9. Parallels between the BBC and the ABC
The state broadcaster in Australia is called the ABC:
The ABC has its origins in the Australian Broadcasting Company, which began in 1924 as a private company and was contracted to provide public broadcasting from 1929. It was replaced by the state-owned Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1932, adopting its current name in 1983. Modelled on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which is funded by a television licence, the ABC was originally financed by consumer licence fees on broadcast receivers. Licence fees were abolished in 1973 and replaced by direct government grants, as well as revenue from commercial activities related to its core broadcasting mission.
In Oz, they call the ABC "Aunty" and it's a leftwing haven, as Woke as you can get, quite unfair to conservatives - for example, political programme panels are usually stacked with the left and might have one rightwing person they regard as "far right", the purpose being to mock and belittle.
The ABC's requirement of impartiality has led to persistent debates. External critics have complained in particular of left-wing political bias at the broadcaster, citing a prominence of Labor Party-connected journalists hosting masthead political programs or a tendency to favour "progressive" over "conservative" political views on issues such as immigration, refugees, the republic, multiculturalism, reconciliation, feminism, environmentalism, anti-Americanism, gay marriage, budgeting.
Both internal and external research have been conducted on the question of bias at the ABC. A 2013 University of the Sunshine Coast study of the voting intentions of journalists found that 73.6% of ABC journalists supported Labor or The Greens – with 41% supporting the Greens (whereas only around 10% of people in the general population voted Green).
