IN consideration OF THE NEXT FEDERAL ELECTIONS, ONE NEEDS TO BE AWARE THAT THE SCOTT MORRISON GOVERNMENT WANTS TO "DESTROY" THE ABC, BY WHATEVER MEANS. THIS has been OFFICIAL LIBERAL PARTY (CONSERVATIVE) POLICY. So, why do you (and me) need YOUR ABC? The ABC provides the best news service and promotes a higher cultural platform that unites Australians, while understanding diversity. It is an essential service to YOU (and me), the Aussie citizen. By law, the ABC has to be funded by the government, but successive CONSERVATIVE governments have cut the ABC budget to the bone — making its survival precarious....

 

Other media in Australia are under singular ownership like Rupert Murdoch who hates the ABC, mining and lobbyists magnates for Channel 7 and Channel Nine — and overseas (US) organisations in regard to Channel 10. Most of the "commercial" media have an agenda, similar to the IPA, an ugly Ultra-right wing organisation that promotes inequality and social disorder under the fake banner of "freedom". 

 

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FROM THE GUARDIAN (10/09/2021):

 

The Australian newspaper often gleefully reports the work of the rightwing thinktank the Institute of Public Affairs in an effort to undermine the ABC.

Like the IPA, Rupert Murdoch is in favour of privatising the public broadcaster, and chipping away at Aunty is daily fodder for his newspapers. But this week the Australian’s media writer and ABC-specialist Sophie Elsworth’s report of the IPA’s latest claims about the public broadcaster went horribly wrong.

 

Elsworth reported that the public broadcaster had mentioned “News Corp” or “Murdoch” more than 56 times a day or 1,700 times in 30 days, based on media monitoring data analysed by the IPA.

The story came after we reported News Corp had published 45 articles in two days that criticised Four Corners for its Fox News exposé.

 

IPA communications director Evan Mulholland said the ABC was simply “using their massive taxpayer-funded platform to campaign against their perceived media rival”.

“Murdoch derangement syndrome is very infectious at the ABC, which is acceptable at a private media company like the Guardian but completely inappropriate at a taxpayer-funded broadcaster which is meant to be impartial,” he said.

“ABC staff who claim a News Corp pile on against the ABC ought to look in the mirror.”

 

But sharp-eyed ABC journalist Jamie Travers smelt a rat and asked the IPA for the raw data.

 

The number of times the ABC mentioned Murdoch was massively overstated, as an ABC News statement later explained: “For example, one night it seems a listener called Peter rang into national late-night radio show Nightlife and referenced a report in ‘the Murdoch paper today’. Because Nightlife is heard across Australia, The Australian and the IPA counted Peter’s comment as being more than 50 separate mentions.”

 

The mentions included erroneous items such as the chef Lauren Murdoch, who was counted 17 times, as well as the non-media mogul Murdochs – Lindsay Murdoch, Peter Murdoch, Brent Murdoch, Roger Murdoch and Jordan Murdoch.

One mention of the News Corp share price in stock market reports garnered 13 separate mentions, and Murdoch University and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute were all dragged in.

Mentions of News Corp journalists whose work was being quoted was included as were stories in News Corp papers and wraps of the morning media.

“In fact The Australian has even included traffic reports as multiple instances of the ABC ‘discussing Murdoch’,” the ABC said. “The Australian’s story is false, misleading and frankly ridiculous. The ABC has sought a correction from The Australian.

“And drivers should be careful of traffic conditions in Murdoch St, Cremorne, and Murdoch Road, South Morang.”

We have asked editor-in-chief Christopher Dore and Elsworth for comment. The ABC has asked for a correction but the original story is still online.

 The threat of free news

A key reason the Murdoch empire is increasingly focused on the ABC is its expanding footprint in digital news.

ABC News has been Australia’s top digital news brand since January 2020, when it overtook news.com.au in terms of overall monthly unique audience.

At the same time News Corp has transitioned to a primarily digital news business: it has 117 mastheads in total but only 15 of those are in print. The ABC’s free news service is a barrier to its subscription business.

 

Advertisement With ABC News the No 1 Australian news brand on Apple News (3.6m monthly audience), Instagram (700,000 followers) and No 2 on Facebook (4.5m page followers) competition is intense. In June this year 12.8m Australians, or 51% of people aged 2+, used either the ABC website or the app to access ABC news.

As advertising revenue continues to shrink the importance of subscription revenue to News Corp grows.

 

READ MORE:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/sep/10/how-the-australian-and-the-ipas-attack-on-the-abc-went-horribly-wrong

 

 

SEE ALSO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4y5w0khvfc

The ABC is fundamental to our communities, crucial in a crisis, and the last bastion against an increasingly concentrated media landscape. But with the Morrison Government and Murdoch Press attacking from all sides, our public broadcaster is under threat. And what if the next step is to privatise it out of existence?

 

https://yourdemocracy.net/drupal/node/42683

 

 

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