A timely article. Thank you Jill Greenwell.

One by one our great public icons - Commonwealth Bank, CSL, QANTAS, Telstra, etc; and our public infrastructure - urban transport, airports, wharfs, and basic utilities have been sold out to commercial interests and the public interest has been sacrificed on the altar of private profit. The Reserve Bank itemised some of these sell-outs up to 1997 - it's a staggering list:
http://www.rba.gov.au/PublicationsAndResearch/Bulletin/bu_dec97/bu_1297_2.pdf

Advertising on the ABC is a more suble but no less effective means of destroying the last vestige of independence in Australian media. We need to resist to the death the Howard Government's triple-barreled strategy of -
* starving the ABC of funding,
* stacking the Board and management with compliant Liberal stooges and
* maintaining a phoney but incessant propaganda war about political bias.

This strategy will work in the fullness of time unless the public says loud and often, "Enough!" The signs of senescence are there already in the censorship of Jonestown and the timid self-censorship by ABC news and current affairs in recent years. Advertising on the ABC would eventually render the ABC a replica of the commercials and lead to an inevitable sell-out on the grounds that governments are not in the business of making money in competition with private enterprise.

Enough already Mr Howard!

I agree - ENOUGH ALREADY MR HOWARD! FROM MY MOUTH TO GOD'S EARS - LEAVE THE ABC ALONE! Haven't you done enough damage elsewhere with your invidious commercialization of everything? I swear, if you thought there was money to be made from two flies, you would exploit them!
For many the ABC is still the only sensible alternative. And even that has been compromised by some of your appointments to the Board.
The example raised, that of the SBS, is a good one. Once upon a time (remember when?) it could be watched without fear that advertisers were influencing content - one can no longer be certain. Please, leave the ABC radio and television alone!

yes, jill greenwell - a good and timely article. the rot has set in with a vengeance. two examples -

(a) a commercial channel last week played 'political bloopers' from 20 to 1 (host bert newton) ending with ten or so instances from george w. bush - with every comment lamenting his stupidity and fears for 'the free world' under his 'leadership'. can we now imagine the abc being sufficiently brave to display bush in such a light? hardly - for fear of negative repercussions from 'our' 'leader'.

(b) sunday 'political' programme hosted by barry cassidy) with three commentators - not the most recent sunday (i missed it) but that before - each of the commentators was conservative, expressing identical or almost identical views, unrelated to what people 'out here' think and focused narrowly.

there are so few thinkers on the abc now who have a critical perspecive on the present federal government - kerry o'brien of 7.30 report is one of the few.

it is partly fear that has 'got' to them - yet it is also lack of any comprehension that conservative politics have invaded the abc and either the commentators are fundamentally conservative or do not realise that they are expressing conservative views from a fundamentally conservative position.

even *bastard boys* was less about the politics of the waterfront dispute than about what was going on at the kitchen sink. yes, good that the 'family relations' aspects were covered (although to a prurient degree in some respects) but if one did a scene by scene breakdown/analysis i'll bet the scenes of 'what's happening on the homefront' exceed those of what happened on the waterfront. yet another example of the depoliticisation of the abc.

bring back courageous journalists, investigative journalism and our abc.

I wonder if the minorities who support the ABC ideology so strongly are worried that play school might show a mum and a dad taking children to the zoo instead of 2 mums or that instead of Richard Dawkins getting to spew his secular fundamentalist garbage it might be replaced by something a little more balanced. I wonder if the friends of the abc are concerned that we might have a little balanced political reporting rather than Phillip Adams with his worn out group of foggies. The ABC might not be sponsored but it certainly appears to be a sponsor to anyone pushing secular fundamentalist views on environment and social policies. At the moment there is little balance and any shift towards balance is resisted by the left whenever any of their secular cows are challenged!

runner: you speak of dawkin's views as 'secular garbage' yet in the same paragraph you speak of balance?

On the ABC this week, there is songs of praise, as well as a documentary on mother teresa. I don't see anything on Mr Dawkins.

As far as I can tell, your idea of 'balance' is simply to remove things you disagree with, such as Mr Dawkins.

This concept of balance alarms me, because its quite clear you don't appear to have much grasp on the idea - and powerful people seem to think along similar lines.

Balance isn't code for removing things you disagree with.

Now it's religious bias on the ABC, Runner? Let's see, that would have been last night’s “Compass” program in which Scientist Richard Dawkins explored the issue of blind faith? Did you get that mad Islamic extremist who used to be a good American Jewish boy? What an affront! The ABC should be reprimanded for showing such views.

I agree with you - this whole program show up the bias of the ABC. Look at all the other programs on “Compass” since April Fools’ Day.

May 13: Ron McCallum a committed Christian, told about his faith.

May 6: Four homeless men and Mission Australia.

April 29: American Christians on the environment.

April 22, 15 and 8: a series of three programs in which Professor Robert Winston presented the history of mankind's quest to understand the nature of God across faiths.

April 6 (Good Friday): The restoration of religious paintings stolen from a WA monastery.

April1: A profile of Liberal MP Andrew Robb a committed Catholic.

Bias? Sure. Far too many left-wing secularists on the evidence you’ve drawn attention to. And it’s been going on for years. I can’t but help to agree with you Runner: “At the moment there is little balance and any shift towards balance is resisted by the left whenever any of their secular cows are challenged!”

You nailed it Runner. You’re a genius. And so balanced.