Who needs the ABC?
Does the ABC have a left-wing bias?
Matthew Ricketson and Patrick Mullins in Who Needs the ABC? make an eloquent and spirited argument for why we need public broadcasting more than ever, why the ABC is ideally placed to play that role, and how it should be supported by government and citizenry so that it can do its job even better.
This book charts how, in its 90th year, the best-trusted news organisation in Australia arrived at its current plight – doing the most it ever has, with less than it needs, under a barrage of constant criticism.
Examining the profound changes that have swept through the Australian media, technology, and political landscapes in the past decade, this book explores the tense relationship between the ABC and governments of both stripes over the past 40-years. It dispels any complacency about the ABC’s future by charting the very real threat posed by the Liberal–National Party coalition, and the damage it has done to the ABC while in office.
Who Needs the ABC? identifies the vital role that the ABC plays in Australia today: in its award-winning journalism, in its vast array of cultural programming on television, on radio, and online, and in the comprehensive service it provides to people across the country.
At a time when the truth has to vie with obfuscation and misinformation, this book offers a rejoinder to the ABC’s critics, points to solutions that will see the ABC thrive, and answers the question posed here: Who Needs the ABC? We all do.