djm's scribble

The ABC has axed its most popular comedy program, The Glass House one week after a government senator criticised it for being “biased”. Perhaps they should have been more “balanced” in satirising the powerless as well as the powerful… I was disgusted enough by this latest interference in our supposedly independent national broadcaster to write an angry letter to The Age newspaper, but I was a bit late and they didn’t publish it. Here it is:

The axing of The Glass House demonstrates that a government need not appoint a censor to exert editorial influence over a broadcaster; it need only demonstrate that the way to a position of power, influence or money lies through publicly and faithfully holding an approved ideological line. How is this achieved? Look at the constituents of the ABC board - political appointees chosen for ideological compatibility and not for broadcasting experience or business acumen. Once the carrot is waved, the greedy and sycophantic will follow.