ABC’s humiliating backdown on Alice Springs ‘white supremacy report’

ABC is editing a controversial radio report that described an Alice Springs crisis meeting as a “white supremacist fest.”

The network issued a humiliating apology earlier this month, admitting it had provided ‘incomplete’ coverage of the Save Alice Springs reunion.

Now, he has begun editing the report, blaming its publication on “logistical and editorial management failures.”

At the meeting, some 3,000 Alice Springs residents discussed their concerns about the out-of-control wave of juvenile crime sweeping through their community.

However, the ABC report on the meeting claimed that there were elements of “white supremacy” at the meeting.

The chain was forced to humiliatingly descend and apologize four days later.

“We recognize that a report on AM was incomplete and did not adequately cover the full context of the meeting or the range of perspectives expressed in it,” he said.

“ABC News apologizes to the public for providing an incomplete picture of the event in this case.”

The broadcast of the story was attributed to ABC managing director David Anderson, who will now be questioned about the report in the Senate estimates on Tuesday.

He admitted that the network should have dealt with the problem faster, but was left without transmitting the report.

On Monday, he wrote to Liberal Sen. Sarah Henderson and admitted that ABC’s editorial systems had failed.

“We accept that we should have publicly acknowledged the flaws in the AM package earlier and apologize to the public,” he said in the correspondence seen by the aussie.

However, the ABC report on the meeting claimed that there were elements of “white supremacy” at the meeting.

“After reviewing the story and the actions leading up to its broadcast, it became apparent that logistical and editorial management failures had contributed to the incomplete report being issued.

“ABC has apologized to the public and has issued an editor’s note that links to stories containing a broader range of perspectives.”

Despite the apparent promise of publishing the report, it is still available online in its original format.

Anderson said that the editing process for AM’s report had already begun, but insisted that the network was correct in expressing the claims of “white supremacy.”

“ABC news management had already started to re-edit and republish the original story,” he said. ‘The perception of racial tension in Alice Springs is the honest opinion of some Alice Springs residents. That perspective, including the depiction of ‘white supremacy,’ is significant, and ABC would be remiss not to report it, if that is what is being said.

Senator Henderson said: “ABC has not explained how these editorial lapses occurred, its conflicting positions, or provided information about the measures it has implemented to prevent such offensive and one-sided reporting in the future.”

ABC Media Watch host Paul Barry previously criticized his own network for describing the Alice Springs crisis meeting as a “white supremacist fest.”

ABC Indian Affairs correspondent Carly Williams’ live television broadcast of the meeting said many people had left the meeting early and that “one non-Indigenous person” had described the meeting as “a show disgusting white supremacist”.

Barry accused the public broadcaster of “eroding years of goodwill and trust” that it had fostered in the Northern Territory.

He also said that the report lacked balance and “should never have been put on the air.”

Appearing on Media Watch, Mr Barry said: ‘Indeed, the ABC report, which was broadcast across AM and News Radio, was seriously off balance.

‘There was no attempt to explain what the meeting was about or probe the views of the majority.

“And having seen it in its entirety and spoken to the journalists who accompanied it, we believe that the story should never have aired.

Local ABC reporters were also angry. They say the story has sparked a backlash against the ABC in the New Testament and eroded years of trust and goodwill.

Barry was also critical of his network’s apology when it finally came.

“Not the strongest apology, and the story is still going strong, unchanged. And why ABC couldn’t say it on Wednesday is beyond me.

But at least now they have admitted the error. Hopefully they can learn from it.