Before his political career, Human Rights commissioner-turned-Liberal candidate Tim Wilson was once considered to fill in for Jon Faine on the ABC.
The iconic Melbourne ABC Mornings host revealed the snippet at a gathering held by viewer lobby group ABC Friends held at Melbourne’s Fed Square on Wednesday. He said the audition had occurred shortly before Wilson became a Human Rights commissioner in February 2014 (presumably when he worked at the libertarian Institute of Public Affairs). Wilson was at this point a regular guest on Faine’s show.
Faine was responding to comments by Media Watch-host-turned Fairfax media columnist Jonathan Holmes in The Age that perhaps the ABC was indeed too left wing. In terms of metropolitan radio, Holmes concluded, the ABC did lean left, but perhaps understandably, because this is where the market gap is: conservative listeners opt for commercial talkback. In regional areas, where the ABC has no competition, its presenters play things more politically neutral than they do in the cities, he wrote:
“If the ABC wasn’t funded by taxpayer dollars, no one would mind this situation. After all, the population is split roughly in half over politics, and both sides deserve to hear their views expressed.
“But the ABC is publicly funded. It does have a legal obligation to not favour one point of view over another.”
The comments were welcomed by News Corp columnist and ABC critic Andrew Bolt today, though he wrote on his blog that Holmes didn’t go far enough:
“Holmes won’t concede that the ABC bias extends to TV as well. He seems to think this institutional failing miraculously ends somewhere around a TV camera.”
Faine, one of those mentioned by Holmes in his piece, dismissed the criticism of his former colleague. “Jonathan’s views are Jonathan’s views”, he is quoted as having said in a ABC Friends release. Faine added that the ABC “bend[s] over backwards to make sure there are all sorts of voices heard”.
“We were putting some time into Tim Wilson being a fill-in host, so to say that we don’t do those things is demonstrably not true.”
Faine dismissed the notion that politics had any effect on how he did his job. “I’ve got to think of the toughest questions I can of every guest — that’s my job and that’s what the audience expects of me,” he said.
Faine’s comments are broadly in line with how ABC executives answer questions of bias. As Mark Scott recently told Media Watch:
“We don’t do that kind of journalism. We don’t ask questions about our journalists’ voting pattern and where their ideology are. We look at the journalism that they put to air.”
Thank the gods that Wilson never actually filled in for Faine. He is the quintessential ‘right’ man. After the first call he would have taken three hours to explain why everyone else was wrong.
I listen to Faine and he plays the perfect devil’s advocate. He does with it guests of all flavours.
what about Macka, the One Nation voters’ friend?
I believe that the allegations of bias actually stem from the inability of those people on the right side of politics to actually explain their statements and policy positions without referring to the elephant in the room – private political donations.
If they were to refer to that, then their actions can be explained rationally.
But of course, they can’t do that because then they would have to admit that the public benefit is not their core concern.
So, they would much prefer easy questions and seem to struggle with difficult ones more than those figures from the other side of the spectrum.
Of course, that is just my opinion.
Not surprisingly Crikey is home to those who lack Wilson’s intellectual abilities and ethical beliefs.
Little mention of the fact that in a safe Liberal seat with three talented candidates, the Liberals didn’t adopt the ALP’s modus operandi of (unless they know the result is the one they favor) handing the decision to a couple of Labor’s senior Power Brokers. Not of course that this implies the Power Brokers’ base was anywhere but in the Union Movement.
Commentators like Bolt, (Chris) Kenny, Akerman et al who denigrate the ABC at every opportunity, do so on the basis that mud sticks and that the constant repetition of their ultra conservative criticism will convince the general public.
Well here’s the news for them, they don’t.
The vast majority find the ABC to be accurate, trustworthy and broadbased in its views; by employing broadcasters across the wide political spectrum.
Of course that doesn’t suit the reactionaries who want everyone to agree with and believe their right wing BS.