It's Time We Took A Long, Hard Look At The ABC 23/7/2007
It's time we took a long, hard look at the ABC
Their pointed presentation of the Great Global Warming Swindle recently was the last straw.
Tony Jones went out of his way to assert the film did not represent the opinion of the ABC.
Can we by this assume that all that has ever gone to air without this disclaimer on ABC TV or Radio DOES represent "the opinion of the ABC?"
He then put the maker of the film through a grilling which was never given to Al Gore for his "An Unpleasant Truth" that clearly had the aim of undermining the film maker's credibility. With a careful juxtaposition of words like "experts" and "skeptics" it was further clear where the ABC, as represented by presenter Tony Jones, was coming from.
The ABC's mandate is to report news and views fairly on behalf of the people of Australia who pay its way. There is a catalogue of examples of the ABC abusing its power.
Mediawatch is more biased than the people it criticises. Combined with a few dismissive insults like "shock jocks", that obviate the need for reasoned debate, Mediawatch selectively attacks "right wing" journalists and broadcasters like Alan Jones, John Laws, Jim Ball, Janet Albrechtsen, Piers Akerman and Paul Sheehan who don't follow the pro multicultural pro greenie pro feminist anti-everything-else ABC line, on any pretext they can find. Try finding an instance when they have so vindictively pursued a left wing journalist.
Speaking of MW, while the ABC harped on the detention of David Hicks one former Mediawatch presenter actually said in his newspaper column after the jailing of Pauline Hanson and David Ettridge he and all his friends (whoever they are) were glad they were going to prison.
The broadcasting of the "Back door man for the Ku Klux Klan" song about Pauline Hanson is another black mark in the ABC's book. A court has decided that.
On the other hand the ABC gives air time to Green and Democrat politicans totally out of proportion to their parliamentary representation, because that is the political line the ABC wants to promote. Bob Brown only has to sneeze, and it gets on the ABC.
Many ABC presenters aren't journalists, they are men or women "on a mission".
Radio National, in particular, has its favourites, its darlings and its own political hobbyhorses. It bends over backwards to avoid offending aboriginal people by, for instance, never mentioning dead aboriginals by name within a certain time after their death, but goes out of its way to offend Christians, monarchists, pro-family organizations or any other mainstream group. One ABC journalist who runs a weekly talkback show repeatedly refers to God as "she" out of atheistic spite. Can you imagine the same presenter referring to allah as "she".
Speaking of Radio National talkback, as a rule if you go on one dealing with political issues and don't follow the ABC line you'll get one sentence out before they say "thank you" and hang up.
A recent Four Corners program delved into factional struggles within the NSW Liberal Party. The right faction were repeatedly labelled "the extreme right" and the left faction the "moderates" which revealed quite clearly where the Four Corners team was coming from. If they were doing a program on ALP factions would they refer to the "extreme" left and the "moderate" right?
Of course the ABC has never taken a hostile "inside" look at Labor, The Greens or The Democrats have they?
A few years ago an author was interviewed an the ABC who had just written a book about marijhuana. The tone of the book was that not only was marijhuana not harmful but that it was a positively good thing to indulge in. Talkback calls taken during the interview reinforced this view without any contradictory comment by the interviewer. Impressionable young people can be swayed by programs like this.
The time has come for the ABC to explain itself to the people of Australia who pay its way.