Cassiday is a has been who needs the bullet. MPs slam ABC’s US...

Cassiday is a has been who needs the bullet.


MPs slam ABC’s US election coverage as biased against Trump


ABC presenter Barry Cassidy. Picture: Kylie Else

Wendy Harmer, host of the ABC Sydney’s Mornings radio program. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

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• The Australian
• 12:00AM November 14, 2016
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• SAM BUCKINGHAM-JONES
  
  Journalist
  Sydney
  
  
  DARREN DAVIDSON
  
  Media Editor
  Sydney
  @darrendavidson
  

Government MPs have called on ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie to explain why some of the public broadcaster’s top on-air talent expressed views stridently against president-elect Donald Trump in the lead-up to his victory.
At least a dozen of the ABC’s high-profile radio and television presenters, including Insiders host Barrie Cassidy, PM host Mark Colvin and journalist Annabel Crabb, expressed their disdain for the “nightmare” of a Trump presidency and asked if there was an “off switch” for his campaign.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott slammed what he said was a public display of bias, showing the organisation didn’t reflect diverse views.
“The only diversity the ABC lacks is intellectual diversity,” he said. “No conservative listening to ‘our’ ABC’s current affairs programs could think that his or her views were getting a fair go. But people largely without a voice in the media still have a vote ... as the Trump triumph in the US illustrates.”
Cassidy posted on Twitter on the day of the election as results poured in that the “nightmare” of a Trump presidency had been defeated. “Trump cannot win. The nightmare is over,” he tweeted, and a short time later: “Trump is not defying the polls anywhere. Clinton on the other hand demonstrably is.”
In October, he shared a link to an article saying Trump would lose the election, with the comment: “I reckon that part — that he’ll lose big time — is the only believable bit in the whole tawdry exercise.”

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Paul Barry, host of the ABC’s Media Watch program, shared a link to an article ridiculing comments made by Trump with the remark: “Another ridiculous Trump porkie. And this man could be US president”.
Crabb wrote in mid-October: “Donald Trump makes his first post-debate appearance …. Where is the off switch for this campaign.”
Wendy Harmer, host of the ABC Sydney’s Mornings radio program, posted in response to an article with the headline ‘The four words that just lost Donald Trump the election: Hello, I’m Donald Trump”. “Shouldn’t be surprised, I guess,” she wrote last month, “that Trump’s ‘best’ joke was using his wife as a punchline. Humiliating.”
Joe O’Brien, who hosts ABC News 24’s morning news program, shared an article with the comment: “Yet another example of Donald Trump’s reworking of reality.”
Federal Communications Minister Mitch Fifield cautioned journalists to consider their perception of objectivity when sharing views on important issues. “I think journalists, regardless of the organisation they work for, need to be careful to maintain the public confidence in their objectivity,” he said.
“It’s really a judgment call for individual journalists to think about what they say and the effect it will have on how the community perceives the work that they do. That goes for journalists in all media organisations.”
Former ABC chairman Maurice Newman said the comments from an array of senior presenters meant the ABC should consider apologising for how it reported on Trump’s campaign and victory.
“The New York Times have had the good grace to acknowledge their unabashed and unashamed pro-Clinton bias and anti-Trump bias and that they have misled their readers,” he said. “And The New York Times doesn’t have the same obligations to its readers in that the ABC does as a taxpayer- funded organisation.”
Ms Guthrie must consider broadening her scope when seeking to diversify the ABC to include greater differences in opinion, Mr Newman said.
“She talks a lot about diversity, but she talks about ethnic diversity rather than diversity of opinions,” he said.
“If you look at the current affairs and comedy programs, they all have a left-wing bias — it’s not just anecdotal, it’s demonstrable.”
Liberal senator Eric Abetz said the extensive, blatantly anti-Trump views were shared with little concern for balance.
“Sadly, too many of the people in the ABC see themselves as being in an organisation where they can do what they want, how they want, without any concern about the charter under which they operate,” he said.
The ABC’s editorial policy says the organisation has a “statutory duty to ensure that the gathering and presentation of news and information is impartial according to the recognised standards of objective journalism.” One of the outlined standards in the policy is: “Do not unduly favour one perspective over another.”
The ABC did not provide a comment.
News of the backlash comes after Ms Guthrie comes under pressure on several fronts. Last week, The Australian revealed how television executives and politicians have slammed the ABC for using taxpayer funds to further Netflix’s aggressive global expansion by co-producing a TV series with the streaming giant.