If the ABC didn't exist, what would happen?

And the case for Trump in thirteen words.

I was interviewed on ABC radio in Melbourne last week for a segment called 'What If?'  The question was, 'What if the ABC didn't exist?'  I said that without the ABC and its guaranteed taxpayer funding of $1.2 billion, the country's media would be more diverse and more interesting.  I also said that since the ABC started regarding itself as the left-wing counterweight to the commercial media, it has ceased providing a diverse range of views and so has become boring and predictable, which partly explains its declining ratings.

I gave the example of my own experience at the ABC.  For about five years until 2015, I was on ABC radio in Melbourne on Fridays once a fortnight on the station's morning program.  'The Wrap' was a half-hour discussion of the week's events with me on the 'right' and various people from the 'left'.   The talkback switchboard was always full with callers.  The producers were proud that it would light up 'like a Christmas tree' whenever the topic of what was then called 'global warming' came up.  On my return to the office from the ABC studios I often had a few dozen messages from listeners wanting to carry on the conversation.  My favourite talkback callers were those who started their sentences with: 'I never thought I'd agree with John Roskam from the IPA  but…'  A decade ago, when I was doing The Wrap (and appearing on ABC TV programs like Q & A) despite the ABC's obvious leftward leanings, its defenders could still point to some effort by program producers to provide a diversity of viewpoints. 

(Contrary to what many people think, the ABC's legislation and charter do not require the ABC to be 'balanced'.  Section 8 (1) (c) of the ABC Act requires the Board to 'ensure that the gathering and presentation by the Corporation of the news and information is accurate and impartial according to the recognised standards of objective journalism'.  In 2017 One Nation attempted to introduce an amendment to the act requiring the ABC Board to ensure that ABC was 'fair, balanced, accurate, and impartial'.  But the Turnbull government had no interest in it and the senate crossbenchers were naturally opposed to it, so nothing happened.)

'The Wrap' was one of the top-rating segments on the program. In 2015 ABC morning radio in Melbourne had an audience share of 14.8 per cent and was out-rating its commercial rival, 3AW. In the most recent ratings from a few weeks ago that figure for the ABC was 5.8 per cent.  While it's hard to pinpoint precisely when non-left voices started disappearing from the ABC, the process became more noticeable around a decade ago. As the ABC reflected less of the Australian community its ratings fell. It's no surprise that the University of Canberra reported last year that the more left-wing you are, the more you like the ABC.

74% of left-wing voters regard the ABC and SBS as important to them, compared to 50% of 'centre' voters, and 43% of right-wing voters.  In 2020 a poll commissioned by the IPA asked respondents whether they agreed with the statement 'The ABC does not represent the views of ordinary Australians.'  30% agreed, 32% disagreed, and 38% didn’t have an opinion.  In Australia, the audience for left-wing news and opinion is simply not that big.  As Patricia Karvelas discovered.  ABC Radio National's flagship program, RN Breakfast, has 70,000 listeners in Sydney, 62,000 in Melbourne, and 37,000 in Brisbane.  (Two weeks ago it was announced Karvelas was leaving as host of RN breakfast.)

I used to think a future federal Coalition government should either sell the ABC or stop funding it.  These days I'm not so sure.  Philosophically my position hasn't changed. Government-owned/funded/controlled media is a threat to democracy.  Full stop.

But leaving principles aside…as a matter of naked politics, the ABC might now be doing more good than harm to the conservative cause in Australia.  For as long as Labor politicians keep appearing on the ABC, and for as long as they believe that by doing so they're talking to mainstream Australians, Labor's vote will continue to shrink.  It's not just Labor MPs who mistake the opinion of ABC journalists for the opinion of Australians.  During the Voice referendum campaign, supporters of Yes spent their time on the ABC talking to listeners and viewers who most likely were Yes voters anyway. If you only talk to people who agree with you, you lose the ability to convince those who don't agree with you - which is what happened to the Yes campaign.  This is why, when challenged, so many Yes supporters instead of turning to argument, resorted to abuse.  One year on, the ABC hasn't stopped barracking for the Voice.  The story on ABC News last week on the first anniversary of the referendum had comments from five people - four Yes supporters (including Anthony Albanese) and one No supporter (Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price).  The position taken by 60% of Australians received just 20% of the ABC's coverage of the issue.

Some stories the ABC ignores completely.  You might remember that last week, I mentioned the case of Western Australian artist Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, who the Albanese government had appointed to the council of the National Gallery.  The Australian newspaper had just reported on his vile and anti-Semitic comments on social media and I wrote about it.  The next day, Abdullah quit.  The Australian reported,

In a statement, the NGA confirmed that its chair, Ryan Stokes, has been contacted by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke - who also oversees the arts portfolio - informing him of Mr Abdullah's immediate resignation.

Mr Burke has remained tight-lipped about his appointment of Mr Abdullah and declined several requests from The Australian for comments.

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson welcomed the news of Mr Abdullah's resignation after calling on Mr Burke to sack the artist he appointed.

'Mr Abdullah's resignation from the NGA Council is welcome.  But based on the information on the public record, he never should have been appointed in the first place,' Senator Paterson said.  'Tony Burke must explain why he thought it was appropriate to appoint someone to an important cultural institution who thinks Australia is a 'deeply belligerent, inherently bigoted and selfish country'.  It's impossible to see how this appointment was in the national interest even if Tony Burke thought it was in his political interests.'

The ABC has made no mention of Abdullah's resignation.  Which is interesting, because until last week he had been something of hero to the public broadcaster. He was featured in numerous stories and, in 2022, was the subject of a long profile on Radio National, 'Abdul-Rahman Abdullah on family, religion and animals'.  In 2016 the ABC reported on Abdullah being shortlisted for one of Australia's oldest and most prestigious religious art prizes.  The Blake Prize was established in the 1950s 'to encourage artists to create significant works of art with religious content' and to find artworks to decorate churches. 

Abdullah's entry was a replica of a sheep's carcass hanging from a steel hook.  He said about it, 'My dad used to slaughter sheep in our backyard when we were young growing up in Perth in the '80s, because halal meat wasn't available and there weren't really a lot of options other than to do it yourself.'  Presumably, this made a sheep's carcass an item of religious art.

He didn't win the $35,000 prize.  Back in 2016, the winner was Yardena Kurulkar with 'Kenosis', a 'Water and terracotta replica of the artist's heart made with the help of 3D printing technology'. 

(The winner of the prize this year was Shireen Taweel with 'Shoe Bathers'.  The work is a pair of sandals balanced on blocks of soap.  The work is described as: 'The installation includes two timber packing crates stacked with aromatic olive oil soaps.  These hand-made soaps draw the mind to the softened marble walls of the hammam and invite audiences to consider how the walls and stones of the hammam have been shaped by centuries of water passing across contours of bather's bodies.  A hamman is a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world, which is known to serve both civic and religious functions.'  The catalogue of the 57 finalists for this year's competition is revealing.  Half a dozen finalists poke fun at, parody, and satirise Christianity and Christian iconography.  No other religion is treated the same way.  The ratepayers of Liverpool City Council in Sydney fund the Blake Prize.)

While the ABC hasn't found the space to tell Australians about the activities of an Albanese government-appointee to one of the country's leading cultural institutions, it has found room fit to publish over the last month no less than six stories about a private, end-of-season function at which AFL footballers from the GWS Giants dressed up 'inappropriately' and simulated s-x acts. 

'Not much' is another not unreasonable answer to what would change if the ABC didn’t exist.

Recommended reading

• I would have liked to link to my ABC interview, but the ABC hasn’t put it up…

• If you go to Donald Trump's website you'll see what is the single best line of the 2024 US presidential election campaign. 

'THEY'RE NOT AFTER ME, THEY'RE AFTER YOU…I'M JUST STANDING IN THE WAY!'

Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States

• This piece was published today from Ruy Teixeira, 'The Progressive Moment is Over.  Four reasons their era has come to an end' is significant.  Teixeira is a Democrat and famous for a book he co-wrote in 2002, 'The Emerging Democratic Majority, ' arguing that demographic change in the United States would produce a permanent Democratic government. In the article he lists the reasons why the ascendancy of left-wing ideas in America may be coming to an end - 'Loosening restrictions on illegal immigration was a terrible idea and voters hate it'; 'Promoting lax law enforcement and tolerance of social disorder was a terrible idea and voters hate it'; 'Insisting that everyone should look at all issues through the lens of identity politics was a terrible idea and voters hate it'; 'Telling people fossil fuels are evil and they must stop using them was a terrible idea and voters hate it'.