ABC found by broadcast regulator ACMA to have ‘materially misled’ viewers in two-part

The Australian broadcast regulator has come down hard on the ABC and its star reporter Sarah Ferguson over multiple breaches of the public broadcaster’s code in its Four Corners report “Fox and the Big Lie”.

The 12-month investigation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) into the two-part series and Ferguson, who has taken over hosting duties on the ABC’s flagship 7:30 program, concluded the report was “materially misleading”.

In a scathing rebuke of the public broadcaster’s so-called investigation, ACMA found the program breached multiple standards of the ABC’s 2019 Code of Practice

ACMA even ruled the ABC came close to reaching the high bar set for breaking the code’s impartiality standards.

The Four Corners investigation, which attempted to draw links between Fox News and the January 6 Capitol Riots, was found to have misled viewers by deliberately omitting relevant information.

A Fox News Media spokesperson welcomed the decision by ACMA.

“FOX News Media is pleased with the findings of the Australian Communications and Media Authority that the ABC engaged in multiple breaches of its own Code of Practice relating to accuracy and fair and honest dealing,” the spokesperson said

“Today’s ruling confirms FOX News Media’s view that the central premise of the Four Corners two-part program was built on a foundation of patent bias and lack of impartiality and was then laden with basic factual errors, uncorrected even after FOX News Media presented contradictory evidence.” Skynews