It seems to me that the defenders of the ABC completely forget (or purposely ignore) that the ABC is publically funded. The ABC is supposed to present a balanced perspective and they don't! Anyone can see the ABC is very anti-government and generally supports every left-wing cause the UN can imagine.

I watch a lot of shows on SBS and sometimes watch The Feed which puts an interesting young perspective on the news. It doesn't bother me that The Feed is left of centre, I expect it to be. But week after week Q & A under the guise of a fair and balanced forum reveals itself to be anything but fair and balanced.

As an aside, I happened to watch The Feed's fourth year anniversary a few weeks ago. The show opened with the regular presenters pretending to be in a meeting to discuss how to celebrate. One of them says "the Government has given us $XX,000 dollars to wank ourselves, so let's have a party." Then the show officially opened with a panel and the main presenter said "welcome to our circle jerk". I'm no prude and I wasn't offended by the comments but it did make me wonder how grateful these people are about having their jobs and how loud they would scream if their funding got pulled.

Like Monis Mallah deserves eventual special treatments.

Here we go again, analysing the replies of the ABC apologists.

Ponde claims it is all about free speech. No, the issue here is whether a taxpayer funded media organisation will ever live up to it's founding charter to be fair and impartial.

Craig Minns tries the old premise that the ABC is a counterweight to the commercial press, which he claims is right wing views on commercial media. It may be a counterweight to right wing views, Minns, but that is not it's charter. It's job is to be impartial.

Ozbib, Rhosty and James O'Neill chose to completely destroy their own credibility by claiming that ABC is not left wing. You boys should apply for the job as the new Iraqi Information Minister. Come on, boys. You can do better than that. When you say something that everybody else knows is self evidently wrong, all you do is make people think that you are loonies.

Steve 101 tries the "independent media" ploy. The ABC can be independent, Steve, but they still have to abide by the founding charter, or their reason to exist comes into question. That charter is to be fair and impartial.

Cobber the Hound completely ignored the issue under discussion and just mouthed off at Tony Abbott.

It is really amusing to see our resident finger waggers and moralisers running for cover over an issue in whch they know that they are completely morally wrong. You lot know that the ABC is the propaganda arm of the Labor Party and the Greens. You know that they are ignoring their founding charter to be impartial. But you desperately want to save "your" ABC from doing what it was originally set up to do.

For as long as the ABC remains a hotbed of fringe group opinions, you feel that your perverted and bizarre views have some basis in mainstream reality. The last thing that you want is for the ABC to be impartial and to have your favourite causes held up to the light of intelligent examination

Sadly, it appears that some of the commentators here failed to pay attention in reading class.

"Australian journalism in general is a domain of so-called "progressive" politics by virtue of the self-selection into journalism of young people, mostly women, who want to "change the world" and then rapidly become exposed to the idea that it is possible to "frame debates" to do just that. Then they discover the political parties are now among the largest employers of journalistic talent and they learn that what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

This whole discussion is a storm in a teacup. Anybody who reads the news can spot a mile off that the majority of so-called "reportage" around politics is press-releases, leaks or editorialising.

The problem for our politicians and the reason they dislike the ABC so much (on both sides, let's not forget the fraught relationship of Rudd and Gillard with the national broadcaster) is that it is very difficult to make it cooperate with threats or bribes, unlike our commercial press which depends on the revenue from advertising that political alignment can help to ensure keeps flowing in."

The bit in quotes is mine, from an earlier post, if that helps the people who can read.

Meanwhile you will seldom, if ever, hear anything about the organizations and their work that are listed or featured on these two references on either the ABC. And, even more so, the commercial media, especially that which is aligned to and promotes the Murdoch/IPA/Quadrant nexus
http://www.a-institute.org/resources.htm
http://www.dabase.org/GCF.htm
Or about the active work done by millions of people inspired by the book introduced here:
http://www.blessedunrest.com

Cobber the Hound,

Didn't take you long to bark about Abbott, and call me a 'mindless fool'. Your obsession with Abbott is pathetic; you really let him get to you. You can call me a mindless fool if you wish; at least I have more self-respect than to call myself a dog.

Dumb mutt that you are, you think I don't know that the dumb ABC has a token conservative it stupidily thinks makes it even, Big deal! Lets' s not mention the audience loaded with lefty nutters like you, and Tony (Stalin) Jones who takes every chance he gets to interrupt the lone conservative. It's a long time since I watched the muck, but I can't help but hear, regularly, that nothing has changed, and little puppies like you are still wetting themselves with delight over the embarrassing ignorance displayed.