Firstly, Canberra people aren't normal. Yes this is an outrageous generalization, but I've lived in Canberra.
Secondly, Leigh Sales is fine by me, she epitomizes what is best about the ABC.
Thirdly, the cleaners still need to be put through the ABC, to bring it back to the Centre.
Commissars can’t arrest ABC’s cultural decline
It’s been more than a half-century since English journalist Malcolm Muggeridge published his book Tread Softly for You Tread on My Jokes. The title was inspired by poet WB Yeats, who referred to his dreams, not his jokes. Muggeridge’s point was that life had become so bizarre that what once passed for humour was now very much a reality.
That was true in 1966 – and is even more so today. Take the ABC, for example. For years I have argued that the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster is a conservative-free zone without a conservative presenter, producer or editor for any of its prominent television, radio or online outlets.
ABC management and journalists are wont to deny this. But no one has been able to name anyone who fits the bill.
I have also maintained that the ABC is very much a staff collective where journalists, not management, effectively control its output. At times I have used the term soviet in this regard, an irreverent reference to the workers collectives that were a reality after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917 and the early years of the Soviet Union led by dictator Vladimir Lenin.
So I got the joke, if joke it was, when ABC managing director and editor-in-chief David Anderson announced the public broadcaster’s five-year plan aimed at adopting a digital-first approach in a bid to engage a younger audience. After all, it was Joseph Stalin, Lenin’s successor, who popularised the term five-year plan. As a young man I was a fan of PG Wodehouse’s novels and enjoyed his character Bertie Wooster’s dismissal of British socialists as five-year planners.
Then, on Tuesday, Anderson released a 29-page document titled Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging Plan 2023-2026. According to the plan, “the ABC will recruit cultural guidance advisers in content divisions … to guide cultural inquiries from content makers”. They will be “the first point of contact for inquiries about diversity in content, centralising this process and ensuring that advice is consistent” – whatever that might mean.
In the lead-up to, and after, the Bolshevik Revolution the communist leaders appointed cultural commissars who were responsible for distributing propaganda and upholding the ideology of Marxism-Leninism. A century later, the ABC has thrown the switch to cultural guidance advisers. It sounds like an attempt at humour. But, alas, this is not the case.
According to the ABC’s latest manifesto “our differences are derived from characteristics such as our ethnic and cultural diversity, gender presentation and expression, visible and invisible disability, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic background and geographical location”. What’s more, “for each of us, identity is rooted in the unique intersection of these characteristics”.
This tells us much about the ABC. Its attitude to diversity is very narrow indeed – even though it asserts otherwise. The soon to be appointed cultural guidance advisers – read cultural commissars – will focus on ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic background and geographic issues. But not on political or religious diversity.
The documentation goes on to define a diverse workforce as one “drawn from all corners of the community, where different histories, beliefs, talents and perspectives exist”. Again, there is no specific reference to political or religious beliefs.
On Monday, News Corp and Nine newspapers covered important ABC stories. James Madden reported in The Australian that the public broadcaster’s board had told ABC management it must arrest the declining radio audiences. An anonymous ABC figure was quoted as saying “too many presenters have lost the connection with the traditional intelligent, give-me-both-sides-of-the-story listener”. The same is true of many ABC TV presenters. That’s the problem with the ABC being a conservative-free zone. So many ABC presenters, producers and editors live in a world insulated from political differences or right-of-centre views at the personal level.
In The Sydney Morning Herald on the same day, Calum Jaspan reported that ABC management had reissued a document titled Voice Referendum editorial guidance. It instructs staff that they should not advocate for particular outcomes. Such advice should not be necessary.
Management also instructed journalists that they should “seek out diverse sources of reliable information and contending opinions” and look beyond “the usual suspects”, whatever that might mean. Again, this is something professional producers and presenters should be expected to do as part of their job.
Such advice would not be required on Sky News. Paul Barry, presenter of ABC TV’s Media Watch program, frequently delights in sneering at Sky News – particularly with respect to what he mocks as “Sky After Dark”. Barry shows no evidence of ever having considered from where subscription Sky got many of its viewers. The answer is: from the free-to-air and taxpayer-funded ABC. Due primarily to its lack of political diversity.
The fact is that there is more political diversity on Sky than on the ABC. Sure, most of Sky’s presenters and panellists support the No case in the forthcoming referendum. But not so presenter Chris Kenny or regular paid contributor Joe Hildebrand, who advocate a Yes vote. I am not aware of any ABC presenter or regular paid commentator who publicly supports the No case despite the fact Australia is divided on this issue.
The ABC’s Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Plan sounds like a bureaucracy-driven title born in a human resources or ESG (environmental, social, governance) outfit. It’s not what the ABC, with falling ratings, needs right now.
Interviewed on Sky News on June 23, West Australian pastoralist Tony Seabrook went out of his way to describe a brief encounter with Anderson in Perth recently during which he told Anderson that country people “are walking away, they’re done with your left-wing ABC”. Seabrook said he could name “maybe a dozen left-wing journos” at the ABC and challenged Anderson to name “one that in any way espouses the values that Sky does”.
According to Seabrook, Anderson “just shook his head and walked away and just couldn’t answer the question”. The appointment of specialist cultural commissars is destined to make the ABC’s lack of political diversity even more evident. That’s no joke.
Gerard Henderson is executive director of the Sydney Institute.
GERARD HENDERSON
Unfortunately the ABC will be gone, unless it drops its political agenda, it just wont fit in todays world.That is for sure - “too many presenters have lost the connection with the traditional intelligent, give-me-both-sides-of-the-story listener”
There was a time when the ABC was for everyone, they would broadcast and produce shows that mainstream media would not or could not, and they were great. Science shows with no bias, the Goodies, Countdown, The Good Show, Dr Who, 4 Corners, so many that I can't name them all. Not today, now it is a rare month to be able to see anything that is not trying to social engineer its audience, and biased towards the staff's political persuasion.
Very sad.
Unfortunately the ABC will be gone, unless it drops its political agenda, it just wont fit in todays world.
There are way too many options for young people to chose from, so why would they listen to a politically driven station that panders to the old and wealthy? In short, they wont.
It's funny how many Government departments are in serious decline and under performing, sign of the times maybe? They are in serious trouble on all fronts by the sound of it.
Sadly the ABC is just about past its use by date, with satellite communications, the internet and the NBN, the massive service it supplied to remote and poorly connected Australia of the 1960's is no longer as required.Sick of the ABC proselytizing about 'equal' rights, the voice, deaths in custody(only if the person was aboriginal), people who have hiv trying to get into the country, aboriginal heritage, every instance of alleged sex discrimination they can drag up etc etc.
The ABC should be for information, not propaganda, they need a rocket put under them, especially Ita.
Sadly the ABC is just about past its use by date, with satellite communications, the internet and the NBN, the massive service it supplied to remote and poorly connected Australia of the 1960's is no longer as required.
When I was a kid in the NW of W.A and the Goldfields in the 1960's and even in Exmouth in the late 1970's the only news service you had was the ABC radio and the weekend papers that everyone used to line up to buy.
Those days are gone, so the ABC now just seems to be a political platform for the left wing and jobs for well connected elderly elites from Sydney and Melbourne high society social circles.
Sad really they could still be relevant if they stuck to their charter and delivered non partisan, well researched, political, financial, scientific and educational information, supported by the terrific well presented variety and drama shows like Vera, Endeavour etc
IMO it is only a matter of time before it is sold or closed, SBS the ABC love child has actually outgrown its parent and is more relevant than the ABC these days.
Maybe Labor could take it over as their media arm, change its name to the Australian Labor Broadcasting Organisation (ALBO).
As the vast majority of folk now have NBN or satellite there is absolutely no need for a taxpayer funded entity to have so many channels of communication.
ABC and SBS could be rolled into one and then trimmed to say 3 channels, more than enough to disperse the relevant news and announcements from all government departments.
That would leave ample funds for a local radio new service to supply local news and emergency broadcasts.
That would mean Q & A would have to drop their own pet programme, like why women should say no to leg waxing and guys should get into to back, sack and crack waxing in the name of inclusiveness.I think the ABC should replace the kids/comedy channel with an education, engineering and science channel, sort of an open university channel where people can catch up with advances in science and tech.
Yes, there are YouTube channels that do this but they are usually by subscripition if you want anything more than basic stuff.
So if we want to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers, then get it on free to air tv and give some of the pathetic comedies the shaft.
Cynic.That would mean Q & A would have to drop their own pet programme, like why women should say no to leg waxing and guys should get into to back, sack and crack waxing in the name of inclusiveness.
The other problem would be that Labor politicians would have to face unfriendly fire on commercial channels, where they get a nice pleasant run on their ABC. ?
I've lived long enough to qualify.Cynic.
I've lived long enough to qualify.
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?