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The Forum > Article Comments > The ABC in deepest, darkest doo-doo land > Comments

The ABC in deepest, darkest doo-doo land : Comments

By Don Aitkin, published 30/6/2015

The more I look at what the ABC actually does, in the domain of news and cultural affairs, I come back to the view that the staff must see their role as to preserve what they see as the correct perspective on Australia and life generally.

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Cobber the Hound,

If you were not so busy blowing your own trumpet you would have noticed that I don't think much of Tony Abbott either. In fact, I have clearly stated that he has lost my vote for the the coalition, which means no vote for me at all at the next election.

You say that you are a miner and a farmer, so who do I think you would vote for. Well, I don't know. I had a father who was a businessman and a Rotarian who was as bigoted a Labor voter and branch member as any of them. He put me right off Labor, and I didn't get over the dictatorial old bugger until I was about 70 years old, and he had been long dead.

As for 'balanced' ABC presenters, I can tolerate Leigh Sales. Not because she is unbiased, but because she can take as good as she gives, to reverse the phrase. I do NOT watch Q&A. Haven't done for a long time. It should be scrapped. I don't hate the ABC. I watch many of its documentaries. It is unsurpassed for local and British drama, and it is ad-free. I am happy to pay my whack towards it for those things. But, the ABC is unashamedly biased politically, and it should be brought to heel for that.
Posted by ttbn, Wednesday, 1 July 2015 12:40:38 PM
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To Aiden.

1. I know that you are a card carrying social regressive because you are still advocating the preposterous idea that the ABC is not biased. Only a True Believer lefty could say that with a straight face and expect that anybody would believe him. Most trendies know that to say such a thing is ridiculous and they have moved on to the only slightly more credible excuse that the left wing ABC balances out the right wing commercial media.

2. Because you have been conditioned to believe that mainstream thinking is always wrong and that elitist thinking is always right. So if the proles think that you are stupid, you don't care.

3. What defines the elites is not monetary wealth, it is attitudes, education, and usually a position in the public service. The primary belief of the socially regressive brahmin caste, is that they are intellectually superior to the proles, and morally superior to the business class. As superior people on a mission to Save The World, they truly believe that they know how to solve all of the world's problems. All they need do, is just oppose everything that the proles and the bourgeoisie support.

4. Because I know the attitudes of my own white proletarian demographic group. Nationalism is still held in esteem in my class. In yours, it is a dirty word.

5. The philosophy of the ABC is white people are always wrong, minorities are always right, any means of making money is evil, the world is coming to an end because of capitalism, poor foreigners have an absolute right to barge into Australia because ordinary Australians are just happy and greedy consumers, Australia's friends, like Israel and the USA are to be despised, while terrorists like David Hicks, Mamdouth Habb, and Zacky Mallah should be portrayed as innocent victims of western injustice.

6. "The Australian" newspaper is right wing. . But unlike the ABC, it is not funded by the taxpayer and it has no obligation to be objective and impartial. But it is creditably objective and impartial on contentious issues
Posted by LEGO, Wednesday, 1 July 2015 5:11:26 PM
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To LEGO,

1. You don't know me at all. It is only your rightwing bias that makes the ABC look biased, not any objective assessment. And even if you think I'm from the Loony Left, what issue do you think that would make me regressive on?

2. I do not think that mainstream thinking is always wrong. My opposition to it, on the issues where I oppose it, is partly due to my Christianity, so I suppose at a stretch it might be reasonable for you to label it "conditioning" even though a more thorough analysis would show you it wasn't. But there's another reason I often oppose mainstream thinking: I am aware of the false assumptions that many mainstream arguments are based on.

I don't know where you got the idea that I consider elitist thinking always right. I don't agree with elites (by your definition) any more than with the general population, and elitists even less.

3. Though I do have a degree, I don't think intellectual superiority is class based, and I'm sure moral superiority isn't. Likewise, I do have the answers to many of Australia's (and the world's) problems, but it's certainly not based on doing the opposite of what any group or groups support. Indeed I'm not aware of any correlation, positive or negative, with what any social class support, though there's frequently a negative correlation with what the political Right support.

4. It's not nationalism I oppose; it's some of the things that people try to use nationalism to justify.

(TBC)
Posted by Aidan, Thursday, 2 July 2015 11:01:12 AM
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5. If that were the philosophy of the ABC, the ABC would indeed be biased. The fact that this does not describe the ABC at all suggests you haven't watched or listened to it much, and have based your impressions of bias on the views of the Liberal Party and the Murdoch Press.

Most of the people on the ABC are white, and they are neither portrayed as nor claim to be always wrong.
Minorities aren't regarded or portrayed as always right. However the ABC does try to ensure that minority opinions are heard. As it should.
I don't recall ever seeing or hearing anyone on the ABC claiming that any means of making money is evil – not even on LNL. It's certainly not the dominant philosophy.
I have occasionally heard people on the ABC espouse the view that "the world is coming to an end because of capitalism", but again, it's a minority viewpoint, very far from the dominant philosophy (which is unsurprisingly pro capitalist).
You're conflating three separate issues when you accuse them of having the philosophy that "poor foreigners have an absolute right to barge into Australia because ordinary Australians are just happy and greedy consumers". Have you any evidence the ABC does likewise?

The ABC recognises Australia's friends, like Israel and the USA should not be above criticism; it's you, not they, who interprets this as meaning they are to be despised!

The ABC should always stand up for the rule of law. You say "while terrorists like David Hicks, Mamdouth Habb, and Zacky Mallah should be portrayed as innocent victims of western injustice". But none of those three actually committed any terrorist act yet two were locked up in a military prison for years, with one having been tortured. The third was not portrayed by the ABC as an innocent victim of western injustice, though one of the panelists seemed to almost want him to become one!

6. The Australian used to be creditably objective and impartial on contentious issues, but it lost that impartiality years ago. Now it just toes the party line.
Posted by Aidan, Thursday, 2 July 2015 11:03:40 AM
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Reply to Aiden.

1. You are still claiming that the ABC is not biased. That equates to saying that the Earth is flat, and then demanding that I prove it is round. Once again, I remind you that most ABC supporters know that pretending that the ABC is not biased is utterly ridiculous. The audience would laugh at them uproariously if they had the audacity to advocate such nonsense in front of a random crowd of people. Your own supporters take the more credible position that the left wing bias on the ABC counters the right wing bias in the commercial media. Your position is so silly, it must be making your own supporters wince with embarrassment.

2. Mainstream thinking is that the ABC is hopelessly biased, and true to farm, as a social regressive, you say it is not because you reflexively oppose self evident mainstream thinking. Your ability to think that black is somehow white, because your peer group told you so, marks you indelibly as a social regressive. Such people have generally uniform opinions on a range of issues, especially on the "three 'R's". (Republic, Reconciliation, Refugees). They reflexively oppose whatever the proles, the bourgeoisie, and the patricians support. Amusingly, they even adopt fashions, music, opinions, and art forms guaranteed to get up the noses of the general public, and which mark them as a class apart from the herd.

3. Thank you for ticking the box and admitting you have degree. London to a brick it is in the Artz or Humanities where your muddled and inbred thinking is inculcated into you within the cloistered walls of academia. When was the last time you ever supported a cause that would be supported by the white Bogans who live in the west of Sydney? And thank you for ticking the box that you are of the opinion that you know how to solve all the world's problems.

Continued
Posted by LEGO, Thursday, 2 July 2015 5:28:57 PM
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Continued

4. It is permissible for a social regressive to say, cheer on an Australian sporting team. But anything that puts the interests of foreigners above Australians is automatically seized upon by your peer group as a cause worthy of embracing. This is so people like yourself can strut and preen yourselves as being morally superior to your own people, and an identifiably different class.

5. I don't watch TV, but I read the ABC news every morning, and I watch the trailers to Q&A and Four Corners on Youtube. They absolutely infuriate me with their constant and childish niggling at everything that Tony Abbot does. Please name one instance where the ABC has ever congratulated Tony Abbot on anything? Most Australians want boat people stopped. The ABC supports boat people because they are non white, it dilutes the white race which the ABC despises, and they know most white Australians hate multiculturalism. The ABC also loves boat people because they make great ALP voters. They go straight on the dole and most of them stay there forever, while they create an abundance of jobs for social workers, social security personnel, police, prison warders, and lawyers.

Once again, I reiterate that "The Australian" newspaper is infinitely more impartial than the ABC. If the ABC ever presented a discussion about the environment with a panel composed of a sporting shooter, a mining executive, a forest worker, a commercial fisherman, and the Australian head of Greenpeace, I might give your position that the ABC is unbiased some credibility. But you and I both know that that will never happen.
Posted by LEGO, Thursday, 2 July 2015 5:29:27 PM
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