The Crikey comment pages were a grab-bag of debate yesterday as readers argued against the government’s weaponisation of the ABC complaints process (Christopher Warren), discussed the fate of micro-parties in upcoming elections (Alana Schetzer) and unpacked the need for a coherent climate policy (Bernard Keane).
On the government’s manipulation of the ABC
Sharman writes: Mitch Fifield’s time would be more productively spent fixing up the NBN. Why doesn’t he do some work for a change instead of whinging about the ABC?
Zut alors writes: Playing safe and second-guessing was never the attitude of the ABC newsroom in the pre-Howard era. A fearless media is a healthy media.
On the chances of Victoria’s micro-parties
Evil Brian writes: The collapse of the Reason Party’s vote is attributable to one thing, and one thing only: the absolute insanity of changing their name from the well-recognised and widely-liked Sex Party to a name that means almost nothing to anybody. Sex Party’ shone out on the ballot paper — Reason Party just gets lost in the rest of the dross.
It’s extremely sad because I’ve known Fiona Patten personally for many years, and she’s been an outstanding advocate for causes that were long swept under the political carpet. We can only hope that their impending wipe-out in the Victorian election convinces them of the need to revert to their old name in time for the Federal election. Otherwise, Fiona is destined for the dustbin of political history, and that would be very sad indeed.
On the government’s need for a climate stance
Roger Clifton writes: If the Left were to pound the proposition that climate change is “for the kiddies”, they would put a lot more pressure on the Right, which currently dismisses action on climate change as being “for the environment”. On the other hand, mobilising the kiddies might frighten the Left as it is not in a good position to offer them leadership.
Equivocation over coal jobs, silence on synfuels, oil and gas, and a cynical flattering of the renewables religion means the Left has nothing effective to offer on the replacement of fossil carbon. Feeble promises of “reduction” will not provide credible text for the ranting of preachers in the streets. However, the kiddies can certainly be persuaded that the use of fossil carbon must be eliminated, exterminated, criminalised and then kept zero by vigilante action. Once the Left has lost the leadership of the young, it has lost its future.
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That twenty-eight coalition senators and a couple of cross benchers voted for Pauline Hanson’s racist dog-whistle believing that this was the directive of their party is a powerful argument in favour of electing an Independent in Wentworth !
Price mechanisms and market forces are not capable of consistently or efficiently providing a stable and trustworthy broadcaster of quality services. It is as simple as that. To paraphrase the Den of Thieves (IPA), while Australians may seem to have at their fingertips access to more news from more varied sources than ever before, much of it is transient and shallow, while private media continues to struggle with profitability precisely because they produce such a bad product.
Far from being fearless, original and independent scrutineers of politics, power and society, journalists (not only of the Murdoch Empire, but also more than a few ABC and Fairfax journalists overawed by the former’s power) contribute to the success of spin, denial, abuse of power, division, and exploitation through their disinterest in good journalism, their limited skills and unsophistication (they can’t even find the % sign on a keyboard), and in their willingness to promote conflict.
Public broadcasting may be regarded as an item of social infrastructure. Its problems have some important parallels with shortcomings of other infrastructure, most being deliberately created as acts of political sabotage by hostile Misgovernments.