The viciousness of the campaign of vilification against Cardinal George Pell by Australia’s taxpayer-funded broadcaster was at times astonishing. The ABC aired uncritically the most lurid and outlandish accusations against the cardinal. Following Pell’s now-quashed conviction for child sex abuse, the ABC could barely hide its glee. When Pell was cleared by Australia’s highest court, the ABC was furious. When law academic Greg Craven used an ABC interview to criticise the broadcaster, he was swiftly cut off. The ABC continued to refer to Pell as a “convicted child sex offender”, even after his conviction was unanimously quashed.
But the ABC’s anti-Christian bias runs even deeper than just Pell. As Rev. Dr Michael Jensen put it, “There are people I’ve known who’ve worked at the ABC and have said, ‘I’ve never outed myself as a Christian at the ABC because it would be death at the workplace’.” In 2014-15, there were two Royal Commissions running: one into union corruption and another into institutional child abuse. The ABC barely bothered to report on the former, except to foghorn ridiculous claims of bias against its commissioner. On the other hand, the ABC reported the latter daily and in often excruciating detail.
Naturally, its coverage focused on abuse in churches. That abuse was just as prevalent and assiduously covered up in schools and government-run institutions was barely reported.
But, when it comes to historical child abuse and cultures of cover-up, the ABC might want to think twice about throwing stones.
When writer Richard Neville died in 2016, ABC luvvies lined up to sing his praises. No mention was made of Neville’s chortling confession, in his memoirs, of having a “hurricane fuck” with an under-age girl half his age. Nor was there much mention of Neville’s notorious platforming of “pederasts” – explicitly identified as such – in the 1970s. At the time, the ABC’s chairman defended the program by arguing that, “in general, men will sleep with young boys”. The ABC chair further called for “understanding” of paedophiles. Which perhaps puts into some perspective a recent ABC management directive not to “stigmatise” convicted child-sex offenders as paedophiles.
To return to the Pell affair, one of his most strident persecutors was ABC journalist Louise Milligan. Milligan in fact published a whole book of allegations against Pell – the very allegations which were dismissed by even the “Get Pell” Victoria Police.
But it seems that Milligan is somewhat choosy about hounding child sex offenders – alleged or convicted. In contrast to her pursuit of the exonerated cardinal, Milligan doesn’t seem to want to know about one of her own colleagues who was convicted of abusing a young boy.
Jon Stephens was an ABC producer who created what would become long-running children’s program, Totally Wild. Stephens admitted to abusing a young boy in emails and texts to the victim; police later obtained a warrant to tap Stephens’s phone and recorded a further confession. Stephens was convicted and sentenced.
Any report of Stephens’s crime and conviction is conspicuously absent. As journalist Gerard Henderson commented, “it is as if the taxpayer funded public broadcaster has despatched the Stephens’ case down its very own memory hole”.
But, as Stephens’s victim writes to Michael Smith News, the ABC’s denial goes even deeper.
The ABC failed me and other victims.
Jon Stephens without compunction or fear of reprisal sexually abused me from the age of 7 – 12. He charmed his way into my family and was adored by all. He was the wolf in sheep’s clothing. As long as I remained silent, he was free to continue abusing other boys. This was one of the driving factors that started my legal proceedings.
The ABC have managed to avoid answering any questions with a social conscience surrounding Jon Stephens. Senator [Eric] Abetz and Gerrard Henderson have tried over the past 5 years. They (ABC) conducted a one-year internal investigation which conveniently was summarised with one word – “inconclusive”.
In desperation, Stephens’s victim turned to the ABC’s in-house Fury, Louise Milligan. Surely, such a trenchant pursuer of clerical child-sex offenders would offer a sympathetic ear?
I resorted to opening a twitter account and started asking ABC staff questions about paedophilia; again no response. Louise Milligan BLOCKED me. And now my account has been suspended.
I am furious with the ABC. They at the very least distanced themselves from me and made my legal journey very, very difficult. Hypocrites!
Michael Smith News
So the next time ABC journalists pontificate about “institutional child abuse” and “cultures of cover-ups”, Australian taxpayers, who pump a billion dollars yearly into the ABC, might be entitled to raise a sceptical eyebrow.
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