ABC News advances its alliance with Murdoch’s Sky News

Recent programs have confirmed ABC News is increasingly under the control of pro-Coalition activists, as Alan Austin reports.

IN A SHAMEFUL display of partisan politicking for Australia’s discredited Coalition parties, ABC News devoted almost the entire Insiders program on 9 November to the Liberals and the Nationals.

This had no relevance whatsoever for viewers. Over the next ten years, the Federal Coalition will have less impact on citizens’ lives than the Australian Jugger League, the Yowie Research group and Ferret Owners Australia Inc.

Irrelevance of the Federal Liberal Party

After the May Election, the Coalition held 43 seats in the 150-member Lower House. Should the next election see a 3.9% swing back to the Coalition – same as the recent swing against them – they would gain only 14 seats and end up with 57 MPs, still a dismal minority.

So Labor will get a third term in 2028, or earlier, with a majority strong enough to propel it into a fourth in 2031 and probably a fifth in 2034.

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This is not fanciful. With polls showing Labor leading the Coalition 56% to 44% in its fourth year in office, it is virtually certain Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will serve as Prime Minister longer than Bob Hawke’s nine years, and likely exceed John Howard’s 11 years and nine months.

While it is improbable Albo will beat Bob Menzies’ 16 years in the top job, it is conceivable Labor could break the Coalition’s record 23-year reign. Records are made to be broken.

Insiders copies the Sky News obsession with the Coalition

A bizarre Insiders program on Sunday 9 November devoted all but nine of its 59 minutes to the Coalition parties and their brawling over climate, abortion and leadership.

Contributing Coalition MPs included Opposition Leader Sussan Ley (eight times), Senator Sarah Henderson (five times), Shadow Defence Minister Angus Taylor (three times), MP Tony Pasin (twice), MP Andrew Hastie (twice) and nine others.

Coalition figures discussed included Robert Menzies, Tony Abbott, Peter Dutton, Nick Minchin, Pru Goward, Matt Canavan, Michael Sukkar, Roshena Campbell and James Paterson. The last-named of these will be as helpful over the next three terms as the first.

The featured interview was with Liberal Shadow Housing Minister, Senator Andrew Bragg, who was gifted 15 minutes of mostly softball questions.

Several comments openly spruiked the Liberal Party.

In the segment critiquing Andrew Hastie’s foolish comments on abortion, Patricia Karvelas noted:

“Andrew Hastie sees himself as a future leader. He has many good attributes, to be honest. He has lots of strengths.”

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Karvelas also boosted Roshena Campbell:

“...who was on my show on Friday and contributed really interestingly, I think, to this debate and still has an appetite to go into politics at the federal level.”

The program allotted three minutes to Labor’s housing policy, with a 13-second clip from Housing Minister Clare O’Neil and three minutes on the economy. Mentions were made of a transferring ABC colleague and Graeme Richardson’s death.

Contributions from Labor MPs were seven seconds from Albo in Parliament, four seconds from Energy Minister Chris Bowen, ten seconds from Treasurer Jim Chalmers and two short comments from Clare O’Neil.

No time was allocated to anyone who, besides Labor, will actually influence parliamentary decisions in the foreseeable future — the Greens, who hold 11 Senate seats, One Nation with four senators and the six individual minor party or Independent senators.

This Insiders episode is not an isolated aberration. Other programs obsessing over the loser Liberals include 7.30, Radio National Breakfast, ABC AM and others.

Embracing the malice of Murdoch’s malevolent network

Kim Williams’ appointment as ABC Chair in March 2024 – after many years serving Rupert Murdoch – has disappointed those who hoped he would arrest the shift towards the Murdoch model of falsifying information and boosting right-wing political causes.

Other senior ABC News staff recently recruited from News Corp include Olivia Caisley, Clare Armstrong, Fiona Willan and Ben Butler.

Insiders programs this year have prominently featured former News Corp employees Patricia Karvelas, David Speers, Clare Armstrong and Niki Savva, as well as current staff Samantha Maiden and Greg Sheridan.

ABC News shamelessly spreads Liberal Party’s blatant lies

The national broadcaster still refuses to fulfil its duty to broadcast the truth.

The 9 November Insiders actually played a clip direct from Sky News – with a free plug – of Shadow Energy Minister Dan Tehan extolling the gas extraction industry, one of the Liberal Party’s big donors.

There is no excuse for this. There is abundant evidence from court cases, Press Council adjudications, parliamentary inquiries, academic research, admissions from former employees and defamation settlements that distorting the news and fabricating “stories” is News Corp’s core business model.

Other ABC departments complicit

An email sent to the ABC’s mailing list last Tuesday from a unit called ‘ABC Yours’ asked for donations based on false claims.

It read:

‘Across Australia, the demand for food relief is surging, with 77% of charities reporting more people are seeking support than ever before.’

Yes, some citizens still need free food, particularly those with chronic drug dependency, severe mental health issues or who have decided to disassociate from government services. The numbers, however, are now at the lowest as a percentage of the population than ever, as shown by the Productivity Commission, the Bureau of Statistics and other agencies.

Do the food banks report strong demand? Of course. Everyone loves free meals, regardless of wealth or income.

IA asked the ABC’s media department which charities were surveyed and on what analysis the poverty claims were made, but received no substantial response.

Unfortunately, falsifying hardship in Australia to discredit Labor is a persistent ABC failing, as exposed here, here and here.

Let’s hope the national broadcaster shifts its focus henceforward to more relevant issues than the Coalition — like ferrets, yowies and the nation’s magnificent pompfen champions.