Quadrant editor-in-chief apologises to ABC
A controversial article suggesting the Manchester bomb should have been exploded at the ABC’s Q&A studios has been ordered to be pulled from the Quadrant website and the editor-in-chief has offered an unreserved apology.
Keith Windschuttle says the article had failed to meet the magazine’s standards and ordered it be deleted from the website.
But it’s believed the online editor and author of the article, Roger Franklin, will be counselled, rather than sacked.
However, the article was still available online early on Thursday morning.
In a letter to ABC’s managing director, Michelle Guthrie, who had demanded an apology, Windschuttle said the “the last thing anyone at Quadrant would do is threaten violence to anyone” and offered an unreserved apology “for any concerns it might have given you.”
A “deeply embarrassed” Quadrant board member and head of the Menzies Research Centre, former Advertiser journalist Nick Cater, also offered an apology on Wednesday night when he appeared on the ABC’s The Drum program, describing the article as “disgraceful”.
Communications Minister, Mitch Fifield, on Wednesday described the article as “sick and unhinged” and “a new low”.
– AAP
