Category Archives: Media

The ABC Board

Posted on by
Reply

These are the members of the ABC Board. Are they the people who are going to oblige the ABC to become fair and balanced? That’s apparently their legal responsibility. How likely is it? Between zero and none, it seems to me. As Malcolm Turnbull said, if you are not going to do your job, resign and let others who will take over.

James Spigelman AC QC
ABC Chairman
BA (Hons) LLB, Hon. LLD
1 April 2012 – 31 March 2017

James Spigelman was the Chief Justice and Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales from 1998 to 2011. Between 1980 and 1998 he practised as a barrister in Sydney and was appointed QC in 1986. Between 1972 and 1976 he served as Senior Adviser and Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister of Australia and as Permanent Secretary of the Commonwealth Government’s Department of the Media. From 1976 to 1979 he was a member of Australian Law Reform Commission.

Mr Spigelman has served on the Boards and as Chair of a number of cultural and educational institutions including: Chair of the National Library of Australia between 2010 and 2012, Member of the Board of the Australian Film Finance Corporation between 1988 and 1992 (Chairman between 1990 and 1992), Member of the Board of the Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1980 and 1988 (Deputy Chairman between 1983 and 1988), and as President of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences between 1995 and 1998. In November 2012 he was appointed a Director of the Board of the Lowy Institute for International Policy. In 2013 he was appointed a Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong.

Cheryl Bart AO
Lawyer and Company Director
BCom, LLB (UNSW), FAICD
3 June 2010 – 2 June 2015

Cheryl Bart is a non-executive director of Spark Infrastructure Ltd, South Australian Power Networks (formerly ETSA Utilities), SG Fleet Ltd, Audio Pixel Holdings Ltd, the Australian Himalayan Foundation, the Local Organising Committee Australian Asian Cup 2015 Ltd and the FFA ( Football Federation of Australia). She is also a Patron of SportsConnect.

She is the immediate past Chairman of ANZ Trustees Ltd, the South Australian Film Corporation, Adelaide Film Festival, Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), and the Environment Protection Authority of South Australia.

Jane Bennett
Company Director
AdvCertAppSc (Dairy Tech), FAICD
30 June 2011 – 29 June 2016

Jane Bennett is the former Managing Director of Ashgrove Cheese, a family owned and run business in Tasmania. Ms Bennett is the immediate past chair of the Food Industry Advisory Council in Tasmania and is a Board Member of the Brand Tasmania Council. Her other directorships include the Australian Farm Institute, Tasmanian Ports Corporation and the CSIRO.

Peter Lewis
2 October 2014 – 1 October 2019

Peter Lewis is currently the Director of Finance for Acquire Learning and a member of the Advisory Board for Anacacia Capital. He has previously held board and advisory positions with the International Grammar School Sydney, TXA Australia Pty Ltd, Norwest Productions Pty Ltd, Propex Derivatives, Australian News Channel Pty Ltd, B Digital Limited, VividWireless Limited and Yahoo 7 Australia.

Mr Lewis has more than two decades of experience in both executive and financial roles in the media. He was appointed financial controller of the Network Ten between 1990 and 1994; the Head of Business Affairs for the Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organisation between 1996 and 1998, Chief Financial Officer of the Seven Network Limited from 1998 to April 2010, was the Chief Financial Officer of Seven Group Holdings Limited from May 2010 to November 2011; was the Chief Operating Officer of Seven Media Group from July 2008 to January 2012 and was the Chief Financial Officer of Seven West Media Limited from May 2011 to May 2013.

Mr Lewis is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, a member of the Australian Society of Certified Practicing Accountants and a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia.

Simon Mordant AM
Investment Banker
FCA (UK), FCA (Australia)
8 November 2012 – 7 November 2017

Simon has been a practising corporate adviser in Australia since 1984. He is Chairman of the Board of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. Simon is Australian Commissioner for the 2015 Venice Biennale, a member of the Leadership Council of the New Museum in New York and a member of the International Council of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, a member of the Executive Committee of the Tate International Council, a Director of Opera Australia and the Garvan Research Foundation, a member of the Wharton Executive Board for Asia and a member of the Italian Advisory Board for Venetian Heritage.

Matt Peacock
Journalist, ABC
Staff Elected Director
22 April 2013 – 21 April 2018

Matt is a senior journalist with the ABC’s 7.30 program, having formerly been ABC Radio’s chief political correspondent and reporter in New York, Washington and London. He is Adjunct Professor of Journalism with Sydney’s University of Technology (UTS) and has authored the book Killer Company (HarperCollins, 2009), a history of Australia’s largest asbestos manufacturer, James Hardie which inspired the ABC Television mini-series, Devil’s Dust.

Mark Scott AO
ABC Managing Director
BA, DipEd, MA (Syd.), MPubAdmin (Harv)
5 July 2006 – 4 July 2011; 5 July 2011 – 4 July 2016

Under Mark Scott’s leadership, the structure and operation of the ABC has been transformed and the ABC’s services and reach have been dramatically expanded. The ABC has established a reputation as Australia’s leading digital media innovator during this time. He has also led a shift within the organisation from a process-based culture to one that emphasises the values of Respect, Integrity, Collegiality and Innovation.

Before joining the ABC, Mr Scott served 12 years in a variety of editorial and executive positions with Fairfax Media, Editorial Director of the Fairfax newspaper and magazine division and Editor-in-Chief of Metropolitan, Regional and Community newspapers.

Steven Skala AO
Vice Chairman, Australia and New Zealand, of Deutsche Bank AG
BA LLB (Hons) (Qld) BCL (Oxon)
6 October 2005 – 5 October 2010; 24 November 2010 – 23 November 2015

Steven Skala is Vice Chairman, Australia and New Zealand, of Deutsche Bank AG, Chairman of Wilson HTM Investment Group Limited, and Hexima Limited. He is Vice President of the Board of the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Deputy Chairman of the General Sir John Monash Foundation, and a Director of the Centre for Independent Studies. Mr Skala serves as a Member of the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. He is the former Chairman of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art and Film Australia Limited, and a former Director of The Australian Ballet.

Fiona Stanley

Patron and the founding Director of the Telethon Kids Institute (formerly Telethon Institute for Child Health Research)

MSc (Lon.), MD (WA), Hon. DSC (Murdoch), Hon DUniv (QUT), HonMD (Syd.), Hon. DUniv (Melb.), Hon. Dsc (ECU), Hon, FRACGP, Hon. FRCPCH (UK), FFPHM (UK), FAFPHM, FRAQNZCOG, FASSA, FAA, FRACP, FFCCH
30 June 2011 – 29 June 2016

Fiona Stanley is a Distinguished Research Professor in the School of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Western Australia, a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Melbourne, and Chair of the Alcohol Advertising Review Board, an initiative of the McCusker Centre for Action on Alcohol and Youth. Professor Stanley has more than 350 published papers, books and book chapters.

Justice delayed is justice denied, and then there’s Mark Steyn

Posted on by
Reply

I can only assume that whatever powers that be that might exist within the American legal system, there would be at least some effort being made to expedite the case of one of the most media savvy people in the universe. Not the case at all, or if it is the case, just how fantastically slow must that system be in normal times. Here Mark catches us up on how things are going in the trial of the century against not-the-Nobel-Prize winning climate change liar, Michael Mann:

This case is no nearer a trial date than it was two years ago, but even someone such as myself, who has long argued that the process is the punishment, has to doff his cap to the playful lads at the DC Court of Appeals, who after sitting on the case lo these many months decide to schedule oral arguments on a case in which almost all parties live way out of jurisdiction for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I suppose I should be grateful they didn’t make it Wednesday, and well and truly stuff my turkey.

This is seriously insane. Is there not one branch of the American system of governance that is up to the mark? Watching this inaction has been a cosmic experience, but how must it be for people without money or access to the media?

You can help with the defence in a kind of twofer; you can as I have done, provide funds to the Mark Steyn defence and also get a copy of The [Un]documented Mark Steyn written by the single greatest satirist in the world today.

Why not shirtfront Mark Scott

Posted on by
Reply

Not, of course, one of those robust run at someone at full tilt while they’re looking the other way kind of shirtfront, as they do in AFL, but merely the grab ’em by the lapels version as they do in that girl’s game they play in Sydney. [OK, OK – just kidding.] But seriously, if even Leigh Sales thinks it’s juvenile and beneath contempt, why isn’t the government starting to take the idiocies of the national broadcaster seriously. Without the ABC, the ALP wouldn’t win an election for ten years. Here’s the story:

LEIGH Sales, presenter of the ABC’s flagship current affairs program 7.30, has suggested she argued strongly against the program showing a five-minute skit that made fun of Tony Abbott’s effort to “shirt-front” Vladimir Putin over Russia’s role in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

In response to tweets about The Australian’s story today in which Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull described the decision to show the skit as “baffling and disappointing”, Sales tweeted: “I can robustly make my case in editorial meetings but ultimately, I have to present what’s commissioned.”

The ABC has defended what it called a “lighthearted” skit that went to air on Tuesday night previewing “the showdown of the century” between Abbott and the Russian president over Russia’s role in backing Russian separatists who downed MH17. Thirty-eight Australians were killed in the crash.

It’s not funny, and just because it’s done by a Liberal Prime Minister doesn’t mean it is automatically wrong.

The non-existent moral authority assumed by the left

Posted on by
Reply

Stacy McCain on the assumed moral authority of spokespersons from the left:

The Left loves nothing more than to arrogate to themselves a pretended authority to speak on behalf of alleged victims of oppression. Covering themselves in secondhand martyrdom, figuratively brandishing the victim’s corpse as a shield against criticism, leftists start playing the Grand Inquistor, demanding that we respond according to the script. . . .

Because the vast majority of people never realize that they were programmed by skillful indoctrinators, as Buckley put it, they can’t figure out what’s really happening in these ginned-up media controversies. Well, everybody is against racism, sexism and homophobia. Nobody is in favor of “police brutality.” Nobody is pro-pollution or pro-poverty or pro-rape. So why do we find ourselves constantly subjected to these moralistic lectures, as if we need to be told for the umpteenth time how dreadfully oppressive our society is? The Daily Atrocity Parade in the liberal media is a continuation of the cultural Marxism programming everybody got in the Government Youth Indoctrination Centers euphemistically known as “public schools,” and we are supposed to react like Pavlov’s dog: “Racism! Sexism! Poverty! Global Warming! Vote for the Left!

Here are the list of questions Andrew Breitbart put together that should be put to those who assume such moral authority who are in every respect absolutely nobodies so far as having any right to lecture anyone else about their ethical failings:

Who appointed you as Grand Inquisitor?

What is the basis of your authority to interrogate me about this? What difference does my opinion make?

When were you elected as Our Moral Superior?

Where do you get the idea that I’m obliged to cooperate in this transparent political “gotcha” game you’re paying?

Why is it necessary that I answer your questions?

How much are you being paid to do this?

What empty windbags these representatives of the left actually are. We do need to begin striking back.

Why didn’t the ABC put Patrick Moore on air?

Posted on by
Reply

Because they are cowards, because they are ideologically red to the core, because they are inveterately dull witted and because they are afraid that their cherished beliefs will be shown to be absurdist lies. And you who watch and listen to the ABC’s biased lies, why do you watch or listen unless your aim is to avoid and evade coming to terms with your own vacuous beliefs which cannot stand up to decent debate. And as for you in the government, why do you put up with it? The ABC is biased in every important respect against everything Australia ought to stand for? Why is it not being downsized and made to raise the funds it needs from those who wish to listen to it or watch its programs.

Give us more money so we can lie to you more persuasively

Posted on by
Reply

The left have the best cliches and their arguments embody every fantasy and wish anyone who has ever hoped to live in a better world than the one we have has had. The only thing that keeps them from winning every election is that their ideas are so wrong and misguided that after a few years of the nonsense they peddle, conditions are so bad that the electorate become desperate to see the last of them and to get someone to fix up the mess they left behind. That continues until the voting population forgets, as it inevitably does, how rotten the ideas of the left actually are. This is from John Hinderaker at Powerline on why the left wants to stop the right from criticising the left:

[The left] have a problem. Their arguments are terrible, and their theories are contradicted at nearly every turn by the facts. Which means that they can’t withstand criticism. They can’t take competition; they need a monopoly. Which, in turn, means that they must prevent voters from hearing conservative ideas and arguments. They can do that in the schools and in the culture, and they don’t have to worry about newspapers or broadcast television. But there is a loophole of sorts: during election seasons, conservatives can buy time on television and on the radio to broadcast messages that liberals are otherwise able to blockade. This is intolerable! Because when people hear conservative ideas, unfiltered by the liberal press, they tend to find them persuasive.

And then there are the 47% who vote for a living but that’s something else again.

Obstruction, intimidation and harassment

Posted on by
Reply

You should dwell on this para from John Hinderaker at Powerline for a very long time and then read the article to truly appreciate the kind of world we are in. He puts the word “if” at the front, but if you read the article, there is no if about it. This is the sentence:

The Obama administration hacked into a reporter’s computers, used them to spy on her, and even prepared to frame her for a potential criminal prosecution by planting classified documents.

“If this were a Republican administration,” he further notes, “every reporter in Washington would be on the story, as would various law enforcement agencies.” There would literally be no end to it, a Nixon plus McCarthy moment never to be forgotten. Indeed, this is such a moment, and one that ought to be but won’t.

As for who we discussing, we are, of course, talking about Sharyl Attkisson since there is literally no other reporter from the mainstream American media to compare and about whom the American government was so enraged. But after the IRS, there is virtually nothing a Democrat President can do that will get him into serious trouble with the media, and therefore with the electorate at large. For journalists, however, things are entirely different. The risks of stepping out of line are enormous. Only someone with the highest of profiles would be even relatively immune and she got the sack, so in reality, no one is immune. There’s a lot of years of not being on CBS ahead of her, an outcome virtually no one else with the same kind of profile would be willing to endure.

I will have to read her book, Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama’s Washington although I suspect it will do no more than confirm all of the beliefs about the American media and government I already have. But if you haven’t understood the nature of the American Republic in the second decade of the twenty-first century, this may give us a glimpse.

The sighting of a unicorn – an honest reporter in the mainstream media in the US

Posted on by
Reply

They describe it as an “exclusive” but that’s just the problem. No one else wants the story anyway: Ex-CBS reporter’s book reveals how liberal media protects Obama. This is about the truly intrepid Sharyl Attkisson who shows by her example of normal investigative reporting how corrupt almost all of the mainstream media in the United States is. She was sacked, of course.

When the longtime CBS reporter asked for details about reinforcements sent to the Benghazi compound during the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack, White House national security spokesman Tommy Vietor replied, “I give up, Sharyl . . . I’ll work with more reasonable folks that follow up, I guess.”

Another White House flack, Eric Schultz, didn’t like being pressed for answers about the Fast and Furious scandal in which American agents directed guns into the arms of Mexican drug lords. “Goddammit, Sharyl!” he screamed at her. “The Washington Post is reasonable, the LA Times is reasonable, The New York Times is reasonable. You’re the only one who’s not reasonable!”

The American media is as corrupt as the Soviet press. On no issue of political significance can one expect honest reporting. It is almost entirely no more than covering up the horrors of what Democrats do while distorting and amplifying whatever can be portrayed in a negative way if undertaken by a Republican.

You can see the immense value of an honest and open press in the way the United States is being ruined by its absence.