ABC accused of bias claiming Alice Springs crisis meeting was filled with ‘white supremacists’

ABC’s flagship radio show AM has been accused of biased coverage of the Alice Springs youth crime wave after claiming a crowded crisis meeting was full of ‘white supremacists’.

Thousands of fed up locals turned out for the Save Alice Springs rally on Monday night as the city grapples with a crime crisis, and residents threaten to sue the Northern Territory government for $1.5 billion in compensation.

The audience at the town hall meeting was made up of terrified families, business owners and indigenous leaders, but the national broadcaster’s reporter reported only those who criticized the meeting.

Despite the wide range of perspectives, ABC TV and radio reporter Carly Williams focused on four claims from locals, including one woman who called the gathering a “scary” “white supremacist fest.”

In the segment broadcast on AM radio Tuesday, Carly Williams said many locals left the “deeply divisive” gathering in frustration or in tears.

The clip was heard only from people who criticized the meeting as “racist”.

“It was really a disgusting spectacle of white supremacy… It was very, very disappointing,” said one woman.

It was scary to be in that room.

Another told the show: “The tension, violence and anger in the room was palpable and it was clearly about white supremacy and white safety in this city, and that’s all that was being considered.”

Another woman described the meeting as “strange” and “dangerous.”

“I’m much more concerned about the dangers posed by those people there, those white people who [sic] have the choice to live here, then those vulnerable Aboriginal children whose connection to this country cannot be broken,’ he said.

‘If you don’t like living here, if you have a problem with it, then leave.’

An interview with a single woman who criticized the meeting aired on ABC news.

The woman said: ‘They could be putting that $1.5 billion to address the causes of the crimes… Instead, they want to take punitive approaches… It’s a total white supremacist fest there, and I can tell you, it was terrifying. .’

However, 2GB host Ben Fordham noted that the AM segment was “even worse”, with comments from four people stating that the event was filled with “white supremes”.

“Of the thousands of people who attended the meeting, we only heard one person on that report: a woman who had left early,” Fordham said on air Wednesday.

“We don’t hear from terrified locals or concerned moms and dads, we only hear allegations of racism from a woman who left. [of the meeting] – someone who didn’t represent the whole mood of the room.’

“And no examples of so-called ‘white supremacy’ were given, no quotes, no images, no audio.”

“We didn’t hear from any of the concerned locals, they didn’t play back any of the comments from inside the room, I’m not sure if [she] he was inside, that was not clear from his story,” Fordham said on air Wednesday.

He added that both the television segment and the radio report did not include footage of the views being expressed at the meeting as locals discussed their concerns about the crime.

“His coverage of the meeting was recklessly and ruthlessly one-sided,” Fordham said.

‘They ignored the issues… And it just became a fight between whites and blacks.

‘AND IF racist comments were made… what were they? And where is the proof?

Alice Springs Mayor Matt Paterson asked the station to retract the story, saying the report “couldn’t be further from the truth”.

“It’s a kick in the teeth for the residents who have put up with this for too long,” he told reporters.

“It’s adding unnecessary anxiety when we’re all trying to come together to address the problem and here you have ABC lighting the fuse to have a race war.”

During her live broadcast to ABC TV, reporter Carly Williams said that “excited” people were “leaving early and getting out of the convention center.”

She said the “jammed” meeting, which had up to 2,000 attendees, discussed property damage, people not feeling safe in their homes or cars.

Although only one interview was broadcast, Williams said he had spoken to a number of locals, including business owners who “were happy to be heard about their concerns about not feeling safe in the city.”

Asked by host Joe O’Brien how indigenous custodians felt about the conference, Williams said some were “surprised” by the plans to sue the government, the lack of discussion of alternative solutions and the absence of young people.

Williams, a Quandamooka First Nations woman, is a journalist with ABC’s audio and news team.

She was previously a senior editor at HuffPost Australia and has worked at Australian Associated Press and Pacific Magazines.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted ABC for comment.