The ABC is required by law to be impartial, in exchange for $1 billion a year of taxpayer funding. But Donald Trump has exposed the bias of a dozen ABC presenters, and now Liberal MPs are demanding action.
This hijacking of the ABC must end.
Government MPs have called on ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie to explain why some of the public broadcaster’s top on-air talent expressed views stridently against president-elect Donald Trump in the lead-up to his victory.
At least a dozen of the ABC’s high-profile radio and television presenters, including Insiders host Barrie Cassidy, PM host Mark Colvin and journalist Annabel Crabb, expressed their disdain for the “nightmare” of a Trump presidency and asked if there was an “off switch” for his campaign.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott slammed what he said was a public display of bias, showing the organisation didn’t reflect diverse views.
“The only diversity the ABC lacks is intellectual diversity,” he said. “No conservative listening to ‘our’ ABC’s current affairs programs could think that his or her views were getting a fair go...”
Cassidy posted on Twitter on the day of the election as results poured in that the “nightmare” of a Trump presidency had been defeated. “Trump cannot win. The nightmare is over,” he tweeted...
In October, he shared a link to an article saying Trump would lose the election, with the comment: “I reckon that part — that he’ll lose big time — is the only believable bit in the whole tawdry exercise.”
Paul Barry, host of the ABC’s Media Watch program, shared a link to an article ridiculing comments made by Trump with the remark: “Another ridiculous Trump porkie. And this man could be US president”.
Crabb wrote in mid-October: “Donald Trump makes his first post-debate appearance …. Where is the off switch for this campaign.”
Wendy Harmer, host of the ABC Sydney’s Mornings radio program, posted in response to an article with the headline ‘The four words that just lost Donald Trump the election: Hello, I’m Donald Trump”. “Shouldn’t be surprised, I guess,” she wrote last month, “that Trump’s ‘best’ joke was using his wife as a punchline. Humiliating.”
Joe O’Brien, who hosts ABC News 24’s morning news program, shared an article with the comment: “Yet another example of Donald Trump’s reworking of reality.”...
Former ABC chairman Maurice Newman said the comments from an array of senior presenters meant the ABC should consider apologising for how it reported on Trump’s campaign and victory...
Ms Guthrie must consider broadening her scope when seeking to diversify the ABC to include greater differences in opinion, Mr Newman said.
“She talks a lot about diversity, but she talks about ethnic diversity rather than diversity of opinions,” he said.
“If you look at the current affairs and comedy programs, they all have a left-wing bias — it’s not just anecdotal, it’s demonstrable.”
The bias is not just inexcusable but unlawful. This is the Left misusing taxpayer funds to push their agenda.
But this is all that the Communications Minister will say about it:
Federal Communications Minister Mitch Fifield cautioned journalists to consider their perception of objectivity when sharing views on important issues. “I think journalists, regardless of the organisation they work for, need to be careful to maintain the public confidence in their objectivity,” he said.
That is pathetic.
Fifield has no call to soften his criticism by referring to all journalists "regardless of the organisation they work for". Unlike commercial media outlets, the ABC has a legislative duty to be impartial, given it gets so much public money.
Fifield knows it, yet refuses to call out the ABC's bias even when it's screaming in its ear.
Why? Is this because Malcolm Turnbull knows and hopes that in any leadership showdown with Tony Abbott that the ABC will be his friend?
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