ABC pulls final episode of Revelation from Iview following George Pell acquittal
In response to the High Court’s decision yesterday to acquit George Pell, the ABC has pulled the third episode of Revelation – a three part series in which Sarah Ferguson interviews a series of priests convicted of crimes against children – from its broadcast video on demand service, Iview.
The public broadcaster said the removal of the episode, which aired last Thursday 2 April to 415,000 metro viewers, is temporary, to allow it to update the contents of the episode following the court’s decision.
The ABC was also forced to defend the reporting of the likes of Ferguson and Four Corners reporter Louise Milligan, who covered the story – winning two Quill awards for the 7:30 report, including the Gold Quill for best story of the year – and received a Walkley in 2017 for her book, Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell.
You will not see many documentaries as compelling as this. Final part of @FergusonNews & @nialfulton extraordinary series looking at how some of the most powerful people in this land closed rank against some of the most vulnerable. Historians will study this doco #RevelationABC https://t.co/BtKqYEVzmK
— John Lyons (@TheLyonsDen) April 2, 2020
Herald Sun commentator Andrew Bolt said the ABC had “with one voice persecuted him [Pell] for years with false claims and never once had a presenter express doubt about this crusade to destroy him” in a column published after yesterday’s decision.
“Shame on the ABC, our national broadcaster, for hysterically pushing damaging claims against Pell that all turned out to be too absurd to lead to charges, or too flimsy to go to trial, or, now, too weak to survive an appeal,” he wrote.
An ABC spokesperson refuted those claims.
“The ABC has – and will continue to – report accurately and without fear or favour on stories that are in the public interest, including this one. We stand by our reporters and our stories,” the spokesperson said.
The first episode of Revelation premiered on 17 March to 456,000 metro viewers, and the second part drew 420,000.
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I think bringing the story up to date is only sensible. Future viewership needs this historic context.
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That goes without saying. Not to do so would be akin to showing footage of Hitler at the height of his power but not releasing footage of Berlin, May 1945.
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It’s back up.
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