Australian Broadcasting Corporation antagonistic to Catholic church

Thursday, August 3rd, 2017

An Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) investigation into domestic violence in the Christian Church has drawn criticism from the ABC’s own media monitoring TV programme ‘Media Watch’ and Catholic leaders.

‘Media Watch’ presenter Paul Barry said although the programme reporting the investigation didn’t convince him the ABC was “waging war” on Christianity, its treatment of some of the material covered “tarnished an otherwise compelling and worthwhile investigation”.

Nonetheless, he said part of the investigation “was compelling viewing, featuring heartbreaking interviews with victims of domestic violence, who claim that church teachings were used to justify their continued abuse”.

Brisbane’s Archbishop Mark Coleridge is decrying what he calls the domestic violence investigation’s “antagonistic, one-sided narrative” of the Catholic Church”.

They should return to honest and true reporting of “the real Australia”, he said after the investigation falsely claimed he did not respond to questions posed by ABC journalists Hayley Gleeson and Julia Baird.

Parramatta Vicar-General Fr Peter Williams also said the diocese had been contacted by the ABC and asked to answer several questions about domestic violence.

The questions were answered “promptly” and the journalist was given other avenues to pursue their research via contacts to other prominent Catholic organisations well-versed on the issue of domestic violence.

“Since the publication of this ABC report, it has become clear that our response was ignored,” Williams says.

“Domestic violence is a serious, and at-times deadly issue that must not be ignored. Confronting domestic violence is not helped by reports which do not convey the whole message, on this issue or by the selective reporting of the facts.”

A spokesperson for the ABC responded to the complaints, saying the false reporting was “an oversight” and “not the result of any dishonesty”.

However, there are other aspects of the ABC’s recent treatment of the Catholic church that indicate its one-sided views, Coleridge says.

As an example, he says several months ago an ABC presenter declined to give coverage to the opening of a new church on the Gold Coast because of the results of the Royal Commission into child abuse.

“They told the archdiocese that Catholics did not deserve such coverage because the Royal Commission had shown the problems within the Church,” Coleridge says.

He says not reporting on the new Gold Coast church amounted to failing to tell the wider community about a project that “provided a multi-million-dollar economic boost to the region” and offered a new meeting place for a parish with 2000 Catholic students and their families.

Another instance Coleridge cites is the ABC’s handling of a segment broadcast on Brisbane breakfast radio discussing the Church’s changes to norms for gluten and Communion hosts.

In another recent incident, Coleridge says an ABC employee asked live on Brisbane breakfast radio “whether vegetarians had a problem with consuming the Body of Christ in Holy Communion.”

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