The Irony of The ABC

Last night as I was laying in bed about to drift off to sleep, a copy of a Honor Harrington book on my bedside table, I had just finished rereading one of the chapters on Haven and it's dictatorial rule, and state owned and controlled media when a thought occurred to me.

"State owned media is almost always portrayed as 'evil' yet I trust the ABC far more then any commercial media outlet"

It struck me so hard I laughed. The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company) is state owned and regulated, but not directly controlled, with many many people in Australia choosing it over commercial outlets due to it's reputation as serious and honest. Sure the government make a big stink now and then about "bias", but I've seen conservatives and liberals both make the same claims over the years, and other news outlets just plain hate them, so I ignore it.

Isn't an irony that people have started to trust state owned media more then the so-called "free" press to deliver real unbiased news about real world issues? I don't trust Newscorp or any other local Australian media, and I definitely don't trust places like Fox or CNN with their blatant bias, one on either side of the political fence.

When did this happen? It should never of happened, but really it was bound to happen when the media companies got so big they started to be able to impact the news they were suppose to be reporting.

Then there is the issue of profit, the search for the almighty dollar, I'm far from a communist, but when you start putting profit as the main motivator of a news organisation it's naturally going to lead to pandering to your audience, and that's when you start being news and start being entertainment.

The ABC is tax-payer funded, it doesn't have to worry about making a profit or ratings or any of that other dribble, so it actually reports the news as it happens, rather then slapping their own opinions on it or slanting the story to appeal to their subscribers.

There is also the factor of the ABC does less "cute" and "cleb" stories then their commercial competitors. If I'm watching the news I want news, not a story about some cleb I don't care about screwing around, or some dog down a drain.

I realise this is starting to sound like a love letter to the ABC, and that wasn't my intent, as a media outlet it's far from perfect, but in today's world it's vitally important that we fight to keep it, otherwise all we'll be left with is people like NewsCorp, and noone (apart from Murdoc, who recently said he wants the ABC out of news because it's "unfair") wants that.

And don't get me started on NewsCorps opinion of Blogs, for a company that blantently rips them off all the time on their sites, without even fact checking the stories, calling Blogs plagiarism and theft to be the hight of bullshit.

Anyway I'm done for now, I still think it's funny that I've come to trust a state-owned media outlet far more then any other source.