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ABC

The Age readers write:

Why we need a 'biased' ABC

The ABC has survived despite the appointments of several inadequate general managers — and despite Government bias against it. The organisation can still hold its own in terms of its brilliant current affairs and good news services even though it is underfunded and criticised.

It's a wonder that with a Liberal-biased board of directors that it has the latitude to report freely at all.

Governments continually condemn the ABC's left-wing bias and yet without the ABC there would be little account for the Government's decisions.

It is necessary and essential for the ABC to always be left of centre — whichever Government is in power. To be completely "unbiased" and not be opinionated is to be weak in my terms.

The people of Australia need the ABC and all its multi-functions, and it is a sad reflection that perhaps the ABC is not getting the general managers it deserves. For all his "calming" influence, Russell Balding was not the right man for the job. He is an accountant, a numbers man, and accountants should not be at the head of an expansive, free-thinking organisation. We need men of vision as managing directors, inspired leaders with a grand vision of where the ABC ought to stand in our society.

These days, in particular, when the Liberal Party has a free hand to make terrible blunders, we need an unshackled ABC with enough funds to keep us freely informed.
Gordon Bick (former ABC Four Corners producer), Rosebud

Alert and alarmed

Past defender of the ABC against political attacks Russell Balding has resigned at a crucial time — during a Government review to determine future funding for Auntie. It's time to set up a 24/7 "citizens watch" for any sign of a Jonathan Shier look-alike lurking in the wings.
Lesley Cowie, Blackburn

Not only does the ABC need to be allowed to run without government interferance but it should be properly funded to do so as well. Since when did politicians become such gutless turds that they have to destroy all organs that provide a level of accountability? Oh, that's right, since they could because the people can't be stuffed making a ruckuss about anything.

I used to like the ALP. Hell, I even used to be a member. But that was before they completely sold out and became a spineless mass that couldn't make a decision without checking in with the pollsters to see what Jane A. Citizen living in Waverley thought about it and then go along with that view.

Hear hear, Lesly Cowie, it's beyond time we had a citizens watch to look out for the ABC. I'm with you - who else is coming?

Can we start by pressuring 3LO to stop installing vapid, tedious afternoon announcers that wouldn't know how to be controversial if their lives depended on it?

Technorati Tags: abc, bias, alp, liberal, russell balding, citizens watch, accountability, pollsters, funding

The depressed nation

The Age readers write:

Get back on the horse

PREMIER Geoff Gallop's resignation sends the wrong message regarding depression. How many people have the luxury of retiring on a government pension the moment they become ill?

As a GP who has successfully treated hundreds of patients with depression, my first advice is to always get back on the horse as soon as possible after falling off. By all means take some sick leave, reassess the priorities, rediscover the importance of family and take responsibility for your own health. With modern medicine and supportive counselling, depression is an eminently treatable disease.

If Dr Gallop was sick of politics he should have taken a leaf out of Mark Latham's book and said so!
Dr Colin Hughes, Glen Forrest, WA

Not funny

DEPRESSION is a major clinical illness with large personal and social costs, as articulated in the opinion piece by beyondblue chairman Jeff Kennett (Opinion, 18/1). But not for cartoonist Michael Leunig who, to have a go at John Howard, on the same day conflates the word "depressing" with the much more serious mental health descriptor "depression". Not only is his cartoon politically inaccurate in that Howard is preferred as PM by a majority of Australians, but the crass insensitivity of the would-be jocular play on words belies Leunig's recent maundering self-professed concerns for humanity
Thomas Hogg, East Melbourne

Depression in Australia has been gaining prominence in the past few years, especially with the publicity of the Beyond Blue organisation - driven primarily by former Victorian premier, Jeff Kennett, as its public face - and the recent retirement from politics of the premier of WA, Geoff Gallop. I wonder if the incidence of depression is growing or just being diagnosed more often because of the growth of public awareness.

If one thinks of the Australian electorate as a person (forget about the politicians for a moment), would it be fair to describe that person as depressed? It would make sense, wouldn't it? It would explain the last federal election result. The hopelessness of the situation that the country is in with: the Australian involvement in Iraq; the entrenched apathy about the wellbeing of asylum seekers in this country with refugees fleeing tyranny or mortal peril being locked in cages out in the desert and being driven slowly insane; Tampa; kids overboard; ... the list goes on. There's surely a national guilt about what has been done in our name so when it came to election time and the agenda was shifted to 'the economy' and what was in it for each individual, financially, and no one was being held to account on these travesties, the electorate glibly nodded along with Howard, figured they'd get something in return for the loss of international karma points and gave the 1 vote to the Libs.

Maybe.

I have to hold out some hope that Australians aren't all money-grubbing, heartless fuckers that stand by the atrocities resulting from the actions of the Howard government. It'd be to depressing to believe otherwise.

I reckon Leunig is completely spot on with his cartoon. And it was funny in the aftershock of Gallop's resignation. If only it were true.

Technorati Tags: depression, beyond blue, jeff kennett, john howard, tampa, children overboard, australian electorate, geoff gallop, leunig