Left values bias is ruining ABC

LAST week it was announced that Kim Dalton, head of the Australian Film Commission and an experienced producer of ABC drama and children′s programs, has been appointed director of television at the ABC. He will fill the shoes left vacant by Sandra Levy, who has gone to the Nine Network. The appointment of a new director of TV at the ABC is a time for reflection on the broadcaster′s future. In particular, it is a time for resolving the long-running problem of values bias within ABC broadcasting.

ABC broadcasters appear to be protected from accusations of bias by a special set of emperor′s new clothes. Against repeated charges that the national broadcaster is biased, broadcasters and their defenders repeatedly say: bias, what bias?

In fact, the reality may be that the existence of bias within the ABC is so well known, and the bias itself so widely and deeply shared within the pro-ABC community, that it appears to those who hold it to be nothing more than the presence of natural truth and reason.

A small example: one of Levy′s positive innovations during her tenure at the ABC was the creation of popular entertainment shows such as Spicks and Specks, a pop music quiz show featuring well-known Australian music identities.

Internally, members of the ABC′s powerful news and current affairs department were hostile, referring to Spicks and Specks with intellectually superior eye-rolling and sarcastic remarks about Levy′s judgment. But such programming initiatives boosted the ABC′s ratings to their best in many years.

My young family were among the viewers. At Christmas, they all sat down to watch the Spicks and Specks yuletide special, A Very Specky Christmas. Despite my often caustic anti-ABC comments, I was impressed that the ABC could create a show attracting a genuine family audience.

Then when Spicks and Specks host Adam Hills worked in a gag involving a gay kiss -- he walked across the set and gave Brokeback Mountain style mouth-to-mouth to fellow program regular Hamish Blake -- I looked around the living room at the embarrassed looks on my children′s faces and said: "You bloody idiot."

I wasn′t referring to the kids, of course, or to Hills. I was angry with myself for believing, even for a few minutes, that the ABC could broadcast a straightforward lifestyle program without inserting some form of ideological offensiveness into it.

Why must they do this, time and time again? You might say, of course, that a gay kiss on prime-time ABC TV isn′t so much a sign of institutional bias as a sign of our cultural times and of the general atmosphere of sexual liberalism we live in today.

I would beg to differ. The great Australian political scientist Paddy O′Brien argued in his book The Saviours: An intellectual history of the Left in Australia that the Australian middle-class Left embraced Marxism and various forms of socialism during the 20th century because it filled the void left in their spirits by the death of belief in Christianity.

In the 21st century, Marxism is dead, but there is still that spiritual void to be filled. I contend that traditional Christianity and its legacy are as much reviled by the Australian Left as ever, with the new value systems of environmentalism and minority rights, rather than Marxism, being seized upon to fill their place.

Frequent viewing of the ABC reinforces this contention. Whether in news and current affairs or in lifestyle shows, signs of propagandistic opposition to the influence of the Christian West abound.

In news, this appears in stories highlighting the evils of the Christian-influenced capitalist West, or its allies such as Israel. In lifestyle shows, it appears in material which assails traditional interpretations of Christian belief (for example, Bishop John Shelby Spong good, Cardinal George Pell bad) or challenges obvious signs of traditional Christian cultural influence (more sex please, especially if it′s "different").

Dalton should pay serious attention to this matter, because the ideas he will implant in his time as ABC director of TV may have a decisive impact on the future not only of ABC broadcasts, but of the public culture created by free-to-air TV in Australia overall.

There are two critical questions that Dalton should consider in his new job. The first is why should the ABC′s news and current affairs department (newscaff, as it′s known internally) remain the dominant force within the institutional hierarchy at the ABC?

Second, if non-newscaff programming -- drama shows and other entertainment and lifestyle shows -- is to increase its position at the expense of news and current affairs, what should be its character?

Or, to put that another way, what shouldn′t it do?

In relation to question one, my view is that there is no good reason why news and current affairs should continue to occupy the predominant role within the ABC′s internal pecking order.

There are dozens of voices across the nation who spring regularly to the defence of ABC news and current affairs, suggesting that without it we will be a benighted nation, if we aren′t already. The fact is that most of the political problems experienced by the ABC relate to the performance of newscaff.

In addition, it is obvious to anyone who uses the internet that ABC news and current affairs coverage, whatever its value, is not by any means the only serious source of information and analysis of public affairs freely available to Australians today. So why is ABC newscaff seen as sacred?

Second question: If drama and lifestyle programming is to become more important, what shouldn′t it do? Clearly, it shouldn′t give unnecessary offence to viewers as it all too often does today, particularly in the area of the audience′s values. Dalton has already said that TV drama is a critical part of our culture. He′s right, and the Australian theatre industry naturally hopes he will create more work for actors and writers through the ABC.

But before that happens, the critical stipulation must be made that future ABC drama should build up the values of Australian civilisation, not tear them down. To achieve this positive result, Dalton must show signs of understanding, and opposing, the endemic values bias within the ABC. If this bias continues, even a vast increase in Australian-made drama will make little difference to the quality of our culture. It may even make matters worse.

Paul Gray is a columnist with Melbourne′s Herald Sun, a News Limited publication.