From Media Watch 14may04
DAVID MARR:
The hunt for ABC bias - the tassie tiger of broadcasting - is on again with a vengeance. No failure to find the beast ever deters the hunters. They're at it again. Exercises of this kind - counting the seconds each party gets on air - are routine at the ABC during elections. But Rehame was put to work on budget night last week, three or four months early. And Rehame is doing more than just totting up the time. An employee of the agency - some exquisite judge of these things - is also assessing whether each moment of ABC coverage is:

'…favourable, neutral or unfavourable to the political parties and/or candidates being reported.'

But this is not all. While Rehame is clicking watches and ticking boxes, Newspoll has been commissioned - in the words of ABC managing director Russell Balding:

. to explore the overall community opinion of balance and bias in the ABC's coverage . .

In a letter to her fellow ABC board members, staff elected director Ramona Koval has condemned this as:
. . serious, improper and continuing political interference in the processes of the ABC Board and the Editorial Policies of the Corporation.
Ramona Koval letter to ABC Board of Directors 6may04

According to Koval, the push began with

. . a letter tabled at the Board's March meeting from a Director to the Chairman after a 'chance' meeting with an ex-advisor of the former Minister (Alston) at Parliament House in mid-March detailing an approach that Senator Alston made to Media Monitors to 'carry out a review of bias at the ABC'.

Media Watch has learnt that the director was banker, stockbroker and university chancellor Maurice Newman. The ex-Alston staffer was David Quilty who now works for Federal Cabinet. And we've confirmed Media Monitors put an ambitious proposal to Alston last year for the continuous monitoring of ABC output that would be:

. . both quantitative and qualitative and measure . . the balance in volume and prominence of all items, as well as identify the key issues and examine their tone and language.
Media Monitors 'Notes on Bias Analysis' 23mar04

Though Alston resigned a few weeks after receiving this proposal, it did not die. ABC director Maurice Newman - after meeting Quilty by chance in Canberra - brought the Media Monitors proposal to a receptive ABC board. That was in March. Media Watch understands there was no formal debate and no board resolution before the matter was handed to management for action.

In her letter to fellow directors, Ramona Koval claimed:

It is a puzzling move as the M[anaging] D[irector] has publicly defended our bias monitoring and the Chair and the Board have defended our editorial integrity. The move suggests to the public that the Board has now abandoned its previous public position.

The ABC's new regime of monitoring and polling won't come cheap. Newspoll alone costs an arm and a leg, as ABC chairman Donald McDonald pointed out last year to the then minister Richard Alston.

Eight out of ten respondents in 2002 believed that the ABC was balanced and even-handed when reporting news and current affairs. This result reflected the findings of previous Newspoll surveys commissioned by the ABC in 1998 and 1999. While the ABC might wish to conduct these surveys more frequently, the cost is prohibitive.
Donald McDonald letter to Richard Alston 6jun03

A year later, the cost of extra polling is no longer considered prohibitive. And what about the cost of the new monitoring scheme? Managing director Russell Balding told Media Watch:

The precise costs of this important governance work have yet to be finalised and will be very much determined by the date of the [election] poll.
Russell Balding reply to Media Watch, May 14 2004

And SECONDLY, more changes on the way.

Cosima Marrina writes (The Age 25 May 2004)

A letter from Mr Williams to the ABC chairman, Donald McDonald, reveals plans to establish a new independent complaints body that would hear serious complaints against the ABC and SBS.

"I agree in principle that the establishment of an independent complaints-handling body to consider complaints against the national broadcasters is worth pursuing," Mr Williams wrote to Mr McDonald on March 23.

Mr Williams's letter to Mr McDonald reveals that many of the suggestions for the new body came from the ABC board itself.

Mr Williams agreed that the new body would comprise a small panel of members, would only hear complaints after they have first been heard by the broadcaster, and refer to ABC and SBS editorial policies and guidelines when considering complaints.

Mr McDonald said last night the board was considering several options to reform its procedures and had yet to make a decision: "This is not a decision we are rushing."

It beggars belief. Ed