The Media, the ABC, and Leftist Propaganda

The West is in a war. It has enemies aplenty but most of them are in the West itself. Those most eager to destroy the West are not hostile forces from without, but enemies from within. And the mainstream media is now fully involved in this war against the West.

Western media is leftist media, and it is hostile to what most folks in the West believe in and value. Many social commentators have made this case. Early on in his 2011 volume Righteous Indignation Andrew Breitbart put it this way:

Make no mistake: America is in a media war. It is an extension of the Cold War that never ended but shifted to an electronic front. The war between freedom and statism ended geographically when the Berlin Wall fell. But the existential battle never ceased. When the Soviet Union disintegrated, the battle simply took a different form. Instead of missiles the new weapon was language and education, and the international left had successfully constructed a global infrastructure to get its message out.

He continued, “The left does not win its battles in debate. It doesn’t have to. In the twenty-first century, media is everything. The left wins because it controls the narrative. The narrative is controlled by the media. The left is the media. Narrative is everything.”

abc 4Exactly right. To understand the Australian media in general, and the ABC in particular, one simply has to be aware of this larger ideological framework. Then all the daily outrages perpetrated by groups like “our” ABC will all make sense. I have documented dozens of cases of outrageous bias, anti-Christian bigotry, and extreme left nonsense pouring forth on a regular basis from the national broadcaster.

Consider the most recent outrage – another “accident” which the ABC head honcho had to again “apologize” for. This despicable network is so utterly consumed in its diabolical hatred of all things conservative, Christian and especially Tony Abbott, that it just cannot stop venting its darkened spleen.

The devils there thought it would be fun to allow through yet another anti-Abbott tweet, with an account called “AbbotLovesAnal”. Gotta love the classy, professional folks who work at “our” ABC. So hate-filled are they, that any gutter crap will be given free run – as long as Abbott is crucified no matter what. Rita Panahi was spot on when she wrote:

Here we go again. The genius crew at the helm of the ABC’s flagship program, Q&A, have yet again covered themselves in ignominy. The decision to broadcast a tweet from an account with a highly offensive handle was either a malicious act of bastardry designed to embarrass Prime Minister Tony Abbott or simply due to gross ineptitude.
You can never be sure with the ABC but it’s remarkable that the lapses, factual errors and unfortunate “accidents” that occur with regular monotony on the behemoth’s many platforms tend to vilify only one side of politics.
Less than three weeks since the Prime Minister lifted a ban on government front benchers appearing on the program, the ideologues at the helm of Q&A have shown they’ve learnt nothing from the Zaky Mallah saga. Hapless CEO Mark Scott was once more left to apologise for the conduct of an organisation that has become a law unto itself.

The simple truth is the ABC is absolutely crawling with Abbott-haters, and they will seek to get away with any vile attack they can, all the while living the good life off our tax dollars. And that the ABC is crawling with lefties, Labor supporters, and anti-Abbott nut jobs is not mere speculation.

A recent piece posted at the Larry Pickering site is most revealing in this regard. It points out the uber-incestuous relationship between the Labor Party and ABC heavyweight:

“Why does the Left media protect the left?”
Because the political commentators of the Left media are either intermingled or married to the left politicians. It’s a family thing and they protect their own.
Greg Combet (Labor) partnered to Juanita Phillips (ABC).
Gai Brodtmann (Labor) married to Chris Uhlmann (ABC).
David Feeney (Labor) married to Liberty Sanger (guest commentator on ABC).
Barry Cassidy (ABC) former speech writer for Bob Hawke (Labor) from 1986-1991 married to Heather Ewart (ABC).
Maxine McKew (ABC) married to Bob Hogg (former ALP national secretary).
Virginia Trioli (ABC) married to Russell Skelton (The Age).
Mark Kenny (Fairfax) married to Virginia Haussegger (ABC).
Christine Wallace (ABC & Fairfax) married to Michael Costello (former Chief of Staff to Labor’s Kim Beazley).
Annabel Crabb (former Fairfax journalist now with the ABC).
Tony Jones (ABC) married to Sarah Ferguson (ABC). Coincidentally Jones took over the Lateline role from Maxine McKew (from ABC presenter to Labor politician).
David Penberthy (journalist) married to Kate Ellis (Labor).
Paul Kelly (former Fairfax journalist) formerly married to Ros Kelly (Labor).
Kerry O’Brien (ABC) former press secretary to Gough Whitlam.
Mark Colvin (ABC) married to Michelle McKenzie (Leichhardt deputy-mayor and Greens Councillor).
Denis Atkins (ABC Insiders regular) married to Melanie Christensen (ABC Canberra).
Paul Barry (ABC) married to Lisa McGregor (ABC).
The lamentable Mike Carlton (formerly Fairfax) and Morag Ramsay (ABC).
Andrew Fraser (Fairfax) and Catriona Jackson (formerly Fairfax and Labor press secretary).
And so the list goes on.
Labor, Fairfax and the ABC are joined at the hip.
Much like the relationship between Labor and the unions.
Why do they protect Burke where they savage Bishop?
They’re just looking after the family………….(wearing “I’ll ride with Burke” T-shirts.)

Hmm, why is all this not one bit surprising? These clowns deny their bias every day of the week, but they are up to their ears in political leftism, and proud of it. Indeed, were we able to do a poll of the voting record of the ABC leadership, I do not doubt for a moment we would find that Labor and the Greens would get 90 per cent of their vote.

American studies have found just that: folks in the media there overwhelmingly vote Democrat, are pro-abortion, pro-homosexuality, pro-big government, and so on. It is obvious in everything we find coming from these media outlets. It is a shameless control of the narrative, to push leftist agendas.

Some years ago now Chris Kenny wrote an article on “Whose ABC?” It is well worth repeating parts of it here. Writing in 2011 he said:

The ABC is certainly the most influential cultural institution in the nation, increasing its complexity and reach almost by the day. The corporation consists of six national and international radio stations, five television stations, online services, publishing and retailing, with annual public funding topping $1 billion, and more than 5000 staff in more than 70 locations in Australia and overseas. Yet as it has expanded there has been no commensurate increase in accountability or responsiveness to the public who fund it.

He continues:

Insiders talk about recruitment policies fuelling a political culture, particular in the Sydney and Melbourne city headquarters, at Ultimo and Southbank, where about half of all ABC staff members are based. There is a relatively low staff turnover so many employees have spent most of their working lives in the ABC, in the main cities. One former board member says recruiting people from a greater variety of backgrounds should be a high priority.
A very different ABC culture exists in the regions, but it has little influence outside of those regions. The ABC is still a heavily centralised beast, with all its operations outside the Sydney-Melbourne-Canberra axis referred to disparagingly as the BAPH states (Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart). Each capital has a state director, but because the operations are divided into national silos of television, radio, news and the like, board members believe state directors find it difficult to have any real impact. All big decisions are made in Ultimo. Staff outside NSW jokingly refer to their employer as the SBS: Sydney Broadcasting Service.
There are no easy answers to this Sydney-centric reality except to be aware of it.

But there is no end to the ways the ABC can keep pushing bias. As Kenny wrote just recently:

The ABC seems to have found a novel way to guard against the Green Left bias shown by so many of its leading presenters. Instead of having them conduct their own interviews, Auntie can simply have them read out questions from audiences.
On Lateline last week Tony Jones was interviewing former Labor environment minister Greg Combet. “Let’s go to a Facebook question,” said Jones. “This is from Linda Mae Reeb and it’s on this subject, she asks, ‘Can you estimate the investment required in the Australian renewable market to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in emissions?’ ”
Combet nodded as Jones read it out. Why wouldn’t he? What a pleasant break from the rigours of a forensic television interrogation.
We look forward to similar intermezzos when government ministers are grilled. “I know you’re on the back foot now, Treasurer, and my questioning is getting just a little snide,” Sarah Ferguson might say, “so let’s go to a Facebook question on taxation reform”.
Given revelations about high ABC salaries, perhaps this is also a way to save the public broadcaster some money. There are plenty of presentable and relatively cut-price juniors who could sit in the chair and read out the online questions.
No doubt government staffers are busy setting up fake Facebook accounts so they can post their curly queries. “Prime Minister, if we could just leave the Speaker’s woes and budget difficulties there for a moment we have a Facebook question,” Leigh Sales might say. “This one is from Jenny at Mt Druitt and she asks, ‘To what do you attribute your greatness?’”
Next, no doubt, we’ll have to commission an investigation into question selection. Perhaps a committee could be formed to devise an ABC code of conduct for social media question selection and presentation. A strong tip for rule No 1 would be to ignore Zaky Mallah’s Facebook questions until further notice.

Of course. They already stack their audiences with their buddies, they take video questions and comments from their buddies, and they stack the panels of their shows with their buddies. What bias?

There is no reason in the world why taxpayers must subsidise this gross and appalling bias. De-fund now.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/rita-panahi-abc-qa-accidents-only-vilify-one-side-of-politics/story-fnpp4dl6-1227498392096
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/whose-abc/story-fn59niix-1226063961087
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/abc-hides-green-left-bias-by-reading-out-questions/story-fn8qlm5e-1227448173065

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7 Replies to “The Media, the ABC, and Leftist Propaganda”

  1. I recall Virginia Trioli admitting that the ABC was biased to the left and said it was necessary and justified to counter the allegedly right-wing Murdoch press. She said it was the ABC’s duty to balance up the reporting of the Murdoch papers.

  2. Forgetting for a moment any left or right leanings. Shouldn’t the ABC being a public service be an equal opportunity employer? That list seems like one big list of conflicts of interest. Its actually quite disgusting! Too bad for anyone wanting a job in the media who is not politically connected.

  3. If there was no commercial TV available, one might be able to make a case for government funded TV. Otherwise, there obviously is no excuse for such a waste of tax dollars, even if ABC was fair & objective.

  4. Thank you for this post. May I please offer a UK take on this.

    I was preaching the gospel at the high profile gay pride parade in Manchester (England) on Saturday. Participating in the parade in open support of it was BBC Radio Manchester. There was a large banner on display saying ‘BBC Pride’.

    As the gay rights movement raises controversial moral issues which divide opinion, as its stance is in flat contradiction of the Christian revelation, and as there are clear political ramifications to it, one must ask whether the BBC’s presence in such a one sided manner accords with its duty of impartiality under the terms of its charter as a public service broadcaster.

  5. Bravo!

    And to think so many Lefty hypocrites scream about Murdoch’s Sky News which actually has an enormous amount of ex-ALP chairing their programs. Its far more balanced bc conservatives are far more willing to listen to the other side.

  6. What did we have on SBS the other night? Apparently now Christianity is to blame for the West’s obsession with sex. Not advertising or the various media’s constant exploitation of sex but Christianity and what was on of the first chapter titles but “Christianity vs. The West.” This is just absolutely perverse and lying propaganda. Of course no mention that the West was established with Christian institutions of schools, universities, democracy, true equality, law courts and property rights etc. etc. etc.

    The public broadcasters perverse view of “equality” was highlighted the last time I watched an ABC news broadcast (months ago) where they were trying to make the point that both Christian and Muslim forces in Africa were using child soldiers (i.e. they are equal). It was not until you delved into the story that you saw their justification for this claim was a sixteen year old girl who was fighting with the Christian forces. No mention of the fact that she had been kidnapped by the Muslims years earlier, been used as a sex slave, had managed to escape and had joined the Christian forces of her own volition to fight the bastards and who could blame her. What we saw was an obviously biased representation that had scoured the world to try and find evidence that Christianity and Islam were in fact equal. Yes young people having to fight wars is against Western sensibilities but no mention that the Muslims have been doing this sort of oppression for centuries and these people are fighting for their own existence and to not be continually used and abused as slaves.

    No the ABC and SBS are a pretty near constant stream of propaganda and sewerage.

  7. It seems “the truth” is “constantly evolving” at the behest of its keepers and trainers – the mass-media circus! When information feeds to the masses are in the hands of a “chosen few”, the result is brainwashing on such a grand scale that interrogators behind the Bamboo and Iron Curtains would turn Green with envy!

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