ABC Sydney management top heavy with Jewish programmers

  • by: MIRANDA DEVINE
  • From: The Daily Telegraph
  • December 04, 2013 12:00AM

Artwork: John Tiedemann Source: DailyTelegraph

THE government has been in office 77 days but the Canberra press gallery has already written it off. Where fault can be found it will be furiously exaggerated. Where success occurs it will be ignored.

It began with the so-called expenses "scandal", when Tony Abbott’s electioneering at sports events was recast as some sinister attempt to rort the public purse.

Then he was blamed for the Indonesia spying scandal which occurred under Rudd.

On border protection, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has been hammered for not divulging operational detail about exactly how asylum boats are being stopped. He revealed this week that November had seen the lowest boat arrivals in five years, but all anyone wants to talk about is his "hostile" attitude to the media. Well, hello. He’s only human.

Education Minister Christopher Pyne is the latest punching bag for refusing to implement the Gonski education funding model, as prescribed by Julia Gillard. Why was that a surprise to anyone, least of all Barry O’Farrell?

Treasurer Joe Hockey is being lambasted over the non-sale of GrainCorp, over which, hilariously, lefties are siding with the free market – anything to beat up on Abbott.

The contrast to the honeymoon period of the Rudd government is staggering. Kevin Rudd was feted as a messiah for more than a year.

At the end of his first three months, he was preferred prime minister over Brendan Nelson by 68 per cent to 10 per cent, according to ABC-TV’s Insiders’ "poll of polls", which relishes Abbott’s less impressive lead of 44-29 over Bill Shorten.

Rudd’s popularity soared to record highs thanks in large part to all the positive coverage lavished on him and his lame-brained ideas, like the 2020 summit, FuelWatch, GroceryWatch, an ETS, green loans, free pink batts, the end of homelessness, and dismantling border protection.

The media was dazzled, especially the ABC-Fairfax Media axis of love. But even conservatives gave Rudd the benefit of the doubt for too long.

To its eternal shame, The Australian newspaper even named him Australian of the year in 2010. Uh oh.

Rudd’s media honeymoon was so prolonged that it seemed few people were more surprised when his party ditched him for non-performance later that same year than the press gallery.

More than any other news organisation, the ABC gave Labor a free pass over the past six years of calamitous government.

Remarkably, it has run dead on serious crime allegations against senior Labor figures which are currently being investigated by police, while
ferociously hunting down every verbal misstep or stumble by the new government.

Labor bodies are piling up and stinking behind the doors the ABC refuses to open.

Instead it fires all its barrels at the poor saps who barely have their feet under their desks.

So when Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi launched a scathing attack on the ABC in the Coalition party room yesterday, he was reflecting the opinion not only of his party’s conservative base but of the bulk of his parliamentary colleagues.

The applause he received was a pointed rebuke to his old foe, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who continues to defend the national broadcaster.

"I’m concerned because it’s not our ABC, it’s not my ABC, it’s ‘their’ ABC," Bernardi said.

"It’s a taxpayer-funded behemoth that is cannibalising commercial media while spreading a message that ignores the majority views of Australians."

Bernardi told colleagues he does not advocate privatising the ABC since it has a role to play in regional communities.

But the national broadcaster "no longer complies with its charter of fairness and balance.

"It is politically biased, regularly unfair and has priorities completely at odds with its raison d’être,” he said.

"Gone are the days when it simply operated TV and radio services. It has a massive online presence providing at taxpayers expense what commercial media operations need to charge for, four television channels and who knows how many radio licences.

"It is out of control and needs to be reined in. It needs to be broken up and returned to its primary purpose rather than the engorged propaganda unit it has become."

Bernardi is on the backbench because he was marginalised by many in his own party before the election for refusing to maintain a safe, politically correct line. Turnbull particularly targeted him because Bernardi led the revolt against the ETS which ended his leadership and launched Abbott.

Now Bernardi is leading the conservative revolt against the ABC, and again he is on the right side of history

Opinion

The ABC’s evil plan to get tentacles into kids

Subtle propaganda to children is all part of the ABC’s long march.

THE ABC is an enormous beast, with tentacles stretching across the internet and digital TV at a time when other media organisations are struggling to survive.

Its success at enforcing the narrow groupthink of the Left cannot be over-estimated, and not just on obvious flagship programs such as Q&A.

Take its controversial education show Behind The News, watched by more than one million unsuspecting children each week.

With a cheery youth-friendly style, it promotes the soft-left line on everything from asylum seekers to gender equality to big government spending.

Yesterday’s episode of BTN began with a story about Education Minister Christopher Pyne’s "broken promise" on Gonski funding.

Next was "Why sorry seems to be the hardest word over the Indonesian spy scandal", complete with footage of Kevin Rudd making his Stolen Generations apology. Praise for Rudd was cleverly delivered using Tony Abbott’s words.

"So it seems Tony is a fan of people who say sorry too. Well, he was."

That is, until the Indonesia spying scandal erupted. No mention that the spying occurred during Rudd’s sainted reign.

At the end of the package the young BTN host, sitting in a school he identifies as Norwood Primary, asks the children around him if they think "Tony" should have said sorry.

It’s no surprise that the majority, about 30 children, put up their hands to say yes the Prime Minister should have apologised.

A scan of other BTN stories this year finds similar examples of loaded commentary: "The new PM Tony Abbott hasn’t repaid some money that he claimed for going to a few running and cycling events. The fitness freak says they were genuine community events, so it’s OK for the taxpayer to help foot the bill."

Subtle propaganda to children is all part of the ABC’s long march.