FEBRUARY 2014
THE AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING COMMISSION
The Australian Broadcasting Commission is a
Federal Government organisation (QANGO?) that has directors appointed
by the government in power, and is staffed by career union journalists
whose narrative is (depending on your politics):
- Either disinclined for various reasons to work for the
commercial organisations (mostly Rupert Murdoch's NEWS or the three
network stations 7, 9 and 10) or
- Are not able to obtain paid employment
in the more remunerative hurly burly of the major commercial networks
that hold around
80% of Australian viewers on a combined budget that is estimated to be
less than that of the ABC.
The ABC has a budget that exceeds $1,200,000,000
(One point two Billion dollars) which is over $100 p/a per Australian
working
taxpayer.
The ABC has attracted attention of the ruling Abbott conservative
government for it's alleged biased and unverified reporting of
refugees, climate change and Snowden's revelations.
To this I would add my own complaint about the recent ABC flagship
"Four Corners" production on
Israel.
Yes. It is dreadful that the Israeli army wakes children at night
and questions them about stone throwing. And all the other
inhuman things that the Israeli army apparently does. None of
those things has been alleged to be fatal or even produce permanent
scars (except maybe psychological).
But that report was easy pickings. The Israeli's did not object
to the filming activities of the ABC crew. There was no threat to
life and limb. The army soldiers are photographed maintaining a
stony silence
against provocative ABC questioning.
And most telling of all, the material was unconvincing. The
Israeli settler crime
reported seemed to be that settlers'
children were throwing stones at
Palestinian children. The ABC did concede as an afterthought that
more Israeli
children
than Palestinian children had been hurt as a result of stone throwing.
However my issue was with the choice of locale. Why did the ABC
not report on
Arab treatment of other Arabs in an Arab country?
Australian diary suggests government treatment of dissidents in Syria
or Yemen or Turkey (The SE part) or IRAQ,
Pakistan, Afghanistan, IRAN. The ABC could get really
adventurous and try sending a team into Sudan CAR, Nigeria... Of
course it might be
hard to get personal life insurance for the journalists doing those
report, but should that be an issue? Rupert Murdoch's father made
his name reporting from a war zone.
Might I remind readers that the UN created Israel from Palestine
because of a civil war. The UN has since similarly created the
states of Kosovo and South Sudan. What would the UN think if
Serbia invaded Kosovo or Sudan invaded South Sudan? Yet Palestine
and/or Hezbollah have attempted to invade Israel (1948, 1967, 1973
etc.) variously with the help of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon) and
failed spectacularly. Wikipedia
lists
other
wars. Why do we object to Israel ensuring that
further invasions do not happen? If that prevention involves
waking children
then consider the alternatives, as practised in Homs.
The Palestinians seem uninterested in adopting a
realistic approach to signing a peace treaty.
Arafat's sticking point (that prevented him signing Clinton's peace
treaty) was his insistence for the right of return of all Palestinians
who can trace one
ancestor to Israel. Under that treaty (in a democracy), Israel
would cease to exist.
It is also a quite unfair requirement. For
instance, like the Jews in Israel, the Serbs were moved out of the
Serbian
homeland province of Kosovo during Turkey's occupation of Serbia.
Would
the
UN
have allowed Serbians the same "right of return" to Kosovo as
Arafat demanded of Israel?
As a final thought. If you, dear reader,
were forced to
choose between raising your family in Israel or in any of the
surrounding
Arab states, which would you choose?
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