As a long-time leftie, I don’t particularly care anymore whether the ABC is ‘reformed’ – which is just code for ‘privatised’. It’s been so beaten up and worked over for so long, it’s barely a shadow of its former self. The 24-hour news service and mind-numbingly irritating kids channel was the beginning of the end as far as I’m concerned. Both these irrelevancies has gobbled up an already hopelessly starved budget to such an extent that the ‘real’ ABC has been rendered ineffectual.

Almost certainly, the right-wing oligarchy who rules the cultural narrative and everything else that controls our meagre and menial lives will get its way in the end. The sustained siege of the ABC has been applied full force since the mid-90s, with a slight respite during the Rudd-Gillard era, and is now ramping up again big time. Resistance is futile and the endgame is totally predictable.

Apart from the overt goal of eliminating once and for all the ONLY media mouthpiece left to challenge the right-wing oligarchy’s worldview - albeit ever so mildly and meekly since being starved of funding , sabre-rattled to death with accusations of ‘left-wing’ bias and stacked with right-wingers on its board during the Howard era - the ABC is WAY too big a cash cow to remain unprivatised.

I guess one upside is that full privatisation might end the ABC’s unhealthy obsession with anything and everything British. But that’s about the only upside I can think of.

Killarney,

If the ABC budget 'hopelessly starved' it is because the prevailing political correctness has required duplicate services to be created, which compete with the ABC. Your complaint should be directed at the interests and governments responsible for those 'initiatives'. Public broadcasting sucks $1.5billion per annum from the taxpayers and that is exclusive of the indirect funding of 'left' and 'Progressive' ideology via the advertising and spin of quangos and NGOs, also paid for by the exasperated taxpayer. Surely you are not saying that (say) the spin of the Office of Women with Status (sic) or the Australian Human Rights Commission are creatures of the "right-wing oligarchy who rules the cultural narrative" are you?

<The most critical element unfolding is a move to rationalise the three state broadcasters supported by Australian taxpayers: the ABC, SBS and National Indigenous Television, at a combined current cost of $1.5 billion a year.

...The ABC, SBS and NITV could be merged into a single public broadcaster with a multichannel structure that exploits the rapid convergence of media technology.

A consolidation of the networks into one multichannel broadcaster would produce both cost savings and raise revenue via the sale of valuable broadcast spectrum freed up by the restructuring.
...
It is crucial to look past the irrational hysteria about political revenge and ideological warfare in any restructuring of the ABC and SBS. The government of the day has no control over the content of the ABC and there are no plans to dilute this valued independence.

The proposed efficiency analysis was instigated by Turnbull, not cabinet. It will examine the operational, governance, structural, financial and cultural issues within the three public broadcasters.

The context for cutting the cost of public broadcasting is the May budget, in which every agency of government will have to take a cut. Australia has just seen a $1 trillion explosion in government spending over the past six years, going from a budget surplus of $20 billion, and zero federal debt, to a budget deficit of about $50 billion and $667 billion in federal debt.>

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/abc-and-sbs-merger-simply-makes-budgetary-sense-20140202-31uwl.html#ixzz2sNfeIdL5

I enjoy many of the programs on the ABC,
Suseonline,
So do many of us. That's not what we're on about though is it ? We're talking about the politically & gender bias in the broadcaster which is funded by the taxpayer but is not representing the hand that feeds it.
Their incessant promos are making people even more stupid & insensitive. They're doing immeasurable harm to the psyche of Australians. Some Commercial stations are even worse.
You're just so far gone that you don't notice it anymore & that's the gist of it. Dumbing people down until they can't tell the difference anymore. Your certificate is in the mail.

Suse doesn't take the ABC seriously but the Indonesians do and so do all the ratbag groups like GetUp which have carte blanche to do what they like and get favourable coverage by the ABC.

I personally think it is shame the ABC has degenerated to an inner city elite cum nuthouse with all sorts of fringe perspectives given a run.

It is not part of the ABC charter to dredge up neglected and oppressed minorities like the boat people and run concerted campaigns to denigrate the elected government's policies on this and other issues.

But this is what the ABC does; it's progressivism is simply reduced to a reaction that if the conservatives and drab mainstream Australia doesn't like it or is unaware of it then it will support it.

This sort of reactionary in your face approach is both puerile and a dreadful waste of money.

I would think at the very least after the debacle about the lies of the Navy torturing the boat people that the top echelons of the ABC, from Scott down should resign. The ABC's coverage and indeed promotion of this lie and the eavesdropping scandal before has been pernicious, deliberate and a gross betrayal of both Australia's interests and any standard of reputable news broadcasting the ABC ever had.

Individual, if you think I am 'too far gone', then I take that as a compliment.

Cohenite, all the fallout from the burnt hands saga was reported on all TV stations, and I doubt anyone cares who reported it first.

The fact remains that while I'm sure no one believes our Navy personnel would torture asylum seekers, the silly 'cloak and dagger secrets' method of this Government reporting on the asylum seeker boats leaves us all in the dark on all these matters.

Suse, if "no one believes our Navy personnel would torture asylum seekers", why would those at the ABC believe it?

If they don't believe it, why would they publish it?

We all know the answer is that those silly little lefty girls that infest the ABC today would do anything to try to hurt Abbott. Truth doesn't come into it. They are stupid enough not to realise their over the top garbage simply damages their cause, & any real Australian gets upset when their idiocy damages the countries interests.

There is no excuse for this trash, & the sooner we trash them the better.