HOW much longer will the Abbott Government let the ABC spit in its face — and in that of millions of other Australian conservatives?
Take the past week.
First, there was the ABC’s lavish and loving coverage of the memorial service for former Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam — a service in which Labor presenter Kerry O’Brien was the MC.
Fair enough, you may well say.
But then there was the ABC’s 7.30 nominating the overblown eulogy to Whitlam from Aboriginal activist Noel Pearson as “possibly one of the best Australian speeches in history”, even asking viewers how it rated among those “of all time”.
Next, on Saturday, the ABC broadcast the After Julia concert featuring “world premieres of seven newly commissioned works by outstanding Australian composers reflecting on the Hon. Julia Gillard’s time as the first female prime minister of Australia”.
Even more surreal, this concert featured taxpayer-supported artists playing taxpayer-supported works which the ABC said included “instructions from goldfish, spoken phrases turned into musical gestures, mouth organs and more”.
Swear to God.
On it goes. Tonight, the ABC screens the first of a two-part biography called Just Call me Bob to honour a third Labor prime minister, Bob Hawke.
It’s a show which the ABC’s publicity department reveals asks the hard question: “Why was Bob Hawke so popular?” You get the picture.
Of course, the ABC understands it must by law be balanced, so it did also screen a show last week which briefly mentioned Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
