ABC Chair quotes JD Vance in speech calling for funding to rebuild ‘a distinctive ABC voice and ethos’
ABC Chair Kim Williams delivered the 2024 John Monash Oration on Wednesday, presented by the General Sir John Monash Foundation, Sydney.
Throughout the wide-ranging speech, Williams called for “a recommitment to objectivity”, and cited stark stats from the Pew Research Centre that show a third of Americans aged between 18 and 29 are regularly getting their news from TikTok.
He called for increased government funding, and declared: “In every area of the ABC, we need ambition, ambition, and more ambition.”
Williams outlined John Monash’s military history, took shots at historical figures including Keith Murdoch and General Eric Ludendorff, and declared that “the ABC is not in opposition to commercial newsrooms, we are in an alliance with them to create an informed democratic citizenry”.
Kim Williams, ABC Chair
But, in the midst of the speech, he quoted from JD Vance’s memoir in order to highlight “the need for trusted sources of news to combat the global rise of anti-democratic populist movements that spread hatred and lies.”
Williams said: “Fascinatingly, one person warning against this is JD Vance who wrote in his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy that only 6 percent of American voters believed that the media was “very trustworthy”. They know that the mainstream media frequently exposes right wing conspiracy theories as nonsense, it’s just that they don’t care. They believe what they want to believe.
“This, Vance writes, isn’t some libertarian mistrust of government policy, which is healthy in any democracy. This is deep scepticism of the very institutions of our society. And it’s becoming more and more mainstream.”
“One wonders how far Mr Vance has changed his views in the eight years since he published that, but on the crucial point he is correct. The very institutions of our society are losing the public’s trust in large part because there is no longer a broad consensus about the facts.
“We saw an example of the damage lies can cause in the ugly riots that spread across cities in England and Northern Ireland recently. Fake news. Some of it Russian disinformation. All of it enabled by the new media world in which we live.”
Williams also highlighted his concerns that young people are relying on social media for news, that trust in traditional news outlets is falling, and “increasingly content is being created using no journalists at all. AI is now an active generator of produced news”.
“You don’t have to be a Luddite to worry about what this may mean for the truth and for democracy if it is not within editorial guardrails,” Williams said. “It is silly to stand in the way of innovation, however we need to know that what is produced can be trusted.”
“People trust the ABC because we earn their trust through our professionalism and objectivity and observe standards of public accountability.
“These characteristics should be a feature of ABC content wherever it is found. Whether it is on our television, radio or digital platforms or indeed, on social media providers where the ABC will go to find new audiences.
“We need to do all we can as a nation to reinvest in the sources of the truth – newsrooms and documentary production – because truth and knowledge aren’t optional extras for Australian democracy, they are essential to it.
“New ideas are needed to restore the commercial health of our commercial newsrooms. It’s my hope that they succeed. Nine. Seven. News Corp. The smaller independent players like Schwartz and Crikey. All are vital parts of our democracy.
“The ABC is not in opposition to commercial newsrooms, we are in an alliance with them to create an informed democratic citizenry. An alliance of complementary viewpoints and emphases that together provide the basis for a sound democratic debate.
“The commercial broadcasters can be helped by good government policy – something I strongly support. Sadly, recent attempts – like the agreements with Meta to ensure advertising revenues are shared fairly with content providers – haven’t totally succeeded. But we can’t give up.
“Ockham’s razor suggests the most obvious and direct way to strengthen Australia’s news services is to invest more in the most trusted source of news in the country: the ABC.
“It has after all suffered severe funding declines for way too long. For perspective going Back 40 years, if government indexation had applied the decline is just under half a billion dollars.
“If we look at just the last 12 years, even after allowing for the Albanese Government’s restitution of the Morrison government cuts, the decline is 13.7% in real terms. No media organisation in the world could possibly endure such protracted neglect without an eventual decline in its geographical reach, production quality, and general news standards.
“If we are serious about improving the ABC, its flaws must be acknowledged. However, I believe the ABC is a capable vital contributor to the thought landscape and will be so even more, with better investment. Its journalists are capable of remarkable work – they have demonstrated it time and again. And in turn, Australians are capable of almost anything.”
Williams than turned to his own intention as ABC Chair: “to inject new life, new pride, new purpose and higher intellectual intent into the news, discussion and documentary side of the ABC”.
“I extend this to serious drama too – because serious drama focuses citizens on the big, vital issues of the times, gets them discussing, arguing, seeing things from new angles, and recognising what they have in common. Great drama has of course done that since the invention of theatre in classical Athens.
“Only real effort to up the energy of serious journalism and reach out to the majority wherever they live, whatever their level of education, can give us the level of re-engagement in democratic debate that we so crucially need.
“In summary, in every area of the ABC, we need ambition, ambition, and more ambition,” he said, adding: “The goal is to create a distinctive ABC voice and ethos, with all parts of the organisation recognisable for their integrity, aspiration and high standards.”
Williams closed by declaring that “right now, the ABC is in the Australian frontline of the contest for global liberal democracy and its values.”
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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