ACMA find FOUR CORNERS breach over FOX AND THE BIG LIE story

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has found the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) breached accuracy and fair and honest dealing requirements of its Code of Practice in its Four Corners double episode program ‘Fox and the Big Lie’.

However, the ACMA’s overall assessment was that the program came close to, but did not breach, the high bar set by the impartiality standards in the ABC’s Code.

The ACMA investigation found the ABC omitted relevant contextual information in the program in a way that materially misled the audience.

NOTE: ABC response to ACMA’s findings published in full below.

In one case, the ABC reported the appearance of two Fox presenters at a 2018 Trump rally without disclosing that Fox had issued a public statement censuring the two presenters. This omission left it open to viewers to conclude that Fox News had either endorsed or at least did not object to the appearances.

In a further omission of relevant facts, the ABC also failed to report on the role social media played in inciting the Capitol Hill riots.

ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin said the ABC has an obligation to present facts accurately and in context:

“By omitting key information, the ABC did not give its audience the opportunity to make up their own minds about Fox News.”

The ACMA also found that in approaching a Fox News host for an interview, the ABC did not appropriately inform her about the nature of her participation in the program as required by its Code of Practice.

Ms O’Loughlin said:

“Both audiences and participants are entitled to the full picture. In this case, by omitting information the ABC did not do justice to the story or provide all relevant facts to its audience.”

The program included a considerable range and number of opinions, several of which were expressed in strong terms and were subjective personal accounts. These expressions of opinion are not subject to code accuracy standards but were considered by the ACMA against the ABC’s impartiality requirements.

Ms O’Loughlin added:

“Current affairs programs such as Four Corners are not precluded from presenting a particular perspective on an issue or reaching a particular conclusion. But that needs to be balanced against requirements to gather and present information with due impartiality.

“The ACMA considers that ABC could have taken greater care in striking that balance in this program to avoid perceptions of partiality.”

A FOX News Media spokesperson said to TV Blackbox:

“FOX News Media is pleased with the findings of the Australian Communications and Media Authority that the ABC engaged in multiple breaches of its own Code of Practice relating to accuracy and fair and honest dealing. The ruling confirms FOX News Media’s view that the central premise of the Four Corners two-part program was built on a foundation of patent bias and lack of impartiality and was then laden with basic factual errors, uncorrected even after FOX News Media presented contradictory evidence.”

The ABC published this response (posted here in full):

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has rejected the overwhelming majority of issues raised by Fox News in its complaint about the Four Corners report “Fox and the Big Lie”.

The program remains an important and impartial ABC investigation into the role of Fox News during a critical juncture for democracy in the United States.  The ABC stands by the journalism in the program and the team who produced it.

“Fox and the Big Lie ” is an example of the ABC’s commitment to high quality reporting on key topical issues of great interest to Australians.

Central to the Four Corners program – presented by respected journalist Sarah Ferguson and produced by an award-winning team – was an examination of the conspiracy pushed by President Trump and his advisors that the election was stolen, including via a communist plot to manipulate US voting machines, switching Trump votes to Democrat candidate Joe Biden.

While the ACMA investigation rejected most of the wide-ranging complaints made by Fox News, it has made three findings that the ABC has consistently disagreed with during the course of the ACMA’s investigation.

The ABC has considered the findings and has serious concerns that the ACMA’s interpretation of the ABC’s Code of Practice will have negative consequences for the future production of strong public interest journalism.

The ABC believes that some subjective elements of the ACMA report and media release are inconsistent with the established approach to accuracy and fairness under the Code and may place undue pressure on content makers when selecting an editorial focus, for fear of a potential breach.   The ABC further believes this contradicts the express direction in the Code, that the standards are to be applied in ways that “do not unduly constrain journalistic enquiry”.

The ABC is also deeply concerned at the ACMA’s subjective characterisation of the program, and whether this aligns with its statutory role to review compliance with the ABC Code of Practice.

Specific concerns the ABC has from the ACMA report include:

• An expectation the ABC should be obliged editorially to include an assessment of the role of social media in the Capitol riots (January 6th) in circumstances where the program had six months earlier dedicated a full episode to the riots. The ABC notes the editorial focus of “Fox and the Big Lie” was not the role of social media or the riots per se but the promotion by one of the world’s most powerful media corporations of the erroneous claim that the 2020 election was stolen.
• An expectation the ABC should feature an historical corporate PR statement by Fox that did not directly answer questions the ABC had submitted to Fox on a specific topic.
• When the ABC encountered Fox presenter Jeanine Pirro on a street in New York, unplanned, it politely put a question to her that she declined to answer, and then filmed her walking away. Pirro did not speak a word to the ABC film crew.  The ACMA’s criticism is that the ABC ought to have given her more details about the program despite Pirro walking away to interact with fans on the street.
• The ACMA’s description of what it calls emotive and strident language, criticising the ABC’s use of the word “mob” to describe the January 6 rioters. The definition of “mob” is a large group of people, especially one that is disorderly and intent on causing trouble or violence.

The ABC will further consider the implications of the findings and the ACMA’s interpretation of the code. As always, the ABC will focus on the interests of the Australian public and ensure its journalism is not compromised.

ABC Director, News Justin Stevens said:

“The ABC strongly disagrees that the program is not impartial.

“Fox and the Big Lie” was a strong and measured piece of public interest journalism and a world class report by Sarah Ferguson and the team.  This was a comprehensive investigation analysing the role Fox News played in helping promulgate the ‘big lie’ – that the 2020 US Presidential election was stolen. It is as relevant now as it was when it was first broadcast.

“It is important the public does not lose faith in the democratic process of free and fair elections and journalism like this plays a key part in that.  This was an outstanding two-part documentary and we stand by the journalism in the program.”

The two-part program “Fox and the Big Lie” remains available to view on ABC iview.