{"id":294231,"date":"2025-11-19T06:19:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T06:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/294231\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T06:19:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T06:19:07","slug":"hugh-marks-decries-opportunistic-attacks-on-the-abc-but-concedes-broadcaster-blew-it-with-bluey-australian-broadcasting-corporation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/294231\/","title":{"rendered":"Hugh Marks decries \u2018opportunistic\u2019 attacks on the ABC \u2013 but concedes broadcaster blew it with Bluey | Australian Broadcasting Corporation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ABC managing director, Hugh Marks, has criticised attacks on the ABC as \u201copportunistic\u201d as it faces accusations<\/a> its Four Corners program distorted a speech by Donald Trump on 6 January 2021, but he said there are lessons to learn from the BBC\u2019s error.<\/p>\n

The ABC has faced pressure from Sky News Australia and The Australian<\/a> who have called the treatment of the speech in a Four Corners episode an \u201calmost identical act of deception\u201d as the edit of a BBC program which led to multiple high-level resignations<\/a> at the British public broadcaster.<\/p>\n

Marks told the National Press Club on Wednesday the criticism was not legitimate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the comparison of the ABC[\u2019s] Four Corners to the BBC Panorama show was opportunistic. The same faults were not consistent on both programs. I didn\u2019t accept that was legitimate criticism \u2026 That one I thought was opportunistic and false,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Marks also conceded the ABC had missed an opportunity to monetise the Bluey<\/a> franchise.<\/p>\n

The popular children\u2019s show was a joint ABC and BBC production, but the British broadcaster makes hundreds of millions of dollars a year out of the licensing and merchandising<\/a>, which the ABC does not.<\/p>\n

Marks, who comes from a commercial background, said the ABC owed it to taxpayers to look at different models to avoid the same fate in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe BBC probably makes $300m a year out of a property that was a joint BBC-ABC production, but we should have been more active in the participation in what that was going to be \u2026 It\u2019s incredible and probably the biggest show around the world. Yeah, it\u2019s a lost opportunity. But it\u2019s happened \u2026 Let\u2019s not make the same mistake again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the BBC Panorama error<\/a>, the managing director said there were lessons to learn but noted that the ABC\u2019s structure is more independent, which allows it to remain impartial.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I look at the BBC \u2013 and I see a lot of the commentary that\u2019s been going on around what\u2019s happened to them, not just in the last event but over time \u2013 you see there are things that have been chipping away at that independence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201c[At the ABC] there is an independent board and the managing director is independent again of the board. All of those various elements, when they work well, really provide the framework for me to be able to give our people the opportunity to do their best work. Without fear [and] second guessing [of] \u2018am I doing the right thing, treating the right interests, have I got the politics of this right?\u2019 To be able to stick to accuracy and impartiality.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday Marks said another lesson to learn from the BBC\u2019s error was to own its mistakes and move on from a \u201cdefensive\u201d posture the ABC has developed over decades.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Amanda Meade’s weekly diary on the latest in Australian media, free every Friday<\/p>\n

Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to not cower, but we can\u2019t be defensive when we make a mistake, own it. It\u2019s not hard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I arrived at the ABC there was a defence mindset \u2026 The organisation had a fearfulness of external force, and I think that fearfulness drives a counterproductive behaviour which is, we must at all times react to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marks said he welcomed \u201creasonable scrutiny of the ABC\u201d, and that there would always be commentary on the broadcaster and its coverage, which is part of the \u201cvibrancy of media\u201d.<\/p>\n

But he said it does have an impact on staff at the organisation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we can see criticism of us that is valid, we must make sure that we respond in the appropriate way. Otherwise, I don\u2019t want everybody focused on that all the time. It\u2019s the wrong thing. It leads to poor decisions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a struggle, right? Because when stuff is written, it hurts. But again I will say: \u2018are you doing a good job? Was the work great? Yes, yes. Stick to that \u2026 ignore the noise.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ABC managing director, Hugh Marks, has criticised attacks on the ABC as \u201copportunistic\u201d as it faces accusations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-294231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}