Viewers have slammed Q&A after the ABC used a clash between a celebrity scientist and a One Nation senator to promote an upcoming science panel special.
The controversial promo came as the ABC’s new managing director admitted the national broadcaster needed to be more balanced when it came to differing views.
Brian Cox, a visiting BBC TV physicist from the United Kingdom, went head-to-head with former Queensland senator Malcolm Roberts in August 2016 over climate change science.
‘I’ve brought the graph, right,’ Professor Cox said, holding up a diagram of rising global temperatures.
Brian Cox (pictured), a visiting BBC TV physicist from the United Kingdom, went head-to-head with former Queensland senator Malcolm Roberts in August 2016 over climate change science. The ABC has used this exchange to promote Monday night’s Q&A
Mr Roberts, whose Senate career has since been revived, claimed the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration had falsified global warming data.
‘The data has been corrupted, manipulated,’ he said.
NASA asserts 97 per cent of the world’s climate scientists agree humans are responsible for global warming.
An ABC voice-over promoting Monday’s night’s Q&A science special appeared to mock Mr Roberts, who disputes the science of climate change, to advertise Professor Cox’s return to the program.
‘This time he’ll be joined by real scientists,’ a male voice-over said.
The ABC has been accused of left-wing bias with its critics on Twitter describing the science panel special as ‘propaganda’.
‘More propaganda by the ABC,’ one man said.
‘Have a panel of scientists who can also talk to the fact things are not warming.
‘Where’s the balance? Never any balance from the ABC.’
Malcolm Roberts (pictured), whose One Nation Senate career has since been revived, claimed the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration had falsified global warming data
The ABC has been accused of left-wing bias with its critics on Twitter describing the science panel special as ‘propaganda’
Another critic said the balance appeared ‘all pretend’.
Another critic said the balance appeared ‘all pretend’.
‘A bit like juggling lots of balls in the air, you’re bound to drop them.’
The complaints were tweeted a few days before the ABC’s new managing director David Anderson admitted the national broadcaster needed to be better at airing a greater diversity of opinions.
‘The perspective of views that we represent is something that we could improve on,’ he told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
His admission was made less than three weeks after ABC chairwoman Ita Buttrose criticised the organisation she leads of being biased, even if unintentionally.
The ABC’s new managing director David Anderson (pictured left with ABC chairwoman Ita Buttrose) admitted the national broadcaster needed to be better at airing a greater diversity of opinions
‘Sometimes I think we might be biased,’ she told ABC Radio in late May.
‘I think sometimes we could do with more diversity of views.
‘Sometimes I think people without really knowing it, let a bias show through.’
Professor Cox, a former keyboard player with Northern Irish pop group D:Ream, is being joined on Q&A tonight by marine ecologist Emma Johnston, CSIRO climate scientist David Karoly, indigenous astronomer Kirsten Banks and astrobiologist Martin Van Kranendonk.
Julia Baird, the host of The Drum, last year admitted her afternoon panel program had struggled to find conservative voices to appear, after it was revealed the ABC had declined appearance requests from the Institute of Public Affairs, a right-wing think tank.
His admission was made less than three weeks after ABC chairwoman Ita Buttrose criticised the organisation she leads of being bias, even if unintentionally