“…Australia has reached the stage where news from its national broadcaster is no longer trustworthy. Process and technique have replaced authenticity in reporting. In the plethora of live reports from the sites of trivial events, reporters conduct cosy chats with the studio anchors instead of reporting to the audience. Instead of tightly scripted reports that can be read by the studio announcer, the emphasis is on ‘being there’, without regard for whether it adds anything to the story or its drama. So we have long-winded ad-libbed rambles from on-the-spot, with the only result being time wasted that could be used for other, more, or better stories.
The casualness with which its reporters use unnecessary adjectives, prefix their reports with redundant verbal flourishes, and end them with gratuitous opinionated conclusions further demonstrate why listeners and viewers can no longer turn to it for authentic fact, why its breathless reporting demands a dose of salt.
It is now thirty-seven years since the Dix Report on the ABC. It’s time for another root-and-branch investigation of this billion-dollar elephant before it goes further out of control and does more damage to the villagers who own it and the unvarnished, un-slanted truth they pay for and are entitled to hear…” The Arrogant and Inviolate ABC