{"id":5679,"date":"2025-04-06T07:25:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-05T21:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=5679"},"modified":"2025-04-11T21:22:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T11:22:13","slug":"abc-seeking-cash-when-it-is-all-talk-and-has-nothing-to-show-for-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=5679","title":{"rendered":"ABC seeking cash when it is all talk and has nothing to show for it"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

One doubts that the Australian public would begrudge the organisation the necessary cash were it to provide quality programming. But when its claims are bolstered by promos that show David Speers, Jane Norman and Patricia Karvelas, claiming that they are among the best political analysts in the country, then it is doubtful that the public will back the government coughing up.<\/p>\n

Over the 27 and a bit years that I’ve watched the ABC, its quality has steadily fallen. It had many journalists \u2014 and I mean real journalists, not the arse-licking variety that haunts its corridors these days \u2014 and produced a lot of good journalism. There was both good news programming and cultural stuff as well.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Jane Norman: one of the many incompetents in the ABC ranks. Photo: courtesy YouTube<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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 Zionists who are always trying to muscle the media into buying their point of view.<\/p>\n

Many would argue that the drop in quality has come about 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The ABC has not made any good programs for a long time. This year, it broadcast a program titled Optics, <\/em>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 <\/em>which has copied its name from the BBC’s now-cancelled program Hard Talk<\/em>. Tom Gleeson, who hosts Hard Quiz,<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Asking for more cash now will only result in the public, now cynical about its claims, tending to regard the organisation with contempt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 were it to provide quality programming. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “ABC seeking cash when it is all talk and has nothing to show for it”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3,51,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abc","category-australia","category-journalism","category-media"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5632,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=5632","url_meta":{"origin":5679,"position":0},"title":"The ABC needs a journalist to head the organisation","date":"August 23, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The departure of David Armstrong as the managing director of the ABC is not surprising given that he was another management type trying to manage a news organisation and realising at last that weasel words and public relations do not really work when it comes to journalism. In the past,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ABC"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4801,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=4801","url_meta":{"origin":5679,"position":1},"title":"ABC claims no funds, but sends Ferguson to the US to make worthless programs","date":"February 8, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The ABC is always whinging about the funding cuts it has had to suffer, with the Federal Government having cut the public broadcaster's annual handout by a sizeable amount. But the corporation makes its case weaker by splurging out on cosmetic exercises to keep its big names happy, with a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ABC"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5620,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=5620","url_meta":{"origin":5679,"position":2},"title":"ABC and the AFR begin the rehabilitation of Mike Pezzullo","date":"May 15, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Many politicians and public servants in Australia enjoy an incestuous relationship with journalists and have long done so. Such relationships often leave the journalist compromised when some hidden detail about an interview or story is exposed, but those in this category do not mind being outed as long as they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ABC"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sams-blog.com\/wp-content\/sams-blog.com\/2024\/05\/pezzullo_wide.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5615,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=5615","url_meta":{"origin":5679,"position":3},"title":"Indian media try to blackball ABC reporter in bid to suck up to Modi","date":"May 15, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Chamchagiri is a Hindi word that refers to the practice of flattering or appeasing a superior or a person in power. It is the best way to describe the manner in which Indian media are prostrating themselves in order to blackball Australian journalist Avani Dias and portray her expulsion from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ABC"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4548,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=4548","url_meta":{"origin":5679,"position":4},"title":"Journalists Savva and Karvelas knew the polling was wrong. Yet they kept quiet. Why?","date":"May 21, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the weekend, the Australian federal election ended in a manner that was the exact opposite of that expected by the public if one were to go by the opinion polls \u2014 Newspoll and Ipsos \u2014 that ran in the major media outlets. Both predicted a win for Labor. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ABC"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5137,"url":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/?p=5137","url_meta":{"origin":5679,"position":5},"title":"Incestuous relationships in Canberra once again on display","date":"March 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The incestuous relationship between Australian journalists and politicians has been exposed again, with the journalist in question being the political editor of news.com.au, Samantha Maiden [seen below in a picture from YouTube]. The politician, sadly, is no longer in this world; Kimberley Kitching, a senator from the Labor Party, died\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ABC"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sams-blog.com\/wp-content\/sams-blog.com\/2022\/03\/samantha_maiden-300x229.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5679"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5688,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5679\/revisions\/5688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sams-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}