A loyal ABC listener has fired up over what he describes as the ‘absolute disaster’ occurring at the national broadcaster as outrage grows over the apparent addition of five extra gunshots to footage of an Australian soldier firing at Afghan civilians.
Earlier in the week, an audio expert claimed the extra shots were added to footage featuring former special forces commando Heston Russell in a 2022 ABC story about alleged war crimes.
Last year, Mr Russell successfully sued the ABC and two investigative journalists for defamation over stories he claimed gave viewers the false impression that he was under investigation for shooting an unarmed prisoner.
‘This is the exact footage that my legal team provided to the ABC and their legal team just prior to our trial when on three separate times they kept trying to rely on their truth defence, saying it was me shooting out of the helicopter,’ he told 7News.
‘Two things: first and foremost, it’s not me; secondly, here’s the full context – they were not unarmed civilians. Even after we gave the ABC the footage, the narrative was that I was shooting at unarmed civilians.’
The broadcaster said it has ‘removed the online video where an error has been identified, based on a preliminary inspection of the audio’.
In a letter published in Sydney‘s Daily Telegraph on Friday, Bruce McAlpine from Gosford on the Central Coast of NSW hit out at the ABC for the blunder.
‘What I find appalling about the absolute disaster that the ABC investigation journalists have brought upon the ABC is their disregard for the colleagues that will also be marred by the accusations.’
Mr McAlpine continued: ‘I am an ABC radio listener and tune in wherever I am and at any time.
‘Local ABC radio is an important part of many people’s lives and in a lot of cases their only source of information on local and national issues.
‘Night time listeners are brought together and comforted by hosts through talk back and quizzes.
‘People tell their stories and hear others, they build relationships without ever having direct contact. They learn and teach each other guided by the ABC host.
‘Local ABC radio hosts are part of their local community and are generally held in high esteem, attending functions, fetes, sports, fundraisers, the list is never-ending. They are independent and considerate.
‘This is what the ABC should be, not some group of people who think they have a greater cause driven by their over inflated ego and warped vision of what the ABC is there for.
‘Not people who are prepared to ruin other people’s lives.’
In light of the scandal involving the edited vision, former ABC chairman Maurice Newman unleashed on the national broadcaster.
Mr Newman, 86, chaired the ABC for five years until 2012 and said the ABC has become a ‘self-serving collective’.
Mr Newman said that the ‘latest revelation’ of doctored audio in an ABC report vindicates what he has been saying for ‘a very long time’.
‘The ABC is a self-serving collective, which doesn’t let the truth stand in the way of a good story,’ the former chairman told the Herald Sun.
‘(It) has become the shameless megaphone of the Left and operates in defiance of its act, its charter, its editorial policies and the interests of a cohesive society.’
Veteran broadcaster Neil Mitchell joined a chorus of voices demanding the ABC justify the apparent lapse in journalistic standards.
‘These allegations of the ABC doctoring Afghanistan video are most disturbing. If true, heads must roll,’ Mitchell tweeted on Monday.
‘ABC is accused of super imposing gun shots over vision to make it more dramatic. That if it happened is a massive breach of trust and ethics.
‘They need to answer this quickly.’
The ABC told Channel Seven’s Spotlight it was ‘seeking more information on how this occurred’.
‘(ABC investigations editor) Jo Puccini, Mark Willacy and Josh Robertson had no role in the production and editing of the online video you have brought to our attention,’ it said in a statement.
‘Any suggestion that they have acted inappropriately or unethically is completely false.’
