Apparently the A in ABC stands for Australian …
Tag: ABC
Spurred into action …
Up very early this morning to drive from Melbourne to the country mansion.
ABC News Radio accompanied me as far as the Great Divide. A little advert for itself assured me of the ABC’s complete lack of bias. I was so pleased to hear that because I was beginning to think that there might be a pronounced lean to the left in the ABC ranks.
The big news however was to do with Professor Barry Spurr of Sydney University. The ABC was most exercised because it seems the good professor called Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Prime Minister Abbott dog fuckers. Can you believe that? Dog fuckers. Utterly beyond belief …
Hang on I stand corrected, Professor Spurr called Tutu a witch doctor, close I guess, Mandela a darky, tactless but accurate, Abbott an abo-lover, terribly rude. And it was in fact the ABC itself that called some middle-aged white guy a dog fucker. Terrible this name calling.
Here is the news …
The course of my day took me from place to place.
The radio gives much solace as you deal with Melbourne’s ever increasing traffic, at its best it helps me cope with the scourge of the red arrow. I must vent at length about that one day.
Given the number of ABC channels, paid for out of our taxes and therefore light on the adverts that I do so loathe, I can usually find one where I can take refuge. It is largely a matter of avoiding the moronic (Red Symons, Richard Stubbs) and the raving left wing ratbags (Jon Faine, Phillip Adams, Rafael Epstein) and the cloyingly religious (Rachael Kohn) or all of the above (Waleed Ali). Plus the feminists and American Public Radio.
So maybe it’s the channel surfing that passes the time, until I reach Classic FM and safety in fine music.
The ABC wasn’t at its most balanced today.
Before 9 am ABC News Radio brought me a party political broadcast in favour of Kate Jones Labor candidate for Ashgrove, Queensland. Disguised as news, it had three gushing interviews bagging the incumbent. Julia Gillard followed, I bumped into two extensive extracts from a fawning interview. Oh, how she suffered at the hands of the increasingly schizophrenic, nay maniacal, Kevin Rudd, poor dear, not to mention the misogyny. Didn’t hear her claim that Kevin had ever been guilty of swindling low paid unionists. Had I switched to Classic FM at noon I could have heard the Honorable Julia Gillard make her selection of music hosted by Margaret Throsby.
The only thing worse than sitting at a red arrow when it would be absolutely safe to turn the corner, not a car in sight, is sitting at a red arrow listening to Julia Gillard blame the rest of the world for her incompetence.
Abdullah the cat …
Well, it’s true, Peppa Pig never inspired anyone to become a doctor.
The Muslim Council of Great Britain … “The majority of mainstream Muslims would not find Peppa Pig offensive, and anecdotally we know of many Muslim children who watch the show for its entertainment value. Those who do have issues with this can simply refrain from watching the show and purchasing Peppa Pig memorabilia”.
Just how culturally insensitive is the ABC to peddle this stuff.
You can make sense of all this <HERE>.
Don’t mention the darkies …
Rugby is a game I don’t watch, Gone with the Wind is a film that I have never sat through. And then there is the ABC.
Not long ago I heard a piece about bullying, I was on the move between places of work. I recall the ABC presenter, shocked she was, by the awful news that some phenomenally high percentage of people had been sworn at work in the last six months. She didn’t mention that 100% of the diligent listeners or watchers of ABC will have heard all of the same language on air in the past six months.
Which brings us to Warren Ryan, a rugby commentator, who managed to penetrate my consciousness in the course of his last call for the ABC …
The premiership-winning coach, who made a successful transition to the media, was alleged to have used the term “old darky” during the call of the recent Sydney Roosters-Canterbury match.
The 73-year-old made no apologies for the remark, which has effectively cut short a career spanning more than two decades at the station.
Well, frankly my dear …
It seems that the reason for this lapse of judgement was that the argument occurring on field between umpire and player bore a strong resemblance, in Mr Ryan’s mind at least, to a scene in Gone With the Wind, from which he was quoting. He and his fellow commentator were immediately suspended.
It’s quittin time for Mr Ryan who started out with St George in 1964 as a player, went on to be a two-time premiership-winning coach and subsequently a much loved man on the microphone …
“The ABC has suspended me pending an investigation, so I have resigned to save them the trouble of conducting it,” Ryan said.
So listen up you dogfuckers “We will not tolerate any racism here on the ABC”.
Which says what exactly?
Is it the case that Mr Joe Average is sufficiently robust to withstand language that would have been punishable by law in 1939 when Gone With the Wind was made, but people of colour are so feeble that hearing the word darky will trigger their PTSD?
Where’s the dog catcher …
There’s never one around when you need one.
Hours before the ABC broadcast an on-air apology last night to Kenny, the Chaser presenter named in the defamation suit, Andrew Hansen, appeared to defy the terms of the settlement in a tweet: “ABC’s apologising to Chris Kenny, again. The Chaser isn’t, again. But we’ve agreed not to make more pictures of ABC execs shagging hamsters.”
The Chaser’s Chris Taylor posted on Facebook: “Just to be clear. The Chaser team is not apologising, and will never apologise to Chris Kenny. Tonight’s on-air apology is from the ABC, not us.”
Both statements appeared to breach the terms of the ABC’s settlement with Kenny that specified members of the Chaser team would not make public statements that “detract” from the apology.
This clause in the settlement, which also included the ABC paying Kenny’s legal fees and some damages, was intended to prevent a repeat of the way The Chaser’s Julian Morrow undermined Mr Scott’s personal apology to Kenny in April. Mr Scott refused to respond to questions yesterday about whether statements made by the Chaser presenters breached the terms of the settlement. A source close to the ABC said, “If management is not able to insist that its instructions be followed then what you have is anarchy.”
Mr Turnbull welcomed the apology but said the entire affair had been mishandled by the ABC. “My only regret is that immediately following the tasteless skit the ABC did not apologise to Mr Kenny,’’ he said. “I have no doubt that would have settled the matter. As it is, the only winner out of this mishandled episode has been the legal profession.”
Back to court for Mr Kenny?
Time to resign, Mr Scott.
The ABC is the dog …
This is the way that the ABC thought it appropriate to depict its right wing critics.
After the event the ABC investigated itself and found …
A controversial Chaser sketch depicting a News Corp columnist having sex with a dog didn’t breach the ABC’s editorial policies, the ABC’s complaints department has found.
The ABC will today notify almost 200 complainants that the photo-shopped image of Australian columnist Chris Kenny having sex with a dog would have offended many viewers but was legitimate satire.
The ABC, champions of free speech … when it suits them.
Mr Kenny was not amused and sued. Eventually Mark Scott, ABC managing director, found it expedient to issue an apology, immediately devalued by the producers of the skit who said that they did not apologise. And to make sure that Mr Kenny didn’t revel in any sense of victory the ABC issued an ultimatum – drop the case or face the consequences of a legal battle against a corporation backed by any amount of taxpayer’s money.
Mr Kenny would not be bullied and tonight the ABC will apologise on air.
Peppa spray …
One of the unintended consequences of Mr Abbott’s budget is the threat to Peppa Pig.
Pigs are raised for food, not for decoration, not for their perfume. How insensitive is the ABC to broadcast Peppa Pig without so much as a trigger warning. Kids confronted with their bacon and eggs at breakfast are in grave danger of PTSD.
And does the ABC not realise that pigs are not halal. How culturally insensitive.
How long before the pig police … hang on, is that a tautology? … catch up with them?
I call on you now, Mark Scott, slaughter this nefarious pig this very instant, make it your highest priority, set aside any concerns you may have about bias or balance, cease worrying about any offence the Chasers may have given to dog fuckers everywhere. Do it now … humanely, of course.
It will make an old man happy, of all the drivel that it has been my grandfatherly duty to endure Peppa Pig is without doubt the worst.
ABC, IPCC and reality …
Any resemblance?
The warming hiatus must have produced a few cases of nerves at the ABC, the only thing keeping pace with the continued increase in CO2 being the gap between the predicted temperature and the actual temperature. IPCC’s recent Summary for Policymakers clearly came as a great relief. You could hear it in the presenter’s voice when telling us of the negative impact of climate change on crop yields.
Before slashing your wrists so that your children may have your share of the dwindling food supply take a look at this …
Accent, what accent … ?
Most of the people I meet don’t have an accent. We’re all Australians. People from other places have accents, I’m sure you’ve noticed that.
Likewise, the ABC is not biased, right wingers are the only people who could possibly think otherwise.
Getup, a centrist organisation if ever there was one, is a good friend of the ABC determined to protect it from the IPA, clearly a fascist organisation. Really, every one with a brain realises that the Q&A audience are utterly typical of everyone with a brain. QED.
On the other hand, those of us that have got most of life’s major decisions right are not only likely to be of the right we also have the ABC to thank for the knowledge that not everyone is so blessed. For them the science is settled and if a voice is raised against the social monologue it must be shouted down ASAP. We, because we don’t think like that, are constantly reminded that science by its very nature is never settled and the social polylogue continues. It’s good to be aware of diversity.
Good but, perhaps, not worth a billion dollars a year, funded mostly by life’s higher achievers. The argument for a national broadcaster was compelling in a time when there was little else available. In this day and age we can source radio from anywhere in the world thanks to the web, there are TV channels aplenty, you can have the Age delivered or read the Times of India on-line instead. But even in modern Australia no other media organisation can have a TV channel or four, a Radio channel or four and an online print news service in the same market place.
It’s time to cut it loose. It’ll survive, it’s already receiving donations from little girls.
bobmcgee 