Klaas Woldring is the Central Coast Convenor of the Friends of the ABC.
So we know whose side he is on!
Klaas argues along the lines of his comrades and makes sounds just like John Faine, then buggers his argument in the last paragraph when he says, “The ABC is not only a balanced and informed news provider……… In many ways it IS the balance in Australian society. “
Since when was it the job of the ABC to make right the perceived balance in Australian society?
Klaas, we all contribute to the funding of the ABC through our taxes. Both your and my side of politics should be equally represented. The left has hi-jacked the ABC to redress what they perceive to be bias in the commercial news sector, but where is their authority to act in this way?
Rupert Murdoch puts his money where his mouth is and states his beliefs in HIS newspaper, and people like me pay him a subscription to read his paper. If Rupert calls it wrong he will suffer the financial penalty. If the left do not like what Rupert says then don’t read his papers. That is democracy and the free market in action.
I love the ABC and watch it 90% of the time but I hate the left-wing political stance taken by the news, current affairs and comedy produced locally.

Geoffrey Kelley

Of course the ABC has a business plan.

It is to throw indecently large amounts of taxpayer money at the chardonnay socialists, & radically left green/communist commentators, after all good chardonnay is expensive, then hold their hand out for more, when there is nothing left to do what they are paid to do.

It is so far past it's us by date, that it is stinking like last months forgotten prawns. What Oz needs is for the ABC to be gone, but not forgotten. We need to remember to never again allow the inmates to get control of the asylum, or anything else for that matter.

Now how do we sell off the equally corrupted government education systems.

The ABC is the our final line of defense between being an informed and aware society, and the cultural barbarism ably represented by the right-wing shock jocks in tandem with the corrupted Murdoch press.

I don't see a left or right leaning ABC, but rather, that they get endless complaints from both sides, indicates a genuine apolitical stance.
Nor are they to be held accountable, for and extreme emerging right wing, from blaming them for not being in that club.
One only needs stand still or remain in the neutral middle, to offend the latter, who are limited to a mindless chant, like sack them and sell off the real estate!?
What then?
Force those with still independent minds and an ability to think for themselves, to listen to the mindless drivel, that comes out of patently disingenuous shock jock mouths. As they or fellow travelers rubbish freedom of thought and science, rather reminiscent of the pre war book burning of the third Reich! And if the cap fits?
Extremism, thankfully, is like white supremacy, very much an oddball minority.
And there are plenty of other choices/channels, for those who just don't like Aunty, or fierce continuing independence, which by the way serves democracy and independence.
If we accept the thin edge of the wedge and wind up the ABC, what follows?
Locking away freedom of speech or completely impartial journalists, without just cause?
And because they dared to report the actual news/the actual events/the bare unedited facts, rather than the whitewashed version of the thought control police/ or dictator serving outright propaganda?
And given that is so, an absolute outrage, for the latter!
Some of the tone of some posts, make it more and more imperative, that we do have a bill of rights, first and foremost, it must include freedom of speech, even where that may even offend extremism or the thought control police!
That said, there could be a case for better management and some belt tightening/better fiscal management/eliminating genuine waste. We clearly don't need three children's channels; and or, demographic specific programming on multiple channels simultaneously.
But rather, some better sports?
Rhrosty.

Any call for the ABC to be accountable is met by accusations of 'bias' against the public-funded national broadcaster.

Maybe there should have been howls of favoritism from other government agencies when the previous Gillard/Greens government handed the ABC a freebee $90 million when other government agencies were being called upon for savings. That was when Ms Gillard stripped single mothers of their benefits.

If the Abbott government is asking for 2.25 per cent. Big deal, that is only $22.5 million.
However the ABC got a cool $90 million from Labor previously. How is that hard?

I'll tell you what is hard: it is waiting in an ambulance ramped outside a hospital emergency department because beds aren't available. Or being caught on one of those long narrow bridges on Australia's National Highway with a roadtrain coming from the opposite direction and unable to stop. What about the lack of mental health facilities Australia-wide?

Why must the ABC always be treated as a sacred cow anyhow? Much of the programs is expensive taxpayer supported redundancy with what is already available free of charge from other sources including the internet.

From Abbott's perspective is all rather simple really:

- the ABC doesn't make campaign contributions to the Liberal Party

- the ABC takes audience share (ultimately $$$) away from commercial media

- the ABC responds to intelligent, sensitive people who are probably more likely to vote Labor and/or Greens

- the ABC also didn't make deals with Abbott in early-mid 2013 to provide one-sided coverage in support of the Liberal campaign against Labor-Greens. In return Abbott must now take actions in return that promote commercial media especially Murdoch's.

- As Abbott sees little political value in supporting ABC he is putting its future at risk.

- an ABC that fears for its future is likely to shift its line subtly to supporting the Abbott Government over the next few months.