Sarah Ferguson (journalist)
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Sarah Ferguson (born 31 December 1965) is an Australian journalist, reporter and television presenter. She is the host of ABC TV's flagship news and current affairs program '' 7.30''. She was previously a journalist for '' Dateline'', ''
Insight Insight is the understanding of a specific causality, cause and effect within a particular context. The term insight can have several related meanings: *a piece of information *the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of se ...
'', ''
Sunday Sunday (Latin: ''dies solis'' meaning "day of the sun") is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. Sunday is a Christian sabbath, day of rest in most Western countries and a part of the Workweek and weekend, weekend. In some Middle Ea ...
'' and ''
Four Corners Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. Most of the Four Corners regio ...
.''


Personal life

Ferguson was born in
Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...
, Nigeria, in 1965 to Iain and Marjorie. She has two older brothers. The onset of the
Nigerian Civil War The Nigerian Civil War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), also known as the Biafran War, Nigeria-Biafra War, or Biafra War, was fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a Secession, secessionist state which had declared its independen ...
led the family to move back to the United Kingdom when Ferguson was a toddler. She attended
New Hall New Hall may refer to: * New Hall, Fazakerley, a historic complex that was originally a model village, in Liverpool, England * New Hall, Woodford, a 17th-century cottage in Woodford, Greater Manchester, England * New Hall moated site, a scheduled ...
, a Catholic-run private girls school in Boreham, Essex. She later studied English literature at
King's College, London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...
. In her early teens, she began a correspondence with the poet
Philip Larkin Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. His first book of poetry, '' The North Ship'', was published in 1945, followed by two novels, '' Jill'' (1946) and '' A Girl in Winter'' (194 ...
. In a teenage essay she said that she wanted to be "a commando and a librarian in the British House of Commons". Ferguson married journalist Tony Jones in 1992 or 1993. They have three sons, including one from Jones' previous relationship. In 2017, the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters was conferred on Ferguson by the
University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...
for excellence in journalism.


Career

Ferguson's career began in newspapers in the United Kingdom, writing arts reviews for ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
''. Later she moved to Paris and worked as a researcher and production assistant on arts programs for French and British broadcasters. In 1992, Australian journalist and the ABC's London correspondent, Tony Jones, hired Ferguson to help him on a story about French politics. In 2000, Ferguson worked as a reporter for '' Dateline'' and ''
Insight Insight is the understanding of a specific causality, cause and effect within a particular context. The term insight can have several related meanings: *a piece of information *the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of se ...
''. In 2004 she joined the ''
Sunday Sunday (Latin: ''dies solis'' meaning "day of the sun") is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. Sunday is a Christian sabbath, day of rest in most Western countries and a part of the Workweek and weekend, weekend. In some Middle Ea ...
'' program on Channel Nine and in 2008 joined ''
Four Corners Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. Most of the Four Corners regio ...
'', the ABC's long form current affairs program. Her first story was an investigation into political fundraising. She was nominated for a record four
Walkley Awards The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...
in 2007.


Australian Broadcasting Corporation

In 2011, Ferguson reported on the live cattle export trade in Australian cattle to Indonesia. The episode, "A Bloody Business", won the Gold Walkley Award and led to suspension of the trade. Ferguson won the Logie for Most Outstanding Public Affairs Report in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. She also won the George Muster Award and the
Queensland Premier's Literary Awards The Queensland Premier's Literary Awards were an Australian suite of literary awards inaugurated in 1999 and disestablished in 2012. It was one of the most generous suites of literary awards within Australia, with $225,000 in prize money across ...
for her reporting on people smuggling and the toxic culture within the rugby league. In 2014, Ferguson hosted '' 7.30'' and her interviews with the Australian treasurer
Joe Hockey Joseph Benedict Hockey (born 2 August 1965) is an Australian former politician and diplomat. He was the Member of Parliament for Division of North Sydney, North Sydney from 1996 Australian federal election, 1996 until 2015. He was the Treasurer ...
were nominated for a Walkley for journalistic excellence. They would later be described as "aggressive" and "the tone of the questioning could have been interpreted by some viewers to be a potential breach of the ABC's impartiality guidelines". In 2014, Ferguson caused controversy at the Walkley Awards when she publicly railed against job cuts at the ABC. Ferguson presented two major series for the ABC in 2015. She wrote and presented '' The Killing Season'', a documentary series on the
Rudd ''Scardinius'' is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, Eurasian minnows and related species. The fishes in this genus are commonly called rudds. Locally, the name "rudd" without ...
/ Gillard years, analysing the events of the Labor governments of 2007 to 2013. Ferguson interviewed
Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...
decision-makers and strategists who had engaged in internal conflict that brought down a government which had successfully mitigated the
2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...
. The series won the AACTA award for documentary in 2015. In November 2015, Ferguson replaced Kerry O'Brien as host of ''Four Corners''. In 2017, as Ferguson was getting off a plane, she was told that her mother Marjorie had died suddenly in England. Later she became aware that hospital negligence had led to her mother's death. She wrote about the experience in her book ''On Mother''. In May 2017, Ferguson presented "The Siege", a two-part special investigating the
2014 Sydney hostage crisis The Lindt Café siege was a terrorist attack that occurred on 15–16 December 2014 when a lone gunman, Man Haron Monis, held ten customers and eight employees of a Lindt#Lindt chocolate cafés and stores, Lindt Chocolate Café hostage in the ...
at the Lindt Cafe in Martin Place, Sydney. Ferguson interviewed the families of Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson and the surviving hostages and examined how authorities had failed to comprehend the risk posed by hostage-taker
Man Haron Monis Man Haron Monis (; born Mohammed Hassan Manteghi Borujerdi; 19 May 1964 – 16 December 2014) was an Iranian-born refugee and Australian citizen who took hostages in a siege at the Lindt Chocolate Café at Martin Place, Sydney on 15 Dece ...
. In June 2018, Ferguson presented and produced "Trump/Russia", a ''Four Corners'' three-part series on President
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
and his connections to Russia. The series was filmed over several months in the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia. In November 2018, Ferguson reported and presented "Bitter End" about conflict within the ABC which led to the resignations of its managing director Michelle Guthrie and chair Justin Milne within one week. In 2020, the ABC announced Ferguson would take up a short term role as a "special reporter" in Washington in early 2021. In April 2022, the ABC announced Ferguson would return to Australia to succeed
Leigh Sales Leigh Peta Sales (born 10 May 1973) is an Australian journalist and author, best known for her work with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). She has won three Walkley Awards, and in 2023 was nominated for the Gold Logie Award for M ...
as the host of ABC TV's flagship news and current affairs program ''7.30'' from July 2022. Ferguson is reportedly named as Australia's most popular television host in a StudioHawk study based on a "popularity score" calculated from Instagram followers and the amount of searches, beating Edwina Bartholomew (2nd place),
Karl Stefanovic Karl Stefanovic ( sr-Cyrl, Карл Стефановић; born 12 August 1974), also spelt Karl Stefanović, is an Australian television presenter and journalist for the Nine Network. Stefanovic is currently a co-host of the Nine Network's br ...
(3rd), Sarah Harris (4th) and Natalie Barr (5th).


Documentaries

Ferguson has collaborated with producer Nial Fulton on two documentary series for ABC. In 2016 she presented '' Hitting Home'' on domestic violence in Australia. The series won Best Documentary at the 2016
AACTA Awards The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The awards recognise excellence in the cinema of Australia, film and ...
and the Walkley Documentary Award. In 2018, Ferguson started working on ''
Revelation Revelation, or divine revelation, is the disclosing of some form of Religious views on truth, truth or Knowledge#Religion, knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities in the view of religion and t ...
'', a three-part documentary series for the ABC about the Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in Australia. ''Revelation'' aired on ABC on 17 March, 31 March and 2 April 2020. Ferguson interviewed convicted Catholic priest Father Vincent Ryan and Bernard McGrath, a former religious brother from the Order of St John of God. Her interview with Ryan was the first time anywhere in the world a still serving Catholic priest publicly discussed their sexual abuse of children. In "Goliath", the third episode of ''Revelation'', Ferguson interviewed two men, identified as Bernie and Peter Clarke, who accused Australian cardinal George Pell of sexually abusing them as boys when he was a priest in the Diocese of Ballarat and investigated their accusations. The alleged sexual abuse occurred when Pell spent time at the Catholic orphanage where the men resided in the 1970s. Following Pell's acquittal and subsequent release from Barwon Prison, the producers temporarily removed the third episode of the series to include these developments before restoring the episode to the ABC iView platform. The ABC also released a statement which stood by the program's content, stating "The ABC has – and will continue to – report accurately and without fear or favour on stories that are in the public interest, including this one." On 13 April 2020, police began an investigation of the sex abuse allegations discussed in ''Revelation''. Following ''Revelation'', Ferguson stepped down as presenter of ''Four Corners'' and accepted the role of China bureau chief for the ABC. After a year of political turmoil in the region, with journalists forced to leave China, her visa did not eventuate.


"Fox and the Big Lie"

In August 2021, Ferguson's two-part report "Fox and the Big Lie" screened on ''Four Corners''. It investigated how the
Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...
-owned American cable network
Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...
allegedly became a propaganda vehicle for Donald Trump and helped destabilise America. Ferguson interviewed major Fox identities, including
Gretchen Carlson Gretchen Elizabeth Carlson (born June 21, 1966) is an American broadcast journalist, writer, and television personality. Carlson was born and raised in Minnesota. A talented youth violinist, Carlson competed in a number of music contests befor ...
and former Fox political editor Chris Stirewalt. Prior to broadcast, Fox News sent a legal threat to the ABC, stating that the broadcaster had "violated" its own standards by "exhibiting bias". The Murdoch-owned newspaper ''
The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...
'' published 45 articles in two days attacking the program, accusing the ABC of doing a "full frontal hit-job on Rupert Murdoch,
NewsCorp The original incarnation of News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp. and also variously known as News Corporation Limited) was an American multinational mass media corporation founded and controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Formerly inc ...
and the US
Fox News Channel The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American multinational conservative news and political commentary television channel and website based in New York City, U.S. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ow ...
". Episode 1 was watched by 586,000 viewers. News Corp denied there had been a coordinated campaign against the program. The ABC said the News Corp response was expected and that "the striking uniformity of the attacks from News Corp journalists, commentators and outlets ... has only further served to highlight the importance of having a range of independent voices in the Australian media. News Corp not liking a story does not mean the story is biased or inaccurate". Ferguson responded to the threat of legal action by Fox News, stating that "We're not in fear of anything ... there are fewer more important stories to look at in America right now." In the second episode of ''Fox and the Big Lie'', Ferguson's interview with former federal prosecutor and Trump lawyer Sidney Powell generated international headlines as Powell struggled to answer questions about her claims
Smartmatic Smartmatic (also referred as Smartmatic Corp. or Smartmatic International), or Smartmatic SGO Group, is a multinational company that builds and implements electronic voting systems. The company also produces smart cities solutions (including ...
and
Dominion A dominion was any of several largely self-governance, self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of self-governing colony, colon ...
were involved in rigging the 2020 Presidential Election. Ferguson asked Powell what
fact-checking Fact-checking is the process of verifying the factual accuracy of questioned reporting and statements. Fact-checking can be conducted before or after the text or content is published or otherwise disseminated. Internal fact-checking is such che ...
she had done to find out what Smartmatic's actual involvement in the election was. Powell responded that she was confused as to why Ferguson was interviewing her. Ferguson explained it was because Powell had made a series of very strong allegations against
Smartmatic Smartmatic (also referred as Smartmatic Corp. or Smartmatic International), or Smartmatic SGO Group, is a multinational company that builds and implements electronic voting systems. The company also produces smart cities solutions (including ...
and
Dominion A dominion was any of several largely self-governance, self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of self-governing colony, colon ...
, containing 'many errors of fact.' Ferguson then said 'You said
Smartmatic Smartmatic (also referred as Smartmatic Corp. or Smartmatic International), or Smartmatic SGO Group, is a multinational company that builds and implements electronic voting systems. The company also produces smart cities solutions (including ...
owns
Dominion A dominion was any of several largely self-governance, self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of self-governing colony, colon ...
. How do you justify such a basic factual error?' Powell walked out of the interview, only to reluctantly come back and continue to stick to her baseless claims. After Powell said the election fraud had been planned for at least three years, Ferguson asked her: ''Do you ever hear yourself and think it sounds ridiculous? ''Powell replied: ''No. I know myself very well. I've been me a long time.'' The
Australian Communications and Media Authority The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is an Australian government statutory authority within the Communications portfolio. ACMA was formed on 1 July 2005 with the merger of the Australian Broadcasting Authority and the Aus ...
finalised a year-long investigation on 19 December 2022 which was prompted by various complaints about the story by Fox News. Although the ACMA dismissed most of the complaints, they did find that Ferguson's report had breached two standards in the ABC Code of Practice 2019 – standard 2.2 (materially misled) and standard 5.1 (inform participants of the nature of their participation). The ACMA concluded that the program omitted key information that resulted in information being conveyed in a way that materially misled the audience. The ACMA found that the ABC failed to include information about two Fox News presenters (
Sean Hannity Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is an American conservative television presenter, broadcaster and writer. He hosts ''The Sean Hannity Show'', a radio syndication, nationally syndicated talk radio show, has hosted a Hannity, sel ...
and Jeanine Pirro) being censured after appearing at a Donald Trump rally and also neglected to report on the role social media played prior to the Capitol riots. The ACMA also found that an interviewee (Jeanine Pirro) was not adequately informed about the way the program would be presented. The ACMA rejected Fox News' suggestions that Ferguson's report was partisan. However, the ACMA reasoned that the program "came close to, but did not breach" the impartiality standards in the code, finding that there were instances where Ferguson used "emotive and strident language" (specifically her use of the word "mob") but did show impartiality in her questioning. In a statement, the ABC defended Ferguson's story. The organisation described Ferguson's story as a "world class report" and "a strong and measured piece of public interest journalism". The ABC criticised the ACMA by saying their interpretation of the code could have negative consequences for public interest journalism, and were "deeply concerned at the ACMA's subjective characterisation of the program". Ferguson also publicly responded to the findings of the ACMA investigation. She accused the regulator of issuing an "inflammatory" media release and failing to understand journalism. Ferguson accused the ACMA of creating the impression that her story was misleading and dishonest when in fact that regulator had found only three minor subjective breaches and had dismissed 19 complaints. She also accused the ACMA of attempting to restrict the ABC's freedom in choosing the most relevant editorial focus of its programs which Ferguson considers to be central to the success of current affairs programs like ''Four Corners''. Ferguson's report was also defended by the ABC's director of news, analysis and investigations Justin Stevens who also criticised the ACMA's findings.


Filmography

* 2008 – ''Buying Back The River'' * 2009 – ''Code of Silence'' * 2011 – ''A Bloody Business'' * 2012 – ''Another Bloody Business'' * 2012 – ''Growing Up Poor'' * 2013 – ''Trading Misery'' * 2015 – '' Hitting Home'' * 2015 – '' The Killing Season'' * 2016 – ''The Leaders'' * 2017 – ''The Siege'' * 2018 – ''Trump/Russia'' * 2018 – ''Bitter End'' * 2019 – ''
Revelation Revelation, or divine revelation, is the disclosing of some form of Religious views on truth, truth or Knowledge#Religion, knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities in the view of religion and t ...
'' * 2021 – ''Fox and the Big Lie'' * 2022 – ''Despair and Defiance: The Battle for Ukraine''


Bibliography

* *


Awards


Notes


References


External links


Profile on ABC website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, Sarah 1965 births Living people Australian women television journalists Australian people of British descent Alumni of King's College London Walkley Award winners, Australian Walkley Award winners