I feel so sorry for the ABC

or do I? Apparently there are now only four in every ten Downunderites who watch our "national broadcaster". 

I am not one of those four in ten who watch on a regular basis...but I watch almost no television.  Perhaps I would watch more  ABC if I watched more television. I don't know. It is equally possible I would not.

There was a time when, as a family, we did watch the early news service. If one of our teachers, J..., was appearing with his guitar and doing a "filler" we might watch that too. He genuinely wanted to know how he had come across. That was years ago. It was in the early days of television in this country. It was all black and white and almost no outside broadcasting. The serious reporters did things like Four Corners and the political stories. Journalists covered everything else, including the sport. There was a man who appeared for the weather and he, in a collar and tie, looked serious too. There was no "weather girl" in a fancy dress. 

I don't know when it all changed. My late cousin was a camera man for the ABC. He was considered to be good enough to do "outside" work but he did not last in the job. He went on to manage some of the biggest bands in the country and he knew enough about how television worked to make it work for them. In one of my last conversations with him before he died he told me, "You won't recognise television five years from now, perhaps even in three." 

It was not just that ways of doing things were changing rapidly, that outside broadcasting was increasingly common but something else. It was not that the technology had improved to the point where people had never heard of "test patterns" let alone seen one but something else.

The nature of television had changed. The people at the top were changing. Political activists were jostling for positions because they knew that television was where the opportunity to influence was going to be. Programs like Four Corners became intensely political. Journalists were supposed not to be biased but it soon became obvious that some of them did have at least leanings towards one party or another.

Now they do not even bother to try and hide their bias. Some will even use their role at the national broadcaster to try and leap into politics. One of them succeeded - for one term - straight from a major current affairs program. Others use it to pursue those they dislike or disagree with even when the courts have decided otherwise. Their coverage of issues and events is openly one-sided and not always in keeping with majority public opinion.

When I was a mere kitten there was a radio program for children called "the Argonauts".  It would not be tolerated now but we enjoyed it. My brother and I were "Argonauts". We participated in it by writing in and having our letters read on air. There were nature segments, art segments, writing segments and more. It was a very well produced educational program. I do not remember it being of any particular political persuasion, indeed am sure it was not. Now such a program would be televised and it would be used for the purposes of teaching children about climate change, racism and transgender issues. Television for adults has gone much the same way. 

I am not sure this is a good thing. It is surely not "progress" - or is it? I doubt it. 

The ABC costs taxpayers a great deal but it seems to me that it no longer does the job it is supposed to do as set out in the charter which governs it.