Nothing eases the pain of a Monday quite like knowing that ‘Q&A‘ will round off the day – for a show that’s ostensibly about politics, it’s often just as popcorn-worthy as the bullshit calls that go down nightly on Masterchef.
Case in point.
But being government-funded, ‘Q&A’ and the ABC have an obligation to remain impartial – a detail that’s often brought into question regarding the national broadcaster: last year, Prime Minister Tony Abbott slammed the ABC for not being “patriotic” and never being “on Australia’s side” in their reporting.
And in a Senate hearing yesterday, LNP senator James McGrath told ABC Managing Director Mark Scott of the widespread belief among the Coalition of the ABC’s leftist bias on ‘Q&A’. “If you spoke to any Coalition MP – even those appear on it – they’d admit the program does lean to the left,” McGrath said yesterday, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. McGrath has been a long-critic of ABC’s bias, advocating in his maiden Senate address last year for the broadcaster to be privatised.
While McGarth acknowledged that Q&A usually featured guests from both opposing parties, the Senator took umbrage with the non-political guests which often feature on the panel, saying:
“There will be someone from right of centre – on a good week two people who are centre or right of centre – and then three people who are clearly left of centre or clearly not supporters of the Coalition. I’m interested in how that comes about and how steps are not taken to ensure there are more balanced panels.”
According to the Australian, Mark Scott accepted that McGrath’s claims weren’t new, and has ordered a review into ABC’s programming. “I think it’s rare to watch a program where you haven’t felt that there have been a range of issues raised,” Mark Scott said yesterday, and added that Malcolm Turnbull‘s recent claim—of Leigh Sales‘ and Emma Alberici’s interviewing style being “aggressive”—would be “investigated”. Scott also defended interviewing styles seen on the ABC, saying:
“We want our reporters to be respectful, and I’m talking generally here, but we also want them to do their job and part of their job is to hold politicians and public figures to account.”
Mark Scott said a series of “testing” and “sampling’ of issues discussed on ‘Q&A’ would be investigated to determine bias within the program. Scott also confirmed yesterday that 400 ABC jobs would be cut, partly due to an investment in fast-growing digital services.
via SMH, The Australian.
