Australia’s ABC Probed During Senate Hearing for Not Removing Disproven Trump-Russia Program

ABC News Director Justin Stevens said the program was made with the ‘best available information’ at the time of production.

A woman walks past Australia's public broadcaster ABC's head office building in Sydney, Australia, on Sept. 27, 2018. Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images

The Australian Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has defended its decision to keep an investigative series on Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia online, despite later findings debunking claims.

In 2018, ABC’s Four Corners program aired a three-part series, which the broadcaster called “The Story of the Century,” on Trump and his connections with Russia during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The program appeared to support the narrative that Trump was a puppet installed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

At one point during the program, ABC reporter Sarah Ferguson, who conducted the investigation, concluded that “the Kremlin’s puppet master now has America dancing to his discordant tune,” and “he couldn’t have planned it better.”

The series has garnered millions of views and remains on the ABC’s website and its YouTube channel today, despite the Mueller Report in 2019 and later inquiries proving that there was no collusion between Trump and Russia.

ABC Questioned Over Inaction

At a Senate hearing on Feb. 25, Liberal Nationals Senator Gerard Rennick raised concerns about the public broadcaster’s lack of action to correct or remove the discredited reports.

“All of these so-called allegations have been proven to be false and deliberate misinformation spread by intelligence agencies for political purposes,” he said.

“However, that Four Corners program is still up on your website, and given that we now know that it’s false information, can you please explain why it’s still on the website again?”

In response, ABC News Director Justin Stevens said the series was made with the “best available information” to the production team.

“What I would say, not having had the chance to look back over the story recently, is that Sarah is one of the most esteemed journalists in the country,” he told the Senate Standing Committees on Environment and Communications.

“The materials that they were relying on for those programs were the best available information at the time, and they reported it accurately.”

When pressed whether the ABC would acknowledge that the series is now incorrect, Stevens said the Anetwork would take the senator’s question on notice.

Senator Gerard Rennick speaks during Senate Estimates at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on June 5, 2024. AAP Image/Lukas Coch

ABC Refutes Allegations of  Overspending

The hearing also delved into the ABC’s finances, with Labor Senator Catryna Bilyk questioning reports about its alleged wasteful spending.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the ABC currently costs each household $105 a year—more than an annual Netflix subscription of $96.

This was calculated by dividing its taxpayer-funded annual budget of $1.1 billion by Australia’s 11.5 million households.

In addition, the media outlet alleged that the ABC had spent millions of dollars of taxpayer money on controversial projects, including $21 million (US$13.2 million) on advertising, $39 million to move 236 staff to new offices in Western Sydney, and $670,000 on a fact-checking partnership with RMIT University.

Melanie Kleyn, the ABC’s Acting Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer, pointed out that the allegation about the network’s new offices in Western Sydney was incorrect.

She explained that the broadcaster had previously sold a property in North Sydney to fund the new offices.

“Using the proceeds from that property was how we were able to develop that site in Parramatta,” she said.

Kleyn also noted that the new offices allowed the broadcaster to improve its efficiency with modern workplaces and new technology at a cost less than the proceeds it got from the sale of the old property.

“We’ve been able to lease out floors in our Ultimo building, which means that there’s also no cost to the taxpayer for the leasing of the Parramatta site,” she said.

Regarding the fact-checking partnership with RMIT, Stevens said the ABC decided to end it partly because the broadcaster had changed its focus to verification.

“The team at the ABC ended that to focus on verification. So we’ve created ABC News Verify,” he said.

“A lot of teams are now doing that style of explainer-driven and fact-driven journalism.”

The ABC is Free for Australians: Acting Director

Kleyn also rejected claims that ABC costs Australian households more than a Netflix subscription, saying the services provided by the broadcaster were “free” to all Australians.

“I think the starting point for the calculation was an error in and of itself,” she said.

“I think the key point to raise is it’s impossible to do a comparison between Netflix and the ABC.”