Reinventing the news model in the digital era

Measured & insightful. If only the rest of his colleagues could think & grind their axes at the same time.

Love the quote about “some demented plutocrat pouring more and more money into a loss making venture that is just going to peddle your opinions.”

Oh Malcolm,

Such a wordy, intellectually pithy but pragmatically vacuous waste of digital space.

You sir, present the casual observer with a conundrum. Along the lines of the ex- Fed Head Greenspan. ” A mystery wrapped in an enigma”.

Having read your speech now three times, I am at a loss to ascertain the substance of what your meaning was. Do you support digital media or support the centralised, old fashioned, Cabal-owned papers and electronic media?

Your Goldman heritage should put you in good stead as a future Central Banker, having the ability to dazzle the sheeple with “Fed Speak”, (many words with little content)

So, as Comms Minister, is it your intention to raise the political awareness of the common man and disseminate REAL information as to the state of the world, or is it to maintain the status quo, of disinterested and thus malleable Australian voters who could give a damn who is pulling the strings of their political and economic destiny?

I really want to believe that within Australia, there exist people of high intellect and political ability, coupled with moral rectitude. I really do!! I see little evidence unfortunately, of this Utopian ambition in evidence.

Same old, same old……

Malcolm, as Minister for Communications, the time you must have taken to dream up the above long-winded gobbledegook would have been better invested in setting up an oft-requested inquiry into taxpayer-funded ABC bias so very much complained about by fed up Australians.
How many times has your office been contacted by dissatisfied taxpayers who are subsidising an ABC that has morphed into a campaign branch office of the Australian Labor Party? I doubt you would want to answer that but those of us who use the internet to get our information know that the complaint numbers are BIG. Please get off your high horse Malcolm and clean out the ALPBCand its overpaid culprit presenters.

Jan. Less than complaints about the Murdoch press I would wager. Get in the queue.

JG. The Murdoch press is not taxpayer-funded – as is the ABC. Taxpayer-funded entities belong to all the people, regardless of political persuasion. It used to be a source of entertainment and factual information.

It was supposed to be “our” ABC. From its blatant bias, it is the ALP’s ABC. We now know that ALP campaigns have been receiving vast sums of low-paid workers’ funding through their corrupt unions. Malcolm should be making sure that workers (taxpayers) are not ongoing funding Labor’s media head office – ALPBC.

And Jan, I suppose you have the usual amount of evidence for your claims of ABC ‘bias’ that most critics have? That is, nothing at all. It just seems to be an article of right-wing faith. The ABC is a hotbed of commie insurrection, despite being the most trusted media source in Australia by a country mile.

Whereas, say, those who claim bias of the Murdoch media have reams of sensational front pages, hysterical editorials, employee testimony, behaviour on other continents…to bolster their case.

@ Bob Smith: Of course the ABC is most trusted among is leftist audience. Bob, in the world where the sky is blue, there is the ABC TV media that has no conservative producers, hosts or presenters. The last eight hosts of Q&A have been blatantly left. Why do you think the left, like I’m sure you are, so staunchly defend them?

Even the very prominent Labor man, Bob Carr, who was NSW premier and Federal Foreign minister under Gillard and Rudd, freely indicated that the ABC is biased left. Recall what he said to his own Labor:

“If you want to embrace the Greens/Left/Fairfax/ABC position, you are going to go backwards at the next election.”

Got it yet? The ABC is not only left, they are well left of Labor. But I’m sure you know that too. Be honest ferrchrisssake!.

@ Sean McHugh: Most of your post clearly illustrates the point I was trying to make. The right-wing take ABC bias as an article of faith. They chant it repeatedly and vehemently..but unfortunately for them that doesn’t make it so.

The ABC is the most trusted media organisation in Australia…by a country mile…in every single survey or poll of this I have ever seen. As well as broadcasting the most trusted news service. I have never seen a poll or survey, no matter the origin, say different.

And, this will probably come as a shock to you, not only is it the most trusted among the ALP voters, but also among the LNP voters as well. And steady yourself for this one…in the last survey of such, it is also the most trusted organisation in the country, ahead of the High Court, ahead of the Reserve Bank. Sad (for you), but true.

Could it be that if you habitually seek your news from Right-wing sources…Murdoch media, radio talkback etc…that, relative to them, a balanced, independent trustworthy source does indeed seem biased?

@ Bob Smith: Did you actually read any of what I wrote? The ABC TV media has no conservative producers, hosts or presenters. The last eight hosts of Q&A have been blatantly left. And even Bob Carr had no qualms about admitting that the ABC is at the Greens end of the scale. Bob Carr again: “If you want to embrace the Greens/Left/Fairfax/ABC position, you are going to go backwards at the next election.” Why don’t you take up your hopeless argument with him?

Murdoch is allowed to be biased. He isn’t funded by the taxpayer and doesn’t have a charter to follow. Also remember that before the 2007 election, Murdoch press was supporting Labor. That’s unlike the ABC, that will be left no matter what. Other people and groups tend to turn off governments when they are useless and stink to high heaven. The Rudd/Gillard government has been by far the worst in Australia’s history and could hardly avoid scathing criticism.

@ Sean McHugh I did indeed read your post. As far as I know there has only ever been one host of QandA, that is Tony Jones, and he is one of the awarded and experienced journalists in Australia, eminently qualified. And even if you could prove which way he voted or which way his sympathies lie, that is completely different than claiming he can’t do his job in a balanced and professional manner.

You are quoting a politician, Bob Carr, as proof of anything? He is allowed his opinion, but the multiple polls and surveys I spoke of in my prior post attest to the opinion of a broad section of the electorate concerning their trust in the ABC.

In terms of ABC staff…here they list 15 that went on to become Labor candidates, and 14 that went on to become LNP candidates, and a further 12 that went on to become LNP staffers. http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/.....unty-fare/

It’s true that in 2007 Murdoch gave a qualified editorial endorsement to Rudd after it became clear Howard had cooked his goose with Workchoices. As opposed to the viral campaign he ran against Labor for years prior to the 2013 election, culminating in hysterical full front pages during the campaign.

Regarding Q&A, that was basically a copy and paste of an error from my previous post. I had Q&A on the brain because I have been compiling a guest list and mini profile from 2012. What it should have said was that the last eight managing directors have been left. The correction hardly makes it more palatable.

As for the don’t-know-how-they-vote defense, that is a red herring. I don’t know if Mark Scott votes Labor or Greens. I don’t even know for absolute certain how Sarah Hanson-Young votes. I don’t really care. The weight of a single vote is negligible compared to what they do, say, promote and attack in their political lobbying. And that’s what the ABC does, lobbies, for the left.

Bob Carr represents just more than just an opinion on this matter. Apart from having been a Labor Premier and Foreign Minister for Federal Labor, he is also one of the ex-ABC figures that appears in the list you link. Apart from seeing the ABC on TV, you think he didn’t speak to people there? You think he wouldn’t know the general attitude? You think he is stupid? What is more, when he advised Labor to abandon the Greens/Left/Fairfax/ABC position, there is no indication that he had to explain what he meant. They weren’t stupid either.

As for whether voting left would stop them doing their job properly, that’s just flimflam. We are not saying they can’t do their job properly because of the way they might vote. We are saying they aren’t doing their job properly regardless of how they vote. We didn’t bring their voting into it.

As for the list that you link. Firstly, one notices that there are more prominent and familiar names are with the ABC/Labor connections. There are also more recent dates. I see that s commenter has also provided another ABC/Labor list that can be appended to the existing one.That last ABC/LNP entry looked impressive, but I rather suspect it’s a case of mistaken identity. Actually, there’s too much for this post. I might deal with it later as a separate comment later today or tomorrow.

@Sean McHugh Ummm…..you are aware that Mark Scott, Managing Director of the ABC, is an ex-LNP apparatchik who worked as an adviser for the Greiner government? You say you don’t know if Mark Scott votes Labor or Greens. I’d say there’s a pretty good chance he votes neither. And he is the person who determines the overall direction of the organisation and does the crucial hiring and firing.

I think you’re going to have to face it, as inconvenient as it is, there is a very stong conservative political component at the ABC, from the MD at the very top right on down. I’ve given you the names and the positions. There are many more.

You make really wild sweeping claims, for instance, ‘that’s what the ABC does, lobbies for the left’ and ‘we are saying they aren’t doing their job properly…’, yet the strongest proof you can offer for this is an isolated statement, taken out of context, by a politician?

I have offered you the names and positions of many LNP politicians and staffers, from the very top of the organisation down, who have worked for the ABC, including the current MD. Every poll and survey I have ever seen says the ABC is the trusted media source in Australia, has the most trusted news service in Australia, and is the most trusted institution in Australia. Even over the High Court and the Reserve Bank.

This is not some hotbed of commie insurgency. It is the most independent, balanced, trusted, respected voice in the Australian media. By a country mile. You may have to face it that the problem is not bias at the ABC, but bias in your perception.

I have gone through the list of ABC/Coalition connections. I do not find the more familiar or prominent names in this list, as I do with the list of ABC/Labor connections. There are dates that are very remote from the complaints of today and there are relatively benign job positions that would hardly test the resolve for political even handedness from the broadcaster. I’ll go through them:

1. Sarah Henderson: She gained some prominence in the political affairs in the ABC. However, using the word, “Then”, the list gives the distinct impression that she was with the ABC till 2010. She actually left in 1998.

2. Dai Le: She was a journalist with the ABC to 2008. That one is OK.

3. Gary Hardgrave: The list says he is a “former journalist with the Brisbane bureau of the ABC’s 7.30 Report.” It doesn’t tell you he left the ABC in 1987.

4. Peter Collins: Described as a former journalist with the ABC. It doesn’t tell you that he left in 1991, or that he has belatedly complained of manipulation of scripts to put a positive political spin on a Marxist-backed regime.

5. Pru Goward: The list describes her as, “Canberra-based high-profile ABC journalist, who reported on federal politics for several years.” What it doesn’t say is that she left the ABC in 1997.

6. Bob Messenger: He was a producer/broadcaster for ABC Wide Bay Regional Radio. He left in 2004. Regional is not high profile and it was 10 years ago.

7. Grant Woodhams: The list says he worked “with” ABC radio in Tasmania, South Australia, NSW and Victoria. That’s just about all I was able to find out, other than that he left the ABC in 2004. So apart form his departure being 10 years ago, he seemed to have remain very low on the public radar while with the ABC.

8. Eoin Cameron: This former Liberal member presents the breakfast program on ABC local radio in Perth. It’s current but again, it’s local radio.

9. Cameron Thompson: The list just says he worked “for” the ABC without telling us in what capacity. I had a lot of trouble finding any information. I finally found a page that said, “This former low-profile ABC radio journalist from rural Queensland”.

10. Scott Emerson: described in the list as a former ABC journalist. The list doesn’t tell us when that was. My findings are that he left the ABC in 1994 and was a reporter.

11. Ian Cover: Described in the list as a member of the ABC’s Coodabeen Champions. He was part of a comedy team, not an individual choice by the ABC. That employment went till 2013.

12. Peter McArthur: Described in the list as “a former current affairs reporter and TV newsreader for the ABC”. He was with the ABC till 2002. That’s twelve years ago. He did TV as well for the ABC. The TV was till 1976.

13. Bruce Webster: listed as a former “sports broadcaster for the ABC and later the Liberal member for Pittwater in the NSW Parliament.” That “later” was 1975. In other words, he left the ABC almost 40 years ago!!

14: Peter Kennedy: The list says, “he worked for ABC news then was later the unsuccessful liberal candiate for the seat of Bendigo.” Unless Peter Kennedy, from the ABC, started journalism at the age of ~5, he is not the Peter Kennedy who campaigned in Bendigo. The first one started journalism in 1970. The second was aged 43 in 2008.

I see that Mark Duffett has located a list with some more ABC/Labor connections.

Did the ABC report the call from ‘march in March’ for Alan Joyce to be shot? Did it report the endorsement of that call?

Also not shown from the March in March’ was the large “F- -k Tony Abbot” banner, placards depicting Abbott as Hitler (with swastika) and a sodomy scene being acted, with the employment of a mask of Tony Abbott. Another placard said “KillABBOTT”. “Resign Dickhead’ was another. These protesters see themselves as the elite with higher intellect and moral superiority. They don’t see their marches as the most reliable place to find rabble.

Remember all the carry-on about the relatively mild “Ditch the Witch” placard at an anti-Gillard rally and how much prominence it was given by the ABC and others? Remember the outcry? Remember how dreadful that was supposed to make the conservatives, even though people at the rally had requested that the owner ditch the placard?

The left, including Bob Smith would not see a problem. They would not see the above as ABC bias but as the way it should be.

I wonder how stuff like this is weighed when determining ABC bias. It is my bet that where the ABC cameras point and where they don’t, doesn’t even enter the equation. The above example is not an aberration. It’s the ABC doing its normal thing.

One should also note the barefaced hypocrisy of the left in this latest episode. There will, of course, be more hypocrisy . . . soon.

Apologies for my remiss. The ABC actually DID show us a sign from the march. It said, “Stop Being Awful”. Gasp!!! And there I was saying that that ABC was biased in its coverage.

@Sean McHugh I See now you that you have been provided with a list of LNP employees of the ABC, you are placing ‘qualifiers’ on it….in terms of length of service, when they served, year of leaving, prominence. You don’t think this might be edging towards desperation?

Regarding ‘March in March’. I didn’t see the ABC coverage so I can’t comment on it. But, as I recall, the salient point concerning the carbon tax fiasco wasn’t that someone was bearing a huge banner labelled ‘Juliar – Bob Brown’s Bitch’, as distasteful and disrespectful as that was…BUT the fact that the prospective PM of our country, and members of his team, chose to place themnselves in front of it while Tony delivered his spiel, thus tacitly endorsing it.

Was Bill Shorten posing in front of any of those allegedly distasteful banners at March in March?

And, in the meantime, yet another review, yet another finding of ‘no systemic bias’ at the ABC…as most of us could have predicted…the most independent, balanced, trusted media source in Australia, as verified time and again. This time veteran Murdoch/Packer employee Gerald Stone, no particular friend of the ABC, gives them a clean bill of health.

And, of course, once again the ABC stands up to a test of impartiality and lack of bias that no commercial media organisation could survive. I would love the Murdoch media to be subjected to the same test, in terms of their ‘coverage’ of the last election, that the ABC has just passed with flying colours. They would sink like a stone…’the news’ indeed!

The Lists:
You reckon I’m desperate in pointing out the antiquity and public remoteness of the constituents of that list? That response took you a week? Bob, you are delusional (or very naive) if you really think it doesn’t matter to the current charges whether an ABC media person was broadcasting 20, 30 or 40 years ago, or during the last few years (the period in question). Ditto if you think it doesn’t matter if they were a remote regional radio voice or someone heard on national television. The latter is efficacious hundreds of times over in getting views and ideology across. Also the last submission on the list , one that looks more significant than the others, is counterfeit. It is the list, that you offer, that is thin and desperate.

On the ALP/ABC list, even with a quick scan one sees very prominent and recent names that were in play during the last three elections and during the Rudd/Gillard governmental period. Bob, find something on the Conservative list, from the relevant period, to match the political/media weighting of Maxine McKew, Bob Carr and Mike Bailey. Straight away there are three that count in terms of influential ALP/ABC connectivity. There are none that compare in the Conservative list. The score is at least 3-0. No doubt the ALP list is also padded with inconsequential entries, in order to give the illusion of two roughly even sets.

The March:
You didn’t see the ABC coverage on ‘march in March’? That’s OK. Here are some nice images from the ABC:

http://tinyurl.com/ph6v48y

Here are the omitted ones:

http://tinyurl.com/payrbsm

‘Juliar’, and ‘Bob Brown’s Bitch’ rate very low compared to calls for killings. Also, there is the fact that Julia stole an election with a the ‘Carbon Tax’ fib. She needed that falsehood and the two treacherous Independents who betrayed their very conservative electorates. She also needed to ‘marry’ Bob Brown and dance to his music – which she did. Though I would not have carried such placards or rudely put them behind the leader of the opposition while he was talking in front of the cameras, they at least had historical defense. Depicting Abbott as Hitler, as engaging in sodomy and calling for his murder (and Alan Joyce’s) has no such defense. Imagine the TV media’s white-hot outrage if this had been done to Gillard, even if it was a crude but common expression, as would be with T shirts saying ‘F __ Julia’.

You refer to “allegedly distasteful banners”. You think calls for killings, presenting the PM as Hitler and depicting him as engaging in sodomy are ‘allegedly distasteful’? Behold the left.

The ABC Review:
That review did actually conclude five items of bias, all to the left. What it means is that they allowed a lot of latitude and it’s only when the ABC went obviously too far, they had to say, ‘Tut tut’. How, for instance, would they deal with things like the images from the march and the ABC’s choice of what to show and not to show? My bet is that they wouldn’t deal with it at all. How did they deal with the ABC’s REFUSAL to inform us that Julia Gillard was (and is still) a person of interest in the investigation by the Victoria police, over the AWU fraud? Did they compare that to their glee in presenting hearsay about Abbott punching a wall when he was 17? I’ll bet nothing like that was considered.

Being an average thing, bias is not the easiest thing to measure or prove, especially when much of it is by way of repetition and omission. It’s also difficult to prove by someone doesn’t want to find it.

After looking at comments to Q&A’s apology to Andrew Bolt, James Delingpole, the well known journalist from the UK, writes:

http://tinyurl.com/lmnvohz

“Scrolling through the comments on #qanda re its apology to Andrew Bolt. Conclusion: there’s no lefty quite so despicable as an Aussie lefty.”

They provide the majority of the vocal support for the ABC in Australia.

@ Sean McHugh Sean, you bemoaned a lack of conservatives at the ABC. I provided a list of such. THEN you proceed to dismiss them on a range of grounds (when they left, prominence, location, time period) you never specified prior. It does seem like desperation.

Secondly in your hair-splitting and nit-picking, you fail to acknowledge the absolute elephant in the room. The Managing Director of the ABC himself is an ex-LNP apparatchik. The person who determines the overall direction of the ABC, and does the major hiring and firing, is an ex-LNP adviser and staffer. The head honcho himself for the last 8 years! I believe this satisfies any criteria you have, or may set in future, of currency, prominence, influence?

In terms of the ABC depiction of the march. They can’t win, at least not with the likes of you. Whether by intent or not, they don’t show the more offensive banners, and you have them for ‘censorship’ and ‘partisan’. They do show the more offensive banners, then they are had for ‘promoting’ them and displaying sympathy with a ‘leftist agenda’. This is the peculiar genius of the ABC’s critics. The glass is always half-empty.

(and, for goodness sake, you link to an Andrew Bolt blog to prove your point! I have had to run an anti-virus through my browser, and need a thorough scrub and clean myself having read it.)

In terms of Tony’s depiction as a Nazi. Where’s the greater harm? Tony’s depiction as a Nazi in small posters in a rally of thousands OR Rudd and team depicted as Nazis on a full front page of a mass circulation daily…during an election campaign?

I wouldn’t support any public call to kill anyone. Even if it is metaphorical there are enough nut cases out there for it to be a dangerous thing. However, once again, where’s the greater harm? Such a thing at a relatively small rally in Newcastle OR a call to put the PM of our country in a chaff bag, tow her out to sea, and dump her…on a mass circulation talkback radio show in our largest city?

‘That review did actually conclude five items of bias, all to the left.’ Actually what it concluded was ‘no systemic bias’ and a remarkable degree of non-partisan balance. That is, it contradicted everything you are saying. As has every review, investigation, survey, poll on the ABC that I have ever seen. So, of course, you are proceeding to second-guess the review, speak for them, and present hypotheticals they may or may not have considered.

I realise you are in a level of denial about this, and that it is a great inconvenience to your case, but the fact is the ABC is the most trusted, balanced, independent media organisation in Australia. And by a country mile. It is also the most accountable, reviewed and tested. And it has passed every test sent its way, by hostile critics and governments, with flying colours.

@Sean McHugh Would the James Delingpole who offered the comment above ‘there’s no lefty quite so despicable as an Aussie lefty.” be a Murdoch employee, self-described as a ‘libertarian conservative’, and author of ‘How to be Right: The Essential Guide to Making Lefty Liberals History’ and ‘365 Ways to Drive a Liberal Crazy’?

Just so we can get some perspective on the validity of his commentary.