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FOX News to complain over Four Corners episode

US broadcaster will claim ABC breached its own impartiality rules with Sarah Ferguson report.

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FOX News is set to complain to both ABC and regulator the Australian Media Communications Authority over Monday’s Four Corners episode.

It will claim the report breached ABC’s impartiality rules and omitted key information.

Part 1 of Sarah Ferguson’s report heard from former insiders who claimed the Murdoch-owned channel became a propaganda outlet for former president Trump and destabilised US democracy.

“The episode clearly violates the basic tenets of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s published standards by exhibiting bias and a failure to maintain any level of impartiality in the presentation of news and information,” a FOX News spokesperson told the Sydney Morning Herald.

FOX News declined a Four Corners interview but sent the broadcaster a statement:

“The use of former disgruntled employees, some of whom were not part of the company during our coverage of the U.S. presidential election and its aftermath, completely discredits any credibility of this program. As for the events of January 6th, Congressional hearings and the Biden Justice Department not only did not implicate Fox, but other media companies were cited as platforms for inciting and coordinating the Capitol riots. We stand by our coverage with our millions of viewers who make us the most-watched cable television network.”

FOX News’ general counsel Bernard Gugar also sent a letter to ABC chair Ita Buttrose and managing director David Anderson on Sunday, a day before the episode aired, warning it would consider all options.

Four Corners has also been targeted this week by numerous News Corp articles.

“News Corp not liking a story does not mean the story is biased or inaccurate. The Four Corners report is based on multiple on-the-record, on-camera interviews with people who were employed by Fox News who give first-hand, verifiable accounts of their own experiences,” ABC told Guardian Australia.

“The story was rigorously tested against the ABC’s Editorial Policies and the ABC stands by it.”

Part 2 of Ferguson’s report screens next Monday night.

5 Responses

  3. Poor FOX, shame that they are so scared of little of Australian media….most people in this country don’t even know that Fox news even is on Foxtel that not many people watch here anyway…

    In saying that, the ABC should focus on matters that affect Australians, the news/current affairs side of the network has lost the plot in past 20 years..stop
    worrying about yanks and things that have z e r o impact to Australia like american Fox news..

    1. So, acting as the propaganda arm for Trump and seeing the Orange Blob in power in the US ‘wouldn’t affect Australia’-you need more perspective on the world!

      1. Not in day to day lives for majority of Australians

        Regardless of Trump or Biden, we survive daily without the yap yap of American media and pundits…

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