Fans of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation are quick to respond to criticism of the organisation by smugly retorting that the ABC is “trusted” : the polls say so.

Last month’s Roy Morgan survey seriously questions this supposed trust, with the news that the ABC has gone down from number 10 to number 19 in the ranks of most trusted brands. Was being number 10 all that good to start with? They were number 5 a couple of years ago.

Social scientist, Dr. Ross Honeywell says that the ABC “risks falling out of the top 20 most trusted brands completely”.

An IPA article by Evan Mulholland suggests that the loss of trust in the ABC could stem from “media sagas” where the “focus of controversy” has been the ABC itself. As an example - there was a massive decline in the trust rankings of the organisation in April 2020, when the High Court unanimously threw out charges against Cardinal George Pell; charges the ABC had called for.

The attacks by 4 Corners on Christian Porter and Alan Tudge almost plunged the ABC into “negative territory”.

Roy Morgan says that their results haven’t come from the “usual suspects” (conservatives), but from the “vast majority”, with comments like, ‘not impartial’; ‘leaning too far to the left’; ‘lack of balance’, and ‘twisting the truth’ being common responses.

The Morrison government “is running out of excuses not to take on the ABC”, writes Evan Mulholland.

Those with an ounce of integrity have known about this yonks !

individual

Well, there are clearly not enough people with integrity, including the ABC's main target, the gutless Coalition, to do anything about it.

Defund the ABC.

the gutless Coalition,
ttbn,
The corrupt & vindictive retaliation that'd ensue would put the country into a spin & death roll.
Sadly, we'll have to wait until some ABC journalists start reporting on their colleagues & management before action can be taken by ANY Govt here.
People asked for the ABC to be defunded also happened during Labor Govts so, I guess you'd call them gutless also ?

individual,

What the political class has got away with during Covid shows that they could shut down the ABC tomorrow. Even Labor would be comfortable with the fact that a small - and apparently getting smaller - minority wants to cling to the ABC.

CM

I prefer a shutdown. Get it over and done with. There is SBS for 'diversity' and non-mainstream weirdos, and their entertainment programs, particularly drama, are several hundred percent better than the ABC's and the commercial's.