Four out of five Australians wouldn’t pay for ABC TV if it were a subscription service
That’s how much we value our public advertiser broadcaster. But as it stands, at $1 billion dollars a year, on average $70 is taken each year from every *taxpaying* man, woman and child in Australia, or $280 for a family of four.*
In a survey of 500 Australians this week, more than half (52%) didn’t want to pay a cent. The situation got worse when they were asked if they would subscribe “like Netflix”? At this point the number of naysayers grew from 52% to 79%.
Truth be told, we all deserve a refund, and backdated 30 years
The cost to the nation of their ABC is not just a billion dollars a year lost, but their culpable-pro-rata-part in the billions of dollars wasted on policies that were practically pagan witchdraft which the ABC covered up. As leading failures of the fourth estate, the ABC consistently hid the incompetence of universities, professors and institutions like the BoM.
But according to the ABC, 72% of Australians say they are ‘Australia’s most trusted source of news and current affairs’. (I guess it depends on how you ask the question, trusted compared to what — the KGB?) With more careful questioning it turns out about 70% of adults think the ABC can’t be trusted to tell the right wing side of the story.
Two out of three people say that it’s biased to the left. Even 60% of Labor voters thought it leaned left. Even, wow, by crikey, 78% of Greens voters felt it “leaned left”. Was that them speaking the unspoken out loud? Are they proud that the national broadcasters uses taxpayer funds to represent just 5% of Australia? This might be a little window to the truth. In future surveys the Greens will learn to say, “the ABC is biased right” and blame Murdoch.
All up, most people would pay nothing, and those who might pay were only willing to pay $3 a month — meaning the ABC budget could be cut 75%.
The study was funded by the Menzies Research Centre, a right wing think tank. In comments on The Australian about the only response defenders of the ABC have is to accuse the Menzies Research Centre of being aligned with the Liberals. But we all know why the ABC haven’t run surveys exactly like this one.
The time to protest The ABC Swamp is coming.
Most swipe Left on dear Aunty
James Madden, The Australian
The majority of Australians believe that ABC television is not worth paying a single cent for.
According to an independent study conducted by True North Strategy, more than half (52.6 per cent) of those interviewed said if they had a choice, they wouldn’t be prepared to pay anything for access to the national broadcaster’s television content in its current form, while the other respondents said they would only be willing to pay (on average) $2.94 per month.
Did the ABC publish those “most trusted” survey questions, I’d like to see them if anyone can find them.
REFERENCES
The ABC Annual Report, Financial statement pages 116 onwards.
The ABC Annual Report, “Most Trusted” statistics p18
ABC: Chris Berg and Sinclair Davidson, Against Public Broadcasting: Why and how we should privatise the ABC.
h/t Skeptical Sam
*Corrected. To be more accurate, there are 13.5 million taxpayers in Australia so the cost is $74/taxpayer. h/t Lawrie
Seems that everyone has their “Swampy” things to deal with. The worst of course is the “Swampy” government beasties as they force you to feed them while they stink up the place with soul destroying propaganda. Jo, keep shooting flaming arrows at them and maybe one day, one will hit something combustible.
420
Glen, We have the same problem here in the US, NPR is public radio and is so far left it reminds me of Pravda.
PBS is public television and it is a race between PBS and NPR to see who can be the most biased and leftist.
The taxpayers pay for these Democrat Party campaign organizations while they serve less than half of the American people, the loony leftists.
But, no conservative broadcasters (yes we have a few of them) nor Republican candidates nor elected Republicans say a word. They are so frightened of the Democrat left that much of what they do is “off limits”.
Also, our Supreme Court is too frightened to rule against the Democrats after the Democrats said they would “pack” the Supreme Court (expand the size of the court from 9 justices to as many as necessary to obtain a permanent Democrat majority, thus lessening the power of the current Republican majority). There are only two Justices (Thomas and Alito) who are honest enough to disagree with the Democrats cheating, lying, and every other sort of skulduggery they can imagine.
We have a long and hard road back to a democratic republic representing all of the people. Some think it is too late, we have crossed the Rubicon.
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Leonard – several NPR programs are run on one of Australia’s ‘ABC’ radio stations (News Radio) and I have to say I’m impressed with their ability to make any subject seem insufferably BORING! It’s a useful indicator of what society would be like if the socialists ever gained total control and inflicted their wokeness upon all. No humour in case a single hydrogen atom is offended and everything seems to treated exactly equally when it plainly isn’t.
Well, everything except of course the rare conservative idea that sneaks through which is quickly criticized by the ‘unbiased’ presenters.
60
The BBC is way, way left of Pravda
I haven’t pay the licence fee for over 10 years and won’t until they return to the BBC of old
00
“according to the ABC, 72% of Australians say they are ‘Australia’s most trusted source of news and current affairs.”
72% of how many respondents?
What a joke.
432
I actually believe that figure is pretty close to the mark. I firmly believe most people are gullible and/or ignorant enough to believe the ABC is a trusted source of news and current affairs. Most of course would be young and naive. Hence, both major parties are too scared to stop funding the ABC for fear of a voter backslash. It’s a catch-22. The only way to break this nexus is to learn the lesson the hard way; crash and burn.
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I suspect that it is an on-line survey of ABC viewers.
300
If they are the most trusted then why is this never reflected in the viewer ratings? You’d think if they were the “most” trusted then everyone who watches FTA news would go there for their news first. In reality most FTA people tune to the commercial channels for their news. I never use the MSM FTA for my news, in fact I don’t use FTA for anything!
50
”
“according to the ABC, 72% of Australians say they are ‘Australia’s most trusted source of news and current affairs.”
72% of how many respondents?”
“What o joke”
The True North Study that is featured in this thread had 500 respondents. The study that claimed 72% of Australians say the ABC is ‘Australia’s most trusted source of news and current affairs , interviewed 1084 respondents. Twice as many as the number interviewed viewed by True North
On that basis it seems the ABC’s survey conducted by Roy Morgan was twice as accurate as the poll conducted by True North while True North was twice as much of a joke.
https://me.abcfriendsvic.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Roy-Morgan-ABC-Friends-Community-Attitudes-to-ABC-Survey-Report-May20-v1.pdf
21
So I take it you are so confident in your 72% stat that you’d be happy for it to be a subscription service?
20
I have no view on the 72% stat my comment was in reply to the statement “What a joke” when the poll the commenter was referring to had twice as many respondents as the poll accepted here without question by most here. And, yes, I’d be OK with a subscription service.
00
Fully agree. Make it a subscription. Make the ABC create client satisfaction, like every other retail organization. Otherwise it is our money, their ABC. And add the ethnic channel SBS, another $300 million.
Or make the ABC subject to the same media laws as every other media outlet, which would break them up completely. Our government decided long ago that no media organization should have the reach of the ABC because of their control of media and politics. Only a truly neutral fact based organization can be trusted and the ABC has shown it cannot be trusted. Someone has to pay for the jailing of Cardinal Pell. And their attack on the Attorney General is not a casual adventure by one reporter. The whole organization is political and has enormous illegal power, funded without care or responsiblity or accountability.
Privatize, sell the ABC. Why not? It worked for Australia Post, Telstra, The Commonwealth Bank, railways, airports, public transport, freeways, hospitals, CSL, State banks and many more.
And nationalize critical resources like electricity. From Victoria to Texas, private power is opportunistic profit driven power which cannot provide base load. Some things should not be based on short term profit.
And our incredibly valuable coal is being unused because of politics. And selling off our ports to China and others is absurd and strategically dangerous. People overseas should not control our cost and access to essential export and import facilities. All of our exports go by ships, through foreign owned ports on our own soil. Some things should stay Australian. And the ABC has proven it cannot be trusted to be impartial under its charter. So privatise it.
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Sell it. And if it is worthless, it is. I believe though the bands, the equipment, the skills, the real estate and many of the people are very valuable in a retail sense. The BBC model is dead. As the ABC switches to an internet company, it should be on the stock exchange. And the same for the BOM. Weather is very profitable.
Why should we pay for station masters, post office masters, school masters to write down the temperatures from a Stevenson box with a quill in a log when we have fully automatic weather stations which report via satellite and satellites which can see the weather. What do those people do every day? Play global warming games? Or try to dramatise the weather and upgrade cyclones, force evacuations to get funding? That has happened.
Some things should be government. In the new internet, satellite world, we do not need Their ABC, Their BOM. And consider accountability for universities playing with other people’s money, as with the multi million dollar money burning adventure to destroy Prof Peter Ridd, former head of physics at JCU. That is unconscionable, out of control. It’s what happens when public employees are paid over a million a year to make money with universities. It’s wrong.
441
As a famous Australian P.M. once said;
“It’s Time”, and so we voted him out.
142
“As a famous Australian P.M. once said;
“It’s Time”, and so we voted him out.”
Strictly speaking you are correct but the two events did not occur at the same time as your statement implies
It’s Time was the successful political campaign in Whitlam’s victory in 1972. It was not used in the1975 election when he was defeated.
60
Exactly.
And that illustrates why timing is so important when relating events.
30
“And that illustrates why timing is so important when relating events.”
So why don’t you follow your own advice?
10
The trouble with privatisation is that the enemy has the ability to create money out of nothing. It can keep the propaganda going indefinitely.
By extension bogus money creation is theft from real producers. So in a round about way we are going to pay for it whether we want to or not.
140
This is so true. Better would be to tie them to Australian citizens / voters more directly — not through gatekeepers. Make the voters the gatekeepers. A subscription model does that but is also chasing the lowest common denominator with funds, and note the huge difference in responses above where 52% who wanted to pay nothing grew to 79% when the question was asked a different way.
Thinking out loud — Can we come up with a better incentive model — here’s brainstorming with the full acknowledgement that breaking it up and selling off the parts is hard to beat:
a/ Get feedback and funds through tax returns each year, people tick yes to a checkbox to send X dollars, or $0 to the ABC. Give them three levels of value to choose from, make it partly deductible. So each year, in theory, the ABC wants to keep taxpayers happy. People who don’t fill in tax returns don’t get to vote. Shucks. Politicians can sell this as “potentially an increase in funding for the ABC” — “let the voters decide”. We all know their funding will evaporate. The downside to this is it is not anonymous, plus rich people want the deduction. = upper class.
b/. Make it a subscription per program — meaning that each show has to impress — but no, we want a news program that the “whole” nation theoretically can watch. Not silo’s. Not polarized each way. We want neutral news.
c/. The Free Speech option: We demand the ABC online make comments available and open on every single thread. All censored comments must be published on a thread marked “censored” ex defamatory or copyright comments (but who checks them?). This will make the ABC online at least accountable. We know they hate it, because they keep trying to open comments then they “have” to close them. I like this option because they don’t. It can be stacked on every other option. AND given that much of the ABC model involves telling half truths and concealing the info they want to hide, this partly neutralizes it.
d/. Give half the funds to the Left and half to the Right. (Politicians wont have to cut ABC funding, eh, and since the ABC says it’s “neutral” this should be fine with them right? — We all know that this is a savage 50% cut to current employees. But will the “Right” end up employing people from the right as commentators or editors, or will it just be “Left Lite” — and we all know the answer to that, unless you can think of a mechanism Australian voters can control.
e/ Turn the ABC into the Youtube of Australia, where people watch whoever they damnwell like. But it can’t hide behind pretending to be a platform when it is not. And it can’t censor and call itself “private”. And it eats into Youtube dominance.
f/ Enshrine free speech in the constitution. It doesn’t guarantee anything but it might slow down future 18C type laws.
The sensible side of politics wins when we have free speech. Conservative libertarians were winning all over the internet ten years ago when they could compete openly. That’s all we need.
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We want neutral news.
One thing that really pees me off is newsreaders telling me their opinion on a topic.
I don’t want to know your opinion! I want you to tell me the news in an unbiased way that allows me to understand and form my own opinion.
10
Their ABC used to cost us 87c per day, that’s $317.55 per annum, how much is a TV licence.
31
If their ABC were right leaning, there would be a million and one reasons touted to get rid of it, but it survives because the luvvies want it to.
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And that’s why they campaign against Murdoch. He is only behaving like the ABC except from the other side of the fence. And he actually pays tax which helps support the ABC that opposes his businesses. Weird fish eh?
10
Australia Post isn’t privatsed, yet. It shouldn’t be in my opinion. It should also become a post bank with a charter to fund Australian industrial development with domestic funds. Remember, the Commonwealth bank was a people’s bank until it was privatised. Now it’s just another tool of those globalists.
Just a side comment on Australia Post see this short report https://youtu.be/F8q6rGPwFW0
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Sirob, that’s not a ” side ” issue.
Thanks for putting that up; it confirms the privatisations of government functions as being profit orientated or devolution of responsibility.
In recent decades we’ve seen the privatization of health funds, electricity and various elements of government that should be under the direct control of those elected.
The results have not been of benefit to the consumers.
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Indeed we have see this type of asset stripping from the public.
Privatisation for the purpose of money making for corporations which are part of the spiders web – incidentally, those corps which are not part of the spiderweb are slowly being bought out destroyed or amalgamated into the spiderweb. For many of the corporations in key market areas money making is subservient to enhancing global centralisation and control.
It just happens that most of the media obfuscates the bigger picture and in the case of the details it plants a plethora of possible stories of endless details with lies to half truths to keep the electorate ignorant or deceived. Most politicians are either bought, blackmailed, ignorant, deceived or naive and cower to media and look after their own skin.
IMHO that how they’ve gotten away with what has happened.
61
Sirob,
The Australian electorate is not dumb. It’s quite smart really. That contention is supported by the result of last weekend’s Western Australian state election, where the electorate sent the idiots in the Liberal Party a message they should never forget.
Never underestimate the electorate. If political parties want to govern they need to get their policies aligned with the thinking of the majority. That’s how democracy works.
Secondly, the assets you refer too, were not “stripped from the public” they were sold for a very good price. The funds received were used to pay down government debt. Which means the “public” gets an ongoing dividend by way of lower taxes and more efficient service provision. The subsidies are overt – as they should be.
Governments are not good at running commercial type organisations. They are inefficient and political. Take for example the recent kerfuffle with Australia Post where the CEO (Holgate) rewarded outstanding decision making by some of her top execs by giving them each a nice watch as a bonus. Holgate and her execs had saved many small POs while at the same time ensuring isolated country villages and hamlets had a means to undertake their banking needs. What did the PM do? He forced her out of the job. Had she paid cash to the execs it would have been “all OK”. It was not the government’s role to micromanage a government commercial organisation. It would be better privatized, along with their ABC, BoM, SBS and all the rest.
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Most people forget that the privatisation of the Commonwealth Bank was set up in, I think, 1983 under the Hawke Government with Keating as Treasurer, and they sold off one third of the shares. I recall the purpose of the initial sell off was to get the Victorian Labor Government and the Victorian State Bank out of trouble. The remaining two thirds of shares were sold under the Howard Government with the funds being used to pay down debt.
I also recall that, not long before the 2007 election campaign, a caller to a radio station I was listening to, said that the Queensland ALP owned a considerable number of Commonwealth Bank shares, either $100 million worth or 100 million shares, I can’t remember which but either way it was a considerable number of shares.
21
Sam,
I disagree with you. A time long ago, government assets – read utility businesses that served the public interest and existed by virtue of pooled taxpayer capital and the fact that a society exists; for without a society or community, many such things couldn’t exist. I contend that they belong to the whole of the electorate.
I used the phrase “asset stripped” to indicate that in many cases the value of the asset to the society was greater than just a financial amount (whether sale capital payed down debt or not). How many of these assets were purposefully white-anted by politically appointed “managers” to facilitate the idea in the public mind that they’d be better off privatised. Having said that, some things ought to be valued in other terms not just net monetary value. eg. Strategic value that can maintain the ability of the society to be independent and served in the long term interests of that society in ways that are deemed our greater good. Money is not the only way to value goods & services in a society. Having said that your example of Christine Holgate making Australia Post profitable negates your contention that public business assets can’t be run properly and profitably for the good of the society at large.
Australia Post’s (AP) financial position was damaged during the tenure of Ahmed Fahour. He is and was prior to his NAB tenure an associate of Boston Consulting Group whom, he and Morrison, commissioned to write a report which told of dire things to come in financial losses unless the mail service agreement, which is central to the AP charter, be dissolved or significantly amended. The report recommended it be sold off to a private party (privatisation). After white-anting AP, Fahour sold significant AP real estate assets. It was clear Fahour was working to see it privatised, I’m guessing for a reduced sum after he did the damage.
So then Christine Holgate stepped in and did the good work she did as you rightly pointed out.
She was contemplating not only making AP profitable in the future but also into a Post Bank. That was competition to the big 4, part of the globalist banking cartel who doesn’t want the public to understand that we can have public banks do the same job without resorting to the money market and all that entails for them. The idea might catch on! Morrison and most of the Libs ran a beat-up story of wrong doing and removed her. Morrison thought his story of “watches on taxpayer money” was going to fly and that would be the end of her. He was was badly mistaken.
https://youtu.be/s3n-3nD1q6I
She was exonerated and Senate inquiry is happening. Some broad-sheet journos, but more particularly the Citizens Party has been uncovering the story behind the story. Here’s the most recent info. on BCG and AP. So, NO, Australia Post doesn’t need privatisation.
That would be another betrayal.
https://youtu.be/F8q6rGPwFW0
40
On the contrary, it demonstrates that governments can’t keep their noses out of government commercial enterprises. This interference effects a significant reduction in the efficiency of the enterprise, and constrains its ability to run a half-reasonable surplus while-ever it is in government hands. That’s the point.
Australia Post has, just last year, suffered a 70% reduction in profit. It paid a $42 million dividend to the government, down 46 per cent on last year. It paid a total of $1.3 billion in taxes. It employed 70,000 people! It would be far more efficient and profitable in private hands.
Remember Telecom? It became a very profitable enterprise as soon as government sold it off. Telstra is a success story for privatization.
Do you think the NBN will ever make a profit while government owned? If sold off, it too would be a very profitable business. The return of its massive over-capitalisation (courtesy of the long-suffering taxpayer) to government would provide government significant opportunity to employ that capital for other uses. It would also generate the benefit of a perennial tax stream to the ATO.
32
So according to you; because politicians do harm to the public’s asset you want to put the asset into the hands of the big players like Blackrock, Vanguard et al. These are the corporations that are the vehicles of globalists who have no reason to serve the Australian community. There’s a difference between profits and economic benefits for a community. As I said before, profits are not the only measure of a good outcome.
It makes more sense to prohibit politicians from doing harm to the public’s asset. We bloody well make them accountable!
Dividends can be reduced to sustainable levels. Give Christine Holgate the mandate to administer AP properly. Taxes are also paid by private corporations – poor excuse to liquidate the public’s asset.
A one off sale is like eating your seed corn/capital. Better to make it work well for longer term benefits where some of the profits can be used to service remoteer communities and indeed the whole broader public with a postal public banking services which can finance infrastructure development.
10
Sam, So taxes are paid by AP are good or bad? You seemed to have used the point of paying taxes as a negative to bolster your push for privatisation. Then in your last statement you cite paying taxes as a good reason. Can’t have it both ways.
20
Sirob says:
Name me the top ten shareholders of Telstra Sirob. Blackrock and Vanguard are not there.
In Australia there’s a limit to the size of a shareholding in a publicly listed company. Once you get to 20% ownership the rules change. At that level the shareholder has to make a full takeover offer. That requirement, of itself, prevents the sorts of futures you see the so-called globalists pursuing.Then, of course, there’s the FIRB requirements that also come into play.
The problem with the anti-privatisation people is that they choose to ignore the realities. Their paranoia and ideology inhibits their judgement.
23
Sirob says:
Companies need to pay their taxes. That’s good thing. The greater the profit the higher the tax bill. That’s a good thing too.
Now, where you misunderstand what I’m saying is in assuming that the tax bill for a government owned AP would be the same as a privatised (listed) AP. They wouldn’t be. The privatised AP would generate greater profit than a government run enterprise and hence would pay a greater amount of tax. That’s good thing too.
Make no mistake AP, like their ABC, is also a sheltered workshop. Government should get out of both businesses.
23
Sam,
Here in NSW the electricity system was state owned and sadly managed by the unions for their benefit.
The consumers were being ripped off.
Then the Libl state government said: “enough of this, we’ll fix it”.
So they took action, and practised NSW Electricity generation and distribution and profit taking.
So now we are not only paying for electricity but also the skim for the unions and the new owners, advertisers and marketing teams.
It it little wonder that I see no good in either of the major partis libl and laba.
The voters are losing at the moment: badly.
KK
10
Sorry,
practised should read “privatised”.
00
No, that’s right no, Blackrock or Vanguard but the top 3 are foreign globalist banks.
1. HSBC
2. JP Morgan
3. Citibank
Exactly what I’m saying, incidentally, HSBC has over 22%. Between them they control more than 40%.
But to get back to Australia Post, as a postal bank it can fund Australian industrial development with domestic deposits. A win-win for Australia.
Pot calling the kettle black. You’ve
run out of arguments?
I’m not “anti-privatisation”, you’re mistaken. But in this case, Australia Post as a postal service and a post bank in public hands would serve Australians better.
11
Sirob asserts he’s not “Anti-privatisation:
Here’s your statement that undermines your assertion:
Then think a little more deeply about it.
If the “globalists” invest in Australian businesses that are privatised, and fail to serve the Australian community, those businesses will fail to thrive. They’ll underperform. Their share price will decline. Your “globalists” will take a haircut. That’s how business works. All investors have an interest in seeing their investments thrive.
20
Sam, You still fail to appreciate that “profit” is not the only attribute to measure. Broader “economic” benefit is also a “good” you refuse to acknowledge, they are both different.
A public Postal bank much the same as the original Commonwealth Bank was would raise domestic deposits for infrastructure and industrial development that benefits Australia as a whole in a way that foreign ownership never can.
00
Sirob,
I understand your point.
I just don’t agree.
Government Business Enterprises are intrinsically inefficient by their very nature. They quickly become feather-beds and political playthings. Governments should reduce their involvement in these sorts of endeavours and leave them to the private sector. That way the taxpayer gets the full benefit of the investment. That’s not to say the governments don’t have a role to play in ensuring monopolistic and sharp practices are dealt with, through regulation and oversight.
However, I’ve enjoyed the exchange of views, so thanks for that.
10
So is it better to have a public postal bank and all the benefits that can produce for the entire nation or, is it better to have the private efficient bank less the broader economic benefit?
Yes, thanks for your replies.
00
This reply is actually to a Sceptical Sam – comment (#3.2.1.1.1)
In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with privatisation. However, I have an issue with the Telstra (PMG/Telecom) sale. I understand selling huge public companies is not simple – but – every Australian taxpayer owned Telstra. We owned every exchange building, every tower and every pit, pipe and cable that had ever been laid over many, many years.
Federal assets should be leased, not sold. Sell the “business” not the publicly owned assets.
Regarding the NBN, how much cheaper and easier would it have been if we didn’t have to “buy back” pits and pipes that us and our past generations had already paid for?
00
“West Australian electorate is not dumb.
It’s quite smart really; last weekend’s Western Australian state election”
When the options are “Bad” or “Badder”;
It’s pretty hard to make a mistake with only one choice.
60
The electorate could’ve voted Green. But, it didn’t.
That’s a telling measure of a smart electorate.
11
According to the ABC Charter
“ (2) In the provision by the Corporation of its broadcasting services within Australia:
(a) the Corporation shall take account of:
(i) the broadcasting services provided by the commercial and community sectors of the Australian broadcasting system;
(ii) the standards from time to time determined by the ACMA in respect of broadcasting services;
(iii) the responsibility of the Corporation as the provider of an independent national broadcasting service to provide a balance between broadcasting programs of wide appeal and specialized broadcasting programs;”
The right has Sky news, shock jocks in multitudes, the Australian – Therefore according to the charter it does not have to provide niche reporting to that group
Newspoll results here
https://www.transparency.gov.au/annual-reports/australian-broadcasting-corporation/reporting-year/2018-2019-29
So it just really boils down to the right wanting to censor the left and the centre.
358
Now that is truly funny……
The right censoring the Left….I needed a gighle this morning.
Alynski always advocated blaming your opposition for the very thing the Left were doing….
471
Sky news allows for a diversity of opinion the ABC doesn’t and that’s the crux of it .
471
Sky News is also a private sector business that is not funded via taxpayer’s monies like ABC and SBS are funded.
Private sector businesses must produce profits and returns on investors funds invested, unlike ABC and SBS.
Sky News and the others are not protected by an Act of Parliament from interference by the shareholder, the Federal Government on behalf of we the people.
And an Act of Parliament cannot be repealed without a majority support in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
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I still think on many issues Sky News is a limited hangout, akin to a controlled opposition.
01
That’s what competition is all about, Sirob.
The green left hates it.
10
My understanding of the ABC charter, was to provide a balance in reporting.
Considering they are, Australia’s main source of news, both internal and international.
But they have gradually slipped away from reporting impartially, this has led to a dubbing down of Australians, little wonder they have become brainwashed,into only believing one side of an argument.
considering that bias,what are they worth? They should be privatized, set adrift from tax payer support.
281
According to the ABC Charter it is required to remain bipartisan.
91
Where? I looked
110
not very hard, by the looks:
“the responsibility of the Corporation as the provider of an independent national broadcasting service to provide a balance”
not sure what your definition of ‘independent’ or ‘balance’ is…
you can use wordplay all you like, but it doesn’t change reality.
111
Bipartisan is not in the charter. I looked you didn’t
13
Of course not. Who ever thought there were only two sides to any idea, two solutions to any problem, two views?
The left, who all agree with each other , put everyone who disagrees into the ‘right’ basket when in fact the non left people think for themselves and may disagree with each other in a democracy. That is not allowed in a Stalinist dictatorship of the left and we see this with every single issue.
It’s just a series of causes celebre on the left. Climate Extinction, Black Lives Matter, AntiFA, #metoo, the list is endless. You cannot tell what is going to be the next fashion in opinion.
So of course bipartisan is not in any legal document. It is a purely left view of politics, them and us.
50
ABC Charter
(iii) the responsibility of the Corporation as the provider of an independent national broadcasting service to provide a balance between broadcasting programs of wide appeal and specialized broadcasting programs;
8 Duties of the Board
(1) It is the duty of the Board:
(a) to ensure that the functions of the Corporation are performed efficiently and with the maximum benefit to the people of Australia;
It could be simply argued that the extraordinary unpopularity of the ABC is against the whole idea of a National Broadcaster and in contravention of their charter as above. And this means they are of no perceived benefit to most Australians.
And the few ABC broadcast programs people do watch are made overseas and could be shown by any other channel if the ABC did not use our taxpayer money to buy them at inflated prices. So they are buying what popularity, not earning it. But then it’s not their money, is it?
10
There is also implicit in the nature of a taxpayer funded media that the public expect the motives are not profit or fame or vendettas and that the news and current affairs are presented factually and accurately without prejudice. When Leigh Sales called our Treasurer ‘Joker’ Hockey to his face, that was prejudice. When the ABC selected an audience to abuse our Prime Minister, that was extreme prejudice.
And now when they are funding the adventures of ABC reporter Louise Milligan in demanding our Catholic Cardinal Pell is jailed for crimes which did not happen, that is appalling. He spent a years in jail and she received an award. She published a book on his guilt during the middle of a second trial, the trial itself unjustified and the result of an ABC campaign against Pell. Where is his apology? What about reparations?
And now they are attacking the current Attorney General for allegations of rape, again with no evidence. And they did not do this when Bill Shorten faced the same allegations. As in the US, the politicans and rioters on the left can do no wrong.
So there is a community expectation that while commercial media are driven by profit, we expect our own National broadcaster to stick strictly to the facts and not run a campaign against the Catholic church and counter insurgency against a Coalition government or whoever their enemy of the day happens to be.
It should not be their ABC. It’s not impartial and we should not have to pay to indulge the extreme left opinions of unelected and irresponsible journalists.
20
I did, you didn’t.
She didn’t look, so no problem.
Look here, look there, look everywhere you won’t find it if you don’t look for it.
It’s a big problem when you look into it.
Look.
Ah, missed it.
10
where does the charter say that the ABC should be left-biased?
or any bias, for that matter?
10
I’ll believe there is a balance in views at the ABC when Craig Kelly gets a one hour prime time spot .
130
“provider of an independent national broadcasting service to provide a balance”
if you think the ABC provides independent and balanced reporting, you are deluded.
311
show me the evidence
112
Observational – just choose a timeslot at random and watch it. WARNING – may be vomit inducing.
101
show me your evidence that the ABC is totally unbiased and completely independent.
happy to wait.
111
if you truly believe that the ABC is the bastion of all things fair and equitable in this country, then you should have no issue with paying for that service.
why should i have to pay for a service that i don’t use or believe is right for me?
90
Fitzy: You want evidence? Then look at their record on climate change. The ABC has not covered right-wing or alternative views on climate change or renewable energy in over 10 years. That’s just one example. Alternative anti-viral treatments for COVID – not covered. Equal balanced coverage of Trump – never done, every day for 4.5 years was negative reports. BLM and Antifa? Nothing but patronizing reporting. Show me the evidence of balanced broadcasting Fitzy?
141
Every news report their ABC gave during the 2020 bushfires all had a big mention of climate change, these fires are caused by climate change.
Diversity, all the ABC has in the way of diversity is some ethnic newsreaders.
81
For starters:
The Drum
Media Watch
The 7:30 Report
QandA
You can find other examples quite easily by watching 5 minutes of various ABC programs
10
I have said before that the left, as exemplified by Peter are plain stupid and lack any nuance or subtlety. Shouting slogans is their forte – not measured argument. My theory is they have lived in isolation for centuries to the point that everything is a mystery so they make it up as they go. Just like the flake news at the ABC.
281
The right don’t have Sky news. People pay to be able to listen to those on the right of politics after paying for the ABC to push leftwing propaganda.
161
You obviously don’t read ‘The Australian’, since the Murdoch boys took over in-depth conservative writers have been neutered. I’m still waiting to see if anyone will analyse Joe Biden’s executive orders and the chaos they are causing.
You are forgetting that people choose to read the “right” side of politics and therefore pay for the privilege. The ABC is forced upon the community whether we want it or not.
221
Wrong again.
It boils down to the fact that ‘the right’ does not see why we have to pay for a left leaning organisation.
I would have no problem with ‘their ABC’ going full socialist…providing I wasn’t forced to contribute to its funding.
130
also, just wondering how you would feel to be made to pay for access to sky news (without a choice, mind you), when you never would consume its content?
61
Peter’s logic: There is a single TV station (most have to pay to watch this station) that represents the views of the right, amongst a sea of left leaning FTA stations. This means the publicly funded ABC is totally justified in being a left-wing propaganda station with zero conservative presenters.
20
I knew an ex ABC journalist who was far left (surprising eh?). When I asked him why the ABC shut down right-wing views the moment they were recognized as such, he claimed it was actually fair because “All the competition in private media was right-wing. We’re supplying balance by offering the opposing view.” When I tried pointing out the left bias of many commercial media outlets he refused to discuss it any further. He didn’t deny it. Avoiding obvious truths is a hallmark of these guys.
10
Yet taxes do not go into paying for “Sky news, shock jocks in multitudes, the Australian” so why should taxes fund a counterpoint?
10
Jo
I have complained many times to the ABC and attempted to get the Communications Minister, Paul Fletcher to respond, but that waste of space will not. My Federal member has been better, at least forcing the ABC to reply to my concerns about totally inaccurate and biased coverage on climate change.
The reply from the ABC had to be seen to be believed, referring to “consensus of science” and other unproven factually wrong items.
The ABC by its Charter is supposed to be independent and “inform and educate” – it does nothing of the sort, providing only a Green Left perspective on any issue and on climate change they told me that they would not provide any coverage other than the alarmist view. This is utterly wrong.
Just shut them down and save the money.
361
The problem with these news agencies is that they learned a bad habits and can’t break them.
Trump Derangement Syndrome withdrawals are what they’re suffering from.
141
Your experience with the ABC’s complaints process mirrors mine. I made a complaint that News Radio’s ‘The Ticket’ sports show was preoccupied with pushing LGBTI and race issues disguised as ‘sports’. I had to make a series of phone calls to find out why my original complaint hadn’t generated a response. I was given the usual run around of being switched from one staffer to another – “They’re in a meeting” – “They’re on stress leave” – “They’ve gone home” etc.
Eventually, I got to the shows producer who simply claimed she saw no evidence of preoccupation with LGBTI and race issues instead of actual sports and therefore, being the shows producer, she felt confident that her rebuttal knocked my complaint on the head.
Talking to a brick wall.
20
Hum, you Aussies have got it easy.
You should try watching/listening to the biased BBC, ITV and especially Channel 5 here in Britain. There are not words yet invented to describe their marxist leanings.
250
But Britain’s do have the option of not paying for the BBC.
91
No, the BBC is funded by compulsory TV licence fees. It’s a direct tax for the BBC. We in Australia do not have such a specific tax but everyone pays, regardless.
60
Patrick, we do watch the BBC. We get it via both the ABC and SBS. We know what you have to deal with. I contend that the ABC is even worse, has fewer checks and a larger proportional monopoly. Here in Aus it has the best paid media jobs in the country, so by definition, it sets the “pace” and all other journo’s watch the ABC and don’t want to offend it too much lest they cut their chances of getting a super well paid Gig. ABC employees should all be on award wages (or better yet, axed completely). No celebrity public servants.
121
The poms can refuse to pay the licence fee, turn the telly off and do something useful.
70
That’s the best thing. Turn it OFF.
40
The TV licence is required for watching live broadcast TV(including recording) and the BBC’s catchup service, although in the latter case you just click yes you have one and keep watching. For all the other services such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, other on demand services you do not need licence. So there is plenty to watch without having to fund the left-wing BBC.
While the concept of non-partisan and balanced news coverage is good I don’t think it is possible to deliver today so scrapping the services is the best option and then people can choose the news that suits them, as they do with the print media. Having people in their silos is not the best way forward but since you can’t deal with the irrational left and their smug self belief that they are always right when they never are, you can’t blame the right – always labelled as extreme – from firing back.
00
BBC is the “mothership”!
80
Thanks for this post Jo.
Time for a thorough cleaning and realignment of the ABCCCC and appendages.
90
Perhaps start selling it off bit by bit.
Start with the kiddie p$$n show JJJ and its appendages, like “Hack”.
There are undoubtedly some good and useful segments of ABC radio that cover local issues, weather and community notices and these need to be supported, but the current national image of ABC t.v. and radio is one of “jobs for the boys and girls” and well connected.
That doesn’t work for the taxpayers.
81
Keith, the number of radio stations and TV channels their abc have is over the top, I like to watch programs like ‘Landline’ and the pommy detective shows, but that’s all, the rest is just leftard garbage.
141
I don’t watch any tv now and only listen to the radio while driving. I station hop but listen to stuff on the ABC, tripple J outlets to see what’s happening and it’s not very useful.
And, as you say, far too much infrastructure and person power.
Maybe when the ABCCCC is shut down the “workers” could be offered jobs in the new fire control group.
We need people out there in the Vironment removing dangerous overgrowth in the roadsides Bush and forests.
Unlimited opportunities for the caring and environmentally aware staff in ABC, jjj and sbs.
These workers would be appreciated more in this new vironment.
61
‘could be offered jobs in the new fire control group’
Introducing those prone to rage-induced spontaneous combustion to neglected and overgrown bush with associated fuel load is very likely an unwise idea at best.
11
I was thinking that their equipment might be small pruning saws, snips and a backpack firefighting unit to spray CO2 onto any fires that may result from sawing too rapidly.
40
More cynical observers might see the possibility of dealing with two difficult problems at the same time.
40
‘More cynical observers might see the possibility of dealing with two difficult problems at the same time.’
I could be persuaded to this view, and most likely with very little effort 😉
30
You do not need a massive, monolithic boondoggle to deliver community/critical services to dispersed locales.
In areas of market failure only, direct and hypothecated funding of locals (selected by competitive tender) to operate that service negates the need entirely for the ABC to exist at all.
61
Excellent point. The infrastructure is already there.
30
Terry , I agree ! I have been thinking along those lines for some time . Auction off the spectrum in small bits to a large number of SMALL community based groups . Donate some of the broadcasting equipment to the successful applicants and spend some of the 1 billion dollars saved to give financial support and training to these community groups to help get them up and running . Preference given to the more regional areas to fill gaps in existing commercial broadcasting . Rules to prevent any one entity from purchasing or gaining control of more then one of these stations . A mix of radio and TV depending on need .
The Always Bolshevik Channel is too deeply saturated with Marxist prejudice for there ever to be any possibility of repairing it . It has to go . It not only performs no useful service but has become a major threat to democracy !
31
I remember hearing stuff on JJJ that I couldn’t even describe here without being investigated by the police child abuse squad.
00
Just shut it down.
Pretty much all the networks here in Oz lean left.
Sell the spectrum to an outfit like Sky.
92
Imagine the good that could be done with that billion + $ from selling off abc and sbs, it could go towards bringing water from the coast to the inland rivers.
40
ABC, as an information source I go elsewhere. As a discussion of opinions I also go elsewhere, this includes radio.
I now only listen to ABC classic FM.
Most people don’t have the time or the inclination to search out alternate sources of credible information and do the checking to confirm credibility and vetacity.
Media generally is a minefield of half-truths, obfuscation and a range of subtle and obvious agendas to derail and confuse until people either give up or are deceived.
Atomisation, divide and conquer, is the predominant game in town.
130
ABC Classic (FM) also suffers from the Left. The moronic 50:50 male:female tick-the-box has resulted in obscure (for very good reasons) composers having their dusty failures lauded by earnest presenters. It’s turned into the Clara and Fanny Show and female Composer-thons when only the mediocre need apply.
151
Fin,
This is true, it’s not perfect. But at least I get to hear [some] music I enjoy. I was surprised last year when they played some Beethoven during his designated celebration year, even though he’s a pale male.
Whenever they play something akin to Schoenberg et al. I turn it off and put a CD’s on.
71
I was thinking abouit this last night, I am going to write to Peta Credlin and ask her/Sky to approach the ABC with an offer to run The Drum on Sky for a month if the ABC will run the Credlin or Alan Jones or Paul Murray on the ABC at the same time.
The success could be judged by the number of complaints recieved by each, the bias could be judged by the insurance companies asking what time your TV ‘broke’ and what chanel were you watching!!
181
🙂
40
Complete meltdown from ABC myrmidons I would think. That is the difference; the conservative libertarian has a sense of humour and perspective whereas the Left just howl. Not surprising when leftards have base zero reality index.
21
Yep.. just as the T-shirt says,
Is that true, or did you hear it on the ABC?
After listening to two economists on the ABC say how electricity from renewables is free, any credibility the organisation had, evaporated
241
Coal is free, you don’t have to write a cheque to the Creator when you dig it up, the same as wind. True, you have the inconvenience and expense of digging it up, but that is far less than the “inconvenience and expense” of harnessing the wind.
151
The wind is free too, but ask a sailor how much the upkeep on sails, rigging and winches, ropes, etc costs.
100
As the Greens why commercial sailing ships were abandoned by shipping firms in favour of steam engine powered ships and later internal combustion engines.
Like power stations fuelled by coal, gas, biomass or nuclear energy, steam turbine driven generators.
70
Sailing ships are weather dependent, steam is not, they would sometimes be waiting for weeks for a sailing vessel to turn up.
20
Something like wind turbines, on average 2.1 days or part thereof production in every 7 days, when the wind blows.
20
As The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE would attest.
00
Where do I get one?
20
“Yep.. just as the T-shirt says, Is that true, or did you hear it on the ABC?”
In the US we would have to use both sides of the T-shirt as it would have to say something like “… or did you hear it on the ABC, NBC CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NPR or PBS?” although we could simplify it if we stuck to just government supported entities, then we would only have to include PBS and NPR.
10
‘In the US we would have to use both sides of the T-shirt’
Nah, plenty of space on your average American T-Shirt for all of those letters and more. Wouldn’t even have to use small-point font… 😉
30
SBS gets 80% of its funding from government and that 20% is about to be picked up by Telstra, should we be concerned?
50
There is a real additional cost of the ABC. Because it is not accountable for its spending, they outbid the other channels on shows such as Peppa Pig, forcing up all prices. They are not driven by profit. In fact they could not care if anyone but their friends watch their shows.
And if anyone in government threatens their ‘independence’ or threatens to cancel their funding increase, they threaten to cancel Peppa Pig and the other imported BBC shows. But the ABC do not make it clear it is just an imported show. With half the population of England, we have a tiny fraction of the output in production.
‘Their’ low performing ABC acts as if they are the BBC when it is really a privileged boys and girls club for arrogant overpaid opinionated posers and Green activists who have no respect for the truth. They are most clearly out of anyone’s control, even the board.
The Christian Porter rape allegations and the very successful campaign to put Australia’s only Cardinal in jail as examples. This must stop. I hope the Attorney General adds the managing director of the ABC specifically to his defamation suit. Make it personal.
221
This is bigger than Ben Hur.
‘It prompted Communications Minister Paul Fletcher to issue a public letter to ABC chair Ita Buttrose demanding an explanation as to how the episode was in the public interest and complied with the ABC board’s obligations to ensure the broadcaster produced accurate and impartial journalism.
‘Ms Buttrose’s response was never made public, but leaked reports revealed she regarded Mr Fletcher’s intervention as political interference.’ SMH
81
The minister is entitled to ask the question as is any Australian and if he is asking on behalf of the elected government, that is on behalf of half of Australia. And who says the other half does not want an explanation too? It is not a political question but a fair one which deserves a fair answer.
It is Buttrose’s response which is political. Why is the ABC harassing the Attorney General? And they never took an interest in the allegations against Labor ministers. The same in the US where Joe Biden, Bill Clinton and friends have a get out of jail free card but every allegation possible against Republicans is a cause celebre.
31
On reflection it shoes what a dope the PM is. Or really. Strange are the ways of life. Still, a gullible unit who really has no idea about what goes on.
Couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper bag. a
40
Ita Buttrose was the captain’s pick, over the recommendations of the bureaucrats, in retrospect it was a bad call.
00
Breaking that opinionated news will not happen until other Mainstream Media changes as they have no direction to do this.
Like our politicians, they are all followers and anyone with some leadership qualities are crushed or booted out.
40
I no longer listen to or watch Their ABC but yesterday I happened to listen to Radio 3LO Melbourne and was appalled at the extreme Leftist bias.
61
All ABC programming was comprehensively rejigged about fifteen years ago. Radio National’s worthwhile content was hollowed out over the Christmas break and the descent into a gabble of leftist memes has continued relentlessly since to the point that I only flick on the hourly news to catch the headline story and switch off before the shrieking current affairs start up. We’ll never be rid of it unfortunately; there’s legions of inner city halfwits who’ll go to the barricades to defend their ABC.
101
‘there’s legions of inner city halfwits who’ll go to the barricades to defend their ABC.’
Great! I’ll bring the water cannon. You can bring some soap.
Of course, there’s an easy fix. Along with completely defunding the ABC, make it illegal (threat of a lengthy prison term) for any government-funded employee (so, that includes you, University activists and academics) to attend a political protest while still being paid with public funds.
That “legion” of inner-city halfwits will have less useful idiots show up than a Biden rally.
71
All thoughts of the ABC being defunded are just that; pure thoughts. It will never happen until something dramatically changes. Most people I know do indeed consider the ABC is a trusted source of news and current affairs. Most of course are young and naive but many are also adults and naive. It stands to reason neither major party will ever attempt to rectify the situation due to voter backlash, even if much of the backlash is illusionary and just based on fear by the incumbent government.
41
For most of my life I believed the ABC, [and voted labor]. It was only when I got ADSL and the ability to cross check that I realised how much I’d been lied to. Kevin 07 cured me, never again could I vote left. Even ScoMo is too far left now.
181
I went through a similar phase. We are all naive at some stage at least. By the time Kevin came to the scene my BS detector exploded. I stopped voting ALP decades ago. I stopped voting LNP a few years ago as I came to realize they are not that much different; just a less lefty version of the same old BS. It goes to prove what I’ve been saying recently; most voters are fools, clueless. and/or don’t give a damn about politics. We get the government we elect therefore we deserve. TO say otherwise is to ignore reality. How do we get off this merry-go-around if naiveness? When it crashes and burns.
31
I cannot accept that we need the ABC in any form if I have to help fund it when all it does is insult me and those things I hold dear. I would vote for any party that get’s rid of it even the Greens.
Now Jo is a well credentialed scientist so I am surprised that 1000.000.000 divided by 25,000,000 equals 50. When I went to school the answer would have been 40. Then again these days the answer is whatever floats your boat just because a correct answer reflects white supremacy and even male misogyny. I reckon $40 is far too much let alone $50.
111
OK Lawrie. A sloppy guesstimate of taxpayers. Better estimate apparently is 13.5m. So round that to 15m taxpayers. Cost is $66 per taxpayer. Bit of a moving feast. But fair point you make. I should stay accurate, link to source. etc.
21
WaPo has just admitted lying on Jan 9 when they quoted “unnamed sources” that Trump pressured a Georgia official [Sec. of State Frances Watson] to “find the fraud” and if she did she would be a “national hero”. This, of course was just before the Georgia senate run-offs.
Well, waddayaknow, the recording of the phone call was found in the trash bin of her (?) computer in response to a FOI request and Trump said no such thing.
I’m sure their ABC carried the original story, will they carry the retraction? I won’t be watching to find out but somehow I doubt it.
A little off topic I admit, but important. 😀
191
Here are some additional thoughts on this topic:
Nolte: Why WaPo Refuses to Name Its Fake ‘Find the Fraud’ Source
On Monday, the far-left Washington Post admitted it spread the very worst kind of lies about former President Trump on January 9. Nevertheless, as of this writing, the fake news outlet is refusing to expose the source of these lies.
Here’s why… Choose one, choose them all, but here’s why…
1. There Is No Source. The Post Made It Up.
2. Media Encourage Sources to Lie to Them
3. The Source Will Burn Them Right Back
4. Why Bother When There Are No Repercussion for Lying?
https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2021/03/16/nolte-why-wapo-refuses-name-its-fake-find-fraud-source/
131
Not off topic at all. This problem with biased reporting seems to be a problem throughout the English speaking world. It has existed in the U.S. for a long time; consider the exposes where the Audi transmission had been tampered with to make the car speed away, or the GMC truck wired to explode on command. These instances are 35 years old. I think it is gettig worse and spreading but the onderlying problem is ages old.
21
A problem for all governments is that once they intervene in a market, it is hard to go backwards. Whatever reason the ABC was created as a necessary public service, a government radio station, it is hard to realise that it is no longer needed. Al Grassby’s SBS is a good case, the need for entertainment and news for the vast numbers of Italian, Greek, Asian, Yugoslav and other migrants who came in the 1950s and never learned English. It was just too hard. So SBS was launched in 1980 as ‘ethnic’ media to solve a real problem. A problem which no longer exists.
So while it is an interesting alternative, the original reason for operating from the public purse at all is completely gone in an internet world. But it still chews up $6Million a week of public money. Why?
Plus all the other Quasi Autonomous Non Goverment Organizations. Like all the Clean Energy Authority like groups. And the duplication nationally of what was previously an exclusive state area, as with Education, policing, health.
I would certainly sell the SBS. It is already funding itself to some extent with advertising, so should we shareholders ask why it exists and why we should keep paying?
And as the SBS itself explains, taxpayer funded media chew up $4Billion over 3 years
60
Making Ita Buttrose ABC Chair was a huge mistake.
Conservatives were originally accepting and thought Buttrose would ensure ABC lived up to its legal obligation of impartiality but then were profoundly disappointed when one of her first pronouncements was that she could see no bias in the organisation.
What was SloMo thinking? And that also demonstrated to conservatives that neither SloMo nor Buttrose were conservatives or even neutral but were truly on the side of the Left and the perpetuation of Their ABC in its present toxic form.
120
The general rule seems to be that to be in the top jobs these days, you need to be signed up to The Cause…..
Whatever that is.
Presumably some good people still exist in some top jobs, although I think many are harrassed by vocal lefties, but its as much a test of character to resist the loony left and its corrosive anti-human agenda, as anything else these days….
20
Defunding the ABC just means an end to a subsidy various NGOs and tax-free foundations have been quietly enjoying for decades. They’ll come up with the money, and creating the financing structures will probably a fun little task for them; the PR surrounding such a transition is guaranteed to be a hoot for all involved.
01
The ABC’s green Left bias is well known and typical of publicly-funded broadcasters in the West. I believe this arises by virtue of them being essentially a part of the public service, the whole of which has been captured by the Left.
But this political bias isn’t the whole problem, nor the only justification for pulling/reducing the ABC’s funding. Like the BBC in the UK, the organisation represents very, very poor value for money based on its productivity and quality of output. The ‘quality’ of its non-news ‘entertainment’ product is frankly appalling, low in quality and quantity, especially in light of the massive budget it has.
The news department is particularly poor in terms of output and rigour. I am amazed at how little news the ABC puts out or reports, when you compare it with the coverage provided elsewhere. Some of this is again bias – a steadfast refusal to even mention some stories that don’t support the Left – but I think most of the staff in the news department must spend their day twiddling their thumbs while highly-topical stories are left uncovered. A visit to the ABC’s news pages quickly leaves the reader thinking, “And … ?”
In fact, a couple of successful people in the UK entertainment industry have recently said exactly this about the BBC – yet another shared characteristic it seems. They say the BBC’s staff are sloppy and have a very poor work ethic. Anybody who has worked in the public service will instantly understand and agree, I’m sure, especially those who have also worked in the private sector.
111
Like many others, I no longer watch any ABC news or current affairs-type programs.
I find the American site NTD News gives a far more balanced approach and one can make reasoned judgments after hearing interviews and arguments from proponents of different sides.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qktD4MThv3s
80
On NTD News this week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and other officials set out some of the many aspects of the real crisis evolving on the Mexican border. I doubt you will see little or anything about it on “our ABC” or other Aussie MSM.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv7u-bOpeW4
80
I saw that interview with Gov. Abbott. It was very good.
31
More often now a day ABC puts the news out as follows “this is what you need to know” in the headlines. Rather than “this is what we know” about the matter and therefore reporting is as such.
“what you need to know” is an authoritarian conduct.
When looking up the names of journalists who use such phrase (very large number of them), it fits a common narrative.
From 1 to 5 – I give them ZERO for journalist quality.
80
Well said. The headlines at the ABC are like a teen magazine with clickbait. “How to” parts.
80
True but it’s a lot worse than that. The ABC is telling us and the government what they need to DO. The irony is the government keeps funding them with tax payer money. In effect the ABC is our paid “expert advisor” “demanding” what we must do with fake stories and evidence. In any other line of business that would be tantamount to harassment, which is a criminal offence.
31
A significant number of people watch or listen to the ABC because there are no ads. If you introduced advertising to the ABC ( so similar to SBS) that % viewing would drop even further. Also, there is a common myth that the ABC provide an essential service to the “ bush” whether it’s regional news or during emergencies. (eg. Bushfires). I live in regional Victoria and I can state quite categorically the local commercial networks, both TV and radio, run rings around the ABC. They have more local news and are more timely regarding emergency alerts. Most of the content of the local ABC FM radio station originates from either Melbourne or SYDNEY anyway. Finally , their coverage of rural or farming news , even Landline, borders on the banal. It has overwhelmingly become green leftie focused and tends towards portraying farmers almost like leaning on a pitchfork chewing on a blade of grass stuff. Rather than the modern, highly technical business managers that they have become.
90
Good!
1. Work out what it costs to provide that “essential” service.
2. Create a competitive tender from it.
3. Open the tender to all-comers (Local Councils, Community groups, Local News groups, even the ABC can have a crack at getting “some of its own” back).
4. Deduct the cost of it from the ABC Budget (replace it from consolidated revenue, after the ABC has ALL of its funding removed).
5. IMPORTANT: Sunset Clause! The need for the “essential service” must be re-affirmed every two years. If someone else is fulfilling the function (maybe even profiting from it), the funding is removed (market-failure resolved).
31
Notwithstanding the expected progressivist outlook, the ABC should be a trusted source- but for decades it has been untrustworthy.
I first realised just how untrustworthy when confronted with ABC refusal to cover a 1996 toxic chemical transport accident in the Sydney suburb of West Epping.
The accident involved a chemical fire on a truck carrying microfine newspaper printing ink pigments- several tonnes of refined lead chromate and nephrotoxic diazo compounds were dispersed across the grounds of West Epping Public School and an associated preschool affecting about 700 children.
The truck also carried several tonnes of a solvent consisting of 2-butoxyethanol, and the risk of a BLEV explosion with potential explosive force eqivalent of 4 tonnes of TNT.
ABC news staff chose instead to participate in a cover-up by NSW government authorities, a coverup which prevented parents from being properly informed about risks to the many children involved.
40
[…] Most Australians believe that ABC television is not worth paying a single cent for:https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/most-swipe-left-on-dear-aunty/news-story/6b3247911e1e8b23ee45cffb3124f244https://joannenova.com.au/2021/03/abc-is-a-billion-dollar-leftist-advertising-agency-that-most-austr… […]
00
A point no one has made above is that the ABC is not only bad themselves but they destroy the ability of any commercial news group to do any better because on both TV and on line the behemoth ABC halves their potential audience. The commercial networks can’t afford professional news rooms. They have been reduced to reporting on twitter trends.
20
Spotted – a flyer for eath hour ( does anyone even care anymore ? ):
“Earth Hour, switch off”
OK….I was already switched off from the whole nonsense, nice to see the climate clowns now even advocate it….
*yawn*
30
I always park my 4WD in the shed with the engine and lights off.
10
It would be interesting to know who conducted the survey, what were the questions asked, and how were the 500 interviewees chosen?
I’m actually encouraged that 50% of the sample do in fact believe that funding the ABC is worthwhile. I wonder if the same 500 were asked whether they would pay for currently free-to-air channels?
I’m very happy to pay $50 per year for what it contributes …
I can’t imagine life in Australia without the ABC/SBS … they provide a level of programming that is quite outstanding and among the first class of similar public broadcasting networks around the world.
I really like my local library – I’m not sure what percentage of total ratepayers are active users & borrowers, but I don’t care – a wide range of activities and institutions are supported by the state precisely because they are “minority” interests, but nevertheless considered valuable to society.
We could include in there art galleries, concert halls, ballet, opera, fine arts, live theatre, music festivals, and much else. Quite a few of these things I don’t personally consume, but I’m happy to have them subsidised as they help make up the totality of a civilised advanced society.
I don’t particularly like Formula 1 being taxpayer supported (not because I hate motor-racing, but because it is rich enough to pay its way – similar for the Olympics).
I don’t like organised religions being heavily subsidised either (via tax waivers), but of the list of things I dislike, this isn’t too high in priority.
Anyway – the ABC is a wonderful institution in my view, and deserves the money it receives. It also plays a hugely valuable role in rural & regional Australia. The ABC/SBS is also an important training ground for a wide range of staff, often from diverse backgrounds.
What some might call a “lefty bias” is a misreading of the situation. The ABC charter is to be objective and balanced, and I believe they play that role pretty well. They assiduously avoid hate, prejudice, and the highlighting of only the grubby side. If you really want that – there is always the Murdoch press or Sky News …
I have known a lot of ABC staff over my working life, and they are very quickly carpeted if they show political or other partisanship – whether they list to port or starboard.
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‘I’m very happy to pay $50 per year for what it contributes…’
Awesome! The ABC’s annual budget is now $50. Anyone else?
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‘ … whether they list to port or starboard.’
Propaganda is not easy to recognise, but on climate change the ABC is biased toward AGW. The news room thinks its a real hypothesis, they dropped the ball.
Sky gets more viewers for news than the ABC, is this true?
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El Gordo
As posted earlier, the ABC have confirmed, in writing to me, that they will not be giving any oxygen to any case other than the catastrophist one on climate change. This is not bias, its wilfully refusing to follow their Charter or even attempt to be objective.
Whenever I watch or listen to the ABC I end up putting in complaints, the bias and misinformation is just so obvious. I grew up (many years ago) listening to the ABC, and Jim Dibble, Caroline Jones and co were all reasonable people and it was worth watching. The whole ABC these days are a bunch of nutters, voting themselves pay rises and just doing whatever they want, and bugger the tax payer or anybody else…
20
You’re showing your own bias about bias … so to speak. The reality is that the overwhelming and majority opinion is that AGW has been established, and that society has to reduce fossil fuel emissions.
This is not “an ABC newsroom bias” – it is the position held by virtually all news organisations across all media. It is based on the overwhelming scientific consensus that has been in place for many years.
There is the occasional climate-change denier on Sky, or buried somewhere in a News Corp paper, but realistically, to call climate change anything but a real hypothesis is an extreme outlier … the ABC is totally mainstream on this.
Anyway – I reiterate my earlier comment – one’s position on global warming (and the republic) are not simple left-right indicators – there is a lot of crossover.
02
When it’s time for Earth Hour, I switch on every light and device I can find. As for the ABC (aka Australian Biased Commission), it should be decommissioned, and then re-invented as a support Network Channel for regional Australia (ie: weather forecasts etc…Ross makes a good point about the ABC’s current uselessness in its regional programming). I thought that Ita Buttrose might clean out the ABC, but she’s been totally brainwashed, as proven by her National Press Club speech, where she accused the News Corp media of “skewed reporting”.
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It’s easy to see which way Tilba is tilted, with support of a Republic and the ABC. I can imagine Tilba being right at home as a senior member of the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984…god help us all
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And a related point … of course the mainstream media (both free-to-air and Pay-TV, plus radio) have always been very teed off that on any given evening, many of the high-income and high-spending As and Bs are watching (or listening to) the ABC or SBS.
Stations like 3AW and Channel 10 have decent-sized audiences, but they tend to be lower-income Cs and Ds – and there is only so much advertising revenue to be had from selling PAL dogfood, discount mince, and miracle kitchen knives or carpet-sweepers.
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Go on, just call them Deplorables and be done with it.
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Oh dear, could you be any more elitist?
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Disgusting comment, Tilba.
Of course, you don’t have any proof of that supposed statistic.
Been reading ‘Brave New World’, have you?
‘Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons’
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Not an original – I got it from Andrew Bolt in the Herald/Sun. He thought it was outrageous that the ABC was successful in stealing huge numbers of well-off punters away from the poor commercial networks. Nothing short of communism!
BTW A-B-C-D categorisation is standard advertising and marketing talk … not picked up from Brave New World or Moscow University I’m afraid.
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Tilba my sweet little friend, the only reason the As and Bs listen to the ABC is to find out what they are supposed to be offended by and be a little more indoctrinated by their propaganda.
Let’s face it truth and the ABC parted company some years back .
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LOL – thank goodness for that! What would life be like if we actually had to do all the hard work and figure stuff out ourselves. It doesn’t bear thinking about.
Anyway – I love my ABC – not having the ABC in one’s life would be like a life without music. My sweet little friend.
01
LOL I’ve never hidden my fairly conservative centre-left credentials. But it is pulling a very long bow indeed in claiming that support for the Republic and/or support of the ABC are left-right issues.
There are a lot of quite conservative people who also support a Republic, and also a lot more who value the ABC highly. Talk of “de-commissioning” the ABC is far-right babble, and thankfully, very much a minority position.
It may come as a shock to you, but there are a lot of people who do not like Australia being under the yoke of the British royal family, and also millions more who want more from their media than Andrew Bolt, the Kardashians, and Married At First Sight.
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‘It may come as a shock to you, but there are a lot of people who do not like Australia being under the yoke of the British royal family, and also millions more who want more from their media than Andrew Bolt, the Kardashians, and Married At First Sight.”
No shock from that highlighting of an ignorance of history, civics etc
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What do you mean? I’m an absolute expert on Married At First Sight, and I just about keep up with Kardashians as well!
And BTW – the CIA went directly to the Queen to get agreement for a coup against the Whitlam Government … that is all the key history and civics one needs to be a republican.
06
Your quote.
“the CIA went directly to the Queen to get agreement for a coup against the Whitlam Government.”
Unless you have proof, then that remains fiction my friend.
Now you also state.
“I’m an absolute expert on Married At First Sight”
Good to see my friend.
I find it refreshing that you are an expert on something.
Go and watch MAFS as it is being broadcast now.
Btw Tilba, why are you not watching your beloved ABC?
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I do have proof (horse’s mouth stuff), and all will be revealed in the fullness of time (after a couple of key players pass away).
BTW – using the term “my friend” when you patently don’t mean it is really, really creepy (shudder).
02
” … but there are a lot of people who do not like Australia being under the yoke of the British royal family.”
Another revealing choice of words. How exactly are we here in Australia, “under the yoke” of the UK, much less the royal family? That’s an absurd statement showing that, despite your claims to be more or less centrist, you subscribe to all the Left’s bogeymen tactics.
Let me guess, you also think Trump was Hitler reincarnated?
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The Queen of England is the Queen of Australia – and through the G-G has the reserve powers to dismiss a duly elected government, as has happened.
It seems to me you can’t get muck more yokey than that. And as is obvious, being in support of a republic overs the left-right divide well and truly.
I don’t think Trump was a reincarnated Hitler … Trump was too lazy and incompetent to be a proper dictator.
01
More off-topic America’s Cup sailing in Auckland:
Tuesday was no racing: wind was too light.
Today: 1 race, won by NZ — a successful defence.
7 races won out of 10 races run.
Race should be uploaded to Youtube by now, but I haven’t checked.
The race on Monday was exciting and the opening of this race was not so riveting but it was a clear/clean demolition job.
No more O/T posts on this event …
There will be another one in 4 years time.
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Well done the bro’s across The Ditch.
As winners does it mean the next defence is also in Auckland?
I have sailed on a very fast yacht on Auckland Harbour – it’s a magical place – only second to Sydney Harbour.
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A socialist on a very fast yacht. Shades of Greta on a multi million high tech yacht avoiding a flight.
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The Chardonnay was good too – didn’t spill a drop!
00
The essence of the issue is accountability. In politics , the media, in academia and in government beaurocracy. There are no penalties for lying and misinformation . If you are a “victim” you can be a celebrity and become famous and ironically the criminal perpetrator can become a victim too . The ABC joins the pile-on when someone with conservative views is piloried but does its best to ignore any transgressions from the left. Unfortunately most of the MSM is similar now. Its an interesting excersise to look at how few companies own all the worlds media…
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That’s it, Goat. The media is captured by a specific group that works for the downfall of western civilisation. Not only to loot it but to destroy it for the new homoglobo man and society.
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That’s it, Goat. The media is captured by a specific group that works for the downfall of western civilisation. Not only to loot it but to destroy it for the new homoglobo man and society.
10
That’s it, Goat. The media is captured by a specific group that works for the downfall of western civilisation. Not only to loot it but to destroy it for the new homoglobo man and society.
10
It doesn’t really matter who owns the media companies, what matters is who owns the Unis and runs the journalism courses.
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Both are important.
10
We feel exactly the same about the British Bigotry Corporation.
10
I notice nowadays that the ABC is dominated by women.
Most of them youngish women..
The ABC has become their media platform
In former days the Australian Women’s Weekly or New Idea
Functioned as their platform.
Thus I suggest again the ABC should be renamed : AWBC
The Australian Womens Broadcasting Corporation
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Don’t worry about whom the presenter is.
Worry about what they report.
This is a piece the ABC published 10 hrs ago.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-17/electricity-has-become-a-jigsaw-coal-missing-pieces/13253392
00
An excerpt from the ABC article.
And there he (Angus Taylor) finished, without going on to detail what really mattered. South Australia and Victoria now have the lowest wholesale power in the National Electricity Market — that’s right, the lowest.
read it and discuss my friends.
10
I forgot to add quotation marks. I apologize.
“And there he (Angus Taylor) finished, without going on to detail what really mattered. South Australia and Victoria now have the lowest wholesale power in the National Electricity Market — that’s right, the lowest.”
10
The reporters from the ABC, will not dare to mention that Victoria sourced 81% of its power, in the last 24 hrs… from brown coal.
https://www.aemo.com.au/Energy-systems/Electricity/National-Electricity-Market-NEM/Data-NEM/Data-Dashboard-NEM
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How dare you assign gender to people based on their looks!!
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A socialist on a very fast yacht. Shades of Greta on a multi million high tech yacht avoiding a flight.
20
Yeah look, I know he was a nobody, well he must be, because the ABC didn’t mention his passing.
I can guarantee if Doug Parkinson was a first Australian his death would have made news on the ABC.
I can guarantee if Doug Parkinson was a woman, his passing would have been noticed on the ABC.
I can guarantee if Doug Parkinson was LGBTQIA+, his passing would have been noticed on the ABC.
I can guarantee if Doug Parkinson was in a same sex marriage, his passing would have been noticed on the ABC.
I can guarantee if Doug Parkinson was accused of rape 785 years ago, his passing would heave been noticed on the ABC. (How dare he die when we need to investigate him.)
I can guarantee if Doug Parkinson was in a wheelchair, his passing would have been noticed on the ABC.
I can guarantee if Doug Parkinson, being a singer as he was, was an American, his passing would heave been noticed on the ABC.
Nothing. Just crickets.
If you do a search on the ABC site for Doug Parkinson, all you get is pages and pages and pages of Tasmanian politician Doug Parkinson, from the Labor Party.
Vale Doug Parkinson, an absolute nobody ….. evidently.
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I’m surprised by that, Tony. Perhaps it’s because the twitter trawlers, I mean journalists, at the ABC are too young to remember the great Doug Parkinson.
If they weren’t, they’d remember that Doug Parkinson and his band In Focus, made many appearances on the ABC’s GTK, back in the day when the ABC wasn’t held hostage by the left.
Doug Parkinson In Focus also won the Hoadley’s Battle of the Sounds and the coveted trip to England with a recording contract.
I first met Doug in Perth in 1977. He was between hit records and working with a touring band. I was the guitarist in another such touring band. Both bands were then playing residencies at clubs and pubs in Perth.
Coincidentally, some members of each band decided to quit, leaving the rest of us potentially out of work and stuck in Perth.
Instead we merged the remainder of each band and continued to work six weeks at the Ambassador Club in Newcastle and six weeks at the Oceanic at Brighton le Sands in Sydney.
I was twenty at the time and Doug was thirty. He taught me a lot.
21
Not sure what ABC you consume, but I watch ABC News Breakfast, then Melbourne Radio, then News Radio, then ABC TV News and 7:30.
The passing of Doug Parkinson was mentioned a large number of times – about the right amount given his stature.
Your hackneyed stereotyping doesn’t wash. Even with the increasing representation of “minority” groups and interests over the last generation – most of the stage is still dominated by straight white males.
14
No sane person could subject themselves to such an onslaught of leftist propaganda and drivel.
You either have a death wish or are completely deluded.
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LOL … your extreme bias is showing comrade! As it happens I don’t need any PAL dogfood, nor a set of miracle kitchen knives. Commercial media have lost another A/B!
I actually misspoke a little – I also watch a lot of SBS (you know, that hotbed of Jihadists!).
12
Who is Doug Parkinson?
00
You could make ABC just a carrier utility that sells air time. No content, no journalists, no “news”, no censorship.
Streaming is something that anyone can do. To find audience you use Bitchute, Odysee, … Infowars has its own app. Political parties could have their own spots in ABC if not a full channel.
Problem with commercial channels like YouTube and Facebook is that the content becomes advertiser friendly. Not direct censorship at first, just biased algorithms.
10
I watch ABC News Breakfast most days…but only because there’s no ads. The ABC is a left-wing anachronistic thought bubble; and all because the Federal Governments of today and years gone past have let it do what it wants. An Australia without the ABC would be a better place.
00