So the hopelessly biased Ray Martin hands down his review of the ABC’s Q&A and, well, ‘nail my tongue to the floor’ as they say in the prophets (actually Blackadder) – he sees no, hears no, and smells no, bias. None whatsoever. No, according to Ray, who has been for a long time now well known as a Labor Party stooge, if anything, there should be more Greens and Independents on Q&A. And not a hint of bias.
For those who don’t know, Ray used to be a popular news and current affairs host on Australian television, whose star faded around the same time mobile phones were becoming a must have possession and before anyone knew what the internet was. He now takes up his place among the pantheon of minor leftwing celebrities, wheeled out on occasions such as when the taxpayer funded leftwing broadcaster needs a minor leftwing celebrity with credibility among retirees to conduct an investigation into its own internal affairs.
Ray could not find any bias in the ABC. This despite the fact that any sentient being, from amoeba upwards in the food chain, if put in front of any randomly chosen episode of Q&A would spot the obvious inner-city Green Left bias within minutes. It begins with the laughable – ‘tonight’s audience is made up of…’ and continues long after the first sneering by the host of the token conservative wheeled out to be tonight’s object of ridicule and scorn.
Rather ironically, we thought anyway, although Ray could not see any bias whatsoever in any episode of Q&A that he was forced to sit through (recalling a scene from ‘A Clockwork Orange’), the bias was patently clear to see in his own article dismissing the notion of bias on the ABC. In the space of a single column, in which he was meant to be explaining his findings on alleged anti-conservative bias on the ABC’s top rating program, Ray can’t resist indulging his hatred of the Abbott government in particular, and the Liberal Party in general, not once, but takes a swipe on four separate occasions.
Here they are:
On gender imbalance in Q&A – ‘There are arguably valid reasons for this gender imbalance, such as the chronic shortage of senior women in the Coalition government’s ranks .’
On the cost of doing the program out of Sydney – ‘We are reliably informed, for example, that a single Q&A program coming out of Perth would cost an extra $80,000. Under current Abbott/Hockey ABC budgetary restraints that’s untenable.’
On Abbott banning his Ministers after the Zaky Mallah affair – ‘On Q&A you reach almost a million voters, which leads one to question the sense and sensibility of former Prime Minister Abbott’s ban on Cabinet ministers appearing.’
On Tony Abbott in general – ‘despite Mr Abbott’s silly ‘Lefty lynch mob’ jibe.’
Personally, I find Ray’s report into Q&A about as useful as a pork sandwich at a Ramadan feast. Whilst one could, however, eat a pork sandwich if one’s God allowed it – Ray’s report is, unhappily, both predicable and execrable, and entirely useless. His article in the Murdoch Press explaining his findings in said report is, however, notable for one thing. It’s inherent and palpable bias. The ABC, and Ray, are taking the piss. And doing it with our taxes.