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Do we need the ABC?

By Patricia Edgar - posted Tuesday, 18 February 2014


The first Managing Director of the BBC Lord John Reith appointed in 1926, succeeded in arguing the BBC should be run at arm's length from the government of the day; the public interest was to be the first priority. Our ABC which came into being 6 years later, modeled on the BBC, adopted the same philosophy and arguments about bias with the Governments of the day, who determine budgets, have persisted.

In the USA the discussion about balance was equally fraught. Radio broadcasting journalism had come of age during World War 2. Edward Murrow a CBS reporter emerged as the icon shaping news reporting and his program See it Now represented television's arrival as a news medium. The program took on prominent targets including Senator Joe McCarthy and his highly publicised hearings, alleging communist sympathizers had infiltrated US public institutions.

CBS's policy was that journalists should be impartial but Murrow took the view that some issues were not equally balanced and he decided to editorialise at the end of his program, something that had not been done before.

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See it Now was an effective program earning kudos and awards. It helped expose McCarthy and his tactics but as US television grew more profitable the industry began to shun controversy in news and current events. Murrow lost both his sponsor ALCOA and his slot in prime time.

In October 1958 Murrow made an angry speech in Chicago to the Radio-Television News Directors Association. 'I am frightened by the imbalance, the constant striving to reach the largest possible audience for everything; by the absence of a sustained study of the state of the nation.'

Eventually the US Public Broadcasting model would emerge but it has been the poor partner in the broadcasting mix. The 'fairness doctrine' introduced in 1949 by the US Federal Communication Commission which involved granting equal time was repealed by President Reagan in 1987, opening the door to the national right wing radio talk shows - an entertainment genre that purported to challenge and inform but seems to hold a devastatingly low opinion of the public mentality.

Public broadcasting remains an essential asset in a democratic society and surveys have shown repeatedly that the public trust the ABC. A news service in the public interest should be based on seeking and telling the truth. This is a very different objective from balance and one fundamental to democratic principles. Truth will emerge only when trained professional journalists are permitted to do their job without intimidation. The ABC must be adequately resourced to do this work.

If not, as Ed Murrow said, it is time to be afraid.

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Patricia Edgar was a member of the Australian Broadcasting Control Board, Chair of the ABCB's Advisory Committee on Program Standards and Chair of the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal's Children's Program Committee.



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About the Author

Patricia Edgar is an author, television producer and educator. She was the founding director of the Australian Children's Television Foundation. She is also the author of In Praise of Ageing and an Ambassador for the National Ageing Research Institute.

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Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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