The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is always crying poor and asking the government for more money for what it claims is a shortfall in funds that has grown over the years due to cuts by Coalition governments.
One doubts that the Australian public would begrudge the organisation the necessary cash to provide quality programming. But when its claims are bolstered that shows David Speers, Jane Norman and Patricia Karvelas as political experts, then it is doubtful that the public will back the government coughing up.
Over the 27 and a bit years that I’ve watched the ABC, its quality has steadily fallen. It had many journalists – and I mean real journalists, not the arse-licking variety that haunts its corridors these days – and produced a lot of good journalism. There were both good news programming and cultural stuff as well.
And the head of the ABC at that time was always under pressure, even from his own staff, to keep quality standards up. Foremost among the ABC staff who held their own bosses to account were people like Kerry O’Brien and Jon Faine (the latter in ABC Radio) who did not hesitate to ask hard questions whenever they thought standards were dropping.
Had their like been present over the last year or so, then the ABC would never have presented such shameful, one-sided, cowardly coverage of the Gaza conflict, caving in meekly to the Zionist who are always trying to muscle the media into buying their point of view.
Many would argue that the drop in quality has come because of the dwindling funds and that good journalists, no doubt seeking enhanced pay packets, have gone outside in search of money. But that is not the case. What has happened is that the attitude of the management has changed to accommodate everything but good journalistic values and those staff who want to work in a good newsy environment have decided that it would be better to work elsewhere where they do not feel frustrated by bosses who constantly seek to humour every lobby group, forgetting that news organisations have to stand against pressure in order to provide good coverage.
As standards have fallen, the ABC has resorted more and more to promotions to try and make things seem better than they are and spin has thus come to predominate the corporation’s communications. It is the worst policy a news organisation can adopt, but the ABC cannot be treated as a news organisation any more. It is more a PR outfit, trying to put a good face on an appalling performance.
The ABC has not made any good programs for a long time. This year, it broadcast a program titled Optics, about a fictitious PR company. It was just terrible. The program was made by one of the ABC’s mates, the males who make up the Chaser. Once they were good, now they are just terrible. There have also been a few lightweight programs like quizzes but again the standard has been uniformly low. The only decent program on the ABC is one called Hard Quiz which has copied its name from the BBC’s now-cancelled program Hard Talk. Tom Gleeson who hosts Hard Quiz is an intelligent person who is very good at repartee. The ABC depends so much on this show that it screens old episodes in the evening and a new episode once a week, on Wednesdays.
The same organisation that once preached that the public would not be fooled by PR claims now does the same thing itself. Its claim, that it is the best news organisation in Australia, is nothing more than high-grade bullshit. Appearance is important, but below that lies rubbish.
Asking for more cash now will only result in the public, now cynical about its claims, tending to regard the organisation with contempt.