Chair of the ABC Alumni, Jonathan Holmes, has sent an open letter expressing his concerns about the campaign the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) is mounting against the ABC.

In the email sent to ABC Alumni and the ABC Friends, the former Executive Producer of Four Corners and host of Media Watch wrote the following:

“As we approach government decisions about the ABC’s triennial funding, the IPA has launched a 5-episode attack series titled ‘Their ABC’.

The series includes misinformation, driven by ‘push polling’ to suggest the ABC is on the nose with Australians. Nothing could be further from the truth – the ABC remains the most trusted news source in Australia.

Misinformation is like a virus that infects and spreads. The best response is to inoculate people against it with a healthy dose of the truth. I know a bit about that from years of producing Four Corners and hosting Media Watch.

So ABC Alumni, made up of former ABC staff members like myself, partnered with ABC Friends to make a video taking a good, hard look at this IPA series, its claims and participants.

Coincidentally, many of the participants in the IPA attack series work for NewsCorp, which competes with the ABC for viewers and readers, and which would profit by the ABC’s undoing. Coincidentally, Rupert Murdoch has appeared at IPA events.

We hope now to match the IPA’s undisclosed funders with the combined personal networks of tens of thousands of ABC supporters.”