Who employs Piers Akerman and how much does he
get paid and what's his political background
and who are his cronies? And what sort of barrow
is he pushing and for whom?

The editorial in The Saturday Age, Dec. 14, 2013,
is spot under the heading, "Serving the people,
not the powerful." It's in response to the recent
bombardments by certain entities against the ABC.

"At The Age, we believe the public is best served
by independent, fearless and truthful media, which
serve no political masters, which are prepared to
reveal what our governments are doing, and which
are free to offer opinions about that government.
To whom do we owe an obligation?
To the people of this country, not the government
of the day."

That cannot be said about Mr Akerman's reporting over
the past fifteen years. His record is well known.

cont'd ...

And speaking of records:

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3144727.htm

Behold Mr Akerman's.

<<we believe the public is best served
by independent, fearless and truthful media, which
serve no political masters>>

Yes, maybe. But the ABC is NONE of those things

Here we see the FEARLESS ABC's coverage of the Danish cartoons --it didn't publish/broadcast.
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/BaldingResp.pdf

Dear SPQR,

Actually the ABC is all of those things.
It behaved appropriately, afterall it did
report extensively on the issue. Only two
newspapers in Australia published the cartoons
and the ABC found it unnecessary as did The
Sydney Morning Herald, Channel 7 and others.
However for you to better understand th issue
perhaps this might help when Denmark did it
originally:

http://www.nordicom.gu.se/common/publ_pdf/247_bonde.pdf

Hi Foxy,

If I had no other grounds for thinking so, the mere fact that you give the ABC a glowing endorsement would provide me with strong reason to doubt its integrity. Knowing, as I do, that you had given similar endorsements to New Matilda and ("independent") Wendy Bacon in the recent past.

And, the fact that you follow it up with a link that seeks to shaft home the blame for the very bad behavior which followed the publishing of the cartoons to the artists and publishers, and Danish society --which let us not forget big heartedly gave sanctuary to many of the rioters -- only underlines how one-eyed you are.

Dear SPQR,

Me - one-eyed? Nope, the last time I looked
there were still two there.

I do like to
examine issues from various points of view,
unlike yourself, hence the link I gave which
I thought would show you the conditions that
existed in Denmark at the time to give you
possibly, a better understanding. But I should
have realised that your "objectivity" prevents
you from seeing
anything from another standpoint it clashes with
your obvious sense of fairness, tolerance, and
self-righteousness.

Just teasing.

Isn't this fun?