Monday Noticeboard

Today’s noticeboard is brought to you by newly-appointed ABC chairman Kim Williams’s warning to the ABC’s activist staff. Which would be all of them.

He's waiting for ABC staff to make spectacles of themselves

It reads like a posh version of the Riot Act:

ABC chair Kim Williams has warned journalists that activism is not welcome at the taxpayer-funded broadcaster and if reporters fail to observe impartiality guidelines they should leave the organisation.

Really? And if they refuse to leave, what exactly are you going to do about it?

Mr Williams, who commenced as ABC chair two weeks ago after the conclusion of Ita Buttrose’s term, said he had little tolerance for reporters who failed to be objective and stressed the importance of staff always aspiring to be “fair-minded”.

They aspire to elevate leftism. And, inasmuch as doing so requires capturing the ABC, they’ve already done it.

“If you don’t want to reflect a view that aspires to impartiality don’t work at the ABC,” he said in a recent episode of the Fourth Estate podcast with host Monica ­Attard.

“I really think this is a very serious issue.”

This bloke may be a few decades late to the post.

“This is a publicly funded organisation, it is a publicly accountable organisation, it is a respondent to legislation to the national parliament and it must always aspire to be as fair-minded in its work as it possibly can be.”

Anyone else feel as though they’re reading a Trove extract from the old Argus?

“It needs to ensure that there is a very conscious movement to better reflect the panoply of Australian society and its journalistic workforce,” Mr Williams said.

“But that doesn’t give people a leave pass to abandon the aspiration to impartiality. That’s just not available for discussion nor should it be.”

Let’s wish him all the best, but Williams always sounds as though he’s delivering a speech to Pathe News on the perils of Indian partition.

“I think that it is always important that in receipt of any representation from one or opposing points of view that one has an extremely sober, serious impartiality in receiving the information and that one should not respond ever in haste to such representation.”

As I was saying.

“What I’m looking forward to is renewing a focus at the ABC on external issues from the ABC rather than the kind of addictive focus that so happens in the ABC of the ABC talking about itself to itself within itself,” he said ...

That’ll free up about 400 programming hours every week on the Anniversary Broadcasting Channel.

Mr Williams’ five-year tenure runs until 2029.

Place your bets.