I’ve worked and appeared on many ABC shows. Here’s why Kim Williams has zero chance of purging the broadcaster of its left-wing bias

Out with the old, in with the new. Just one year into a new five-year contract, ABC CEO David Anderson has “stepped down,” ending his six-year tenure as CEO.

The change at the top clearly bears the fingerprints of the new chairman, Kim Williams.

There has been much talk and speculation about Williams’ intentions to ‘fix’ the ABC – that is, to remove the activism that dominated much of its high-profile journalism and kept some of the broadcasters’ biggest names in check.

The new chairman made his intentions clear just a few weeks after taking office: ‘If you do not want to express a position that strives for impartiality, you should not work at the ABC’.

I wish him luck, but I give Williams zero chance of success.

The deep-rooted left-wing bias within public broadcasting is obvious. It shows up in polls, in staff surveys and when you look at the public statements of the most prominent journalists.

That’s not to say that the ABC doesn’t do a good job. Of course it does. And of course there are plenty of journalists within the organization who keep their ideological views to themselves.

With over a billion dollars in public funding and no commercial pressure to speak of, the ABC has a vital place in the fourth estate. And its regional reporting shows little sign of political or ideological bias.

But when it comes to the most prominent hosts and journalists, the bias isn’t even hidden in the shadows. It’s tweeted out regularly, despite social media rules that are supposed to prevent it.

The deep-rooted cultural bias affects the way the organization covers all kinds of national and international news. And the ideological shift to treat allegations as facts and to run activist campaigns while pretending to report objectively is a problem in itself at the ABC.

Again, because the organization has sufficient resources, the reports and research are still informative. But the bias is hidden in plain sight.

Whether you agree with this view or not, Williams certainly agrees with it, has said so explicitly, and now plans to change it. So why will he fail?

Because as chairman of the board of directors, he can’t do much. He can appoint the new CEO, and that’s about it.

Unless Williams has a mythical superhero in mind who can achieve what no man before him or her has, the new CEO, once appointed, will be as consumed by the corporate culture as his or her predecessors were.

It is a bottom-up organization that cannot be changed quickly from above. The personnel collective rejects the intervention of the CEO. New appointments are made by line managers, not by the top. Programming decisions are certainly not dictated by the CEO.

Even if Williams were to become the ABC’s executive chairman – able to lead the organisation (in theory) and manage the board – he still wouldn’t make a dent in the existing culture. That would be the case even if Williams were to serve two full five-year terms, which he is unlikely to do.

If the Albanian government is re-elected, how keen do you think it will be to support Williams’ intentions to remove the deep-rooted bias in the public broadcaster that favours the Labor Party over the Coalition?

David Speers’ (left) straight-talking reporting style has led to bizarre accusations of bias on X. Political correspondent Laura Tingle is on the right

The task of changing the culture at a place like the ABC goes beyond one chair, one CEO, and it probably goes beyond multiple chairs and CEOs all pulling in the same direction. Which they never do. And that’s exactly why the entrenched culture outlasts those who come and go to try to change it.

Anderson thought he might be able to make changes, but he ended up being a weak leader with little authority. The staff ran the show.

At a place like the ABC, the CEO doesn’t run the organization, the organization runs the CEO. The chairman just comes in monthly for board meetings.

I have worked and appeared on several programs at the ABC for many years, they are generally well run and informative programs.

But they all lean in one direction or another, to varying degrees.

It’s easy to point to a whole laundry list of ABC talent who lean one way or another, but it’s nearly impossible to find more than the occasional fish out of water who lean the other way.

The fact that some crazy people on social media think Insiders presenter David Speers is right-wing only underlines the lack of right-wing talent in public broadcasting to counterbalance all those left-wing ideologies.

One of the many reasons the ABC leans left is that staff believe it is necessary to counter the bias they see in companies like News Corp.

Whether they are right or not, it is not the job of a public broadcaster to try to restore the ‘balance’ by leaning left and thus counterbalancing what the commercial media are doing.

The commercial media can do what they want, they are all private organisations. The role of the ABC is to be in balance with itself. Williams knows that, wants to impose it, but will fail as all those before him who had the same lofty goal failed.

That said, Williams is probably the most formidable chairman we’ve seen in a long time and he has made his intentions clear and known early.

But he couldn’t make the changes he wanted to make at News Corp as CEO before he was fired, and he certainly won’t make the changes he wants at the ABC now. Certainly not without taking an executive role.

But just as nature documentaries are fascinating to watch, in which a pack of hyenas take down a buffalo, they will certainly be a must-see in the coming years as the ABC collective slowly but surely brings down Williams and his grand plans.