A former ABC boss proves Abbott right by verballing him For a former ABC boss to so savagely misinterpret a Liberal Party leader is just one more indication of the institutional bias in the ABC which Tony Abbott rightly diagnosed: Former ABC managing director David Hill savaged Mr Abbott's comments against the ABC's perceived lack of patriotism. ""It's an absurd proposition, laughable if it wasn't so dangerous,"" he said. ""This is the first serious suggestion I know of, certainly in the last half a century, where a prime minister of the country is suggesting the Australian public be denied access to the truth, and the first time that a prime minister has seriously intimated that the ABC should censor and withhold information from the Australian public."" Of course, nowhere did Abbott say any such thing. In fact he said the very opposite: Look, you know, if there's credible evidence, the ABC, like all other news organisations, is entitled to report it... Nor is Abbott railing at the ABC having reported "the truth." He's in fact protesting that the ABC treated as virtually proven a highly improbable and damaging claim against the Navy that an ABC staffer concedes her boss thought "are likely to be untrue." Same with the Edward Snowden reports. Abbott did not deny the right of the ABC to report his damaging claims, but took issue with its vigorous promotion of something so dangerous to our national interest and even to Australian lives: The ABC seemed to delight in broadcasting allegations by a traitor... The ABC didn't just report what he said, they took the lead in advertising what he said, and that was a deep concern. Moreover, the ABC has itself conceded that in such cases, it does indeed have to consider withholding information likely to damage Australia's national interest for no real public benefit. Here is ABC director of news, Kate Torney, on the ABC's reporting of the Snowden leaks: We did not publish everything we had access to. We took advice from Australia's intelligence authorities on the matter and redacted sensitive operational information that might have compromised national security. Hill, a former ABC managing director, has perfectly demonstrated what conservatives loathe about the ABC. He verballed a Liberal leader, and misrepresented his argument. He attacked a Liberal leader for allegedly arguing for something which the ABC has elsewhere admitted was actually standard procedure. He did not engage in a Liberal leader's real argument, but smear him. And this from a former ABC boss. How often have Liberals seen this from ABC staff, again and again and again? The ABC is out of control.