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Whenever the coalition is in opposition it rumbles about slashing ABC funding, but whenever they are
in power, the rumblings seem to fall quiet. The typically left-wing ABC bias seems to
jump a little to the center too. A report in the The Australian 2002-12-28-p5 suggests a reason.
Former federal Liberal party president Tony Staley has firmed as favourite to
replace Michael Kroger on the ABC board.
He is regarded as more a 'palatable' option than Peter (who's using my phone
card) Reith. We see a hidden use for the ABC - puting the burnt-out political parties' cronies out
to pasture. At around $AU550M per year (the budget of your ABC), this is an inefficient
way to force the tax-payer to
slosh a few mil' to some political cronies, but it also keeps that special little
interest group 'Friends of the ABC' happy, and helps the Liberal party pick up a
few votes, as some of them decide that 'maybe the Liberals are not all bad'. But if it's my ABC, then can I choose to stop paying my 10c per day please? No. Our government,
ostensibly dedicated to free enterprise, isn't yet willing to abandon the
Stalinist symbolism of the state controlled media enterprise. Not when it's so
useful to them. Corporatizing the ABC and issuing equal shares to every Australian citizen (after all, it's
your ABC) might be good democracy, but it would create problems with
giving jobs for the boys.
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