ABC cops formal complaint over 'white supremacy' report on Alice Springs crime ... trends now
A formal complaint against the ABC's one-sided report of an Alice Springs crime crisis meeting has been filed with Australia's media watchdog.
Liberal senator Sarah Henderson, who is a former ABC employee, filed a complaint about two reports the ABC filed about a crime meeting to the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
Senator Henderson called the report, on national broadcaster's flagship current affairs show AM as well as a TV report as 'monumentally distorted', and slammed ABC management defending the reporting as 'complete and utter rubbish'.
The audience at the town hall meeting was comprised of concerned families, business owners, Indigenous leaders, health and emergency services workers and police
The senator, who once worked as a consumer reporter on the ABC and once presented 7.30 in Victoria, described the broadcaster's coverage as 'rubbish reporting'.
But she said the the report highlighted a deeper issue with the taxpayer funded broadcaster, which is supposed to be free from bias under its charter.
'The ABC's senior management and spin doctors have defended this report,' she said.
'There should be a retraction, and an apology, and a review of journalism training standards.
'I'm asking ACMA to investigate the ABC for a breach of its code of practice.'
Thousands of fed-up residents attended the Save Alice Springs meeting after intense media focus on the town's battle with a crime crisis, amid threats by locals to sue the Northern Territory government for $1.5billion in compensation.
Senator Sarah Henderson, an ex-ABC journalist, is lodging a formal complaint of te ABC's 'white supremacy' coverage of Alice Springs crisis meeting, describing it as 'monumentally distorted'
The senator described ABC reporter Carly Williams' (pictured) reports about the meeting's 'a disgusting display of white supremacy' as 'rubbish reporting'
The audience at the town hall meeting was comprised of concerned families, business owners, Indigenous leaders, health and emergency services workers and police.
But the ABC's report of the meeting only broadcast interviews who were critical and claimed it was dominated by 'white supremacists'.
ABC Indigenous Affairs correspondent Carly Williams' live cross on TV of the meeting said many people had left the meeting early and that 'a non-indigneous person' had described the meeting as 'a disgusting display of white supremacy'.
'Another said that there was tension and anger in the room,', she said.
She also interviewed several attendees, with one woman saying it was 'a really disgusting show of white supremacy and really disappointing, it was scary
