Government considering Janet Albrechtsen for the selection panel of the ABC and SBS
Conservative commentator and culture warrior Janet Albrechtsen is under consideration to join the nomination panel for the boards of public broadcasters the ABC and SBS, Mumbrella can reveal.
If appointed, the move would be interpreted by many as an attempt by the Abbott government to bring more conservative voices onto the board of the broadcasters, with Albrechtsen one of four people on the panel, which is designed to provide an independent shortlist of board members to the Minister for Communication Malcolm Turnbull.
There are currently two vacancies on the selection panel with the retirement this year of Professor Alan Fels and Leneen Forde.
“I don’t know that that has been finalised yet”, Albrechtsen told Mumbrella when asked about her invitation. “They have certainly been chatting to me but I don’t know that it has been finalised.”
What is a culture warrior?
Oh no! Can’t stand her! And just another sign the government hates the ABC.
Well the ABC board has never really been all that relevant. The only time they did anything seriously stupid the CEO blew up in their face. It certainly would be no bad thing if Mark Scott had some pressure to lead.
I would not mind Janet Albrechtsen getting a seat on the ABC board, if I had ever read anything she wrote about the ABC which implied she knew what she was commenting about.
Howard appointed her to the ABC board in an attempt to break the left wing culture. It failed last time, why do they think it will succeed this time?
I’m a swinging voter and even I’m over the bias of the ABC. Three lefties to one conservative is not balance. Either fix it or shut it. I’m sick of paying tax to fund the employment of hundreds of lefty journos.
Yes Louisa your comment about ‘lefty journos’ sounds very neutral.
A good appointment if it comes off. She’s savvy and will provide some much needed balance on appointments to this quango that is now so anti-Abbott its cringeworthy
Louisa in the scheme of things it’s costing you absolutely bugger all..
100’s of lefty journos.. please most of the content these days is middle of the road garbage, the one show that might show some bias is Q & A and that is a counter-balance to Andrew Bolt’s show on 10 ..
the ABC is an integral part of the Australian media landscape, and needs to stay.
@Louisa & PR Pro and whatever other potential IPA members are astroturfing:
Sure, there’s left-wing bias at the ABC. Kind of inevitable.
But how many elections has ABC bias ever had an effect on?
None.
Now, compare that with the enormous power of the right-wing media octopus.
See the difference?
Of course, you’ll squawk about tax-payer dollars, but it’s hardly anything on a pro rata basis. And it’s hardly as if all the ABC does is make Q&A.
Any other think tank talking points you need demolished?
By all means, Louisa.
And if there needs to be a conservative, it would be nice if that conservative hadn’t once falsified a quote to incite hatred against Muslim youths.
She brings absolutely no skills to this panel and is neither a journalist nor has any broadcasting experience. And I’m sorry PR PRO but the ABC is not anti-Abbott. If it is the ABC’s job to report the news and Abbott and his ministers are turning out to be incompetent, incoherent right wing pork chops that is their problem and not the ABCs. The opinion polls are revealing the Abbott and the Coalition to be completely out of kilter with middle Australia. Oh sorry, if the ABC reports that then they’re anti-Abbott are they?
Bill, Smelly, especially Jack and especially Harry, that’s it, just continue living in denial.
Do we need to remind you, again, that because it’s publicly funded, it has (as its own charter outlines) a duty to be even-handed?
Only the most rabid left winger would deny the ABC’s bias. Seems we’ve found four on one day. How about that.
Does Fairfax not balance NewsCorp in each of your one eyes?
@Robbo:
“Does Fairfax not balance NewsCorp in each of your one eyes?”
Just like the ABC, Fairfax is preaching to the converted. It has little real effect.
The moron bloc that laps up Sydney talk radio and the Murdoch papers includes, along with the bitter, disaffected reactionary hardliners, another type of creature. That being: those who don’t really care enough to hold much of a political opinion. Perversely, they’re the ones who often decide elections. And they’re highly influenced by demagogues when they’re compelled to the ballot box. Then, they go back to bread and circuses until the next time.
Politicians know this. Media proprietors know this. You should know this. I suspect you do, but your politics doesn’t allow you to admit it.
It is interesting how the right complain about left bias on the ABC when every inquiry into the ABC has shown there is no left bias. May be the problem for all those who see what is not there is that there is that the ABC is not biased to the right. That is a long way short of being biased to the left.
The ABC is biased towards FACT. That is why conservatives get the idea it is biased against them. Combining journalistic and intellectual rigour with right-wing ideology will never work.