoken, or time allotted will be achieved."
Having reviewed the broadcast, I see no basis for concluding that it lacked news value, unduly favoured a particular perspective, or failed to present a range of principal relevant views on matters of importance.
For your reference, the Code of Practice is available here - http://abc.net.au/corp/pubs/edpols.htm.
Yours sincerely,
Head, Audience and Consumer Affairs
COMMENT:"The ABC has always publicly defined itself as balanced. It does so, because that's what its editorial guidelines demand of reporters and broadcasters. The reality is different. ABC newsrooms get very nervous when the Liberal Party looks a winning chance and they get angry when Liberal governments retain power." Former ABC employee Kevin Naughton quoted in The Australian 24/7/2010

ABC Bias in Election coverage

COMMENT: The Australian newspaper has an interesting article looking at bias in ABC's election coverage...
ABC picks sides while the 'editor-in-chief' watches on
"One of the most vocal critics of the ABC is a former staff member, Kevin Naughton, who worked at the ABC for 16 years, covering 10 state and federal elections. Naughton, who was media adviser to former SA Liberal leader Martin Hamilton-Smith, told The Weekend Australian yesterday: "The ABC has always publicly defined itself as balanced. It does so, because that's what its editorial guidelines demand of reporters and broadcasters.

"The reality is different. ABC newsrooms get very nervous when the Liberal Party looks a winning chance and they get angry when Liberal governments retain power.

"One classic example was the clarion call of 1996 when a flustered senior current affairs producer exhorted the troops to get stuck into the Libs because, 'we could lose this thing . . . Keating could lose'.

"Programs such as The 7.30 Report are built on a Labor culture of ALP for the workers (including struggling journos), and Kerry O'Brien didn't disappoint when he gave honeymooning PM Julia Gillard a nice run on Monday night."

The Australian's editorial is scathing of ABC New's performance...

Less opinion and more news needed at the ABC

"IN his determination to dominate the news media, ABC managing director Mark Scott has missed the only point that matters. It's the quality and not quantity of content that matters."
"Mr Scott allows his senior news-gatherers to use the organisation as a bully pulpit for their own opinions."
"While this newspaper has called all parties to account in the first week of the campaign, it is as if some in the ABC are asking ALP national secretary Karl Bitar to brief them on what questions to ask."
"Deborah Cameron's morning program in Sydney combines a suspicion of business with advocacy of deep-green lifestyles."
"We also pay the ABC to break news, and lots of it, but the corporation recycles stories across its services."
"And while The 7.30 Report used to set the agenda for the next morning's news, its MO today is for O'Brien to tell us what he thinks. More often than not, his main interview is with another ABC journalist."
"He must extract productivity improvements from staff so there is more original news content."

As we revealed in our Productivity survey, the productivity of ABC News has plummeted over the last 2 years. Time for a clean flush.