We should definitely sell the ABC, I need more relativity TV, I love commercials, I love TT and ACA, there so meaningful, and the "new inventors" who do they think they are promoting Australian inventions "especially environmental ones" I mean "common" the whole deforestation, global warming, animal extinction thing is all a load of crap.
Now i did love that children over board story, and I especially love the "Interest rates will not rise" then there was that fantastic report on Uranium by the un-bias guy Ziggy/Nuclear Physicist I've never voted labor in 21 years but I'm swinging now. must be the ABC!

We should definitely sell the ABC, I need more relativity TV, I love commercials, I love TT and ACA, there so meaningful, and the "new inventors" who do they think they are promoting Australian inventions "especially environmental ones" I mean "common" the whole deforestation, global warming, animal extinction thing is all a load of crap.
Now i did love that children over board story, and I especially love the "Interest rates will not rise" then there was that fantastic report on Uranium/Nuclear by the un-bias guy Ziggy the Nuclear Physicist. I've never voted labor in 21 years but I'm swinging now. must be the ABC!

This topic has become tiresome.

The Howard Government has had eleven years (three with a majority in both Houses) to get rid of the ABC and have lacked either the wit or the guts to do it.

IMHO they should stop complaining and cop what they get.

I watch 2-3 hours of tellie on most evenings. I scan the range of offerings, and about 90% of the time I end up with the ABC. Thank goodness there is a channel that is not aiming for the most profitable demographics. But, then, I am in my 70's, graduated, and a self funded retiree, and so I should be spending my money on pay-TV.
Bias is mostly in the eye of the viewer.
I watched Bastard Boys and was sure that it was polemic against the dockworkers unions. I thought Corrigan came out pretty well. If anything can save the Howard government at the coming election it will be the fears that Bastard Boys can engender. The ABC have sown a seed there that can squelch the Left.
There is a curious anomaly here somewhere. In my dotage I am tending to the Right, but I value the Leftish TV channel?

So Ms MacMahon is young, well heeled, a professional debater, and a member of the Liberal party. What a surprise - one would never have guessed. I am elderly, educated, not rich although retired - in fact an ageing 'lefty' and typical (it seems) ABC viewer whose entertainment is paid for out of the public purse via ABC funding - an entertainment smorgasbord built around the exposition of left- biased political opinion. What a load of rubbish! I have rarely come across a more callow, childishly naive, and poorly researched load of tripe. Apart from anything else, the ABC output via TV, radio, and hands on social activity covers a wide and far ranging social spectrum, of which political commentary (regardless of left/right persuasion) forms a very small proportion. A national broadcaster free of commercial pressures (apart from the entertainment value alone) is almost unique in the world, and a valuable - indeed critical - adjunct to a free society. Ms MacMahon, have you ever watched commercial TV?
One's heart goes out to those unfortunates who will in time have this gormless ninny as their political representative and champion.

Privatise the ABC? - over my dead body!

Aime wrote:

"Anyway Felicity, you can't call ABC biased since the Insiders consistently invite Piers Ackerman into it's discussion format."

Yes, Aime. Maybe why that's why Felicity specifically singled out "Insiders" as an exception in her fifth paragraph? Maybe you should read what you are criticising?

As for the article itself... well, I think it is fairly clear to anyone who pays attention that the type of people who end up working for a public broadcaster, like in any other part of the public service, are more inclined to vote Lab than Lib. The exodus of ABC staffers into Labor preselection is hardly an advertisement for a wholly impartial staff, is it? I think those of you who say it is merely standard anti-govt. robust journalism, and that the reverse will be the case if (when??) Rudd takes power, are being more than a little disingenuous.

Having said that, I would never like to see the ABC privatised. I watch it knowing the likely leanings of the journos and take what I see with an appropriately sized grain of salt.