The backlash was swift and unrelenting: the government was furious, with Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison and Mitch Fifield among the senior ministers who complained immediately. The Qantas chief executive, Alan Joyce, was just one business leader who sent a letter of complaint in response.
How Emma Alberici stared down the ABC on controversial article | The New Daily https://t.co/GuxDC05PTU
— Quentin Dempster (@QuentinDempster) February 22, 2018
The ABC took the news piece down and made some corrections, including the removal of passages which may have amounted to opinion, before republishing it.
In April at Senate Estimates it was resolved that the stories contained nine errors or omissions, but several months on Alberici remains firmly in the line of fire: she has sustained unrelenting criticism since February.
Exhibit A.
The bungled company tax story by Emma Alberici was published despite a two-hour briefing by the ATO https://t.co/VFAtYiJvVw
— The Australian (@australian) May 17, 2018
Emma Alberici and the ABC have lost authority, writes Nick Cater https://t.co/jpvRNTC7Bw pic.twitter.com/0pXJJrypep
— The Australian (@australian) February 27, 2018
The ABC is an important national institution. That's why its journalists need to stay from opinion. Latest from me on the Alberici affair. #auspol https://t.co/dNztOgjRYs
— Aaron Patrick (@apatrickafr) February 21, 2018
Emma Alberici is not above spruiking a jewellery brand on Instagram https://t.co/qATHmf1C8n
— The Australian (@australian) March 25, 2018
Judith Sloan explains what was wrong with Emma Alberici's tax rant https://t.co/v7sy1KkEgi
— The Australian (@australian) February 17, 2018
And she's done it again! "And what will you do with those surpluses? What happens to that money?" Emma Alberici appears to thinks a budget surplus is some account with actual money in it 🤦♂️ https://t.co/o6sYnMmArJ #auspol #Budget2018
— Joe Aston (@mrjoeaston) May 13, 2018
Emma Alberici emblemises the central weakness of the ABC, writes Judith Sloan https://t.co/P3OUw6Ob9p
— The Australian (@australian) March 2, 2018
ABC chief economics correspondent Emma Alberici was paid $12,000 for two days’ work with the corporate regulator https://t.co/hW7wRevaXZ
— The Australian (@australian) March 8, 2018
Media Watch Dog: Emma Alberici unqualified? How dare he https://t.co/C5s1LXYXm8 pic.twitter.com/pEXrOfKuo0
— The Australian (@australian) March 2, 2018
ABC host Emma Alberici under fire for ‘bullying’ on same-sex marriage https://t.co/wWRbyMZi4U @albericie
— The Australian (@australian) August 15, 2017
Is the ABC’s Emma Alberici really the voice of economic reason? Here's Chris Mitchell's column: https://t.co/1sOsLLkWFw
— The Australian (@australian) February 26, 2018
Popular this week: The AFR's obsession with Emma Alberici reaches fever pitch https://t.co/tj4AxXW57x pic.twitter.com/YOAG9va7v5
— crikey_news (@crikey_news) April 22, 2018
On Friday The Australian levelled a new set of accusations at Alberici which the ABC quickly responded to.
The bungled company tax story by Emma Alberici was published despite a two-hour briefing by the ATO https://t.co/VFAtYiJvVw
— The Australian (@australian) May 17, 2018
It turns out that neither ABC News or an ABC independent complaints investigation found there were “wrong claims” or “confusion” in her corporate tax piece as has been insisted.
http://about.abc.net.au/statements/statement-from-abc-news/
Ironic isn't it? @australian attacks Emma Alberici (again) for getting her facts wrong … and gets its facts wrong https://t.co/21xIFHgrSI
— Paul Barry (@TheRealPBarry) May 18, 2018
The piece on Friday appears to confirm that the treatment of Alberici goes beyond mere reportage: it borders on targeting.
Which is perhaps the reason many of the ABC’s most high profile journalists have shared the organisation’s statement – along with statements offering their personal support for Alberici – since Friday.
@ABCaustralia has put a statement today that @albericie was never found to have confused revenue with profit or that largest cos don’t pay tax, responding to yet another feral piece in @australian https://t.co/3d07GzHvL8
— Alan Kohler (@AlanKohler) May 18, 2018
If you read The Australian's article about @albericie yesterday, then please also read this https://t.co/IsB6z7S5xE
— Annabel Crabb (@annabelcrabb) May 18, 2018
Leaving this right here because #FactsMatter.https://t.co/0rRQLpJJZ1
— Jeremy Fernandez (@JezNews) May 18, 2018
The response to Alberici since February has been intensely personal and entirely disproportionate: a pattern that is desperately, eerily even, familiar.
In maintaining her line and failing to slink away, Alberici has joined the ranks of Gillian Triggs and Yassmin Abdel-Magied. She is a woman with a platform she is not afraid to use, and we know, too well, how this combination plays out in Australia.
Badly. These type of women need to be silenced: why else are they targeted?
Earlier this year Crikey published the work of data analyst and writer Ketan Joshi which showed since posting her infamous Anzac Day Message “Lest we forget (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine)”, Yassmin had 207,979 words written about her. More than two hundred thousand words, which had the effect of making Abdel-Magied flee the country.
According to Joshi almost half those words (47%) were published by News Corp (including the 25% in The Australian and Daily Telegraph) and the Daily Mail Australia published 17%.
Alberici may not have had 200,000 words written on her just yet, but she has had several thousand column inches dedicated to criticising her since February. The ‘reporting’ has been variously described as a vendetta, a hatchet job and obsessive.
While Alberici isn’t showing any signs of fleeing in her treatment we are seeing – once again – the perils of being a woman with a platform.