The Bug’s ranter-in-residence pens an open letter to ABC chairman Kim Williams.

Kimmie, I said love, I said pet…..

No! This is serious, Let’s start that again,

Dear Mr Williams

I’ve wondered for a long time whether you’ve noticed the amount of social mediocre criticism claiming that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton gets far more than his fair share of airtime on Aunty?

And do you have any sympathy at all for their “what Peter says” claims about some of your political journalists? Their claims that an Albanese media call is cut short for a Dutton comment or something Trump’s got to say? News of an Albanese government policy initiative where Dutton or one of his colleagues gets equal – and sometimes first – bite of the cherry? And a second.

Or do you reject these criticisms out of hand as perhaps woke lefties ignorant of the fine, balanced, work the ABC does in the political arena? That your NewsCorpse trained brain can’t for the life of it think they have a case at all?

Do you mind terribly if I provide just one recent example. Last Tuesday, ABC’s News Breakfast ran with a yarn about the pending Reserve Bank decision on interest rates at 2pm that day. And with a board decision expected to give a fillip to federal Labor, who did the news producers decide to highlight?

Yes, vision of Peter Dutton. A wide shot of Peter Dutton saying something, then a closeup of what Peter was saying (at top and above). Maybe it was Dutton’s turn to be highlighted, Kimmie? Sorry, Mr Williams?

That the next time the ABC ran something on federal politics, it would have featured Albanese front and centre to show just how fair and balanced the national broadcaster is? (you BUGgers out there are now invited to insert prolonged canned laughter here or make as much noise as you can with clackers, kazoos, vuvuzelas and klaxon horns if you have them!)

Kimmie … sorry, Mr Williams … you might immediately suspect we at The Bug have cherry-picked this example, and we totally reject that even if it might be true.

This rant’s bottom line is that for the last two-and-a-half years, the mainstream mediocre – including, sadly, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation – has given Dutton and his shadow ministers more than their fair share of coverage.

If Anthony Albanese had stumbled in public and broken a toe, there are large sections of the MSM that would gladly have led with a quote from Dutton calling the PM weak for not protecting his toes more.

Buggered if I’m prepared to back this gut feeling with time wasting research but my best guess is that Albanese in his years as Opposition Leader up to the 2022 poll was never granted the exposure dished out to Dutton during this current term. And that includes the ABC.

In your position of power, you’ve got the resources to investigate any claims made here or by those countless folk xcreting on social mediocre for a long time now. Maybe you already have? It would be your duty at the very least to test their claims of bias, surely? (you BUGgers are once more invited to insert prolonged canned laughter here or make as much noise as you can with clackers, kazoos, vuvuzelas and klaxon horns if you have them!)

So please enlighten us here in BUGland. Do they all have a fair case? Or are you supremely confident the ABC’s rules on fair and balanced political coverage have always been and are now being fully adhered to?

Kimmie … sorry, Mr Williams … we’ll run your reply in full and without changing a word!

Don Gordon-Brown

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