- Banned
- #1
Seems they don't want any competition to Sky News, it's war, and not just any war, oh no, a taxpayer funded war!
And the first salvo is being fired in -surprise surprise - the Murdoch owned The Australian
Crikey boil down the arguments to their fundamental basisABC'S 24-hour news channel too much of a stretch
- Malcolm Colless
- From: The Australian
- January 16, 2010 12:00AM
THE ABC's plan to launch in the next few months a 24-hour national television news service amounts to a taxpayer-funded declaration of war on commercial media outlets in Australia.
It also raises serious questions about the ability of the national broadcaster to support its image as the provider of high quality news and current affairs programming.
In the same way that taxpayer-funded roads are a declaration of war on dirigible manufacturers, I suppose.
The specific criticisms are fairly weak –
If it’s going to convince Australians that an ABC News channel is a bad thing, I think News is going to have to do better than that.
- increased quantity (BY THEM – not us) must mean reduced quality (BY THEM – not us);
- commercial media shouldn’t have to cope with competition;
- the ABC has “religiously avoided” crossing live to breaking events (really?);
- the ABC isn’t “flexible” enough (in what way?).