Matthew Ricketson & Patrick Mullins on ‘Who Needs the ABC?’

In Who Needs the ABC? (Scribe, April) authors Matthew Ricketson and Patrick Mullins provide a comprehensive guide to the national broadcaster, which celebrates its 90th birthday this year. The authors speak to reviewer Chris Saliba about the role the ABC plays in democracy, the threat of commercialisation and the cultural reach the organisation has had on Australia.

This book covers all that you could possibly want to know about the ABC. We learn about funding for the national broadcaster, the rigorous complaints process, whether the ABC is full of left-wing bias and, most importantly of all, its huge contribution to Australian cultural life. What inspired you to write Who Needs the ABC? 

The ABC used to be simply part of the furniture, a comfy armchair in a large, well-appointed media house. The internet’s arrival changed that. Now the big commercial media companies are struggling in the face of competition from Google and Facebook, and the ABC is as big as any other media organisation—and more trusted than them.  

The ABC finds itself under attack from parts of the commercial media and from the federal government, on self-interested grounds, whether commercial, ideological or political. If the federal government could abolish or privatise the ABC, they probably would. The ABC is a valued national cultural institution. Once it is gone, it would be hard to get it back. We want to spark a national discussion about the ABC because we all own it and millions of Australians engage with it every week, on radio, television or, increasingly, online and through social media platforms. 

The figures on government funding for the ABC are fascinating. Labor governments since 1983 have increased funding, while Coalition governments have decreased funding. Do you think there is a real threat that the ABC could be sold off one day and commercialised? 

Yes, we do. When was the last time you heard a government minister say anything positive about the ABC? Some Liberal MPs talk of the ABC as ‘the enemy’ and the party’s federal council voted by a two-thirds majority in 2018 to sell it off. The ABC is by no means a flawless institution, but if you only listened to its critics, you would think it was a national disgrace. Critics of the ABC, whether in government or in the news media, are loud and insistent but they do not represent the majority view. Most Australians polled independently about the ABC value it highly as a cultural organisation and rate its news and current affairs as trustworthy. There is a risk of complacency about the ABC, partly because most people are positive about it and partly because the ABC has been around for so long that people are inclined to think it will always be there.

Research has found that a strong national broadcaster that is a trusted news source, such as the ABC, can reduce political radicalism. With everyone more or less on the same page, there is less chance for people to drift to the fringes. How do you see the ABC’s relationship with democracy? 

The ABC plays a vital role in our democracy, particularly in providing a comprehensive and (mostly) accurate news and current affairs service. There have always been conspiracy theorists and propagandists but the rise of social media has massively expanded their ability to spread misinformation and, sometimes, downright lies. Algorithms deployed by social media companies are predicated on magnifying conflict and division—that is what various whistleblowers such as Frances Haugen have revealed about Facebook’s operations to the world. The misuse of social media is a major reason why so much misinformation and lies have been spread about urgent issues like Covid-19 and climate change and events such as the 2020 US presidential election. Publicly funded broadcasters like the ABC, or the BBC in the United Kingdom, provide a bulwark against this—a calm voice in the cacophony. 

It was shocking to read Quadrant’s online editor, Roger Franklin, declare that it would have been better had a terrorist bombing in Manchester taken place at the ABC instead. Was there anything in your research for Who Needs the ABC? that surprised you or gave you pause? 

Apart from Franklin’s comments, which were genuinely alarming, we were struck by the chasm between how the ABC and commercial radio and television are viewed by the broadcast regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). More complaints have been lodged about former long-time shock jock Alan Jones than just about anyone else, for everything from spreading misinformation about Covid-19 to inciting the riots at Cronulla to abusing female political leaders Julia Gillard and Jacinda Ardern in nasty misogynistic terms, but ACMA has been reluctant to do anything more than slap him on the wrist with a wet tissue. Conversely, when the ABC’s Andrew Probyn described Tony Abbott as the most destructive opposition leader of his generation, ACMA dressed him down in thunderous terms. 

The chapter that lists the ABC’s output—television shows, radio programs, news journalism and a comprehensive website, to name but a few—is a great reminder of ABC’s cultural reach. What do you most cherish about the ABC? 

For Matthew it is the work of the late John Clarke, whether as Fred Dagg on radio, as creator of The Games or in his mock interviews on television with Bryan Dawe. For Patrick, it is triple j’s Hottest 100—he still thinks the 1997 edition the best. Now with a one-year-old daughter, he was chuffed to see ABC listeners vote as number one the Wiggles’ ‘like a version’ of Tame Impala’s ‘Elephant’.  

What the experience of writing this book underscored for both of us was the importance of the ABC charter in setting the organisation’s course to meet the information and entertainment needs of as many Australians as possible, whether old or young, in cities or the bush, among families or singles, First Nations or more recent arrivals. 

Read Chris Saliba’s review of Who Needs the ABC? here. 

Category: Features