Whelp. We became used to a certain kinda lifestyle, and now it’s being cruelly snatched away.
While the news that politicians frequently fudge the truth to suit their agenda is as head-exploding as ‘water is wet’, this is still a kick-in-the-teeth of a political arena marked by half-truths, broken-promises, and a politically-savvy public who are well aware that their displeasure with a Prime Minister can cause their party to dump them. Hey, it’s happened thrice already.
So why this most recent cut, as we’re staring down the barrel of an election? It looks like the reasons are mostly financial, combined with a changing of the guards in ABC directors (the recently-vacated Mark Scott was a champion of the vertical; his successor Michelle Guthrie apparently less so).
Guthrie said at the time:
“ABC News will seek to maintain as many of the Enhanced Newsgathering initiatives as possible, with storytelling from regional and outer-suburban areas a priority. However, there will necessarily be some changes to staffing and programming in line with the reduced allocation of funds.”
But sadly, Fact Check will not be one of those initiatives. It’s debatable if this is indeed a Good Thing or a Bad Thing, seeing as the very necessity of Fact Check has been debatable since Day 1, which some arguing that it essentially steals resources from other areas of journalism to do, uh, more journalism.
Source: Fairfax.
Photo: ABC.
