ABC's Leftist views at odds with the public

THE future of the politically-driven ABC, the audio-visual arm of the extreme Green Left, needs to be reviewed. It has abused its charter. It does not contribute to a sense of national identity, inform or entertain as its charter decrees.

It is divisive. It hectors those who do not conform to its political views, it does not fully inform its audience of issues of national interest and it is entertaining only to the dwindling handful of inner-urban activists it caters to. Just yesterday Sydney breakfast announcer Adam Spencer cut off global warming critic Lord Monckton after goading him with a barrage of questions which seemed designed to humiliate. A day earlier, morning announcer Deborah Cameron exposed her Green-conspiracist leanings in an exchange with political editor Alison Carabine, implying the Seven and Ten TV networks had refused to give Julia Gillard free air time because of such shareholders as Kerry Stokes and Gina Rinehart, who represented mining interests. In a rare and brave display of political independence Carabine replied: "I doubt that very, very much. I think any suggestion that she's being censored because of anything coming down from head office is quite ridiculous." Cameron is ridiculous. Indeed she, like Bob Ellis, whose uninspiring sludge is feted on the ABC's Drum website, are emblematic of the sprawling communication commune's group-think. The deep-seated Leftist control of the ABC was on show in prime time last night with the airing of a program titled "Leaky Boat", billed as a documentary, and a special edition of Q&A. Paid for by taxpayers, the video purported to review the events surrounding the rescue of 438 people from a people smuggler's boat in international waters by the MV Tampa in 2001 and the Howard government's response, which included establishing a refugee processing centre on Nauru. But it didn't tell viewers that the boat was in Indonesia's rescue zone when the Tampa found it and it didn't refer to Captain Arne Rinnan's statement that: "A delegation of five men came up to the bridge. They behaved aggressively and told us to go to Australia. They said they had nothing to lose." Surely, what appears to constitute a clear act of piracy is worthy of mention? And on HMAS Manoora, the crew quarters prepared for the rescued were vandalised. Bed frames were smashed broken, rungs were ripped from ladders for use as weapons.One woman even threw her own child to the deck, breaking the infant's arm, in a bid to intimidate navy staff. The video also meanders through the so-called "children overboard" affair though nothing new is shown beyond an interview with a young woman who, as a baby, was depicted in a naval video being held by her father as if he were threatening to throw her into the ocean as she screamed. This, she says, was "the way we scare the navy ... It (was) a joke." Unfortunately, some naval personnel were scarred by such jokes and young female seaman Bec Lynd is hauled before the cameras (again) to discuss the trauma. It is a pity the documentary didn't show the naval personnel traumatised and injured when boat people blew up their own vessel in 2009, killing five of their fellow passengers, and injuring a further 51. Nor did the documentary refer to the 50 people who were lured to their death on the rocky shore of Christmas Island by Labor's boat people policy last December 15. At the end of the video it did briefly acknowledge that after Tampa, the people smugglers' boats stopped coming. However, the filmmakers did not explore the importance of that outcome. Instead they wasted their time on figures such as Mike Scrafton, a former government adviser whose credibility was shredded after he gave conflicting accounts of his memory of events to a Senate inquiry in September, 2004. Throughout, the narrator - former Play School host Noni Hazlehurst - refers to "our" reaction as if she and the ABC are "us" the mainstream. "Our" reaction, as reflected in the polls, was not that of the ABC staff or its fans. The polls show that the majority of the Australian people applauded the decisive action the Howard government took. When the Howard government left office there were four people in detention. Yesterday there were 5899, and new detention centres are being built to house further expected arrivals. Australians should retake their ABC and hold it to its charter. If it wished to unite the nation it might run a documentary on the Howard years with the title "Real government and sound policy".