COMPLAINTS TO ABC RE MERYL

DOREY’S MANIPULATION OF MEDIA

November 2011

On 25 November 2011 the Gillard Government announced Stronger

Immunisation Incentives with the aim of increasing immunisation rates
of Australian children. Details were presented in a joint media release
from the offices of Nicola Roxon MP and Jenny Macklin MP.

The incentive was discussed the same day on ABC radio. In an attempt
to provide ‘balance’ producers of two programmes invited anti-vaccine
activist Meryl Dorey of the AVN to speak. Namely ABC 612 Mornings
with Terri Begley (Brisbane) and ABC 666 Drivetime with Louise Maher
(Canberra). Louise Maher spoke with Prof. Julie Leask then Meryl
Dorey.

On both occasions Dorey skilfully took control of the interview to move

the discussion away from immunisation incentives. She misrepresented
vaccine safety and laboured a longstanding disinformation campaign
targetting Australia’s pertussis immunisation strategy. See appendix 1
for audio files.

The ABC received complaints about both interviews relating to

misleading and inaccurate content. These were investigated by the
Audience and Consumer Affairs unit. By 19 December 2011 the unit
had offered comprehensive replies (see appendix 2). They found Dorey
“distorted and selectively presented information” on pertussis
vaccination, was “disingenuous” and “added little” to the topic.

The ACA unit had previously investigated Dorey’s use of a similar tactic
in 2009 and concluded that she had then drawn statistics from two
different data sets relating to different sets of children. Not only could
these data not be compared but one set from 2001 was presented as
being from 1991. See appendix 3. In a 2010 finding the HCCC
discussed this tactic, finding Dorey’s claim can not be supported. It is
not surprising that Dorey responded by changing to a more general
tactic. This partly involved comparing childhood pertussis immunisation
rates to total notifications, which included a large number of adults.
Dorey never responded to an opportunity to explain her technique.

The ACA unit concluded that the November 2011 broadcasts were not
in keeping with the ABC’s editorial standards for accuracy. What is clear
in both the audio and the replies from Audience and Consumer Affairs,
is that Meryl Dorey took advantage of an invitation to speak on air to
further a campaign of deception that places public health at risk.

January 2012

Meryl Dorey appeared on the Gary Hardgrave Drive programme on

Radio 4BC Brisbane on 18 January 2012. By this time Dorey’s use of
unrelated data sets to manufacture baseless attacks on the success of
Australia’s pertussis vaccination programme had been explained in
detail and thoroughly deconstructed.

An unsuccessful attempt was made to warn the producer of Radio 4BC

Drive about the likely outcome of Dorey’s appearance. There is no
audio but the following transcript is taken from Dorey’s own blog
(accessed January 2012).

When the vaccine was introduced in 1953 we had about 180 cases of
whooping cough per 100,000 population in Australia and right now, with our
vaccination rate going from 0 to 95%, we have 180 cases per 100,000 head
of population. So we’ve actually seen no improvement in the incidence of
whooping cough and what’s occurring in Australia is what is occurring around
the world. Any place that the vaccine is being used we’re seeing this huge
increase, an absolutely enormous increase in incidence, 10,000% in the last
20 years in Australia and the vaccine may very well be responsible for it.

…from the statistics we’ve gotten from the government, it appears that
something close to 80% of all cases of whooping cough are occurring in fully
vaccinated people so you know, we have a situation where we’re getting a
huge incidence of disease and we’re being told that the only answer is to get
more vaccinations, more vaccinations, but we already have so many people
vaccinated and the disease is not declining – it’s actually increasing. And
what the AVN says is that we have about a 95% vaccination rate against
whooping cough right now. If the government wants to increase that even
higher, and that’s a pretty high vaccination rate, a lot of parents that we speak
with are very concerned about whether or not giving their children vaccines is
going to keep them healthy.
Source

 APPENDIX 1

• AUDIO

MERYL DOREY ABC 612 MORNINGS BRISBANE

http://traffic.libsyn.com/firesnake/DoreyABC612_Nov252011.mp3

MERYL DOREY ABC 666 DRIVETIME CANBERRA

http://traffic.libsyn.com/firesnake/DoreyABC666Nov252011.mp3

APPENDIX 2

• ABC Audience and Consumer Affairs email responses November

2011

Re Louise Maher ABC 666

Dear [redacted],

Thank you for your email of November 27 concerning the interview of Meryl
Dorey conducted by Louise Maher on radio 666.

As your correspondence raised concerns of misleading and inaccurate

content, your email was referred to Audience and Consumer Affairs for
consideration and response. The unit is separate and independent from ABC
program areas and is responsible for investigating complaints alleging a
broadcast or publication was in contravention of the ABC’s editorial standards.

In light of your concerns, we have reviewed the broadcast and assessed it

against the ABC’s editorial requirements for accuracy, as outlined in section 2
of the ABC’s Editorial Policies: http://www.abc.net.au/corp/pubs/edpols.htm. In
the interests of procedural fairness, we have also sought and considered
material from ABC radio.
On Thursday November 24 Louise Maher spoke to the ACT Chief Health
Officer Dr Paul Kelly about a measles outbreak at a Steiner school in the
ACT.  The following day she looked at the government’s announcement that
day that from July 2012 up to $2100 of the family tax benefit per child will be
conditional on a child being immunised, and spoke to Dr Julie Leask, from the
National Centre for Immunisation Research and senior lecturer at the School
of Public Health at Sydney University and Meryl Dorey from the Australian
Vaccination Network.

The program team believed that Ms Dorey would have something to add to
the discussion about the Government’s initiative. Unfortunately, she added
little and took the opportunity to promote a case against the use of the
pertussis vaccine based on distorted and selectively presented information. As
this was not anticipated, the presenter was not in a position to effectively
challenge Ms Dorey’s assertions.

To her credit, Ms Maher recognised this and acted to get expert advice to air
from the Chief Medical Officer of the ACT.
That interview was ultimately aired on the following Monday. The effect of that
delay was to potentially mislead listeners about the effectiveness of the
pertussis vaccine. This was exacerbated by the fact that the introduction to Ms
Dorey did not adequately contextualise Ms Dorey’s comments by informing
listeners that she is a campaigner against vaccination who has no medical
qualifications and her organisation has been the subject of a warning by the
NSW Health Care Complaints Commission for providing misleading
information to the public.

Notwithstanding the team’s efforts to address claims made by Ms Dorey, it is

our view that she wasn’t introduced with sufficient context to ensure listeners
were not misled by her unsubstantiated claims.

Radio management apologises for this lapse.

It advises that it will again communicate to radio staff the importance of

providing listeners with all relevant context and information when presenting
controversial and potentially dangerous viewpoints – particularly if they
propose to interview Ms Dorey again.

Accordingly, Audience and Consumer Affairs conclude the broadcast was not
in keeping with the ABC’s editorial standards for accuracy as outlined in
section 2.1 of the ABC’s Editorial Polices. Please be assured that your
comments and this decision have been conveyed to ABC Radio management
and the producers of the program.

Thank you for taking the time to write; your feedback is appreciated.

For your reference, the ABC Editorial Policies are available online at http://
www.abc.net.au/corp/pubs/documents/codeofpractice2011.pdf

Should you be dissatisfied with this response to your complaint, you may be
able to pursue your complaint with the Australian Communications and Media
Authority, http://www.acma.gov.au.

Yours sincerely
(redacted)
Audience & Consumer Affairs

Re Terri Begley ABC 612

Dear [redacted]

Thank you for your email of November 28 concerning the interview of Meryl
Dorey conducted by Terri Begley.

As your correspondence raised concerns of misleading and inaccurate

content, your email was referred to Audience and Consumer Affairs for
consideration and response. The unit is separate and independent from ABC
program areas and is responsible for investigating complaints alleging a
broadcast or publication was in contravention of the ABC’s editorial standards.
In light of your concerns, we have reviewed the broadcast and assessed it
against the ABC’s editorial requirements for accuracy, as outlined in section 2
of the ABC’s Editorial Policies: http://www.abc.net.au/corp/pubs/edpols.htm. In
the interests of procedural fairness, we have also sought and considered
material from ABC radio.

612 ABC Mornings interviewed Meryl Dorey of the AVN on Friday 25th
November following the federal government’s announcement regarding
changing the current maternity immunisation allowance to a family tax
benefit.  The intention was never to discuss the pros and cons of vaccination,
and Ms Dorey was not invited on as an expert on vaccinations, but rather as
somebody who heads up an organisation of people who don’t vaccinate their
children and therefore will not be receiving these new payments.  She was
introduced by presenter Terri Begley as, “Meryl Dorey is the president of the
Australian Vaccination Network, a group opposed to vaccinations.”

Ms Dorey somewhat disingenuously objected to the introduction, saying the

AVN “don’t oppose vaccinations per se but [are] opposed to compulsory
vaccinations or penalties for those who choose not to vaccinate”.

The program team believed that Ms Dorey would have something to add to
the discussion and Terri Begley’s questions centred on the move to tie family
payments to vaccination, whether that could be fairly described as a “bribe to
vaccinate“. Unfortunately, Ms Dorey added little and took the opportunity to
promote a case against the use of the pertussis vaccine based on distorted
and selectively presented information. As this was not anticipated, the
presenter was not in a position to effectively challenge Ms Dorey’s assertions.

Notwithstanding that the interview had been preceded by an interview with a

representative of the AMA who made a compelling case for vaccination based
on both medical evidence and personal experience, the effect was to
potentially mislead listeners about the effectiveness of the pertussis vaccine.
This was exacerbated by the fact that the introduction to Ms Dorey did not
adequately contextualise Ms Dorey’s comments by informing listeners that
she is a campaigner against vaccination who has no medical qualifications
and her organisation has been the subject of a warning by the NSW Health
Care Complaints Commission for providing misleading information to the
public.

It is our view that Ms Dorey wasn’t introduced with sufficient context to ensure
listeners were not misled by her unsubstantiated claims.

Radio management apologises for this lapse.

As you are aware, this is not the first incident of this nature concerning Ms
Dorey and radio management advises that it will again communicate to radio
staff the importance of providing listeners with all relevant context and
information when presenting controversial and potentially dangerous
viewpoints – particularly if they propose to interview Ms Dorey.

Accordingly, Audience and Consumer Affairs conclude the broadcast was not
in keeping with the ABC’s editorial standards for accuracy as outlined in
section 2.1 of the ABC’s Editorial Polices. Please be assured that your
comments and this decision have been conveyed to ABC Radio management
and the producers of the program.
Thank you for taking the time to write; your feedback is appreciated.

For your reference, the ABC Editorial Policies are available online at http://
www.abc.net.au/corp/pubs/documents/codeofpractice2011.pdf

Should you be dissatisfied with this response to your complaint, you may be
able to pursue your complaint with the Australian Communications and Media
Authority, http://www.acma.gov.au.

Yours sincerely
[redacted]
Audience & Consumer Affairs

APPENDIX 3

• ABC Audience and Consumer Affairs finding on data set misuse 2009.

Accessed January 2012

 APPENDIX 4

• HCCC Finding into AVN/Meryl Dorey. Comment on data set misuse.

Page 18. Accessed 4 May 2021

Source