I know a few people on this forum wrote complaint letters to the ABC regards the ABC 7:30 report with Tony Abbott last week.
Did anyone get a reply and was it like this?
“Thank you for your email regarding the interview with Tony Abbott on 7.30.
Your concerns have been investigated by Audience and Consumer Affairs, a unit which is separate to and independent of program making areas within the ABC. We have reviewed the broadcast and assessed it against the ABC’s editorial standards for impartiality.
The adversarial or ‘devil’s advocate’ style of interviewing, employed at times by Leigh Sales, can generate a strong and mixed reaction from the public. Part of the technique of the ‘devil’s advocate’ approach is to take major points of criticism from various sources and put them to the interviewee. This can sometimes give the audience the impression that these are the personal views of the interviewer. This is not the case.
When she is doing a one-on-one interview she has a duty to conduct a testing interview that does not allow the interviewee to use the occasion as a political platform. It is her duty to put other points of view to the interviewee and her responsibility to make reasonable efforts to ensure that the questions are answered. We do not believe that posing testing questions to an interviewee and then allowing them to respond to those questions is biased or bad mannered. It is in fact a recognised standard of objective journalism. Having reviewed the interview against the impartiality standards in section 4 of the ABC Code of Practice, Audience and Consumer Affairs is satisfied it is in keeping with those standards. The questions posed to Mr Abbott were relevant and based strictly on their news value. He was afforded ample opportunity to clearly state his views in response and did so at length and with ease. We are satisfied that the interviewer was suitably respectful and courteous at all times. Nonetheless, please be assured that the ABC values your comments which have been noted and made available to ABC News management and the 7.30 team. The ABC Code of Practice is available online at the attached link; http://abc.net.au/corp/pubs/documents/20110408/EditorialPOL2011.pdf Should you be dissatisfied with this response to your complaint, you may be able to pursue your complaint with the Australian Communications and Media Authority http://www.acma.gov.au Yours sincerely"
“Devils Advocate” what a typical Cop Out from the ABC
