Politics is so weird these days (from The Australian):
Under the deal announced last night, One Nation would support the abolition of the two-out-of-three and reach rules in return for the government agreeing to legislate a requirement for the ABC and SBS to be balanced and to publish the wages of highly paid ABC staff.
But Senator Xenophon would not rule out supporting the bill if the government agreed to some of his own proposals, including tax breaks to small publishers.
“This piece of legislation is not about the ABC or SBS, it is about the existential crisis that the commercial media has found itself, largely as a result of Google and Facebook, the fact that they hoover away $4bn worth of advertising revenue in this country away from commercial media outlets,” Senator Xenophon told ABC radio.
“To me this is about how do you deal with antiquated two-out-of-three rule? How do you deal with the fact that the commercial media is struggling?”
And:
One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts says the ABC needs more oversight to ensure it is balanced in its reporting, rejecting arguments its Charter has worked.
Senator Roberts said legislation was needed to require ABC was fair and balanced, arguing its reporting on climate change rarely aired voices that were skeptical about a need to reduce carbon emissions.
And:
Under the deal, the salaries of big-name ABC and SBS stars would be revealed to the public and the national public broadcasters would also face an inquiry into how they compete with commercial rivals, while the ABC charter would include the words “fair and balanced”.
The ABC charter already includes the words “accurate and impartial” but the government will look to introduce legislation by the end of this year to tack on “fair and balanced”.
Senator Hanson-Young responded to Clarke’s question by claiming that, “Pauline Hanson has a personal grudge against the ABC”.
“We know that it (ABC) has been in her sights for quite some time, as is the SBS,” Senator Hanson-Young said.
She claimed the deal would “fundamentally undermine the independence of our public broadcasters and come with a big whack of funding cuts”.
“People need to be really clear in their understanding; Pauline Hanson doesn’t believe that the ABC and SBS should have online in-demand services like iView and SBS on Demand. That is what is in their sights,” she said.
A few points:
- ABC salaries should be public. They’re public servants.
- The ABC should only ever carry news that is credible. Therefore it should not report skeptics of climate change in equal measure to proponents given there are very few of the former.
- For that matter it shouldn’t ever report on anything Roberts’ says for the same reason (when is he going to resign for being a Pom, BTW?)
- As for the ABC carrying the tag “fair and balanced”, does nobody recall that that Fox News just dumped the same tagline?
- Xenophon can’t do anything to fix media business models. But he could tax the new monsters properly.
- The broader media reform is a bad idea despite the internet. Australian media is controlled enough.
There is nobody in this discussion making any sense at all.
