MALFEASANCE

Winter, Australia.

He could hear them calling from a million years away.

And then he listened more closely. He could hear them crying from a million years away.

The gods had done this before.

Sowed their progenitors across worlds, and reaped the harvest.

He was in a fragile arid invisible place. There were stories to which he paid attention. They weren't all about the cosmos, the gripping times, Western and Islamic terrorism. The utterly horrifying play-out in Mosul, Iraq.

Many of them were to do with the media, with Australia's own contracting status, with the betrayal, the complete, total, utter betrayal of the people, the so-called "taxpayer", for that, with the grinding machinery of an appalling government, was all the citizenry had become.

The Australian Broadcasting Commission was the sole source of news for many Australians, and it had mestastasised across all forums, with its multiple channels dominating both television and radio. On radio, he switched between local, news, rock and classical stations, all of them government controlled, all of them pumping out propaganda, the government's view of the world.

When they bothered to practice and journalism, it was an atrocious, narrow, bigoted and biased form of journalism, the bureaucracy at prayer, their wishes fulfilled, not a whisper of dissent. Nothing to ruffle their disdainful view of the public, nothing to confront anyone.

Old Alex turned on the television. The national broadcaster was playing a cheap as chips programming quiz show called Pointless. Nothing could have been more appropriate.

The Boiling Frog. We're boiling you in oil. You cannot move. We have lost the ability to tell our own stories.

For in this terrible place, there was no room to think, to be free, to fly.  There was no room at all.

The country's institutions failed in their duty. And Australia's bombs rained down on Mosul.

Mosul

MEANWHILE, THE ABC BETRAYS ITS DUTY AND ITS CHARTER, FAILS TO CONFRONT ITS MASTERS, FAILS TO TELL TRUTH TO POWER AND FAILS TO TELL THE COUNTRY'S MANY STORIES:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/broadcast/abc-fails-australia-on-local-content-exdirector-kim-dalton-says/news-story/4cff0872b7de916937f2d8f19710229f

The ABC “cannot be trusted” to prioritise original Australian documentaries, drama and children’s programs, and there is growing community concern the national broadcaster has “lost its way”, says its former director of television Kim Dalton.

In a speech to be delivered in Sydney today, the head of ABC TV from 2006 to 2013 will sharpen his criticism of the ABC and what he sees as its neglect of original Australian content, including indigenous programming.

Mr Dalton will claim the ­national broadcaster “has demonstrated it cannot be trusted or relied upon to prioritise its ­engagement with Australian ­content”.

He will also argue that ­because of an ABC decision to “de-fund Australian (television) content”, there is “a growing concern within the community that in a quite fundamental way the ABC has lost its way”.

In a recently published essay titled Missing in Action: The ABC and Australia’s Screen Culture, Mr Dalton accused the broadcaster of reallocating millions of dollars of government funds earmarked for Australian TV drama, documentaries and indigenous and children’s ­programming.

Mr Dalton today will reiterate his call for the imposition of local content regulations “to ensure the ABC meets its responsibilities in this regard”. (Unlike the commercial networks, the ABC does not have to meet Australian content quotas for drama and children’s TV.)

Mr Dalton will say many Australians are surprised to learn “the ABC is less engaged with Australian programs than the commercial networks”. Apart from news and current affairs, “the ABC broadcasts less than half the number of hours of first- release Australian programs during prime time than the networks.”

Imposing Australian content regulations on the ABC would be “politically challenging” but “in my view (it is) the only way to ­ensure the ABC does engage in a coherent and consistent way with local content”.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/may/01/kim-dalton-accuses-abc-shifting-funds-unfashionable-areas

The ABC’s budget for local drama, Indigenous, documentary and children’s TV has been quietly shrinking since 2013 as management siphons off millions of dollars into other areas of the public broadcaster, according to the former head of ABC TV Kim Dalton.