The ABC has flab to be cut

nero_bolt
Community Member

 

 

This is but one story of the waste.

 

I fully support the cuts.... Time the ABC ran leaner and stoped being a cess pool of left leaning types 

 

The ABC is supposed to be impartial and take the middle ground NOT the far left line as it does.

 

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"Good luck trying to change anything around here, there are too many lifers."

 

This was the advice given to me when I started as manager at ABC's Radio National last year.

 

It seemed like a dream job. I love the ABC and relished the opportunity to help steer RN.

 

 But having previously worked as a journalist, foreign correspondent, editor and managing editor at lean, efficient and editorially robust media companies including Australian Associated Press, Fairfax and News Corp for over 20 years, I was shocked by the culture, waste, duplication and lax workplace practices exercised in some pockets of Radio National. I was even more shocked by the failure of the executive to want to do anything about it.

 

One problem, as one insider pointed out, was the so-called lifers, a pocket of predominantly middle-aged, Anglo-Saxon staff who had never worked anywhere other than the ABC, who were impervious to change, unaccountable, untouchable and who harboured a deep sense of entitlement.

 

They didn't have a 9-5 mentality. They had a 10-3 mentality. They planned their work day around their afternoon yoga class. They wore thongs and shorts to work, occasionally had a snooze on the couch after lunch and popped out to Paddy's Market to buy fresh produce for dinner before going home.

 

They were like free-range chickens, wandering around at will, pecking at this and that, content that laying one egg constituted a hard day's work.

 

They knew they couldn't be sacked or officially sanctioned because there was no appetite among the executive to make waves, take on the union or make a case for any more redundancies. So the lifers just thumbed their nose at any attempt at performance management. Managers came and went, but they were there for life.

 

The RN budget was another shock. It was predominantly tied up in wages for 150 people. There was precious little budget to do anything new or innovative and you couldn't turn any program off, no matter how high its costs and how poor its audience share and reach.

 

The executive would pander to the whims of celebrity presenters because they gave the ABC "edge and credibility", yet would take for granted journalistic giants like Fran Kelly and Geraldine Doogue who present world-class programs.

 

While online rules the media world, trying to get some RN producers to repurpose on-air content for online was like pulling teeth. Plus the systems they were using were archaic, due to a failure to invest in efficient, integrated content-management systems that worked across divisions and on multi platforms, especially on mobile devices.

 

There was also blatant waste. Taxi dockets were left in unlocked drawers for the taking and elephantine leave balances had been allowed to accumulate. When programs shut down for Christmas, staff would get approval from their executive producers to hang around for a week or two "to tidy things up". One editor asked for his leave to be cut back by a week because he'd need to pop into work during the holidays to "check emails".That constituted work.

 

Yet attempts to tighten basic oversight of taxi use and leave, controls that are the norm in the corporate world, were frowned upon by the ABC executive and actively discouraged as "not the main game".

 

Programming and content generation was another shock. While other media organisations live and die by their ratings, circulation and readership figures, some ABC programmers considered ratings irrelevant. Some producers strongly resisted editorial oversight and locked in segments that lacked editorial rigour and relevance. So the weekly Media Report went to air discussing foreign press freedoms while hundreds of Australian journalists were being made redundant just down the road.

 

The ABC can be leaner and remain editorially strong and independent as ABC's NewsRadio proves. With less than 20 per cent of RN's total budget, NewsRadio employs brilliant broadcasters including Sandy Aloisi and Marius Benson and produces 5000 hours of robust original content each year that reaches a bigger national weekly audience than RN.

 

That's why these ABC budget cuts announced by Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull are not just necessary but vital to the ongoing health of the corporation.

 

Pockets of the ABC have been allowed to get too fat, flabby, wasteful and unaccountable.

 

The doors have to be prised open so that the winds of change that have swept through media companies around the world can reinvigorate our ABC.

 

The same efficiencies and workplace practices that are the norm in corporate Australia need to be front and centre at the ABC so that it remains a strong, independent voice that is both editorially robust and reflects who we are - a culturally, geographically and socio-economically diverse nation that doesn't believe anyone is entitled to a job for life at the taxpayer's expense.

 

Louise Evans is a former manager at ABC's Radio National and former managing editor at The Australian.

 

 

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-abc-has-flab-to-be-cut-20141122-11rtki.html#ixzz3JyCvJZ2f

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Re: The ABC has flab to be cut


@boris1gary wrote:
But  don't you watch and promote the bolt show?
 
 

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Re: The ABC has flab to be cut

ABC BOARD - NO RESPONSIBILITY TAKEN

 

As many have known for far too long, the ABC is living in a parallel universe to most Australians.

 

Fiscally, the motto could well be, no care taken, no responsibility accepted.

 

The entire operation is rolling in narcissistic fat, starting from the top then right through the entire bloated broadcasting bureaucracy.

 

The Managing Director Mark Scott while being paid $800,000 a year, slashes and burns vital regional services, but does promise to make a personal sacrifice by not giving himself a pay rise this year.

 

Yes it's tough at the ABC. So tough that they've been asked to operate on $1.15 billion a year, instead of $1.2 billion - or over 5 years to operate on $5.75 billion instead of $6 billion.

 

Directors ignore public concerns, but excel in buck passing and hand washing, failing to enforce the ABC charter of balance expected of them. It's pretty much all they're asked to do, by admission. And they don't even do that.

 

In the real world, they'd be sacked by the shareholders, but taxpayers have no say or control. The privileged ABC board are quarantined from accountability by an iron wall of 'arms length' mumbo jumbo.

 

Mark Scott's decision to cut rural services while propping up over-supplied Sydney and Melbourne markets is a deliberate political move aimed at hurting the conservative constituency of the LNP.

 

The metro-centric ABC has further exposed its own bias, which along with far leftist hosts and writers (TV, radio and online), has given the paying taxpayer more cause to call for a complete overhaul of the publicly funded broadcaster. Either that, or have it privatised where a board will listen to its shareholders and perform as reasonably expected.

 

If you think thats being a bit harsh, one ABC director brazenly admits the board's responsibility is limited to doing nothing much but provide an 'enabling environment', whatever that means. Sounds to me like a bunch of malarkey where they can all just sit around sipping latte in the boardroom while chuckling how they've ever managed to cotton onto such a cushy, over paid, unaccountable gig. Hopefully nobody will notice

 

 

 

 

ABC board ‘has no responsibility’ to intervene in cuts

 

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/abc-board-has-no-responsibility-to-intervene-in-cuts/story-e6f...

 

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Re: The ABC has flab to be cut

Abbott lied about cuts to the ABC, SBS and everything else because he would have been unelectable had he campaigned on his true agenda. To pretend otherwise is as disingenuous as the prime minister himself. Save the ABC.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/24/abc-cuts-had-abbott-been-honest-about-his-true-...
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Re: The ABC has flab to be cut


@lurker172602 wrote:
Abbott lied about cuts to the ABC, SBS and everything else because he would have been unelectable had he campaigned on his true agenda. To pretend otherwise is as disingenuous as the prime minister himself. Save the ABC.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/24/abc-cuts-had-abbott-been-honest-about-his-true-...

The ABC isn't lost, it's just having a little trim fgs.

Serves themselves right for being so mean to the PM.

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Re: The ABC has flab to be cut

Serves themselves right for being so mean to the PM.

 

So Tone implemented these cuts for revenge?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Message 85 of 131
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Re: The ABC has flab to be cut

liar liar... pants on fire

 

https://www.twitteraudit.com/TonyAbbottMHR

 

Twitter Audit Report
Tony Abbott@TonyAbbottMHR
 
198,716 Real
179,790 Fake
Followers
52%
Audit score
Audited 5 months ago
atheism is a non prophet organization
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atheism is a non prophet organization
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Re: The ABC has flab to be cut

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-coalitions-twitter-fraud-and-deceptio...

 

The accounts being used on Twitter to make the Coalition look good were based in the United States and Britain, where is rather unlikely people have much interest in what Tony Abbott wants to do to Australia.

Not surprisingly, the accounts in question were suspended by Twitter as a clear violation of their terms of use.

 

 

Woman LOLWoman LOL

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Re: The ABC has flab to be cut


@freddie*rooster wrote:

Serves themselves right for being so mean to the PM.

 

So Tone implemented these cuts for revenge?

 

 

 

 

 

 


he seems to be that kind of guy Freddie 

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