Prof Greg Craven, the president and vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, is on the ABC now and has attacked the national broadcaster.
Craven claims the ABC “did its very best to be part of the cheer squad that made that happen”.
He is challenged on this claim by the presenter Karina Carvalho.
“It wasn’t a case whether you liked George Pell or whether you would like George Pell to be in jail,” he says. “I think the truth was it was a case about whether it happened. A large group of the ABC and a group of journalists did everything they could …”
No, with great respect, it’s not. What has happened today is that the high court unanimously – 7-0 – said the Victorian justice system got it hopelessly wrong and restored a person who has been consistently referred to by a variety of media, including leading members of the ABC, as a convicted paedophile, which is not nor can it now be said. That is the news of the day. It is astonishing an organisation like the ABC, which places so much emphasis on its trust, is now rapidly trying to divert attention from the fundamental fact.
3:22:
Carvalho tries to move the interview on. She says the ABC is not the subject of the interview and he has had his say. She also says that management would reject his claims.
“You’re interviewing me and I’m giving answers,” says Craven, who is keen to continue his criticisms.
He is asked if he has sympathy for the accuser and other victims.
Craven says:
I have incredible sympathy and I particularly blame certain people for what happened. In this case, you have a client who was highly credible. There is no reason to believe that he did not believe that he was telling the truth.
The biggest problem that he had he was in a case that was never going to go through to, from his point of view, a successful ending. The reason that case was prosecuted, the reason that case went as far as it was, was precisely because of the media fracas that I have been talking about. The question I have for you, how much guilt does the ABC feel making sure this victim has gone through years of hell only to be hurled down when the case should never have been brought?
And 3:36
The interview concluded with Craven addressing the state of the Catholic church:
I think the Catholic church has to account for everything that has been done, for the terrible abuse that has happened. It has to compensate. It has to reciprocate. It has to do all of those things. But, yes, the Catholic church will recover. Its works of charity and its works of mercy will go on. And let’s face it, what happened today was not something where the Catholic church was proved to have done something wrong, it was a case for the member of the Catholic church was found not guilty of something that a very wide range of the media had been pushing as far as it can for as long as it could.
As far as The Spectator Australia can find, using all the tools at our disposal, not a single one of these criticisms is quoted on an ABC website. Not a word.
The national broadcaster is not just a national disgrace. It is a national embarrassment — and an international joke.
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