Sure, one can argue that 4 corners got a smashing programme about the killing of cattle in Indonesia, but the ABC inquisition (Paul Chadwick and co) would be happy to some extend at the curly it has presently created for the Labor government. Had it been a Liberal government in power, I can assure you the 4C team would have been dragged over super hot coals. Sure, team Chadwick won't admit to that... It's in the realm of did not happen so there, but could have been.

Friends of the ABC should start a revolution.... I studied reception theory way before Simon Tatz was born... Mathematically speaking either the result is correct or not. there is no fence sitting for the sake of "balance". The truth is never compromised — even the relative truth... To add confrontational rhetoric to a news or investigative journalism is often distracting from the real problem. In the long run, one ends up with no idea about anything by having a gamut of views presented as equal with half of them being straight-out porkies....

And please don't tell me that what I see as porkie someone else could think of as the truth because blah blah blah... The message can be manipulated in such a way as to bury the truth ... Nothing new...

And finally, we have been waiting with bated breath for the attack dogs of News Ltd to dismiss the latest group of celebrities to go public in support of a carbon tax with the same savage contempt they inflicted on Cate Blanchett for daring to voice her opinion.

After all, what would a millionaire nonagenarian in a Melbourne mansion know about the devastation that a great big new tax on everything would inflict on ordinary Australians and their portfolios of mining shares? Yet somehow Dame Elisabeth Murdoch has escaped censure; obviously she isn't a member of the latter-sipping elite after all.

Instead, we were treated to yet another pompous and self-obsessed editorial in The Australian sneering at the Fairfax press. "The decline in relevance of these papers is directly related to their surrender to advocacy journalism," thundered Rupert's flagship.

"They no longer attempt to appeal to the broad population of the cities they serve but increasingly reflect the narrow interests of those who would shut down any argument that does not accord with their prejudices. To their journalists and editors life is a battle between right thinkers and wrong thinkers in which they, naturally, are always on the side of the angels."

Phew. Perhaps Tony Abbott is not our greatest living hypocrite after all.

 

Mungo Wentworth MacCallum is a political journalist and commentator.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2764768.html

-----------------------

see also media watch, ABC TV 20/06/2011...

please note that the biggest propaganda hoax of this century was created to wage war on Iraq. see the trilogy.

And dear Mungo, Tony is the present biggest hypocrite of them all. Note too that Dame Liz is 102....

Comedy or Activism? Jon Stewart Spars With Fox News' Chris Wallace

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/06/20/comedy-or-activism-jon-stewart-spars-with-fox-news-chris-wallace/#ixzz1Pubk6GdU

An ABC IT worker has reportedly dragged the public broadcaster into a virtual currency money making racket and a "serious misconduct case" is underway.

An item by an "ABC insider" in Crikey said the IT worker at ABC Innovation sought to use ABC's vast audience and internal systems to mine for "Bitcoins" - a peer-to-peer virtual currency that has gained notoriety after it was adopted by a clandestine drug dealing website.

According to the report, the IT staffer installed a "Bitcoin miner" on ABC's servers. The program uses idle computer processing power to generate Bitcoins, which can be exchanged for cash.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/secret-money-abc-virtual-currency-racket-probe-20110623-1ggp6.html#ixzz1Q5TRfGP6

Flow on to these Aussie shores?...

...

The condemnation and the self-blame crossed political lines. The Conservative, Zac Goldsmith, accused News of ''systemic abuse of almost unprecedented power … Rupert Murdoch is clearly a very, very talented businessman. He's possibly even a genius. But his organisation has grown too powerful and has abused that power. It has systematically corrupted the police and in my view has gelded this parliament, to our shame.''

Tom Watson, a former Labour minister, accused News of entering the ''criminal underworld'' by ''paying people to interfere with police officers and doing so on behalf of known criminals''. He said James Murdoch had ''personally, without board approval, authorised money to be paid by his company to silence people who had been hacked and to cover up criminal behaviour within his organisation''. He called for the younger Murdoch to be suspended while the police investigated ''an attempt to pervert the course of justice''.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/end-of-the-world-as-readers-know-it-20110708-1h6ts.html#ixzz1RZHQS3Y6

Would it not be time now to examine how the Murdoch empire is rotting every chance for a decent Australia by unashamedly supporting little shit Tony? Tony's summersaults, lies and pike twists are glorified by the Murdoch press as if he was a demi-god. More like an idiot fullblown-goon if you ask me... Wouldn't be time for the Murdoch press in this country to recognise that Labor has done a good job at saving Australia's arse from the WFC? The path taken by most other countries only compounded their financial problems.
Australian Labor mostly supported the people rather than the outrageous "banking system" which was at the source of the WFC (world financial crisis). Doing so helped the Aussie economy moving with minimal pain.
* A $900 dollar tax break to people whose income was under a certain level which gave a reasonable buying power to the poorest of us, despite up and down screaming by Tony's mob. Program panned by Uncle Rupe's press.
* An insulation program which was 99 per cent successful despite up and down screaming by Tony's mob. Program panned by Uncle Rupe's press.* A school building program which has been mostly successful, despite up and down screaming by Tony's mob. Program panned by Uncle Rupe's press.* An economy that is going reasonably well, despite up and down screaming by Tony's mob. Panned by Uncle Rupe's press.* A unique NBN communication system that will deliver an unprecedented boost for Australia, the envy of the rest of the world and is going very well, despite up and down screaming by Tony's mob. Panned program by Uncle Rupe's press..* A recognition that global warming is scientifically accepted despite up and down screaming by Tony's mob. Carbon reduction program panned by Uncle Rupe's press..
Yes, all the murdoch press wants to publish is that labor is "bad government" because "good" Tony says so...
The bias is beyond belief... And this goes for the ABC as well who is forced to represent 50/50 views that at most don't even have 5 per cent traction. And often due to internal inquisition the ABC goes 60 per cent in favour of the crap. Pitiful...
See toon at top.

At the 5.00 news bulletin, the ABC reported what Lord Moncton said WITHOUT a word from a scientist to contradict the lying Lord.... Then after Lord Monckton's grabs, the next item was about an unprecedented heat wave in the middle of the US... Pure 100 per cent Lord Monckton bullshit as "news" through grabs. At least the Macquarie Network was 60/40 promoting the bad Lord's crap while quoting the director of the climate change institute confirming it was crap...

This confirms parts of the ABC are biased, biased, biased...

 

see toon at top

Q & pAy, that's the answer

Andrew Taylor and Jim O'Rourke July 31, 2011

TONY JONES, host of the ABC program Q&A, is being paid to run mock versions of his influential discussion show at business conferences.

Prominent figures in the healthcare and information technology industries, as well as senior federal government bureaucrats, will be at the ''HIC 2011 Q&A with Tony Jones'' - promoted as one of the premier events at the conference on e-health opening in Brisbane tomorrow. Jones hosted a similar Q&A at the HIC 2010 conference in Melbourne last August.

The ABC, which gave Jones permission to conduct the sessions, says the moonlighting does not amount to media training or breach any of its editorial policies covering independence and conflict of interest.

Companies including Cisco, Microsoft, Intel-GE, SAP, Telstra, Panasonic, Deloitte and PwC and the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing are conference sponsors.

Some have been the subject of reports on ABC1's Lateline, also hosted by Jones. ABC management did not directly respond to a question about whether the work could lead to a perception of a conflict of interest the next time Jones interviews anybody from the conference.

The ABC's editorial policy stipulates: ''External activities of individuals undertaking work for the ABC must not undermine the independence and integrity of the ABC's editorial content.'' It says ''commercial or personal interests'' must not influence editorial decisions.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/q--pay-thats-the-answer-20110730-1i5k5.html#ixzz1TdCvWIRd

 

I never found that Q&A was (is) an enlightening program — I might laugh yellow at a few titbits and some low life tweets from viewers... Most of it annoys me, especially when Sophie Mirrabela or Christopher Pyne are invited to be panellists again and again for their rabidness to "oppose" — mostly oppose common sense... The show is a SHOW based on low intellectual biffo between two opposing points of views, where the boring details that underpin positions are never (rarely) explored properly. The facts of science are often diluted by grand ignorance presented as gospel. It's a bit like tabloid press on TV (minus the tits and bums — though there are a few bummers of opinions): all emotions, some strong lies, many misunderstandings, some rabid ritewingnuttery gnarly attacks and little philosophical depth from anyone... That such a show can be adapted to a spoofery for business dinners tells all...

 

See toon at top...

The ABC's decision to cut programs including the weekly Art Nation is an act of cultural vandalism, a union says.

The national broadcaster has refused to confirm or deny reports that it plans to axe 100 jobs and several shows including The New Inventors, Art Nation and The Collectors.

But in a statement today, the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) said the ABC could be in breach of its charter and at risk of losing its funding if the reported cuts are true.

"[It] raises serious questions about whether the ABC is delivering against its legislative charter, Parliament's justification for the ABC's $1 billion budget," CPSU spokesman Graeme Thomson said.

"ABC staff have been gutted.

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/abc--to-cut-100-staff-and-several-shows-says-union-20110802-1i9dv.html

---------------------

Gus: the ABC is providing much of the 50/50 valuable balance in a mostly ritewingnuttering Aussie media. But ABC programmes, that should be promoted ahead of others despite lower "audience figures", will get the axe — in order to support "ratings"...

Everyone knows (or should know) that TV ratings do not reflect the high cudos quality of programmes but they attach themselves to the lowest denominators of mindless audiences, mostly for entertainment and voyeristic values — except in a few odd cases (there are never any "absolute" in life, but bell curves) on the ABC...

The present success of "the Gruen Transfer" is quite phenomenal in explaining how advertising turns our brains into mush. I know... I have been on the case for many years (I worked in advertising) and if one is keen enough, one should do a search on this site for a fellow I mentioned often, called E T Gundlach, who in the 1920s became the "father" of "modern mind manipulation" (advertising) for selling products...

I am "distressed" that a programme like "the Hungry Beast" bit the dust, possibly due to the ABC running out of money by spreading itself too thin. There were some great ideas in there (despite one silly mistake about "the gay woman from Syria"'s blog... I did not touch that one, I smelled a rat.) but overall it was a refreshing new concept in which the general bullshit was by-passed...

The ABC has confirmed it is cutting television programs The New Inventors and Art Nation, with an unknown number of job losses.

The corporation, however, has denied media reports that the entire arts division has been disbanded in a move to outsource more television production.

Head of television Kim Dalton has told ABC Radio's PM program that the broadcaster is proud of the success of The New Inventors, but its viewership had fallen by about 50 per cent after an eight-year run.

"Great program - introduced some wonderful inventions to the Australian public and it’s something we’re very proud of. I think eventually after eight years, programs run their course," he said.

Mr Dalton says the Sunday afternoon arts program would not be continuing beyond the end of the year after losing more than 30 per cent of its audience.

"We're moving some of those resources into increased prime time arts programming," he said.

"This is an adjustment to do with responding to some programs' audiences not being as interested, and it's time to commission new programs.

"We are under increasing ongoing financial pressure and we have to make sure the resources we've got... we use as efficiently and as effectively as possible."

News Limited is reporting that around 15 staff will be made redundant but Mr Dalton would not confirm numbers.

The casualties include presenters, producers and other technical staff from Sydney, Adelaide and Perth

"As a result of cancelling a couple of shows and making some other changes to our schedule, there will be a requirement for less positions," Mr Dalton said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-02/abc-tv-cuts-jobs-and-programs/2821222

A meeting of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation board today is expected to consider offloading its book publishing arm to … wait for it … Rupert Murdoch.

The licence — possibly in perpetuity — to run ABC Books has been on the market for several months. Crikey understands the one unsuccessful bidder was Melbourne University Publishing, but that the News Corp subsidiary HarperCollins is now the front-runner to get the nod and aquire a new imprint: ABC Books

Under an existing arrangement, Allen and Unwin manages sales and distribution for ABC Books titles. This has expired and ABC Commercial Director Lynley Marshall is understood to have made it clear she believes the stock risk for ABC Books should be held by an outside “partner” rather than the corporation itself. Consequently the proposed deal is expected to place control of all contracts, outstanding advances and stock into the hands of HarperCollins.

According to its website, ABC Books publishes more than 180 children’s and adult titles per year in a wide range of subjects including ABC program-related books, biography, science, politics, history, adult fiction, sport, Australiana, lifestyle and children’s titles such as Play School and Bananas in Pyjamas.

http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/12/11/abc-enters-book-deal-with-rupert-murdoch-abc-half-dies/

One can say safely now, I hope, that at the time (if my memory is correct), the ABC was about to offload its entire library to Murdoch as well — for a fair sum though... But even a fair sum would never be enough for countless treasures of video recordings going back to the "beginning" of TV — ALL THAT TREASURE BELONGING TO THE PUBLIC...

The latest cut hurts, but it's not the deepest in an already de-skilled ABC.

At last the hidden agenda has been exposed. The outsourcing of ABC television production to the commercial sector now covers all drama, documentary, natural history, most feature programming and, increasingly, studio-based light entertainment.

The ABC's explanation that resources from arts and other programming needed to be diverted to support prime-time content is disingenuous. In the digital revolution, prime-time is dead. Audiences can download programs at any time.

The anguish now felt inside the ABC from the latest program cuts would not arise if there was a genuine mixed production model with the ABC retaining the capacity and leverage to make the full genre range of copyright programs itself by developing its own talent and skills base.

But through a long and deliberate board and management policy to dismantle and de-skill internal television production, the ABC is now totally dependent on the commercial television production sector for almost all Australian non-news content.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/deliberate-dismantling-of-our-diminished-abc-continues-20110803-1ibk9.html#ixzz1U39cpxIU


see toon at top...

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2011/s3285819.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2011/s3284630.htm

Leigh sales interviews a murderer, Paul Wolfowitz, who, after having been one of the main enforcers of the illegal war on Iraq, was rewarded with the CEOship of the world bank.

There in this capacity, he enforced socialist public service government in Africa to go entirely private which resulted in the death of many people... See Wolfo hates the commies and ruled that unless socialist governments' stocks of staple food be given to private enterprises, he would not give them any credit or moneys... Within a year, the stock of staple food had been "given" to profiteers and wasted... and when a famine came along there was not a grain to be distributed to the people, resulting in the starving and death of many...

The silly ideologue!!!

And of course not a single challenge from the rite-winger Leigh Sales, only a promotion of wolfo's crappy dangerous views...

------------------

This would suffice to churn one's balanced stomach but Leigh Sales, in another unchallenging interview, had for guest the most rabid ritewingnutterer opinionator who works at the New York Times... THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN...who in his wisdom is full of ritewing propaganda and clichés galore, all of which are totally irrelevent.

From the ABC rubbish "headline-department":

Abattoir worker 'paid to stage cattle cruelty'

10 August 2011. 04:23:26 (EST)

A Liberal Senator alleges an Indonesian abattoir worker was paid to kick a cow in the head so footage could be obtained of animal cruelty

-------------------------

This of course is strongly denied by the film maker but the headline sticks... and that's the way it's done, folks... One has to read till the humpteen paragraph to find that the producer of the show totally deny the allegations... The headline should not be so determined, until all the facts are known and judged... In this case, the ABC stupid headline department is using similar shock gutter tactics the Terrograph has used for yonks. The ABC headliners may think they'd get away with it by placing quotes mark around the offending words, but until proven this headline cannot be used with or without the quotes mark — without prejudicing the content of the information.

See toon at top...

The RSPCA has denounced as baseless a Liberal senator's claim that Indonesian abattoir workers were paid to abuse cattle for television cameras.

Footage of the abuse, aired on the ABC's Four Corners program in June, led to a temporary ban on live cattle exports for a month while the government attempted to clean up Indonesia's slaughter practices.

A Senate committee, investigating animal welfare practices in Australia's live export markets, heard from the RSPCA and Animals Australia yesterday.

But representatives were subject to interrogation by Coalition senators who questioned the veracity of the abuse claims.

Liberal Senator Chris Back said a taxi driver used by Animals Australia made payments to meat workers to abuse cattle.

The animal welfare organisation has denied any knowledge of the payments.

RSCPA Australia boss Heather Neil said she was bitterly disappointed with the inquiry hearing.

"This was a forum to talk about the endemic cruelty in the live export industry," she said today.

"Very few questions related to the terms of reference of the inquiry."

Senator Back's line of questioning was not only baseless but "deeply offensive" for anyone working to protect animals from cruelty.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/rspca-hits-back-at-senators-claims-20110811-1iod1.html#ixzz1UihMzS1A

 

Firstly, there will be no legislation to inhibit the absolute freedom of the press in Australia. They will be able to print any damn thing they want. Truth will be shredded and thrown out the window, personal privacy of targeted individuals will be rampantly invaded and their characters destroyed.

Murdoch will insist on selling the ABC. He has hated it all his life. In the post-Whitlam era, he had Malcolm Fraser and John Howard slash government funding of the ABC and change the management. But they made such a hash of it and the public response was so savage that the ABC was saved. This time it will be a quick privatisation sale, like the Commonwealth Bank and Telstra. The ABC will be commercialised with ads every 25 seconds. Tony Abbott will love this. He will be able to wipe the Kerry O’Brien tapes. Mal Brough will be able to wipe Ashby.

Australia will never again abstain in a U.S. promoted vote in the United Nations. Australia will return to lockstep the US in international affairs. We will support Israel in every step of its battle to survive in the new post-empire era of the Middle East.

Foxtel-Sky will expand its coverage to Asian countries, replacing the ABC’s Australian service, while Australia’s existing free channel services will struggle to survive — and, one by one, will go down the gurgler.

read more: http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/if-rupert-murdoch-wins-in-2013/

 

The ABC is in its "holiday mode"... For example, RN (formerly known as Radio National) is presenting repeats... Thus it is likely that the (usually) more intellectual andience of this informative (as opposed to entertaining and stupid) radio station will desert it since intelligent people don't need to hear the same thing twice to know. The ratings are likely to dwindle over summer. Thus management could say the station is becoming less and less patronised, thus its budget deserves to be cut further... The budget is already cut to bare bone by not bothering about developing a proper Yuletide "B' team, and I've noticed some of the better older presenters are being replaced by CHEAPER gung-ho non-intellectual dudes... All this driving the oldies to despair while not catching the young pierced ones who are in the midst of destroying sumpthin'...

See toon at top... Note the date of posting and see Uncle Rupe position...

 

 

The release of the Lewis Review into the ABC yesterday putting the finishing touches to Abbott Government's plans to gut the ABC. David Horton explains how this lamentable state of affairs has come about.

...

Well, there was just one tiny flaw in the cunning plan (if cunning plan it was) — hardly worth mentioning really. You see, it relied on Government MPs sharing a belief with the rest of the country that the ABC was a very important national institution, a fundamental part of Australia and that pouring right wing ideology into it would be enough to encourage the Liberal Party to keep it intact. That if they heard a chorus of right wing voices singing from the Menzies House song book on ABC every day they would see it as useful in their plans for a thousand-year rule.

Trouble is, they didn’t and don’t.

With Murdoch and the shock jocks on side, they saw no need for an ABC; that given, as it were, a choice between a real News Limited and a public broadcaster who acts like a Murdoch mouth piece, a Liberal will vote for his real Masters Voice every time.

So, whether a plan or not, moving to the Right won the ABC no reprieve from the Liberal Government, while at the same time it lost it all the support of those of the centre and left who were once friends of the Corporation and once would have massively demonstrated in its support.

Blackadder: Baldrick, have you no idea what “irony” is?
Baldrick: Yes, it’s like “goldy” and “bronzy” only it’s made out of iron.

~ Blackadder The Third: Amy and Amiability (Series 3, Episode 5; BBC, 1987)

You can read more by David Horton on his The Watermelon Blog or follow him on Twitter @watermelon_man.

 

read whole article at: http://www.independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/irony-at-the-abc,6609

 

See toon at top... and read articles below it...