James O'Neill - The real solution possibly lies in the continuing strengthening of the alternative, mainly online, media.

I think you are correct, whilst there are issues with online media, they are probably less restrictive of free speech than mainstream TV / radio / hard-copy media. Furthermore, low establishment cost provides the ability for anyone to start a blog / forum / whatever, and means there will always be alternatives to the ones created and / or highjacked by one-eyed drones, educated idiot do-gooders & system apparatchiks infiltrated to divert discussions away from territory dangerous to 'the system'.

The party faithful of whatever colour & other assorted fanatics have every right to their say, however an obvious failing of mainstream media, including for that matter the ABC / SBS, is their propensity to become the exclusive voice of only a few. Human nature being what it is, we all have a tendency to believe our ideas are the perfect solution and those of everyone else are crap. True freedom of expression allows everyone their say, whether or not we agree is immaterial. Unfortunately the advent of political correctness when combined with the pre-existing mainstream media has spelled the death knell of free speech, thereby relegating those entities for the most part to irrelevance. Media moguls like Murdoch and to a lesser extent BC / SBS are battling frantically to retain their erstwhile control but ultimately are destined to join the dinosaurs.

The ABC and SBS is the only quality TV we have that does not rely on it's funding from mind-numbing television shows foisted on the public and which have become normalised.

Lets not reduce the ABC and SBS to commercial entities. The important aspect of public funded television media is independence. It is already been tainted when advertising was allowed on SBS and later increased to interrupt shows rather than between shows.

The fact that both the Left and Right are lamenting bias at the ABC means it must be doing it's job. It is the job of journalists to question politicians and expect proper answers rather than the mealy mouthed versions coming from politicians of all stripes. That means the ABC is doing it's job.

…View the ABC not as a source of information and news, but a conveyor belt for propaganda direct from parliament in Canberra.

Looked at through that prism of understanding Aunty makes all the sense in the world...!!

Alan knows that the only people crying in their soup if the National Broadcasters were sold would be the leftist academics and the gay lobby. Please start a campaign Alan and you will find the only ones supporting you for the sale will be the conservatives. You really do deceive yourself.

What a giggle, the ABC is biased to the coalition? Only the fringe blogs can be trusted. You're killing me!

A recent survey of the various news media confidentially polled the political allegiances of the staff. The ABC was made up of supporters of parties in approximately 40% greens, 40% labor and 20% others incl coalition.

Next time pull the other leg.

James O'Neil says it true, as does Alan Austin. The ABC exhibits no independence, it is a reflection of mainstream opinion. Runner, the ABC has always been homophobic in its programming and reportage. It is also racist. Recently they announced that an Aboriginal man was taken into custody for... In another item, a remote Aboriginal community was the topic. In both cases the ethnicity was totally irrelevant. Were it any other race they would have said a young man was taken... not a young Chinese, Arab, Indian was apprehended.
Equally, a remote community is all that needed to be said, not identifying it as Aboriginal. They don't dare say the Vietnamese community, the Greek community... they're considered to be Australians, but apparently Aborigines are not yet Australians.
The ABC is a middle-class white, pro religion enterprise dedicated to preserving the status quo. I will not be sorry to see it disappear.