Both AC and Foxy are right on this. Like many before him the ABC gave Tony Armstrong his big break into television. He started off doing "Sports" then was on the ABC Morning Show, where he acquitted himself well. Interesting how the ABC can report on itself, even negative stories, wont get that from the commercial media.

The regular band of far right ABC haters, they hate the independence and impartiality of the publicly owned broadcaster. Give them power and the ABC would become nothing more than a mouthpiece for their extreme propaganda.

Looks like a new political party starting up ! I predict, it'll be plagued with the standard incompetence so peculiar to Uni indoctrination academic logic !

Quite the dilemma. An aboriginal criticised by the ABC.

Which to support? The Australian Pravda or the member of the 'first nations'.

Paul made his choice... ABC uber alles. Aboriginals run a distant second to the need to believe everything the ABC spouts.

mhaze,

<<Armstrong was one of the few genuine, sincere voices on the ABC.>>

Yes, he's a great guy and really nice in terms of television, but that's not what this issue is about. Nor should race be brought into the debate.

I want standards upheld at the ABC and don't want people taking deals, payments or money on the sidelines whilst they are working there.

We now know of Annabel Crabb speaking at various events where she has been paid and you can't maintain your independence whilst taking money from other businesses and organisations and work at the ABC at the same time.

Don't forget the "cash for comment" scandal involving people like Alan Jones and John Laws for example. Paid money to make positive comments about certain businesses and they told no one about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_for_comment_affair

I think the only reason you're supporting Tony here is because he's gone against some basic principles at the ABC and shook the system up a bit. I'm not opposed to people shaking up the system or going against the status quo, but we still need standards at the ABC and I think they're being lazy not taking this matter more seriously.

Look I think it's only some read overs for an ad here at the end of the day, but couldn't the NRMA find someone else to do that if that's all it really is and I take the view that it is. I don't think you need Tony Armstrong to do that at all. I think mhaze, Foxy or ttbn would all be fine for that type of job.

NathanJ,

The ABC agreed he wasn't in breach of any rules or contractual obligations. They just thought what he did was unsavoury, perhaps unprofessional.

But it doesn't rise to the level of corruption where he was taking money from people who might influence his reporting. If he was being paid by some footy team while commenting on footy that's be a totally different thing. He wasn't.

The point here is that he was protected by his ethnicity UNTIL he decided to leave the ABC, whereupon they turned on him with alacrity and all the venom a slighted left can muster.

The biggest joke about the ABC is that - gasp - it is riddled with racism. The accusation, surprisingly of course, came from non-white, underprivileged NEPs who were hired as tokens of how lovely the boys and girls at the ABC are.

The short piece on the matter died without a trace.