Hugh Marks

And so there's the economic, um, ec- economic aspect to it all as well.

Um, I just, uh, wanna mention as an aside too that, um, it, it was good to hear this week the, um, uh, the editor of The Guardian, David Monk, and the CEO of, of, or the, uh, managing director of the ABC, Hugh Marks, uh, condemn, finally get-

Mm

... out on the front foot and condemn One Nation, uh, for what they're, for, for blocking certain news organizations out of their news conferences because, as they pointed out, this is a straight out attack on democracy.

And the national broadcaster is refusing to answer questions about it.

We've invited the ABC boss Hugh Marks onto our show recently to chat about this issue and a range of others.

His office tells us he's unavailable at the moment.

And we're hoping that Hugh Marks is going to come in again soon, like he did a few months ago, to discuss any issues facing the ABC.

It was on this day in 1936 the last ever Tasmanian tiger died at Hobart Zoo.

In 1996 the US rapper Tupac was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting.

It wasn't until this year that a murder trial went ahead with a former gang boss found guilty.

In 1997, Pat Rafter took out the US Open.

And the national broadcaster is refusing to answer questions about it.

We've invited the ABC boss Hugh Marks onto our show recently to chat about this issue and a range of others.

His office tells us he's unavailable at the moment.

And we're hoping that Hugh Marks is going to come in again soon, like he did a few months ago, to discuss any issues facing the ABC.

Because when Hugh started in the role, he explained that he had a duty to answer these types of questions.

So hopefully we'll catch up with Hugh Marks soon.

To listen to the full show, listen live weekdays from 5.30 to 9am on 2GB.com.

Yeah.

I, um, heard the name Hugh Marks thrown around a bit as well.

Again, former boss of Channel Nine, now the boss of the ABC, so.

Now our boss, that's right.

So just another ridiculous job for the boys.

Could I mention, Hugh Marks used to run Channel 9 and he's now head of the ABC and I've been critical of Hugh Marks because of his lack of action about Gina Reinhart being pilloried by saying they wanted to torture her to death or whatever and it was a disgrace that the ABC didn't apologise for that.

Well, at least he has come out and he has scrapped He has scrapped the Indigenous department at the ABC.

He said it's not necessary.

On a Friday night, Sarah Ferguson sent an email to the then boss of News, Justin Stephens.

He kicked it upstairs to Hugh Marks, who was in new as the ABC's editor-in-chief and managing director, and pretty quickly they came back with a, "Yeah, you can be the executive producer of this film." The issue is though, of course, because this is a public organization, the ABC, questions are asked at forums like Senate Estimates that Hugh Marks has to answer honestly.

And when he was asked about it, he was put in a really difficult situation, wasn't he?

Uh, look, this goes to the editorial decision-making by the ABC, and I want to raise the conflict of interest concerns involving Ms. Sarah Ferguson.

She was listed as a key creative, and that her attachment to the project was confirmed.

There's her CV, links to her work at the ABC.

So the suggestion that Hugh Marks made at Senate Estimates that she was in no way playing an active role in financing of the film appears, on face value, based on those documents, to be completely incorrect.

Ms. Ferguson had no active role in the production of the program, had no active role in the financing of the program.

I love it.

You've got Hugh Marks on speed dial.

Let's give him a

call.

We need to rally together.

In news that I found really disappointing, Avon, Managing Director of the ABC, Hugh Marks, has done a restructure.

The Indigenous Department, as we know it, has ended in its current form.

And this is a department that was established back in the late 80s.

I think, Scott, if the ABC's smart here, they'll recognize that this move has attracted a lot of concern inside and outside the ABC, and hopefully it might lead to them backtracking in some way.

Though maybe on the other hand, Hugh Marks doesn't wanna look like he's buckling under pressure from Lamestream's reporting.

What do you make of this shift?

I mean, first of all, massive credit to the media who followed our reporting, particularly the trade publications who uncovered a bit more as well.

Yeah, we should say that one of the specific concerns about those changes is that some of the shows that had historically come out of the Indigenous TV department were the most bold-

Mm

... interesting, edgy shows, both in terms of drama and in terms of comedy, and there is concern that under this new direction, under Hugh Marks' direction, under this new structure, it'll be less edgy, less provocative, more what some insiders have called warm historical pieces.

So there is a, I guess a political component to this, even if the total volume of Indigenous content might not change, though it seems like that's- is probably gonna change.

2GB.

And the ABC boss, Hugh Marks, isn't afraid of upsetting a few people.

I did say this was the case when he took over the job, and he's swinging the case at the national broadcaster.

And the head of Indigenous programs has been made redundant.

A new First Nations editor will have dedicated responsibility for advocating for First Nations projects.

This reflects the ABC's commitment to ensuring First Nations stories remain a valued part of our content." So the Indigenous department is gone, and any programs that are focused on Indigenous issues will come under the same umbrella as others.

And that sounds like a smart move from Hugh Marks.

Even though the spin doctors would've been in the fetal position when he was announcing it, they would've been worried about the fallout.