Australia’s ABC….leftist hypocrites, thieves and liars:

‘Embarrassed ABC boss Mark Scott yesterday launched an investigation following revelations of highly-paid ABC staffers’ salaries.
“I think everyone would expect that payroll information should be confidential. It shouldn’t leak,” Scott, whose own $678,940 salary was revealed in the leak, told ABC Radio.
The leak exposed at least 43 ABC presenters, bureaucrats and reporters being paid more than $210,100 per year – placing them in the top one per cent of Australian wage earners. Managing director Scott’s salary puts him close to the top 0.1 per cent of wage earners.
The average wage for Australians who fund the ABC through their taxes is around $70,000.
The ABC has long campaigned on wage-related issues. A search of the billion-dollar broadcaster’s tax-funded site returns nearly 5000 matches for stories about the gap between rich and poor, and more than 6000 matches for items on income inequality. In the last financial year, the ABC received $1.03 billion of taxpayer funds, of which $465 million went to wages, superannuation and other entitlements….’     source

Miranda Devine:

‘ One of the funniest stories of the week was ABC chief Mark Scott’s apoplexy over the leaking of salaries of the taxpayer-funded broadcaster’s top staff, at the same time as he was defending the leak of top-secret intelligence which has trashed our relationship with Indonesia.

The salary leak has done nothing more than embarrass ABC staff hot shots such as Tony Jones and annoy less well-remunerated types such as Phillip Adams.

The intelligence leak, on the other hand, has harmed the national interest, jeopardised people-smuggling and anti-terrorism operations with Indonesia, and potentially put lives at risk.

The allegation that Australian spies tapped the phones of Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his wife in 2009 had no discernible public interest benefit.

The information was of dubious origin, having been stolen by fugitive former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, and provided to left-leaning British newspaper The Guardian.

The local online version of The Guardian shared its story with the ABC to benefit from the credibility and amplification provided by the national broadcaster.

It added nothing to the public store of knowledge, since allegations that Australia spied on Indonesia had already been published.

And yet Scott thought it was out of order for the taxpayer-funded salaries of ABC staff to see the light of day.

No. What was out of order was that the ABC recklessly provided cover for The Guardian on a story that has damaged Australia.

If the Abbott government can’t see that the ABC needs reining in now, it never will.

This is an opportunity for Malcolm Turnbull to shine.

The Communications Minister, a darling of the Q & A set, now can show conservative voters who mistrust him that he is willing to lose skin for the greater good.

The ABC’s agenda-driven journalism has become more flagrant and better funded under Labor, with extra millions doled out on top of a $1 billion annual budget, like sweeties to a favoured niece.

With a few honourable exceptions, its reporting and commentary is often distorted by a reflexive green-left mindset that uncritically pushes damaging climate alarmism, for instance, and has been persistently hostile to the Coalition approach to border protection.

No better demonstration that the ABC is out of control was its refusal to apologise for portraying conservative commentator Chris Kenny as a “dog-f … er”.

While other media organisations lay off staff, cut costs and fold altogether as revenue streams dry up, the ABC has been living high on the hog, as its leaked salaries and lavish infrastructure show.

The ABC commandeers the prestige of being the “national broadcaster” with none of the responsibilities that its special position should entail.

It cannot go on luxuriating in taxpayer largesse. A good start for Turnbull would be to strip the ABC of its ill-gotten $233 million contract to deliver the Australia Network international television service, which is supposed to enhance Australian “soft diplomacy” interests in the region.

It is a task the ABC deliberately subverted last week, and Senator Cory Bernardi and former foreign minister Alexander Downer made a convincing case for a review of the contract.

“The ABC now seem to be operating as a law unto themselves, captive to an insular and partisan agenda that is at odds with the broader Australian populace,” Bernardi said.

“Personally, I think it needs root and branch review and a lot less of taxpayers’ money.”

Spot on.

Turnbull should also examine the ABC’s octopus-like reach into new media, where its guaranteed taxpayer revenue gives it an unfair competitive advantage.

For instance, former Sydney Morning Herald editor Peter Fray sank his own money into fact-checking venture PolitiFact, which barely got off the ground before the ABC launched a rival fact-checking unit, funded in part by an extra $10 million gifted by the Gillard government.

Turnbull could resist the call for full privatisation while taking the pruning shears to the national broadcaster. Saviour and reformer, he would win friends on both sides.