Well said Spindoc, From some one who lives in the regions, my first thought apon hearing the push for 24 hr news on the ABC, was just how many news stories on Sydney can you do?

I now longer whatch any Current affairs shows on ABC TV anymore. If it didn't happen in Sydney or overseas then it didn't happen. SBS isn't much better but a least their overseas CA programs are good. SA news at 7 spends about 10 mins at the most on local content, all of it dumped down tabloid stuff at best.
ABC radio is still okay, but it is but the trend is happening there to.

SpinDoc, well said - the ABC though, ignore business principles for some view that they have to provide balance, not of point of view but what they perceive to be lacking in the marketplace. Which is just wrong and not what they are intended to do, they are overly political and too far to the left of centre.

Hence as Mac says, "Murdoch media's case, anti-Labor propaganda" is not really that, it's just conservative, which most people are sold as anti-labor by the ALP and ABC. So the ABC N&CA feel their job is "quite rightly" to balance that perceived view, so they attack the coalition mercilessly. They are quite smug and self righteous in that role.

Their customers and audience are the faithful, mostly everyone else tunes out for N&CA to something else - the rest of the ABC is fine by me and most everyone else I've ever spoken to.

Murdoch and Fox have the following they do because they reflect what people want - not what the ABC does, the ABC is now so predictable they are an international joke.

Murdoch has a winning formula, give the people what they want - watch Fox in the USA, it has liberals on in equal numbers to conservatives - look at the ABC e.g. Q&A, usually 5 liberals to one conservative who is constantly cut off and sniped at, it is a disgusting misuse of privilege by the comperes, Tony Jones is a disgrace, he is never objective.

I have European and US colleagues come here and love to watch it, they think it's comedy and cannot understand that some people think it is intelligent and balanced.

Anytime I tune in to N&CA, they never let me down - I tuned into Q&A the other night, for 30 seconds, tuned out. You need a sturdy constitution to watch their programs, the bias is palatable.

Put them up for sale, sell them to the lowest bidder.

Well, let's hope the things are really sharp.

It would be a pity to just injure the beast, rather than put it out of it's misery.

I can't for the life of me understand the Murdoch press' complaints about the ABC. The national broadcaster appears to have become the audio arm of the Australian, particularly in its morning radio news and current affairs. The Murdoch broadsheet seems to be the main source for the stories/"analysis" of ABC news and AM journalists and the Radio National morning presenter. I suppose it beats doing the legwork yourself.

Postscript to my last post, after watching ABC television news.

The headline saying electricity prices will rise 60% because of Rudd's ETS was a clear example of the ABC's Murdoch-speak. The following story was reasonably balanced but the headline was misleading and just plain wrong, as was clear from the story.

What is going on at the ABC? - are they frightened that the Murdoch empire will control all media, so journalists and editors need to get their CVs in order for future job applications?

Some OLO’ers may have taken my criticisms of the ABC’s N&CA production as a desire to see them gone. Nothing could be further from my mind so I’ve extracted a bit from a similar post on another thread (on indulgence) by way of explanation

“I lived and worked in 29 countries in a period of 35 years. Wherever I was, the only link with real and balanced news and current affairs was the ABC and the BBC. The rest was local political propaganda dross. Generations came to trust these public broadcasters, even in America we would drive 250 miles north to the Canadian border on a Saturday to listen to the BBC international news. (OK, I admit, we did pick up a carton or two of half decent Canadian beer). In the Middle East, Asia, South America and the Soviet Union, our preoccupation became finding access to these highly respected news broadcasts (even locals in foreign countries were as thirsty as us).

Colleagues tell me, and I recently solicited comment, that these broadcasters are now widely regarded as just as narrow, sectarian, minority and PC oriented as local media. What an absolute tragedy.

If current generations have no such reference points, then their defense of the ABC is probably understandable.”

Hope this clarifies my position.