ABC isn’t observing its charter and is beyond scrutiny

That the ABC is endemically biased is so obvious that no one except the Greens doubts the fact, writes Piers Akerman

“Our” ABC’s hysterical denials of political bias were the most hilarious contributions the public broadcaster made to the public debate in the past week.

It’s a shame that the deadly dull wannabe comedians the Left-wing media outlet promotes aren’t even half as amusing.

That the ABC is endemically biased is so obvious that no one except the Greens (and they have demonstrable difficulty separating fact from fiction) doubts the fact.

The pathetic outrage expressed by ABC News Breakfast presenter Michael Rowland when federal Health Minister Greg Hunt correctly noted: “In many ways, you identify with the Left” only highlighted the issue.

“No, no, minister, I find that offensive,” Rowland bleated.

To publish the full list of ABC employees who have publicly displayed their Left-wing political bias would require a page or more, the names of those who have presented a conservative viewpoint could be contained in a single sentence, if that.

Greg Hunt and Michael Rowland clash in tense ABC interview on air.

The Insiders, a program on which I was one of the initial panellists, became a laughing stock as former host Barrie Cassidy and his producers gradually edged out conservatives who challenged the Leftist dogma presented weekly.

It is now unwatchable. Q&A under former host Tony Jones became a bizarre showcase for the promoters of woke causes with some foreign guests exhibiting sub-zero knowledge of Australia and absolute contempt for the Australian taxpayers who were funding the program. Under new host Hamish Macdonald, a modest attempt to wind back the idiocy has been attempted. Sadly, it has failed.

The spectacular performances of ABC stars like avowed activist Fran Kelly, Laura Tingle, Andrew Probyn, Virginia Trioli and others, particularly during live election coverages, are notorious for the displays of disbelief and dismay when their favoured Left-wing politicians have been defeated.

ABC Headquarters at Ulitmo in Sydney today. Picture: NCA NewsWire/David Swift

The ABC’s presenters inherent biases are exhibited through both the choice of topics and the manner in which guests are interrogated.

As has been often observed, Radio National host Kelly permits her Labor or Green guests to gush unchecked and unquestioned about their plans for a socialist nirvana while conservatives are grilled or, as is more often the case, talked over.

Even the respected veteran Geraldine Doogue descends to the level of her junior colleagues occasionally, as she did Friday, when interviewing a former British chief scientist Sir David King about Australian climate policy. According to the British chemist, Australia must adopt a zero emissions target immediately and stop burning coal to provide power.

The Australian economy, he said, could currently afford to switch to renewables with zero fossil fuels apparently without missing a beat.

Veteran ABC journalist Geraldine Doogue. Picture: John Appleyard

Doogue did not point out that the UK has a nuclear component to its power supply and it also imports vast shiploads of wood chips across the Atlantic aboard fossil fuel-burning cargo ships to make the claim that it is using renewable energy sources.

Nor did she point out that the UK’s elites have cosied up to the murderous totalitarian regime of the Chinese Communist Party’s President Xi — surely a worthy topic when it’s our coal and our iron ore that has been fuelling China’s economic expansion and its carbon dioxide emissions?

This sort of misinformation is often peddled by the ABC which is as totally committed to Climate Extinction alarmism as it is to the Marxist-inspired Black Lives Matter cause.

Perhaps Doogue did not press King on the Australian economy because she would be aware that our current COVID-loaded national debt is rapidly heading toward $44.5 billion, largely because the lethal policy failures of Victoria’s Labor Premier Daniel Andrews and the utterly inept policy settings of Queensland’s Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Criticism of the ABC is not confined to conservatives. Former PMs Bob Hawke and Paul Keating knew they were being attacked from the Left when interviewed by the ABC and former NSW Premier Neville Wran famously interrupted ABC reporter Geoffrey Sims with the question “Are you from the ABC?” before accusing him of a “great deal of malice”.

The ABC isn’t observing its charter and is beyond scrutiny.

Reduce its funding, privatise parts or make it a subscription service.

Axe it if it is beyond redemption.