Russell Skelton named editor of ABC fact checking unit
The ABC has announced Fairfax journalist Russell Skelton as the editor of its new fact check unit.
Skelton is currently a contributing editor with The Age where he is responsible for special investigations and reporting assignments and coverage of indigenous and other national issues.
The public broadcaster moved to set up the fact checking unit after it received an extra $10 million in funding from the Government.
Head of ABC Current Affairs Bruce Belsham announced the appointment in an email to staff this afternoon describing Skelton as a journalist with “a reputation for accuracy and integrity.”
Mr Skelton is without doubt very experienced…..but the ABC choosing someone from The Age?? Of all places?
The Age, where they still get misty-eyed about Marx (Karl, not Groucho); where they sing the Internationale and Solidarity Forever every morning before pictures of two failed PMs, Whitlam and Keating. The Age, where it’s dogma-eat-dogma.
“Fact checking”? Good luck with that.
There’s already a Skelton in the closet.
C’mon guys lets attack the message not the messenger , no wait ,or may be the messanger because we don’t really want some one with a brief to check the facts of a politicians statement, hell no, transparency is un-Australian.