‘Embarrassing’: Caleb Bond on ABC fact-checking of Dick Smith energy comments

Sky News host Caleb Bond weighs into this week’s RMIT ABC Fact Check debacle after the ABC was forced to issue an apology to entrepreneur Dick Smith over a fact-check on nuclear energy. Mr Smith previously stated no country had been able to run entirely on renewable energy, but the RMIT ABC Fat-Check unit claimed that multiple countries including Nepal run solely on renewable energy. “Except, of course, that they don't run entirely on renewable energy. Their energy grids, the stuff that keeps the lights on, may well be powered by solar and wind but their entire energy systems are not entirely renewable,” Mr Bond said. “And this is where Mr Smith and the ABC diverged. Mr Smith never referred only to the energy grid – he was talking about the energy mix. “And he noted in his complaint to the ABC, the countries such as Nepal mentioned by the ABC were ‘very poor countries where the people mainly rely on firewood for heating and cooking, and all use large amounts of fossil fuels for transport’.” In response, Mr Smith told Sky News host Chris Kenny he would sue unless the ABC corrected the record and the ABC later corrected the record. “It’s a bit embarrassing when the public broadcaster sets itself up as the arbiter of truth and turns out to be unable to arbitrate said truth,” Mr Bond said.