Following his comments on Sunrise, Channel 7, Ray Martin should do the decent, ethical thing and disqualify himself from the review of the ABC.

Whether he intended it or not, Ray Martin's comments, extended as they were, will label him as contentious, an apologist for Q&A, rather than a scrupulously independent reviewer of Q&A. That allegation is already being made and it is his own words on public television that have given rise to the furore.

While I have only watched a few Q&A programs, the demographic of panel is generally one token conservative with 3 to 4 left whinge activists. The audience is similarly overwhelmingly left whinge, and the host TJ will nod in agreement with left whingers. The token conservative will sufficient to brand the show as balanced even though this is laughable.

However, I see boycotts as counter productive, and would prefer to see a requirement that the panelists more accurately reflect the Aus demographic.

My real preference would be to defund the ABC and sell all the stations that compete directly with private companies.

What befell Peter Hitchens on Q&A should never be the case. It was a vicious charade,

http://davidvangend.com/?p=1984

Au contraire, runner - it's Abbott who is "upset"...the rest of us are shaking our heads at his latest antics - more of the same wild impetuous yodelling in an attempt to trash the ABC.

Blot is a right-wing mouthpiece - nothing more, nothing less.

(Yes, SM, as I said, privatising the ABC was one of the items on Abbott's bosses, the IPA's wishlist.)

And we must not forget the two characters who were featured on the panel on the night in question...

Steve Ciobo who once on Lateline claimed that given the opportunity, Labor MPs would be in a rush to “slit Julia Gillard’s throat”.

And Grahame Morris's famous comment about Prime Minister Julia Gillard that "they ought to be kicking her to death".

Not to mention, Abbott's well-crafted "heads should roll".

What class!

(talking of vicious charades)

otb

you have to give it to the regressives. They call it the festival of dangerous ideas which is usually an excuse for the like of Singer to push bestiality or some other perversion. Peter Hitchens nailed it and got the usual disdain from all those who oppose decency.

The stories are obviously there to be aired. You can't make something out of nothing. Without the ABC who would we rely on for factual accouting, the ABC is biased to whoever is in power at the time. you can't tear strips of the oposition unless they put themselves into making rediculous statements, as does Abbott. To me all those blatent before election lies were were underdone in the media.