Add another national broadcaster to reflect other views, says George Pell
Australia should consider a second national broadcaster to present a different outlook to the ABC, Cardinal George Pell says.
Australia should consider a second national broadcaster to present an alternative outlook to the ABC, Cardinal George Pell believes.
Writing in The Weekend Australian from Rome, Cardinal Pell said: “Very sensibly Italy has at least a couple of government-sponsored television stations to reflect the different points of view, which is an option that should be considered by any national conservative government in Australia, where the ABC is dominated by a Gramscian hegemony, hostile to social conservatives, most Christians and often to Western civilisation. The Italian media is divided and disputatious but not monochrome.”
Asked if his view was shaped by the ABC’s coverage of the child abuse charges against him that eventually were overturned 7-nil by the High Court and the ABC’s coverage of a rape allegation against Christian Porter, the cardinal said his was a broad observation but those matters were part of it. “Everybody has a right to due process,’’ he said. “I think they were so convinced that their position was correct that they cut corners on due process and it is always dangerous.”
Asked whether he regretted not following the same path as Mr Porter, who is suing ABC journalist Louise Milligan and the corporation for defamation, Cardinal Pell said: “I don’t regret it too deeply.” Would he still consider doing so? “No comment.”
He said a free press was more important to democracy than ever in the era of “wokeness’’ and “cancel culture’’. He would not support privatisation of the ABC but greater diversity in national broadcasting was essential. “But beyond one or two (government-funded) outlets, most of the media should be part of an open market.”
Cardinal Pell said he doubted whether the old BBC ideal of impartiality was possible any longer given the green-left outlook of most humanities courses taught in Australian universities.
Writing from his apartment beside the Eternal City’s Leonine walls, constructed by Pope Leo IV in 850 after Rome had been ravaged by Saracens, Cardinal Pell said Catholic Rome, battling COVID-19, was “ill at ease, as the Vatican’s financial troubles begin to bite, with the cardinals’ salaries being clipped by 10 per cent and other staff by 8 per cent”.
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