{"id":27600,"date":"2026-06-09T06:23:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T06:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/27600\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T06:23:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T06:23:21","slug":"abc-boss-brushes-off-backlash-over-tame-podcast-blames-disagreements-for-news-boss-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/27600\/","title":{"rendered":"ABC boss brushes off backlash over Tame podcast, blames disagreements for news boss exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

ABC managing director Hugh Marks has blamed disagreements over the national broadcaster\u2019s future for the departure of news boss Justin Stevens<\/a>, but defended its decision to platform a podcast hosted by former Australian of the Year Grace Tame.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Radio National on Tuesday morning, Mr Marks brushed off criticism over the broadcaster\u2019s decision to run the activists\u2019 four-part podcast <\/a>after she dismissed the rape of Israeli women as \u201cpropaganda\u201d and led chants to \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if you look at the program itself, it\u2019s a great podcast, she\u2019s done a great job on a topic that I\u2019m sure will be of real interest and real importance to many Australians who suffer from those conditions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a balance in all these things, for the ABC to be ensuring that we bring great content to air and also acknowledging that, you know, with some people that we work with, sometimes there will be controversy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Marks claimed he had spoken to Ms Tame and she \u00ad\u201creally abhors violence of any kind, particularly against women and children\u201d, before encouraging listeners to tune in to her podcast, which will explore life for autistic women and gender-diverse Australians.<\/p>\n

\"Hugh<\/p>\n

In February at a pro-Palestine rally in Sydney opposing Israeli President Isaac Herzog\u2019s visit to Australia, Ms Tame led a chant to \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d from Gadigal to Gaza. The following month she told ABC Radio host Hamish Macdonald that reports of Israeli women raped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, had been \u201cdebunked\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Marks said he understood the backlash to the program given the activists\u2019 controversial comments but claimed the broadcaster had engaged her for the project before Ms Tame had made those statements.<\/p>\n

The decision to run Ms Tame\u2019s podcast also drew heat from within the ABC, with presenter Charlie Pickering declaring her appointment was \u201cprob\u00adlematic\u201d before later walking back those comments. <\/p>\n

Mr Marks on Tuesday said the ABC was comfortable that Pickering\u2019s comments did not breach the broadcaster\u2019s public comment guidelines.<\/p>\n

The ABC boss also shed light on the circumstances around the departure of veteran news boss Justin Stevens late last month, confirming the pair could not reconcile differences over the \u00adfuture of the ABC news division.<\/p>\n

\u201cJustin and I were having discussions about what we both felt the future of news for the ABC was, and maybe we felt there were different directions to pursue,\u201d he said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people, particularly in the live news area of the ABC, I think feel stretched and pressured, and that\u2019s because we\u2019ve added services to what we do. And more work obviously leads to more pressure. Sometimes that leads to having to spread our resources more thinly. And that\u2019s a problem I know I\u2019ve got to solve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Marks confirmed the formal selection process to replace Stevens was under way before his resignation from the ABC without his knowledge, saying the latter\u2019s exit was \u201cinevitable\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew if we couldn\u2019t get agreement on the way forward, that his resignation was inevitable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d been \u2013 in a formal way but also in an informal way \u2013 just meeting people as I should as the head of the ABC, making sure we\u2019ve got the very best executive team to lead the organisation forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The broadcaster last month announced Stevens would be replaced by former Reuters executive editor Simon Robinson, marking the first time in decades that the ABC tapped an external journalist for the role.<\/p>\n

\"Thomas<\/a><\/p>\n

Thomas Henry is a reporter for The Australian’s Canberra press gallery bureau. He joined the masthead after graduating from the 2025 cadet program and holds a Bachelor of Economics from Sydney University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ABC managing director Hugh Marks has blamed disagreements over the national broadcaster\u2019s future for the departure of news…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[25416,297,22,23,133,5402,21,2184,25415,25411,9624,25409,19145,25412,25417,18715,25408,355,25414,20776,7306,120,5829,3217,25405,25413,25407,20783,16182,19408,247,25410,25406,282],"class_list":["post-27600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-abc-australia","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-capital-territory","tag-austrlia","tag-canberra","tag-environment-and-communications","tag-executive-editor","tag-hamas","tag-hamish-macdonald","tag-hugh-marks","tag-isaac-herzog","tag-israeli-women","tag-justin-stevens","tag-live-news-area","tag-new-south-wales","tag-news-boss","tag-news-division","tag-newswire-photos","tag-oceania","tag-palestine","tag-parliament-house","tag-pro-palestine-rally","tag-real-importance","tag-real-interest","tag-reuters-ag","tag-sarah-henderson","tag-simon-robinson","tag-sydney","tag-thomas-henry","tag-veteran-news","tag-western-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}