{"id":199117,"date":"2025-12-23T03:17:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T03:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/199117\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T03:17:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T03:17:06","slug":"abc-defends-laura-tingle-and-sarah-ferguson-amid-unfounded-criticism-of-bondi-shooting-coverage-australian-broadcasting-corporation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/199117\/","title":{"rendered":"ABC defends Laura Tingle and Sarah Ferguson amid \u2018unfounded\u2019 criticism of Bondi shooting coverage | Australian Broadcasting Corporation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ABC\u2019s managing director has defended two of the network\u2019s best-known journalists, Laura Tingle and Sarah Ferguson, after criticism of their coverage of the Bondi<\/a> terror attack.<\/p>\n

Hugh Marks released a statement on Monday night in which he described the shooting that killed 15 people and injured dozens more on the first night of Hanukah as \u201ca shocking and traumatic event for Australia and especially for the Jewish community\u201d and extended to the Jewish community \u201cour deepest sympathy\u201d.<\/p>\n

But he said criticism of Tingle and Ferguson was \u201cunfounded\u201d.<\/p>\n

The criticism towards Tingle relates to her appearance on a 16 December episode of the ABC\u2019s Politics Now podcast, hosted by Patricia Karvelas, in which she said the alleged actions of the two gunman had \u201cnothing to do with religion\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

Marks said the podcast episode had \u201csought to tackle some of the issues that had emerged in the national conversation in the wake of the Bondi attack\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said Tingle\u2019s analysis on the program \u201cin no way sought to minimise the terrorist nature of these horrific events, or the needs for Australia to combat antisemitism, or the rights of Jewish people to feel safe\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ferguson, meanwhile, has been criticised for an interview she conducted with the former treasurer Josh Frydenberg<\/a> on 7.30 on 17 December.<\/p>\n

The 7.30 host asked Frydenberg about his speech at the Bondi Pavilion that day<\/a>, in which he accused Anthony Albanese of allowing Australia \u201cto be radicalised on his watch\u201d and told him to \u201caccept personal responsibility for the death of 15 innocent people, including a 10-year-old child\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ferguson asked whether the comments amounted to a \u201cpersonal case against the prime minister\u201d before Frydenberg\u2019s \u201cinevitable\u201d return to politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m deeply offended by what you\u2019ve just said,\u201d Frydenberg responded. \u201cI\u2019m deeply offended. That is an insult to say that there is any political motivation in this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marks said Frydenberg had \u201cpreviously made comments which sought to lay blame for the horrific attacks directly on the prime minister\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSarah\u2019s interview included a question on his potential return to politics which was a legitimate question for a journalist to put to him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Liberal senator Sarah Henderson said both Ferguson\u2019s question to Frydenberg, and Tingle\u2019s earlier analysis, was \u201cdeeply offensive\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese remarks are absolutely appalling,\u201d Henderson said of Tingle\u2019s comments, as she called on the ABC to \u201cunequivocally apologise\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ABC from my perspective has completely lost the plot; it\u2019s unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former ABC board member Joe Gersh told the Australian<\/a> that Tingle\u2019s remarks displayed a \u201cprofound knowledge gap\u201d unacceptable for a senior journalist.<\/p>\n

Gersh, who is Jewish, said his community was \u201cgenerally very proud\u201d of Frydenberg\u2019s \u201cclarity\u201d on anti-semitism.<\/p>\n

\u201cSarah Ferguson\u2019s questioning of his motivation was at best insensitive and at worst malicious because she was trying to attribute a motive to what it was that he was saying other than his genuine concern,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gersh also accused the ABC of being \u201cinsensitive to the anti-semitic firestorm which has engulfed Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Australian reporter James Madden wrote a separate opinion piece<\/a> urging Marks to \u201cstep up\u201d and enforce more editorial responsibility, citing \u201chorrendously uninformed and ill-judged commentary from the ABC\u2019s two most senior political journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marks said it was \u201cunderstandable at times such as these for the community to search for answers\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuestions about the role of the media, including the central role of the ABC, in sustaining a cohesive and inclusive society in a responsible manner are vitally important. These are questions we ask of ourselves on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, it is important that reviews are factual and accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ABC\u2019s managing director has defended two of the network\u2019s best-known journalists, Laura Tingle and Sarah Ferguson, after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-199117","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\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}