Here’s another example of The Australian supporting conservatives shrieking ‘WOLF’.
Murdoch columnist, blogger and all-round whinging bleater Gavin Atkins appears in the Oz today, making yet another of the seemingly endless demands that conservatives love to make, about the Australian Broadcasting Corporation not being fair to conservatives. Boo Hoo, Sob Sob. I’m afraid I couldn’t help myself and went around to his blogsite to find this post.
“The real measure of bias at The Drum is not the range of opinion, it’s the frequency.”
Yeh? I call bullshit on that, Gavin. Why don’t you come out from under your rock and say what you were clearly too scared to write? That you despise the ABC not because it’s publically funded, but because in your narrow view, it’s filled to the brim with people who don’t conform to the way you think. Why be so disingenuous as to claim bias, or lack of balance when you know damn well you can’t prove either? Indeed, all you’ve done is seek to claim that Jonathon Green doesn’t like you because you can’t get a gig on The Drum. Perhaps that reticence by Green to give your views oxygen is based entirely on what all collectively authored blogs base their content on. Readership. Green wants to have his collectively authored blog – and that’s what The Drum is – read. Not shunned because it harbours extremist, dare I say it, aggressive or mono-dimensional views.
Yes, I’ve read Gavin Atkins before today and have to say that his ‘stuff’ is little better than Andrew Bolt and certainly no better than Tim Blair. Support for Israel or the Afghanistan conflict is not du rigour insofar as the ABC’s charter is concerned. Frankly Gavin, there is no substance in your challenge, because the ABC’s charter does not contain any obligation to adhere to one ideological belief or another, or to ensure ‘balance’ for either the so-called ‘left’ or the so-called ‘right’. Stop and think for a moment just how subjective those foolish definitions are, and how difficult it is to define one from another in any individual’s views. Even in your own analysis of Milne, Barnett, Berg, Donnelly, Switzer, Hewson, Savva, and Davidson, you claim Hewson isn’t as conservative as you’d like (a dead giveaway to your real agenda) Milne is a journo (the Liberal Party journalist of choice according to Kevin Rudd), and the …
“others are specialists in areas such as education or economics rather than political issues of the day”
… which says to me you have little regard for those whose job is political observation, preferring your interlocutors to come from the ranks of the great unwashed, as long as they’re conservative unwashed. Something of a disjointed and elitist view if you ask me. For the record, John Hewson is a Liberal and one of a dying breed. That belief effectively places him on your side, yet he’s not conservative enough for you. Chris Berg has told me he is NOT a conservative, but more a Libertarian, yet you name him as a likely conservative candidate, were he not a journo? Reads to me as if you’re choosing your ground based upon where the grass is greener from moment to moment.
Here’s a challenge for you, Gavin, if you’re brave enough to take it up. Rather than whinge about not having your views aired often enough on a publically sponsored blog, of which you are just one single public member, I suggest you peruse the ABC’s Charter and support your rant with substance. Find that portion of the Charter which declares categorically that the Corporation must apply a rigidly unbiased and ideologically balanced perspective on ALL issues. You won’t find any such thing. I know because I’ve read the Charter, but there’s your challenge. I’ll even kick things off for you…
Charter of the Corporation
1) The functions of the Corporation are:
a) to provide within Australia innovative and comprehensive broadcasting services of a high standard as part of the Australian broadcasting system consisting of national, commercial and community sectors and, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, to provide:
i) broadcasting programs that contribute to a sense of national identity and inform and entertain, and reflect the cultural diversity of, the Australian community; and
ii) broadcasting programs of an educational nature;
b) to transmit to countries outside
broadcasting programs of news, current affairs, entertainment and cultural enrichment that will: Australia
i) encourage awareness of
and an international understanding of Australian attitudes on world affairs; and Australia
ii) enable Australian citizens living or travelling outside
to obtain information about Australian affairs and Australian attitudes on world affairs; and Australia
c) to encourage and promote the musical, dramatic and other performing arts in
. < p> Australia 2) In the provision by the Corporation of its broadcasting services within
: Australia
a) the Corporation shall take account of:
i) the broadcasting services provided by the commercial and community sectors of the Australian broadcasting system;
ii) the standards from time to time determined by the ACMA in respect of broadcasting services;
iii) the responsibility of the Corporation as the provider of an independent national broadcasting service to provide a balance between broadcasting programs of wide appeal and specialized broadcasting programs;
iv) the multicultural character of the Australian community; and
v) in connection with the provision of broadcasting programs of an educational nature—the responsibilities of the States in relation to education; and
b) the Corporation shall take all such measures, being measures consistent with the obligations of the Corporation under paragraph (a), as, in the opinion of the Board, will be conducive to the full development by the Corporation of suitable broadcasting programs.
3) The functions of the Corporation under subsection (1) and the duties imposed on the Corporation under subsection (2) constitute the Charter of the Corporation.
4) Nothing in this section shall be taken to impose on the Corporation a duty that is enforceable by proceedings in a court.
…or maybe you should do what other rankled conservative egos do. Get a gig on Counterpoint. I’m sure Comrey-Thomson & Duffy would welcome your input to their circle.