Since Labor came to office the ABC has grown to gargantuan proportions sucking up more and more taxpayers' money like a giant vacuum cleaner. We've seen the introduction of fringe digital channels, magazines nobody buys and an expansion of ABC Shops stocked with overpriced goods the discerning person can buy on the Net.
But the thing which is a constant source of anger is the left wing bias of their news and current affairs.
The only things I watch on the ABC are The Gruen Transfer which is usually informative and entertaining, and Media Watch just to see what the Leftist fringe is saying about popular personalities and newspapers. Other programs such as Q&A and Four Corners are strictly persona non grata because they are garbage. Left wing bilge well and truly.
I've managed to isolate myself from the more left wing and offensive aspects of the ABC but occasionally it intrudes on my life and I have no control over whether I watch it or not. Such an occasion happened yesterday when I went to the family doctor and had to sit in the waiting room for almost one hour and thirty minutes. On the screen in front of me was ABC News 24, one of their wasteful new digital channels.
You couldn't really call it news, it was ideolgical warfare. Slanted stories, irrelevant bumph, foreign crap nobody is interested in, propaganda supporting climate change theory and the carbon tax, it was relentless. On a few occasions I couldn't put up with it anymore. I locked myself in the toilet reading The Australian, but I had to come out in case I received the call from the doctor.
One of the more offensive programs they showed during this slow torture was something called Newsline. The first story was about Pakistani terrorism. There were the usual interviews with extremists, the stock ABC shots of the female reporter facing the camera wearing a hijab and the flags flying. This was followed by a story about Palestinian recognition by the UN which featured the usual interviews with extremists, flags flying, you get the drift. Now was this crap of any relevance to anybody in this country? Who gives a stuff? Obviously nobody because ABC News 24 is by far the lowest rating TV station in Australia with a rating of less than 1% of the viewing audience. Why is it still on air?
Throughout this I couldn't help thinking about all that taxpayers' money being wasted keeping this crap on the air. Not just the propaganda pushers on screen but all the support staff - technicians, producers, sound people - a whole army of people on the public funding teat.
The time is long past to rid the taxpayer of this massive waste of public money. How can we justify having an organisation pumping out biased, blinkered left wing propaganda on multiple platforms 24 hours a day gobbling up millions of dollars. How can they justify having a digital radio station broadcasting nothing but jazz music? Or a magazine devoted to organic gardening? Or a digital TV station showing kids' programs and rating next to nothing?
One of the first things Tony Abbott should do when he wins office is do a complete audit of the ABC, savagely cut staff and prepare it for privatisation. Talks should then take place with Foxtel with a view to turning the ABC into a pay TV operation and Foxtel can decide what to do with all the baggage they'll inherit such as magazines and the ABC Shops.
If Foxtel won't take it on then the ABC should simply be closed down altogether and the tape archives donated to the National Film and Sound Archive.
We shouldn't have to put up with the taxpayer subsidising a rogue organisation broadcasting fringe left-wing propaganda offensive to the majority of Australians and repeatedly thumbing their noses at the values and attitudes we hold so dear.
