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Michelle Guthrie demands removal, apology of Quadrant article.

Update: Quadrant Editor offers ABC an unreserved apology after an article alludes to bombing ABC studios.

ABC Managing Director Michelle Guthrie has called for the removal and apology of an article published by Quadrant Online which linked the bombing in Manchester to ABC’s Q&A.

The opinion piece by online editor Roger Franklin suggested that, “had there been a shred of justice”, the Manchester blast would have “detonated in an Ultimo TV studio”.

The Federal Police have been notified of the piece which has since been amended to “What if that blast had detonated in an Ultimo TV studio?” But the story contains no apology.

Michelle Guthrie issued an open letter to Quadrant editors:

Dear Sirs,

Quadrant promotes itself as “the leading general intellectual journal of ideas”. Those words ring hollow in the wake of last night’s vicious and offensive attack on the ABC, its staff and its program guests.

To take issue with our programming and our content is one thing. But to express the wish that, if there were any justice, the horrific terrorist bombing in Manchester would have taken place in the ABC’s Ultimo studio and killed those assembled there is a new low in Australian public debate.

Your subsequent attempt to make amends by changing some of the wording (without acknowledging or apologising for the original article) has done little to undo the damage. The article continues to state that if a blast occurred in one of our studios, none of the likely casualties “would have represented the slightest reduction in humanity’s intelligence, decency, empathy or honesty.”

Like many others, I am appalled at your willingness to turn an act of terrorism in the United Kingdom into a means of making a political point against those you disagree with. One of the immediate results of this behaviour is that while our staff both here and in Manchester were working long hours to provide extensive coverage of this unfolding tragedy, we were also forced to reassure worried staff who had read your article and call in our own security experts to assess any possible impact flowing from your inflammatory words.

I ask that this response be posted prominently on the Quadrant website, and I also ask that the article, which continues to contain entirely inappropriate comments about possible bombings at the ABC, be removed and apologised for.

Michelle Guthrie

ABC Managing Director

Fairfax reports ABC staff were today advised internally: “ABC takes all threats against staff seriously and pro-active steps have been taken to ensure the safety and welfare of all staff and users of ABC Ultimo.

“While consideration is given to minimise inconvenience please appreciate that intermittent increased security presence and more rigorous security screening is to ensure staff safety and well-being.”

Update: Quadrant Editor Keith Windschuttle wrote to the ABC’s managing director on Wednesday afternoon, to say, “Even though I do not share all of the interpretations expressed in your letter, I accept your assurance about the offence it caused you and your staff. You have my unreserved apology for any concerns it might have given you.”

Earlier in the day Windschuttle told Fairfax Media, “You’re talking bulls—, don’t call back.”

Quadrant board member Nick Cater told The Drum, “Personally and on behalf of other board members I spoke to today I’d like to reinforce Keith’s apology to the ABC and to its staff and to all of you, of course, who work in Ultimo. I think that this is just absolutely beyond the pale, it is not justified.

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