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.

jocelynne, may I say that I'm impressed by your staying power. How on earth did you sit through 'Political Bloopers 20-1'? I like the way such shows are advertised as entertainment. I think aperient is the correct word to describe such shows.

Nationhood as a "whole" Aussie Tribe is at ODDS with itself.

It appears we are trying to loose the values of "life-quality" to everything commercial.

Where do we have something that we the public can call OUR OWN, that is SAFE?

It is governments who need to address the value of our nations "social" capital.

The ABC supports the business of PEOPLE. Populations doing public thing of diverse community interest.

Like many in the BUSH - it is important for us to hear and engage with a media that is not blackmailed by the pressures of ADDS and self-interest of DEALS as a reward for SPONSORSHIP.

I say larger Business groups need to take a look at this issue.

Our National Community needs your support.

I ask you you to consider sponsoring projects that have GOOD COMMUNITY value. Back this value with some COMMUNITY BASED CAPITAL - or we will all be on BURN-OUT before too long.

ABC is a Civic Health - Trust and National Wellbeing (two-way) Communication Service, as well as a public broadcast for ALL Australians.

I believe the ABC has improved not gone L or R winged. If only our other institutions could make this kind of effort.

http://www.miacat.com/
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I think that many posters here must be in a different galaxy to me. I have largely given up on the ABC, as there is too much advertising (for the ABC shop, future programs, good causes, etc.), and far too much sport. We used to watch the ABC news while eating dinner, and would mute the sound as soon as the sport came on. It was interesting that the news would lead seamlessly into the sport, and fast action was needed to cut it off within several words. In the end it all became to difficult, so we stopped watching.

I have also grown tired of the ABC culture, where the organisation ALWAYS only has one view on any subject. (When did they last have a speaker pointing the advantages (if any) of capital punishment?).

Much the same applies to the Australian media as a whole, which I gave up on decades ago, and which has a consistent herd view on all subjects. I have fled to the internet, for the following advantages:

1. There are ads, but they are much easier to avoid.
2. I can choose the items I wish to see, instead of some invisible program director deciding for me.
3. I can get a much wider range of views on an issue, subject, as always to prejudice, but different prejudice, enabling me to make up my own mind.
4. I learn about a lot of news that is never mentioned on the Australian media.
5. I don't have to pay.

I gather that the home grown media is in crisis, with the third round of redundancies at the SMH in three years. I am not surprised.

As a result, my only concern about the ABC is how to minimise its effect on the Federal budget, and so I think that full-blown advertising would be great.

I'm afraid the ABC doesn't inspire me at the moment. Most programs attack Christians, support minority groups and non-Christian religions and generally reflect an anti-Howard, anti-Bush agenda. Often news is presented as opinion, not as fact.

I don't think full commercialisation is the answer, but it would surely give the ABC a good shake-up. Ads are one thing, structural change is another. Completely revamping the ABC's programming on radio and TV would bring about some change if it were done effectively. We need conservative voices on the ABC because at the moment there's a grave lack of them - bring on Windschuttle, Pearson, Flint etc to balance up the Satchell's, Adams etc.

You mean by your first paragraph that they confront christians with uncomfortable truths and give minority groups a limited voice. Terrible state of affairs!

Its not that they confront Christians with uncomfortable truths but they show their ignorance by continueing to push the fundamentalist humanist views which is just old worn out dogma rehashed. If Dawkins, Spong and Adams are the best the ABC can come up with I don't think many Christians are going to be seriously challenged!

That must be the LLL you are talking about. The lefty labor ladyies channel. What a waste of tax payer money.

How damn silly they were, to destroy their publicly funded, party network. With a little subtlety they could have decieved a lot of swing voters. However, in their rush, they got left of Khrushchev, & drove all but the rusted on faithful away.

It is fun though, to tune in sometimes, & listen to them piddling in each others pocket. Im sure I can sometimes hear, in the background, the sound of overflowing liquid

it's not your abc, it's the government's. australia isn't yours, either.

english has a weakness. unlike latin, in english possessive and relative cases are the same. so a sheep can say:"this is my paddock", and the grazier can say:"this is my paddock", both be right yet mean something different.

australia, and the abc, are yours in the same way in the same way as the sheep and her paddock. parliament is the grazier. they own it, you just live there.

I was pleased to see Piers Akerman confirming what everyone knows about the ABC this morning. I can't understand why so many like Frankgol are in denial. He rightly says

'The ABC has provided a launching pad for the careers of such ALP stalwarts as WA Premier Alan Carpenter, NT Chief Minister Claire Martin, former NSW Premier Bob Carr, former Victorian Minister Mary Delahunty, and the ALP has returned the favour in spades, giving succour to senior former ALP staffers as George Negus, Kerry O’Brien, Greg Turnbull and Mark Bannerman among others.
The list of ABC journalists joining the Liberal Party is somewhat shorter. Former NSW Opposition leader Peter Collins and current federal candidate Pru Goward can claim to have emerged from the ABC, but have not achieved anything like the success of their former colleagues.'

I didn't see what Piers (Rupert's Dancing Bear) Ackerman said but I'm sure it was typically balanced and completely unbiased.

I always suspected that the ABC TV Weather reports had a left-wing feel about them as well.

Runner

So you think I’m in denial and and Piers Ackerman (a regular on ABC ‘Insiders’) can name eight ABC staffers with ALP connections?

“The list of ABC journalists joining the Liberal Party,” he says, “is somewhat shorter.” He names just Peter Collins and Pru Goward. (And describes Pru as a current federal candidate when in fact she’s a NSW Liberal MP.)

Runner, you know from another post my list of ABC staffers or ex-staffers with Coalition political affiliations is longer than eight. In case you didn’t read it (or are in denial) here it is again:

Gary Hardgrave, Peter Collins, Peter McArthur, Bruce Webster, Jim Bonner, Pru Goward, Cathy Job, Vicki Thompson, Ian Cover, Rob Messenger, Grant Woodhams, Ken Cooke, Chris Nicholls, Eoin Cameron, Cameron Thompson and Chris Wordsworth. How come Piers wants to hide 14 of these? In denial? Ill-informed?

Then the ABC Board is also stacked with Howard functionaries:

Mark Scott (2006) - Managing Director. Previously senior political adviser to former NSW Liberal Education Minister Metherell, and editor-in-chief at Fairfax.

Maurice Newman (2007) - Chair of the ABC and concurrently Chairman of the Australian Securities Exchange - forty years in stockbroking and investment banking. A close personal friend of John Howard.

Dr Ron Brunton (2003) Senior Fellow at right wing think tank IPA 1995 - 2001, and writer for conservative political journal Quadrant. A Howard cultural warrior.

Janet Albrechtsen (2005) - a former solicitor, now conservative newspaper columnist with The Australian. Another Howard cultural warrior.

Steven Skala (2005) – big businessman, director of neo-liberal/conservative think tank, the Centre for Independent Studies.

Peter Hurley (2006) - the President of the SA branch of the Australian Hotels Association. Fundraiser for the Liberal Party.

Keith Windschuttle (2006) Historian, Howard cultural warrior and school mate from Canterbury Boys High School.

John Gallagher (1999, reappointed 2005) Barrister in civil and criminal law. The only person on the ABC board not publicly known to be aligned to the Liberal Party.

As to the ALP list being more successful than the other mob, maybe that’s something to do with higher intelligence and better performance?

“The company advertis[ing] wants to reach as large an audience as possible…” This is quite true but Jill has got the cart before the horse. She obviously knows little about media advertising, because when an outlet is selling time what it doesn’t do is sell thirty minutes for (say) $80,000 and then happen to tell the buyer what show he has bought into. Buyers buy the right to advertise in specific shows, and then pay, after bidding, a fee relevant to the expectant ratings of that show. They just have no leverage to demand anything. If they try to, the broadcaster just tells them to get stuffed and goes back to the next highest bidder. OK, if it modified its shows to show more tits, bums and car chases it might boost the ratings and thus advertising dollars, but why would that bother a non profit organisation anyway?

I am always amused by the lengths the defenders of the ABC go to to claim it is not biased. Apart form the fact that ABC news always rates below the commercial outlets’ news DESPITE not showing ads, is it not enough that just so many Australians who are financial supporters, complain about it? The concept of bias is taken very seriously in law and in that area a judge can be removed from a trial or hearing, not just on proof of bias but merely on the appearance of it.
The very simple solution is to sell off all the government outlets and fully deregulate the media, such that all existing ‘friends of elitist and socialist’ programming could buy shares in and operate their own boutique media outlet. If it only costs 12 cents a day divided by that proportion of the public who watch the ABC then it can’t ultimately be that expensive, especially when you add advertising revenue, small as it would be.

There’s one reason the ‘friends’ will never go for this. Why vote for a system where you have to pay your own way when you can still bludge off others?

Edward Carson, I agree with your sentiments when you say you are “always amused by the lengths the defenders of the ABC go to claim it is not biased”. Edward, I know how you feel; but, unlike you, I am not amused. These ABC-lovers go to such lengths, even so far as to quote facts, poor demented people.

Everyone knows what we ABC-phobes know without the need to go looking for facts. Facts…crikey, what’s next! Is there no end to their treachery? Australia has too much of this sort of fact thing. It’s totally un-Australian, if you ask me, Edward old chap.

I overheard one of these left-wingers say just now that the 7 pm ABC News had 1.078 million viewers last night. You see how dangerous these facts can be? Let’s get rid of the ABC News before that commy weather reader gets any more traction. You’ll notice how his weather always come from the left of screen? Never any balance. It wouldn’t hurt anyone if we had some weather from the right every now and then, would it now - that's a fact?

As you say, Edward, it’s not just a matter of proof of bias - but the very appearance of bias that matters. And we know bias when we see the appearance of it. Pass me the Telegraph, there’s a good chappie, I'm dying to see what Piers has dreamed up today. Sound chap, Piers.

Tired of the apathy.

Why is it in our "Fair-Go" Aussie mentality we always make HUMANITY itself sound like it needs defending or the under-dog or like a complete looser.

My opinion on Liberalism in Australia is that it has lost the "liberal" part that we as citizens in all centries previous argued and fought for.

Today - we are a country where the minority is LIBERAL and the LIBERAL vote is part of the Federal National Party, a party I believe is now disempowered because Liberal and National party objectives are spades a part. The National Party today has more to do with the Greens than the capital "L" in Liberal, when it comes to the real protection of National resources.

I don't think it is a coincidence that some media people are joining politics.

Why?

'Politics of Everyday Life' has to be a real part of what we 'vote to accept' and therefore adopt.

Politics is not hard if you aim it at people.

Where our local politics is wanning is - it has created a tower above its own office of the people (unfortunately). One ensuring a practice of 'alienation' through party practices that "clone" and protects itself from being "political" as meaning something to people in their own realities ie: Common Songs of the Street... "don't talk to me about politics... I don't wanna know!"

I believe this is the saddest thing occurring to modern day Australia and to the future of Australians.

Power if you mean to have it in a democracy must allow its dissemination to occur from where ever it is sought.

Most journalists know this... as media like the government must reflect the ways of a civic audience... a social mob made up of many diverse forms of governance and potential self governance.

Those of us concerned about "forms of talk" and our free speech dwindling, Social Cultures and or the degree of Opressions current (A politics out of touch with itself) are forced to "come out" and learn to try and promote a need for more BALANCE.

http://www.miacat.com/
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