[This article had been accepted for publication by The Spectator on the condition that David Marr’s name be replaced with the non-descript ‘ABC host’. However in the end they chickened out saying, “While we had originally intended to go ahead with the article with amendments to the naming of the ABC journalist, it was later deemed to be too legally risky.]
On Late Night Live Thursday Oct 27th David Marr conducted an interview with UN Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, which, if left uncontested, reflects a shocking failure by the ABC to adhere to its principles of impartiality and fair balance that it is obligated to follow according to its charter.
In his introduction, Marr enumerated the various excoriations and sanctions on Albanese, without probing these as possible repudiations of her reliability. He announced Albanese as being an international lawyer when Albanese has previously been on record, admitting in an interview in Vanity Fair, “I’m not a lawyer”. The interviewee was thus aired under false credentials – a failing of ABC staff and deviation from Editorial Guideline 5.4.
David Marr gave Albanese a platform to say whatever she wanted, and he behaved as though he was her lapdog. Marr concurred unequivocally with Albanese’s entrenched view that Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza. At the beginning of the interview Albanese mocked any suggestion that Israel’s war in Gaza is legitimately about destroying Hamas and after that Hamas was not mentioned at all with Israel getting the brunt of a barrage of vicious antagonism from Albanese. An interviewer with any depth would have pulled Albanese up on her dismissal of Israel’s oft-stated aim being the elimination of Hamas.
Marr accepted everything Albanese said, allowing obvious misinformation like “Palestinians have renounced armed resistance” to go unchallenged. It was obviously Palestinians who carried out the attack on Oct 7th, 2023 and many Palestinians today in both Gaza and the West Bank support what Hamas has done. Statistics and surveys have been regularly and recently published on Palestinian political polls and a prepared, fair-minded interviewer should be aware of them.
In fact, Marr showed that he was in total agreement to what Albanese was saying, responding to her tirade at one point with the remark, “Of course!” closely followed by, “I have no doubt of what you are saying.”
Marr seems to have very little idea about the facts, having indicated that UNRWA is now being funded by Australia to the tune of $130 million, when the annual contribution by Australia is actually $20 million. Though the radicalising content of UNRWA educational material has been frequently highlighted by many organisations like IMPACT-se and Israel behind the News, Marr at no point challenged Albanese on the appropriateness of Australian support for hate-perpetuation via a UN and internationally funded organization.
Marr bought into everything Albanese was saying, acquiescing to Albanese’s spurious claim that the amount of ordinance that Israel has used in Gaza is excessive. This reflected his inability to appreciate how embedded Hamas has been in the infrastructure in Gaza with its unbelievable network of terror tunnels that necessitated this level of strafing of the territory and yet still many members of Hamas roam free despite Israel’s extraordinary efforts to eradicate them.
In the public interest and to waylay obvious concerns of the one-sided, antagonistic approach of most ABC journalists to Israel’s exceedingly difficult situation I would like to suggest that Marr invite someone like Hillel Neuer from UN Watch to provide a counter to the hateful attitude that Albanese espouses. The interview should be conducted with the same style and interruption level (as in the case of the Albanese interview without interruptions).
Please refer to “Nothing to Hide” How the UN and Francesca Albanese Engaged in a Concerted Cover-Up to Conceal Her Funding by Pro-Hamas Lobby Groups and Schools in the Grip of Terror How UNRWA Allowed Hamas Chiefs to Control its Education System for comprehensive analysis from UN Watch that exposes Albanese’s fundamental animus and biased assertions.
There are many individuals and organisations that have passed the point of tolerating Albanese’s illegitimate campaign of hate. It is completely wrong for the ABC to be giving her an unimpeded mouthpiece with none from the widespread opposition to her being given an opportunity to respond.
There are other bodies fed up with Albanese’s rantings. Refer to Lawyer posts proof South Africa approved serving defamation suit to UN adviser despite its claims for news about the serving of defamation suit papers on Francesca Albanese at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, where she just gave the annual Nelson Mandela lecture. Recently when Albanese sought her tenure at the UN to be continued a petition with 100,000 signatures was submitted against it.
The ABC should not be in the business of giving extremely contentious individuals like Albanese free licence to go on tirades like she did on Late Night Live with impunity.
[Editor: This article about David Marr’s one-sided interview with Francesca Albanese on Late Night Live was submitted as a complaint to the ABC and it was rebuffed it in their inimical fashion.
This paragraph from the ombudsman’s response takes the cake:
” …. that we do not agree that the host deferred to Ms Albanese’s perspective in a way that suggested a lack of due impartiality. Indeed, we think that many of the details the complainants said indicated the host’s deference to (or even agreement with) Ms Albanese’s perspective are properly attributed to the program’s typically friendly and interested style, and its regular listeners would have appreciated this.”]