ABC becomes the story

[davidc4430]

ABC becomes the story after unprecedented week of accusations and high-profile departures

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-27/abc-becomes-the-story-after-high-profile-departures/10310944

Mr Miln is prolly thinking "well that didnt go the way i thought it would"

now, reinstate  Michelle Guthrie and hire a trustworthy chairman.

[davidc4430]

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@chameleon54 wrote:

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@johcaschro wrote:

"The reason it is NOT the story, is that it is not in the ABC,s interest ( or other medias interest ) to acknowledge there has been a culture of political bias in the ABC for decades. It is this political bias that is at the root of this issue, including calls made to the ABC by Malcolm Turnbull to express concern about factual errors resulting in politically unbalanced reporting. It is widely accepted that both the ABC board and many of its leading reporters have not followed their respective legislated charters for many years in regards to impartiality of reporting."

Do you have any way of substantiating what you wrote? (a link to the evidence will suffice) 'cos otherwise I can say "It just aint so" with just as much authority (and credibility, come to that).

It's more likely that the political bias has come from the govt who appointed the ABC board members, as evidenced by Justin Milne's recent leaning on Michelle Guthrie to sack an ABC reporter because she has fallen out of favour with said govt.

It is widely accepted now, that that the ABC board has not followed its charter because its members are govt-appointed stooges.

It's not the fault of the ABC per se, but it's the fault of the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison government.

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My lifes too short to spend hours chasing up links for you, but here is one credible source I found in two minutes

https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp14...

This little nugget is right in the first few paragraphs of this lengthy document

The ABC has regularly been the subject of criticism from a number of quarters; there have been frequent allegations of bias in reporting, inappropriate programming, political appointments to the ABC Board and mismanagement of funds. Recently the ABC has been accused also of neglecting its Charter obligations by withdrawing local services and outsourcing production.

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so because the ABC is forced to reduce home grown (in house)content because their funding is reducing every year by the days government and some are not happy where they now out scource to thats not following their 'charter.

we must remember the ABC has very limited ways of recieving funding, they cant fill their days viewing with ads for useless carp or very nasty programs called entertainment (reality TV) wich are usually fronts for 'product placement'

all equipment supplied by ****, all food stuffs supplied by ****, ect ect.

and they send their telivision signal pretty much everywhere, unlike the comercial stations who outside main cities off load (for a charge) to small stations.

my TV comes from Port Lincoln a long way from here and i get to watch mostly adverts from broken hill!

and its no secret behind all this is this government really only wants the ABC to be their to put out government propergander, they dont want unbiased reporting. they want liberal leaning reporters who like many in the comercial sphere just cheer every time a lib/nat says anything!

gosh, how bad does a lib/nat govt have to be before the 'shock jucks' in comercial radio and TV say anything negative about them?

and am i happy with the way ABC reporters like leigh sales or emma alberici question govt or opposition MPs,

no, as so often they dont go in hard enough!

i so often hear myself saying 'omg, ask the obvious question!'

[johcaschro]

Chameleon, firstly; if you make claims or assertions then it is your resonsibility to provide substantiating evidence for what you write and if you you "can't be bothered chasing up links" to demonstate that evidence then how can you expect anyone to believe you?

The article you provided was written in 2014 by a Dr Rhonda Jolly who is an officer of the The Australian Parliamentary Library which is part of the Department of Parliamentary Services and provides services to senators, members, their staff, the staff of parliamentary departments and the Governor-General.
https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/About_the_Pa...

other than that, I can find little information about her.

I note that in the article you referenced, Dr Jolly also does not mention where the source of the apparent criticsm of the ABC emanates from.

("The ABC has regularly been the subject of criticism from a number of quarters; there have been frequent allegations of bias in reporting, inappropriate programming, political appointments to the ABC Board and mismanagement of funds. Recently the ABC has been accused also of neglecting its Charter obligations by withdrawing local services and outsourcing production.")

So, it's from a govt dept that you quote. I'd like to see other critiques coming from demonstrably indepenent and disinterested parties.

Of course criticism is going to come from the govt of the day because the ABC has a reputation for holding to account the govt's questionable dealings and policies (whether it be Labor or LNP coalition govt.)

It's instructive to remember that the ABC began cutting services in response to the then newly elected PM Tony Abbott's severely cutting the bidget of the ABC, despite his pre-election pledge not to do so.

It's also instructive to note that
"Almost all the directors of the ABC’s eight-member board were appointed directly by the minister for communications, Mitch Fifield, and some were appointed after being rejected by the merit-based nominations panel, documents obtained by the Guardian show."
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/sep/27/abc-board-members-appointed-by-fifield-despite-being-r...

If we lose the indepenence of The ABC to commericial interests as a result of a vicious LNP govt attack, then Australia will have lost something very valuable which will probably never be replaced.

We need to be able to hold the govt of the day accountable for their actions, and to do that we need a vigorous and independent news service, broadcsating on free-to-air tv and radio.

[chameleon54]

I may not agree with everything you say, but it is nice to see some well thought out, constructive debate, rather than the blind sheep, Labor rah rah we so often see in such discussions. ( same goes for Davids contributions to the thread ).

[johcaschro]

Well, from where I see it, my arguments trump yours and you should now capitulate gracefully, admit you were wrong and stop trashing our ABC and helping to damage the public's confidence in it. Agreed? 🙂

[chameleon54]

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@johcaschro wrote:

Well, from where I see it, my arguments trump yours and you should now capitulate gracefully, admit you were wrong and stop trashing our ABC and helping to damage the public's confidence in it. Agreed? 🙂

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If you had swayed me with your arguments, I would be quite willing to admit a change of mind. ( and yes it does happen sometimes ....  ) Unfortunately you havnt convinced me on this particular subject. And as for the suggestion I am " helping to damage the publics confidence in the organisation " , .

Spoiler

You flatter me too much...........

I doubt very much that a little known ebay forum, frequented by a couple of dozen regular contributors will have a great deal of influence on the general publics perception of the ABC, let alone bring the organisation crashing down.....

My views on the ABC remain unchanged. It is a dysfuncional organisation that has been allowed to lack transparency and clear vision for too long. It has been hijacked by those on the left side of politics, who have distorted it to the pont where it can no longer function effectively. It has lost the confidence of a signifigant section of the public, to the point where many, like myself rarely even bother to view it anymore. Up until 12 - 18 months ago, I rarely watched anything besides the ABC TV. I just got so sick and tired of the leftist political bias and political correctness expressed in its current affairs, Q & A etc.that now I would be lucky to watch 2 hours of ABC TV a week.

I still regularly listen to ABC radio regularly, which does not seem to be quite as corrupted as its television content.

Roll on sackings........Scrap the board, get rid of the biased reporters, have an enquiry into all of its very obvious problems and try to  restore some level of public confidence back into the ABC.

[johcaschro]

You seem unable to understand that ;

1. The ABC fairly reports on the shonky dealings and policies of both sides of the political spectrum. It reports the failings of Labor govts and calls them to account just as it does to LNP govts.

 If the fact of the matter is that the LNP have so many more questionable things going on then that is not the fault of the ABC, is it? If the pollies didn't do anything wrong then they'd escape criticism, wouldn't they?

2. The ABC had no choice but to cut programmes and services because the Tony Abbott govt seriously cut their funding (despite the pre-election promise not to do so) . . tricky, mendacious and mean, wouldn't you say?

3. If the ABC is dysfunctional it is because of insuffiecient funding (see above) coupled in the main with the fact that the current board members  of the ABC have all been appointed by the LNP govt and are (in loyalty to their masters) causing severe dysfunction as recent  events in the news have proven.

4.You seem not to understand that sacking the ABC board would have little effect if the new board was still to consist of LNP govt appointees; it would be more of the same.

5. Just because the ABC writes articles critical of the branch of politicis which you, by implication, support, does not make the ABC worthless and deserving of being scrapped; rather, the case is made for the LNP to clean up their obviously oh so grubby act, isn't that so?

I have made convincing arguments and you have made inaccurate assertions which support your conservative political world view. The fact remains that I am right and you are wrong. A refusal to admit this despite all the evidence I have posted is unconscionable.

You are at liberty to hold your political views but you are not at liberty to meddle with the truth.

[chameleon54]

I want some of the drug you are on.........

[johcaschro]

It's a truth serum . . . but seriously, no you wouldn't be able to handle it.

[tezza2844]

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@chameleon54 wrote:

I want some of the drug you are on.........

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It's called reality, but it does not always effect everyone

[*kazumi*]

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@chameleon54 wrote:

The ABC has regularly been the subject of criticism from a number of quarters; there have been frequent allegations of bias in reporting, inappropriate programming, political appointments to the ABC Board and mismanagement of funds. Recently the ABC has been accused also of neglecting its Charter obligations by withdrawing local services and outsourcing production.

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Over the years the ABC lost lot of funding and therefore had no choice but to trim it's operations.

There are constantly   complaints about bias by both sides, but the investigations shows that the ABC is most of the time within the guidelines.  They allow both sides to express their opinions.  But there are some facts and allowing equal time to both sides would ridiculous; would you want programs about "intelligent design" or "flat earth" be given equal time as scientific documentaries?