"He should stop complaining about media coverage and start behaving like a Prime Minister."

[i-need-a-martini]

My thoughts exactly Tanya Plibersek.

He spent the morning having a love-fest with Hadley and ripped into the ABC. He said: Mr Abbott also said that it ''dismays Australians when the national broadcaster appears to take everybody's side but our own'', adding, ''I think that is a problem''.

I suspect that the ABC's professionalism doesn't dismay Australian in the least. Does he think he is running an autocracy? Or perhaps a Communist country where the media only says what the government allows it to say?

Is he even listening to himself?

What Australian would want a national broadcaster that doesn't investigate, ask questions, report truth? What is the medias role if not to do exactly that.

And doesn't he have more IMPORTANT things to do? Like a country to run? Or some policies to create? The latter would be a novel idea.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-blasts-national-broadcaster-abc-ta...

[i-need-a-martini]

Even Turnbulls come out in defence of the ABC this morning:

Mr Turnbull defended the Prime Minister's right to critique the ABC but, in comments that could be interpreted as resistance to Mr Abbott, he said the ABC was rightly accountable to its board of directors, not politicians.

''What's the alternative … the editor-in-chief [of the ABC] becomes the prime minister?'' he said. ''Politicians, whether prime ministers or communications ministers, will often be unhappy with the ABC … but you can't tell them what to write.''

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbott-turnbull-clash-over-abc-20140129-31n5z....

[lurker17260]

NSW Nationals senator John "Wacka" Williams praised the ABC, noting that it was a "great contributor" to regional Australia through programs like Country Hour.

But he rubbished recent ABC reports such as the allegations of navy abuse and the SBY phone tapping.

"The ABC should think carefully before it puts out stories that are damaging to [Australia's] reputation," he told Fairfax Media.

Or here's another option:  The Government should stop doing things that are damaging to Australia's reputation, for the ABC to report on.

[dateless2010]

Tony Abbott said on Sept. 2 *Media outlets have every right to criticise a bad government and this one's been a shocker"

What's changed ???

[catsnknots]

The facts are that the ABC have some seriously left wing shows. That is the truth. After the election Insiders did not do a story on the winning side, instead it did three on why the ALP lost. Come on, at least give a pat on the back to the winning team for one show, I know they did when Gillard won. 

Some shows are known to be left side biased, Q&A and Insiders are known for that, the hosts are both known to be ALP supporters. They are not allowed to be left ro right side biased while reporting. 

[boris1gary]

I don't agree, but even if that were correct - so what? Where is the other point of view on channel 7, 10 ect. I hear a lot about the so called left wing ABC, I can't find this ABC anywhere - maybe i have a different ABC here.

[freakiness]

---

@catsnknots wrote:

The facts are that the ABC have some seriously left wing shows. That is the truth. After the election Insiders did not do a story on the winning side, instead it did three on why the ALP lost. Come on, at least give a pat on the back to the winning team for one show, I know they did when Gillard won. 

Some shows are known to be left side biased, Q&A and Insiders are known for that, the hosts are both known to be ALP supporters. They are not allowed to be left ro right side biased while reporting. 

---

The facts are that the ABC have just as many right wing guests as left wing on Q&A. They also include a whole host of other LNP members as regular guests/panelists on other programs.

If you look at any analysis of various programs it's apparent that the left wing bias doesn't fit.  They are fairly balanced, as they should be.

[catsnknots]

ok.. a bit more investigating the story..... This is about dropping the funding for the Asian service. Not the local one. 

Gillard gave the ABC the tender to provide the $223 million Australia Network Asian Broadcasting service despite SkyNews winning the bid. In the charter it says that the service was to provide "soft diplomacy" and to "promote Australia in a positive manner" 

Abbott was saying that the negative stories were in fact going against the charter of the service. After doing some research I think he might be right. 

"In 2011, the Gillard Labor government granted the contract for the Australia Network to the ABC in perpetuity after overruling then foreign minister Kevin Rudd and two independent public service tender panels that recommended a 10-year contract be given to Sky News.

Then prime minister Julia Gillard said the government determined "that the appropriate thing to do was to have these services provided by the ABC". "This is an important arm of soft diplomacy for Australia," she said at the time."

Apparently the $25 million given to that service from DFAT could be used in a more worthwhile manner. Apparently DFAT only spend $4 million on direct soft diplomacy and the question is about the value that the $25 million a year is getting. 

This all stems back to the bad mistake of the Gillard government to give the contract to a non winning bidder. 

A bit more of what Tony Abbott said about the navy accusations. 

A leaked email reveals journalists at the broadcaster now believe those claims, which have been vehemently denied by the Defence Force, are "likely to be untrue".

The Prime Minister said yesterday that the ABC, like all media organisations, was entitled to report "credible evidence".

But "you shouldn't leap to be critical of your own country".

"You would like the national broadcaster to have a rigorous commitment to truth and at least some basic affection for the home team, so to speak," he said.

Former ABC chairman Maurice Newman backed Mr Abbott's criticism, telling Sydney's Daily Telegraph the Snowden affair and allegations about the navy mistreating asylum-seekers had the potential to harm the country's reputation.

"I'm looking at it from the outside in now, but in the light of the Snowden affair and what has happened with the navy, what the prime minister said was reasonable," said Mr Newman, who is the chairman of the Prime Minister's business advisory council.

[freakiness]

---

@catsnknots wrote:

ok.. a bit more investigating the story..... This is about dropping the funding for the Asian service. Not the local one. 

Gillard gave the ABC the tender to provide the $223 million Australia Network Asian Broadcasting service despite SkyNews winning the bid. In the charter it says that the service was to provide "soft diplomacy" and to "promote Australia in a positive manner" 

Abbott was saying that the negative stories were in fact going against the charter of the service. After doing some research I think he might be right. 

"In 2011, the Gillard Labor government granted the contract for the Australia Network to the ABC in perpetuity after overruling then foreign minister Kevin Rudd and two independent public service tender panels that recommended a 10-year contract be given to Sky News.

Then prime minister Julia Gillard said the government determined "that the appropriate thing to do was to have these services provided by the ABC". "This is an important arm of soft diplomacy for Australia," she said at the time."

---

Oh please. Who in their right mind would award the contract to Murdoch during the Leveson Inquiry?

The ABC is the obvious provider. 

[boris1gary]

Is this the Mr Newman you posted quotes from Cat, need we say more on the wondeful Mr Newman

Maybe Maurice Newman was dizzy from the schadenfreude of seeing a climate scientist getting stuck in Antarctic sea ice?

Perhaps the unnatural heat from Australia's warmest year on record was playing tricks on the brain of Tony Abbott's top business adviser?

Maybe the documented CWM effect – the high prevalence of climate change denialism among conservative white males - is especially strong in the 75-year-old former stockbroker, banker and chair of the ABC and the ASX?

Whatever the cause, Newman has turned his conspiracy theory dial well passed 11 with his latest outburst.

In a column published in The Australian newspaper he wrote that the "climate change establishment" (whatever that is) is intent only on "exploiting the masses and extracting more money".

Newman wrote that the United Nations "has applied mass psychology through a compliant media" (he really did write that) to fool the world into thinking  the activities of industrialised countries have changed the climate.