Boaz, the abc should not be a vehicle for policy launches by any political party (being add free means no liberal propaganda at public expense like the compercial channels), what do you expect them to do in a news report?, tell everyone how wonderful the one nation imigration policy is? you'd probably like that but i'd be screaming 'right wing bias'.

is it possible that they didnt give it much time because it wasnt new(s) or that the confrontation between the one nation person and the coalition minister was much more interesting?

one of the constant cries of the 'left wing bias' crowd is that the abc dosent represent all taxpayers. ok lets run with that for a bit. what was one nations percentage at the last election? oh yes 1.1% and falling. kinda generous then that they gave an afternoon and a slot on the news to an extream minority group

The ABC Television broadcasting station is as biased as the other public stations available in Australia.

Once again controlled by a small network of executives closely tied to wealthy and prominent persons.

It does not help that it is also proportionally funded by our Australian Governments of the day. ABC is affected currently by our Liberal Government.

The same corridor silence and public deception that effects our parliament, effects every Australian institution under its influence.

[Bring on Ann Coulter...]

...

From FOX News' Hannity & Colmes:

COULTER: I don't think stupid and evil don't exist in the world, but I notice that Howard Dean doesn't give any examples. This is a party that supports killing, lying, adultery, thievery, envy.

COLMES: That's ridiculous.

COULTER: And they're going to call -- I mean, the platform is violating the Ten Commandments one by one. And they're talking about evil?

...and...

COLMES: Would you like to convert these people [Muslims] all to Christianity?

COULTER: The ones that we haven't killed, yes.

COLMES: So no one should be Muslim. They should all be Christian?

COULTER: That would be a good start, yes.

...

From CNBC's Kudlow & Cramer:

"Would that it were so! ... That the American military were targeting journalists."

...

From Coulter's nationally syndicated column:

Like many of you, I carefully reviewed the lawsuits against the airlines in order to determine which airlines had engaged in the most egregious discrimination, so I could fly only that airline. But oddly, rather than bragging about the charges, the airlines heatedly denied discriminating against Middle Eastern passengers. What a wasted marketing opportunity! Imagine the great slogans the airlines could use:

"Now Frisking All Arabs -- Twice!"
"More Civil-Rights Lawsuits Brought by Arabs Than Any Other Airline!"
"The Friendly Skies -- Unless You're an Arab"
"You Are Now Free to Move About the Cabin -- Not So Fast, Mohammed!"

...

From Coulter's National Review column:

"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war."

...

On George Bush:

COLMES: Are all the American people that don't support him dumb?

COULTER: No. I think, as I indicated in my last book, they're traitors.

...

On Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh:

"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."

...

Is this the "balance" some want to see in the media?

Leigh, nicely said.

I think that the serious programs (news/current affairs) on the ABC are getting a bit more even handed.

I'm undecided about the comedy shows, where politics are touched on they appear to my biased eye's to give the right a much harsher time that the left. Ridicule is a farly potent tool for manipulating public perceptions. It's not as if there is nothing major to ridicule about the lefts leaders and key characters. That observation applies to most comedy segements on all channels. Is the right comedy impared and in need of some affirmative action or is there active discrimination against the right for hopefulls trying to break into comedy?

The City News in Brisbane does run a good written column which seems to target whatever part of the political spectrum sticks its head up on issues.

R0bert

‘Right-wingers’, Capitalists, the ‘controlling bodies’ et al understand the need to appease those who wish for a more just society. Media under the control of Government is allowed ‘reasonable’ freedom of political comment accordingly. The ABC & SBS are far from ‘left Wing’, merely doing what they should by representing a diversity of point of view within the cultural & legal boundaries of this country.
Can we have the Authors definition of an ‘anti Semite’?

Terpstra forgot to call the ABC a Soviet-style collective (he used most cliches). That's another epithet opponents of the ABC's programming like to use. I would suggest that if the ABC reporters agreed with the government of day on policy then it really would resemble Soviet-style propaganda.

The taxpayers' money argument is regularly used. Interestingly, I've heard this line used more often in regard to the ABC than SBS. But in any case, individual taxpayers don't have a choice in directing their tax dollars towards their preferred government activities and services. We all pay for things we don't necessarily like. My tax money goes towards paying Liberal, National and Families First politicians. I also fund religious based charities such as Centacare and Mission Australia. I would prefer not to. However, setting up a tax system whereby individual taxpayers nominated every government program and initiative they wanted their money directed to would be an administrative nightmare (and would require more tax money to set up).