Gerard Henderson notes that
Number of weeks since Mark Scott promised greater diversity on ABC: 317
Number of conservative presenters/producers/editors on prominent ABC Radio/ABC TV/ABC Online outlets: Zip
Here is a pictorial of balance at the ABC (the 3320 content makers and senior executives comes from the 2011-12 ABC annual report)
I think the zero figure is wrong, but they do hide themselves well.
pete m
23 Nov 12 at 10:14 pm
Yeh pete m, QLD country hour ( Australia s longest running radio programe ) on the ABC has some conservatives in it.
Some folk call em rednecks or bumpking that interrupt the cricket commentary, not me, I like em.
.
Night all
jumpnmcar
23 Nov 12 at 10:24 pm
The ABC’s standing, popularity and attractiveness to employees and listeners alike has never been greater. It must be doing something indeed a lot right.
catnip
23 Nov 12 at 10:24 pm
The research shows that, for example, the Drum is dominated by conservative think tanks, the IPA in particular.
Scapula
23 Nov 12 at 10:25 pm
Leigh and Gans in How Partisan is the Press? Multiple Measures of Media Slant, ECONOMIC RECORD, 2012 employed several different approaches to find that the Australian media are quite centrist, with very few outlets being statistically distinguishable from the middle of politics.
The minor exceptions were the ABC channel 2 and perhaps the Melbourne Age in its news slant in the 2004 election. Their media slants were small.
Jim Rose
23 Nov 12 at 10:31 pm
What about Counterpoint? http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/counterpoint/
Hard to classify Vanstone as a lefty.
Chris
23 Nov 12 at 10:33 pm
catnip, you are right, they are simply parroting the lefties socialist’s line & anyone with knowledge of history will be well aware (just as the labor/union crowd is) that people just can’t wait to re-elect the party that offers free stuff for votes. Currently we are on the verge of
seeing our nation becoming a socialist country, but I wouldn’t worry if I were you because you probably don’t agree with me.Maybe you have noticed the surge of future labor voters paddling lately? A bit of fast tracking will see thousands of people who will vote labor for the rest of their lives – but that shouldn’t really be a problem!
maurie
23 Nov 12 at 10:47 pm
Jump, the conservatives at ABC country hour all left and took up positions in Ministers’ offices for the Newman Government.
But even the ones left are no doubt treated with suspicion, and outright condescension from their urban betters in South Brisbane.
entropy
23 Nov 12 at 11:04 pm
Ohh, JIm. I have been waiting for the day that embarrassing paper was used in this context, and you take the prize.
entropy
23 Nov 12 at 11:06 pm
yet there are still loonies out there who think the ABC is ‘rightwing’
papachango
24 Nov 12 at 12:32 am
Thanks for that it was amusing:
And this gem:
Scapula
24 Nov 12 at 12:38 am
A risible conclusion to anyone who isn’t a fucking cretin.
Abu Chowdah
24 Nov 12 at 2:06 am
Research is hard to accept when it goes against one’s personal prejudices.
Scapula
24 Nov 12 at 2:21 am
Still – the ABC is a little more balanced in its coverage than MSNBC. We must be pleased with small mercies – except that we have no choice but to pay for the ABC.
Andrew Reynolds
24 Nov 12 at 2:44 am
Easy to dismiss when the methodologies are dubious. Try the Groseclose book for the world best practice in this area, my microcephalic friend.
Abu Chowdah
24 Nov 12 at 3:32 am
Propaganda is not world’s best practice, vodoo child.
Scapula
24 Nov 12 at 3:48 am
This must be q very painful time for you Crapula. Your flailing has been a highlight of the Cat in recent times.
Abu Chowdah
24 Nov 12 at 3:53 am
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.
Scapula
24 Nov 12 at 3:57 am
Once upon a time you dressed so fine…
Abu Chowdah
24 Nov 12 at 4:08 am
Employees of a Government-funded media organisation are, by definition, going to be confirmed statists.
manalive
24 Nov 12 at 8:19 am
Yes, it’s true that the Drum has a good mix of points of view.
Yes, Radio National has a conservative radio show called Counterpoint.
However these things don’t address the fundamental point about radio and TV. Not to take away from the excellent work of Vanstone or her predecessors, but Counterpoint has been accused by some commentators of being a Potemkin Village – a much-vaunted but lone conservative show that deflects criticism.
Similarly, uploading opinion pieces from Sinclair Davidson and others onto a website is not the same thing as broadcasting their views on National TV.
dd
24 Nov 12 at 10:09 am
Abu Chowdah, There is no best practice on measuring media bias. The literature is too young.
Milton Friedman put up robustness as his test. Hit the hypothesis with as many tests as possible with many different data sets. He learnt this lesson when a best practice test literally exploded in his face. He was testing an alloy’s durability in wartime.
Most other studies using many different data sets and methodologies suggest that the media reflects the politics of the local market they serve.
Newspapers and TV stations are big businesses, and they increased readership and revenue by presenting factual and informative news. Competition forces news outlets to cater to their customer’s preferences.
I think the best of the measures of media bias used endorsements of state-level initiatives and referendums and found that newspapers are located almost exactly at the median voter in their home states.
Jim Rose
24 Nov 12 at 10:36 am
the mere fact that the only vaguely centre right program is called ‘counterpoint’ suggests that leftism is the prevailing viewpoint at the ABC
papachango
24 Nov 12 at 11:20 am
and when is it broadcast again? Seriously, I have never had the radio on when Counterpoint is broadcast.
entropy
24 Nov 12 at 11:23 am
Andrew Leigh the member for Canberra public servants wrote
a researchsome propaganda paper on it.JC
24 Nov 12 at 11:33 am
[...] Balance at the ABC [...]
the one side … | pindanpost
24 Nov 12 at 11:38 am
Jc, how do biased news outlets survive in competition?
A supply-side model of media ownership suggesting that media outlets weigh the rewards of bias — political influence or personal pleasure — against the cost of bias: lost circulation from providing faulty news.
the charge of liberal bias in the USA requires the existence of a news cartel in the biggest, most competitive media market in the world. What protects the news cartel against defectors and entrants?
Jim Rose
24 Nov 12 at 12:24 pm
abu, see http://www.voxeu.org/article/fair-and-balanced-after-all-bias-us-press
Groseclose-Milyo’s findings based on congressmen citing think-tanks are sensitive to influential observations and the exact years studied. the liberal bias essentially disappears if the National Taxpayers Union is excluded from their analysis.
Jim Rose
24 Nov 12 at 12:29 pm
In the US? Govt licensing of the airwaves is the first major obstacle. Financing is likley the next. Newspapers are dinosaurs and new ones seldom survive.
However, one notes that Fox News mantains consistently large leads in market share ever since it snuck in the back door.
Zatara
24 Nov 12 at 12:51 pm
Fox News also shows that entrants must be multi-billion dollar companies, so one pays high price for a seat almost at the table.
Scapula
24 Nov 12 at 12:54 pm
Is Henderson getting paid for recycling his own old stories (3 Jan 2012)?
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/abcs-leftish-drift-still-needs-to-be-corrected-by-its-deeds-20120102-1pi7q.html
SteveC
24 Nov 12 at 5:46 pm
scapula last night, talking of research:
http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/06/25/speaking-of-media-independence-how-does-aunty-fare/
SteveC
24 Nov 12 at 5:49 pm