Is the ABC still in the journalism business?

Or have they lost their nerve?

Something struck me the other day about the way ABC News is using Threads—the new, Meta-owned social media site—and I think it raises bigger questions about the ABC’s commitment to serious, political journalism.

I’ve been using Threads over the last few months, looking for an alternative to the cesspool that Elon Musk has made of Twitter, the platform which he now, accurately, calls X.

Threads has its problems, and I won’t go through them all here, but I will say I am finding it an okay place to use for engaging with readers and as a source of aggregated news. More and more major news outlets around the world, along with some of the leading alt-news practitioners of journalism, are starting to use it, and it is reaching a critical mass that might make it a valuable rendezvous point for those interested in politics.

But not if you follow ABC Australia.

I haven’t sat down and analysed every item the ABC has posted on Threads, but let’s just take as a random sample of the total using the las…