The ABC Collective

For the second federal election in a row, the ABC has succeeded in pushing the politicians off the front and making its own incompetence into an election issue.

In 1998 election it was political bias.  In 2001 it is internal warfare.

Heads should roll, as there are few more serious errors for a public broadcaster than making itself an issue at times such as these.

But at the ABC, they are baying for blood, that of Mr Shier.

Mr Shier is only doing what he has been hired to do, which is turn the ABC into something it is not currently -- a national broadcaster.

Of course the ABC, claims to be The National Broadcaster -- to be Your ABC.  In reality it is a workers' collective run by clique of aging baby-boomers, who hire and fire in their own image and likeness and who cater to people with similar views, interests and prejudices.  What Shier is trying to do is to re-assert public ownership of the ABC and to get it to cater to the broad range of views and interests in the community.

Not surprisingly, the collective and their mates have undermined him and this process at every step of the journey.  In reality this is nothing new;  they have done the same to every previous Managing Director over the last twenty years.

The difference now is that funds are tight, the institution is a mess and the current Managing Director more determined.  The collective also seems more determined to resist, even if it means destroying what is left of the institution.

They have accused Mr Shier of being unsuitable for the job, when in truth his background is near perfect.  He is an outsider without allegiance to the collective with a lifetime in broad-based broadcasting and deep understanding of the new digital world.  If he were one of them, he would have no hope of changing the ABC.

He has been accused of lacking vision, when in fact he has a vision, but one that is different and broader then theirs.  He has been accused of letting the ratings slide by people who have spent a lifetime arguing that ratings do not matter for a public broadcaster.  He has been slated for a high turnover of senior staff and management, when this was a necessary part of reform process.

They have repeatedly accused him of bias in favour of the current government.  All such accusations have proven to be baseless.  The worst example was in July this year when he was lambasted in all the major dailies for allegedly pulling a Four Corners program to "protect his Liberal mates".  The staff were even reported to have hidden the master tapes and supporting document for fear that Shier would bring in the police to confiscate them.  As it turned out, he correctly held the show back for a week to get outside legal advice.  Given the accusation made in the program and the fact that the ABC has had to pay-out over $10 million in libel claims over the last few years, it would have been negligent of him not to act as he did.

Shier has repeatedly been accused of undermining the quality of programming, for example, by getting rid of the Littlemore program and precipitating the exit of Gail Jarvis, the Director of Television.  The fact is the Littlemore Program was a disgrace.  It used the lowest standards of journalism to attack Littlemore's pet hates.  Mr Littlemore was a known commodity who had previously compered the Media Watch Program.  Jarvis took it a upon herself to appoint him.  She was warned by Shier that she would be held responsible for the program's outcome.  When Littlemore showed true form and standards remained predicably low, the complaints flowed and Shier acted properly and Littlemore and Jarvis left.

Shier has been accused of being rude and abusive to staff.  Given what he has been through, this is very believable.  After all, it is only human to be a bit cranky and abrupt when you are falsely accused in the media of sexual abuse.

More recently he stands accused of being rude to Max Uechtritz, head of News and Current Affairs.  Perhaps there was no cause for rudeness, but anger at losing the rating game over the coverage of September 11th was justified.  The ABC should have won the ratings on this issue, but were simply outsmarted by Channel 9.

Now, during a election, the collective and the media are claiming that Mr Shier is about to get sacked.  The truth is that they and the ABC's unions are the only groups calling for him to stand down.  This is not new -- they have been doing this from the day he started.

The constant public denigration of Shier is, however, getting to the ABC Board, in particular the Chairman Mr McDonald.  His failure to support Shier when asked by the press recently, provided the excuse the collective needed to make Mr Shier an election issue.

Shier is our last hope this decade for reclaiming the ABC.  If he goes, the collective stays and continues to use $700 million of taxpayers' funds to crowd-out the views and concerns of many Australians.  This would be a tragedy.