Not as simple as ABC, Mr Rudd

OPPOSITION leader Kevin Rudd is the master of the meaningless 20-second sound bite based on no more (presumably) than a passing pleasure at the sound of his own voice.

In his attempts to give the perception that he understands and is across all issues, he has shown himself as a shameless publicity seeker of astounding superficiality. Putting aside his ill-advised endorsement of a troop detachment to Afghanistan which had, in fact, long gone, and his inability just last Thursday to respond to questions about the productivity gains shown in the recent national account figures, or his hypocritical attack on Prime Minister Howard over the use of Kirribilli House, there are numerous illustrations of ridiculous statements he has made and of silly bids intending to gazump the government, exploding in his face because of his ignorance of the issues. An outstanding example of this empty-headed grandstanding was Rudd's grab for headlines with his pledge to adopt a British system and appoint an ABC chairman, chosen with the approval of the Opposition leader of the day, and board members selected by an independent group of experts. This, said Rudd, would block ``front-line cultural warriors'' from taking up senior appointments at the ABC. Unfortunately, the BBC, the British national public broadcaster, whose chairman and board are selected under the process which Rudd has nominated as his choice, is notoriously biased and its chairman and board are powerless to deal with its tainted culture. Last year, a leaked record of an ``impartiality summit'' called by BBC chairman Michael Grade revealed that the BBC is dominated by left-leaning liberals who flaunt their biases against British traditional values. BBC executives admitted that it is dominated by homosexuals and people from ethnic minorities, is anti-American, and more sensitive to the feelings of Muslims than Christians. A Mail On Sunday newspaper report of the meeting said one executive agreed the BBC ``may have gone too far in the direction of political correctness''. Executives were asked how they would react to situations including a ``celebrity game'' on which the controversial comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, aka Ali G and Borat, was a guest. The newspaper said that on the program, celebrities are invited to throw their pet hates into a dustbin and it was imagined that Baron Cohen chose some kosher food, the Archbishop of Canterbury, a Bible and the Koran. Nearly everyone at the summit, including the show's producer and the BBC's head of drama, Alan Yentob, agreed they could all be thrown into the bin, except the Koran for fear of offending Muslims. It said that in a debate on whether the BBC should interview Osama bin Laden, it was decided the al-Qaeda leader would be given a platform to explain his views. And the BBC's ``diversity czar'', Mary Fitzpatrick, said women newsreaders should be able to wear whatever they wanted on TV, including veils. Ms Fitzpatrick spoke out after criticism at the summit of TV newsreader Fiona Bruce, who recently wore on air a necklace with a cross. The BBC's Washington correspondent, Justin Webb, said the organisation was so biased against America that deputy director-general Mark Byford had secretly agreed to help him to ``correct'', it in his reports. Webb added that the BBC treated America with scorn and gave it ``no moral weight''. ``America is often portrayed as an ignorant, unsophisticated sort of place, full of bible-bashers and ruled to a dangerous extent by trashy TV, superstition and religious bigotry ...'' he said. That picture would be familiar to the ABC's audience, who are treated to the same warped picture of the US. It is difficult to believe that a person of Rudd's obvious experience does not understand that chairmen and boards have little effect on the underlying culture of the organisations they supposedly direct. That role is the sole province of the chief executive and, to an extremely large extent, the departmental heads, who ensure the institutional rules (written and unwritten) are observed. The ABC has a board which includes noted conservatives Keith Windschuttle, Janet Albrechtsen and Ron Brunton, and is chaired by Maurice Newman, a past board member who resigned on principle after it was alleged that board minutes had been leaked by an ABC staffer then on the board. Under Labor, board members included former Labor premiers and prominent Labor staffers but they, too, had no effect either on the ABC's formidable cultural warriors. The ABC culture is one of serious imbalance and its leaning is indisputably to the left. Rudd's ill-considered solution would have no effect on those devoted to keeping the ABC the cultural equivalent of its flawed British role model. [e-mail]