STRANDED ON AN ISLAND WITH NOTHING BUT THE ABC
Chris Kenny ask readers to “imagine if you had been stranded on an island for the past few years with nothing to watch, listen to or read from but Australia’s public broadcaster.”
Chris Kenny ask readers to “imagine if you had been stranded on an island for the past few years with nothing to watch, listen to or read from but Australia’s public broadcaster”:
You would be under the false apprehension that our navy tortured asylum-seekers who were then raped on Nauru. You would think the people-smuggling trade was impossible to stop and that if boats were turned back there would be a conflict with Indonesia.
You would think climate change was the greatest threat to the country, region and the world, and that it was already making our lives worse; on the bright side you would have faith that a carbon tax, emissions trading scheme or national energy guarantee would put an end to droughts, floods and bushfires while saving the Great Barrier Reef.
You might be under the impression that our dams were dry and $12 billion of desalination plants were supplying us with water.
There is a good chance you would be unaware of the US’s economic recovery but you would know the ins and outs of every crackpot allegation about Russian interference in American politics.
Some people, of course, happen to live on an island called Australia where they voluntarily absorb the ABC’s deceptions and rely on the rest of us to pay for them.
By the way, there once was a real-life example of a stranded island-dweller who depended solely upon the ABC for all of his news. Hiroo Onoda died in 2014:
A Japanese soldier who refused to surrender after the Second World War ended and spent 29 years hiding in the jungle while continuing a guerilla war has died aged 91.
Hiroo Onoda remained on an island in the Philippines until 1974 because he did not believe the war was over.
He became the last Japanese soldier to surrender – but only after his former commander, who in 1945 had told him to stay behind and spy on American troops, was flown from Japan to order him to give up …
The Philippine government pardoned Mr Onoda although many in Lubang never forgave him for the 30 people he killed during his campaign on the island.
Onoda at one point during his three decades in the jungle obtained a radio, which should have provided him with a few clues about the war’s outcome:
For information, he would listen to a stolen shortwave radio.
Tragically, however, Onoda tuned into the one station guaranteed never to reveal any useful information at all:
His favourite broadcast was ABC Radio Australia.