Controversial ABC chair Justin Milne has just officially had his name prefixed by the epithet “beleagured-then-former” after the ABC board asked him to step down.
Yesterday ABC staff in three states held snap meetings to express their lack of confidence in the man who sacked the ABC’s beleagured-then-former managing director Michelle Guthrie at the beginning of the week.
Today the ABC board met without Milne and it’s fair to say that it was not a casual catch up among friends.
What the ABC board meeting probably didn’t look like.
Since Guthrie’s removal there has been a treasure trove of leaks of emails between she and Milne, including today’s report that he’d directly requested that Guthrie “shoot” the ABC’s political editor Andrew Probyn, supposedly under orders from Milne’s pal Malcolm Turnbull.
The beleagured-then-former PM was, it is alleged, unhappy with Probyn’s supposed bias in reporting on the “Super Saturday” by elections which were something of a disaster for the government, especially in Queensland.
And the government has been desperately attempting to keep this unfolding disaster at arms length, not least because the Liberal National Council voted to sell off the ABC only a matter of weeks ago.
Actual footage.
This morning Communications Minister Mitch Fifield – the man whose responsibility this is – bravely stood up and said… um, that it was nothing to do with him.
When asked if Milne should resign Fifield powerfully hedged.
“Well, it’s a matter for every high office holder to continually assess whether they retain the capacity to effectively discharge the duties of their office.”
Zap!
Move over, David Hasselhoff in Baywatch: there’s a new Alpha Mitch in town.
But given that they’re currently struggling with what is euphemistically called their “woman problem” over their lack of female representation and reports of bullying of the female MPs and senators they do have, hearing that the government-approved Milne also referred to Guthrie as “the missus” and referred to females as “chicks” and “babes” isn’t that great a look.
Yep.
Then again, if all these allegations are true – demanding interventions in the ABC’s political reporting while remaining casually dismissive of women and refusing to heed the opinions of the people the role is supposed to represent – then you might think that the current ABC chair is impressively well aligned with current political realities.