Four Corners still resonates -except on ‘Silent Tuesdays.’

She broke the news on the abuse of cattle exports in Indonesia, presented a story on Australian judge Marcus Einfeld which led to his conviction and won a Walkley Award for a story on the Rugby League sex scandal in New Zealand.

If nothing else, Four Corners’ Sarah Ferguson, has delivered some of the ABC’s most important stories of recent times.

But Ferguson sees herself as one of a team, and gives due respect to the programme’s legacy by those who have gone before her.

“That’s one of the great things about the programme,” she explains. “Because of the people who came before me and precisely because of its reputation when you know you’ve got something good, you know you’re going to be able to cut through. That’s what all journalists want in the end, to have people talk about the stories that they think are worth telling.”

Her story in May on Indonesian abattoirs led to an immediate ban on Australian cattle exports by the Gillard government. The livestock industry was left reeling by the move amid a sea of public criticism about checks and balances.

Ferguson wasn’t surprised it struck a raw nerve and sensed from the footage it was a story that would implode.

“I knew straight away. When we first started looking into the story it was clear that this had the potential to be a very powerful story,” she says.

“You want a reaction. But what we don’t spend too much time thinking about is what that reaction should be. That’s a job for government and all the people who are involved.

“What you want is for people to respond. In this case it was absolutely clear that with the abominable treatment of those animals that something had to be done about that. As long as you’ve got the ear of those who make decisions, and you can put your information and know they are going to pay attention to it, then you hope that they do the right thing. Whether they do or not is another matter.

“The tricky thing is making a powerful-enough programme so that they have to consider the issues, which is clearly what happened in this case.”

Her 2009 story on a sex scandal involving NRL players also divided a nation, with Matthew Johns facing public scrutiny and losing a job with the Nine Network.

Ferguson seems content to let the audience make up their own mind, but says Four Corners’ strength lays in its long-form storytelling, where the sum of its parts can put forward a compelling argument.

“You come to a truth at the end of it and I think that was the case with the Rugby League story. It was just a sense that there was something amiss in the Code, so we went out looking for women who’d had interaction with Rugby League players. People who weren’t necessarily able to take them to the police or court for various reasons,” she saus.

“All of those stories put together is what makes something powerful. It’s not one particular event. It’s the idea that, in that case, there was something culturally amiss in the behaviour of the people who played that particular game. Not only (that story), but that’s what we were interested in at that time. 45 minutes gives you the ability to show that this is more than just an isolated incident.

“There’s something very special about the 45 minutes -the aggregated effects that a really classic Four Corners builds.”

Reactions to stories often vary wildly. While there were many who criticised NRL playes, there were others who defended them, citing no charges being laid by NZ police.

“There were people fiercely for it and fiercely against it. And that’s kind of what you want. A lame reaction is the thing you’re most afraid of. ‘Silent Tuesdays’ we call them,” says Ferguson.

“‘Silent Tuesday’ is when you do a programme that’s a bit ho-hum (on Monday) and everyone avoids you on Tuesday.

“We get a lot of responses to the programme. Sometimes if you’re doing another story straight away it can be difficult. You have to let go and move on straight away. But sometimes there are little periods where you can engage with how people react. I always like to make sure people are speaking accurately about programmes. It’s a terrible universe that we live in now where misquoted information, facts that aren’t right, all sorts of things can just enter the public debate. I think it’s important that people always come back to accuracy. Always come back to the facts.”

Often the audience will suggest stories via email and letters, but in a show where research is considered king, stories can emerge from anywhere. Ferguson, who regards herself as a ‘generalist’ reporter, has a preference for stories in Indonesia and will always bid to cover those.

“I’ve heard snippets of conversations that have turned into stories. Sometimes just hearing a voice that isn’t often heard can make you think, ‘We don’t often hear from those people, I wonder what they’ve got to say about this?’ Tiny things can turn into stories. Then there are things that are just overwhelmingly in the public domain like Murdoch for example.

“We’re looking at Murdoch at the moment. It’s a story that’s been covered massively around the world but the pressure’s always there to make new ground, say new things, deeper the analysis, further people’s understanding of it.”

Ferguson has been with the ABC1 show for 4 years. In addition to Presenter Kerry O’Brien, the on-air team includes Quentin Dempster, Debbie Whitmont, Liz Jackson, Marian Wilkinson and Matthew Carney. Each episode has a 6 week window to deliver a story, which, compared to a feature documentary is extremely tight.

“You need to be very sure that you’re on the right track when you start. Research is very important, it’s the engine room of Four Corners. When you start researching (you ask yourself) ‘Am I sure? Am I sure we’re going to be able to get the documents? Am I sure we’re going to be able to get the people to tell this story?’,” she says.

Sometimes a story will fall through, requiring a reporter to stump up with a replacement quick smart.

“I once ended up doing a story on the mining tax in a week for which I still bear the scars.”

But amid ABC cuts, Ferguson is upbeat about the role and security of Four Corners.

“There are periods in Four Corners’ history when it might not have looked quite as secure as it does now,” she says.

“But as things get faster and quicker, having something that is ‘considered’ suddenly seems to be, I think, incredibly valuable.

“People do long for seriousness. That’s why we’re still there and why I think we’re going to be there for a long time to come.

“Sometimes you have to remember people can concentrate for 45 minutes. They want to be told the whole story. Certain subjects are so important that they need depth and that’s why we’re here.”

50 Years Four Corners: Your Stories, Our History airs 8:30pm tonight on ABC1.
Dedicated website abc.net.au/4corners/50years launches today.
ABC Ultimo will also host a multimedia exhibition open to the public from today.