Ex-ABC presenter Liam Bartlett accuses national broadcaster of ‘treacherous’ act in brutal public takedown

The star reporter who broke the story about the ABC’s doctored war crimes footage has accused the public broadcaster of “insulting” the country’s brave troops and arrogantly dismissing concerns about the doctored clip.

Liam Bartlett, who leads the investigative team on Seven’s Spotlight programme, revealed last month that the sound of five additional gunshots had been added to a video of an Australian soldier firing a warning shot to make it appear as if he was repeatedly shooting at unarmed villagers. Afghanistan.

The ABC has been forced to remove the offending view from its news website and launch an independent investigation into how it was included in an online report by its elite investigative unit.

The taxpayer-funded broadcaster claimed it removed the footage on September 13 after Spotlight first alerted them to the ‘error’ in the days leading up to their report.

But Daily Mail Australia revealed last week that Bartlett had actually raised concerns about the ‘misedited recording sequences’ on June 4, only for his questions to be dismissed by the ABC as it did not approve of Seven’s ‘standard of journalism’.

Bartlett, who once ran the ABC’s 7.30 Report in his home state of Western Australia, has now ripped his former employer to shreds in a brutal public attack.

“Let’s not beat around the bush,” Bartlett said in a fiery message in The West Australian this weekend.

“ABC’s fake war crimes footage is almost a treasonous act.

Seven’s Liam Bartlett has blasted his former employers at the ABC after breaking the fake war crimes scandal on his network’s Spotlight investigative program

The ABC scandal centers on the apparent addition of five additional gunshots from an Australian soldier who shot an Afghan man during a 2012 operation.

“Falsifying… audio to make it appear that Australian soldiers were shooting at unarmed civilians was not only against the national interest, but vilified brave servicemen who fought on our behalf in the worst way possible.

“The targets turned out to be terrorist insurgents who had fired on coalition forces minutes earlier and, to add to the ignorance, the commandos at the center of the action had used far fewer bullets than depicted in the manipulated news stories.

‘All in all, a disgraceful act by the taxpayer-funded broadcaster’s elite investigative journalism unit.

‘The people responsible for publicizing this fraud were either careless, incompetent or ideologically driven to present such an erroneous, immoral picture of Australian diggers at war.’

ABC chief executive David Anderson has been forced to admit that the broadcaster’s legal department was separately alerted to the falsified view almost two years ago but ‘regrettably’ failed to act on the information.

He has since appointed Alan Sunderland, the highly respected former head of news and current affairs at the ABC, to conduct an independent audit investigation into the scandal.

Although the footage appeared in a report by ABC’s star investigative reporter Mark Willacy, both Anderson and the broadcaster’s news boss, Justin Stevens, have publicly defended him and his investigative editor, Jo Puccini, against any suggestion that they were complicit in the “error.” .

Willacy, who has won a prestigious Gold Walkley for his reporting on war crimes, has also categorically denied directing or authorizing any changes to the audio of the vision in his story.

Daily Mail Australia does not suggest that Willacy or Puccini were involved in or aware of the manipulation of the images.

Bartlett revealed he had spoken to Sunderland about the saga last week and wondered whether those public defenses would have any impact on his independent assessment.

ABC news bosses said award-winning investigative journalist Mark Willacy was not aware of the error in the online news report before it was highlighted by Seven’s Spotlight.

‘The man who appointed [Sunderland] To lead the review, ABC director David Anderson has an interesting way of getting to the truth,” the former 60 Minutes star reporter said in his column in The West Australian.

‘Announcing the ABC’s attempt to find a path to redemption, Anderson said Alan Sunderland’s investigation would allow the broadcaster to ‘fully understand what happened and make the necessary recommendations’.

‘Then in one fell swoop there was this exception clause for their star journalist who was at the center of the scandal; “ABC News has no evidence that reporter Mark Willacy directed anyone to change the audio on the video and suggest otherwise.”

‘That was supported by ABC news chief Justin Stevens, who, among other words of praise, said: ‘He is a fantastic journalist…his journalism is indisputable.’

“So that wraps it up. Paraphrasing the two bosses at the top of the ABC tree – let’s conduct an investigation to get to the bottom of this shame, but besides, the guy who was the lead author is already innocent before we start.

‘It’s an unusual way to start a so-called open investigation.

‘When I pointed this out to Alan Sunderland he was keen to dismiss the implication that it was all a done deal; “I’m not concerned about public statements, he insisted, I don’t take anything for nothing and I don’t accept anyone being quarantined.”

The public broadcaster also defended ABC investigative editor Jo Puccini after claims that fake gunshots were added to footage of an Australian soldier shooting at Afghans.

Bartlett revealed that he requested interviews with Anderson, Willacy and Puccini for his report, but was turned down “because apparently our standard of journalism was not on par with theirs.”

“From the start, the ABC has taken the ridiculous position that it stems from an ‘editing error’, but this is far more sinister than a simple error,” he said in his op-ed in The West Australian.

‘Anyone who has worked in television news for more than a week can tell you that these kinds of ‘mistakes’ do not just happen.

‘Such serious stories are carefully and purposefully constructed, checked and screened.

‘It’s almost laughable. Only the commandos of the November platoon of the 2nd Regiment are not laughing, and neither are our proud veterans.

“They want heads to roll and I don’t blame them at all.”

Daily Mail Australia has approached the ABC for comment on the criticism.

The images were used in an online article in September 2022, but have since been removed

Former ABC chairman Maurice Newman has also criticized the public broadcaster in the wake of the scandal, saying it has become a “self-interested collective” since his departure in 2012.

“(The ABC) has become the shameless megaphone of the left, operating contrary to its actions, its charter, its editorial policies and the interests of a cohesive society,” the former chairman told the Herald Sun last month.

Stevens addressed the offensive images while delivering a speech on media trust and transparency at the Melbourne Press Club last month. He said the mistake ‘should not have happened’, but any suggestion that it was knowingly ‘rigged’ was untrue.

He said the ABC was “prepared to listen to criticism in good faith” and respond accordingly, acknowledging that in the race to cover big stories “mistakes are bound to be made”.

‘Missteps sometimes happen. And we must admit that we can do better,” Stevens said in the speech.

‘Last week it was brought to our attention by Channel Seven that a video clip in an online story from two years ago contained an error.

‘An initial inspection shows that part of the audio has been incorrectly edited.

‘We have removed the video and are still investigating how this could have happened. Once we have the full facts, we will determine the appropriate response.

‘Until we have clarity on how it happened, I will not be commenting further on it, so as not to prejudge that.’

ABC News boss Justin Stevens said it appeared the clip was ‘misedited’

Stevens then fired back at the public broadcaster’s most outspoken and ruthless critics, accusing them of being “bullies” bent on waging a vicious war on the personal reputations of ABC journalists.

“We expect the scrutiny of the ABC to be rigorous and thorough and I will not shy away from doing so where it is warranted,” he said.

‘But sometimes what is called ‘control’ is actually an agenda-driven attack, motivated by ideological, personal or commercial interests, often targeting specific journalists with the aim of damaging their reputations.

‘This trend on social media and in some media – and let’s be honest and call it what it often is: bullying – is about more than just the ABC.

“Spurious attacks on some journalists could potentially damage the reputation of all journalists. And that fuels the public’s crisis of confidence.

“This is why the extent of the unfair attacks on ABC journalists, whether by social media trolls, commentators or our media competitors, must be highlighted.”