Letter to the Editor ABCFV newsletter April 2025

My conversations with friends (like me seniors/older males) have centred on the unreliability of ABC reporting on foreign affairs and politics and that we now seek information from other sources - selected platforms on social media that we trust.

I think the ABC is suffering badly from budget cuts over many years which has forced it to rerun many programs that have been successful in the past but have now passed their used by date. I find very few programs that interest/entertain me now, although there have been some pleasant surprises - Muster Dogs for example and a couple of crime series but I do not find much that is compelling viewing today, unlike earlier decades when I was often spoilt for choice.

My concerns are not confined to the ABC, they apply to the media and entertainment industry more generally. I think there is an opportunity for the ABC to reclaim the reputation it once had by focussing on quality and excellence and the kinds of things it is obliged to do - including community service obligations and be a reliable source of information - not pander to mass appeal and ratings.

My concern is that the ABC has become increasingly pressured to avoid issues that conflict with government thinking - particularly on foreign affairs and criticism of the US and another country that has been carrying out genocide for many decades - to become a mouthpiece for government. This is an insidious trend which I believe is becoming entrenched.

Instead of focusing on matters of importance in a way that encourages meaningful discussion, the response increasingly is to pursue programs which distract people with useless information, trivia, sporting events, cultural and other controversies and outrageous events that keep people emotionally engaged and intellectually disengaged. We need to be entertained but not at the expense of meaningful enquiry and discussion on matters of real importance.

It takes courage to resist this - something the ABC seems to lack at the moment.