PETER VAN ONSELEN: The Hawthorn ‘racism’ saga put the club’s coaches through hell and back before they were eventually cleared. So will the ABC apologise?

Here we go again, another example of accusations being treated as facts, reported on social media, damaging reputations, but ultimately turning out to be unsubstantiated and very likely untrue.

The Hawthorn racism saga hit the headlines almost two years ago when the ABC reported on allegations that the club’s coaching staff took part in a subculture of racism during its golden years from 2008 to 2015.

The named coaches, including Alastair Clarkson and Chris Fagan, allegedly pressured an Indigenous player’s partner to have an abortion, and demanded the separation of Indigenous families to improve the player’s performance.

The coaching staff denied the accusations, but the damage had already been done. Their reputations were tarnished and their mental health was negatively affected.

Well guess what, almost two years later, a former federal court judge has found that there was “no basis whatsoever” to support the subculture of racism claims.

Hawthorn football club has faced allegations of racism that a former federal court judge has said have no basis in fact

The claim that the families were separated “lacked evidence.” Overall, the ex-judge concluded that the scandal had “a surprising lack of evidence” to support the damaging allegations.

Did that stop them from being reported as fact before a proper judgment could be made? Of course not. The ABC broke the story and happily fueled what we now know: a false narrative about racism at Hawthorn football club.

What an absolute shame.

As ABC CEO David Anderson prepares for Senate estimates this afternoon, during which he will no doubt be questioned about another instance of a senior ABC reporter throwing racism across the room, these examples are unfortunately not isolated within public broadcasting.

ABC’s top political reporter Laura Tingle told the Sydney Writers Festival that Australia is a racist country and that opposition leader Peter Dutton’s policies are fueling that racism. The search for facts to support the allegations was nowhere to be found.

ABC political reporter Laura Tingle (pictured) accused Australians of being racist and was reprimanded by her boss

Her news director gave her a slap on the wrist yesterday and Tingle released a statement defending herself. “Case closed” will undoubtedly be Anderson’s response to questions today.

Defenders of the ABC like to think of it as a step above the commercial media. Yet the ABC has once again failed to act on the facts, once they have been properly investigated.

I wonder if Anderson will apologize privately to those vilified Hawthorn coaches? He expressed his disappointment at what the organization he allegedly leads has done. He’s done it before, away from the public attention that might draw the attention of his reporters, who never seem to escape their mistakes.