Foxy.

Interesting read but not persuasive, most importantly to beat their own drum to show their value to the nation in your link all the gave for high viewer programing is an event once every 4 years and 1 event one time a year and a one off concert performance.

Simple question if you had a few grand laying around would you invest in the ABC?

Also the fact people are prepared to pay hundreds of dollars to Foxtel is a sign the ABC and others are a failure in their minds and does not have enough quality to amuse or entertain them.

Dear Philip S.,

If I had money to spare would I invest it in the
ABC?

Absolutely.

The public broadcasters - ABC and SBS play such a
crucial role in Australian society, one that is
especially significant because of the concentration
of media ownership in Australia. According to Newspoll
their role is recognised and respected by a great
majority of Australians who see the importance of
alternative sources of news and public affairs information
for the proper functioning of democracy. Also public
broadcasters are clearly more accountable and independent
than their profit making and responsible to their share-holders
commercial counterparts because they are politically
neutral and have independent governance. Something that the
current government is trying to influence by cutting its
funding.

G'day Leoj, hi & thanks !

I march with my old compadres as often as remote area work commitments allow. This ANZAC Day in Perth, catching up after 39 years with one of my senior class mates from Army Apprentices School. Other ex RAEME mates there I hadn't seen in over 30 years...there was much catching up to be done last Tuesday.

In 2003 I also marched, along with thousands of others around Australia, to protest the Howard government sending our ADF members to support the US invasion of the nations of Iraq and later Afghanistan. Subsequently I've marched & attended at many rallies/protests in Darwin/Perth/Brisbane to show my support on the matters of illegal treatment of detainees. Interspersed with writing, emailing and telephoning my local NT member and on some occasions going into Parliament House in person to protest or deliver petitions.

The conversations of last week indicated that although ANZAC Day means everything mentioned here among the posts to contributors like Rectub, Foxy, Joe, chrisgaffe, Armchair and others, the use of the significance of the day - in the way Mizz Magied did was to, shall we say 'highlight the plight' of irregular immigrants (was that the phrase used by the fascist Howard regime?) aka folks in Lombrum, Nauru, Christmas Island. The situation of refugees globally. Has she (Mizz Magied) gone on to elucidate her post(s) ? As I said, the silence from the ABC/Magied is deafening.

What is so glaringly obvious inside the china shop today, is the multitude of agendas, 'barrows' & feminist ideologies disguised as balanced discourse being (yet again like the Same Sex Marriage "debate" - read: Mantra) shoved down our throats by the ABC masquerading as public opinion.

If Madame Pauline from One Nation had posted something in the same vein about an Islamic event from the past...let's say she had drawn attention to the Haj, using the vast amounts of money spent there as way of protesting against FGM for instance. The howls of derision from Fox Media, Turdoch Press and the Electronic Whorehouse collectively would be difficult to ignore.

Philip S,

Just taking a couple of ways of looking at the ABC:

firstly, you as you correctly point out, the digital access of the greatest majority of Australians extends well beyond traditional and rapidly becoming outdated sources, such as the ABC's TV service. What isn't usually recognised though is that soon very few Australians will be using those services anywhere near how, or to the extent, that they do now; and

secondly, if the publicly funded ABC is there to address equity, the real equity problem and discrimination if some want it expressed that way, is the greatly diminished access and use of digital technology by the poverty stricken in remote areas.
-The last mentioned ought include the peoples in our immediate area of the world. Recent events alone should advise Australian people and federal governments to think very carefully about them.

That people like Foxy can smugly assert that 'Their' and 'Yassnin Abdel-Magied's' ABC suits them down to the ground, they are the very already entitled, digital technology blessed middle class consumers who can always easily access and buy what they want. Although most of their digital consumption would be free.

Also, it would be quite wrong to imagine that the ABC's Q&A audiences from inner metropolitan 'burbs are impoverished or discriminated against where digital technology and use are concerned. For starters they are very easily able to access for free the internet available in public libraries and WiFi in many public places.
tbc..

contd..

However I don't blame the ordinary federal parliamentary backbencher for not realising how ill-directed the allocation of $1.3billion to outdated public broadcasting is, especially where its services are redundant and the taxpayers' dollars could be spent of the known growing shortfall in infrastructure and services for the increasing numbers of elderly Australians (stupidly added to over the years by immigration policy).

Where the problem lies is with such know-alls as that departing ABC CEO who left it until he received his golden handshake and he was out of the door to admit that the ABC and SBS duplicated each others services. He might also have done the public a service (finally!) if he had also admitted that the digital revolution had left some behind (who were not always obvious, eg aged) and yes, the ABC would always be catering for the 'always entitled' instead.

Those are some of the reasons why I would prefer it if the over-fed and largely irrelevant (to the digital future of most Australians) ABC and SBS were instead pruned considerably and directed to encourage and give seed money and support to local community initiatives (in digital) outside of cities and definitely in the impoverished countries near to us.

Should the ABC itself be in broadcasting? Possibly so in some selected, unique and narrow areas, but all should be required to provide a proper, well documented business case for funding continuance.

Just a couple of corrections.

Foxy has a very old computer. However, it suffices her needs.
She pays for it through Telstra. It is not free.

And Yasmin Abdel Magied works for the ABC on
a part time basis only - and whilst there,she has to abide by
their rules. Her private opinions are her own and not
those of the ABC.