There has been much disgust at the ABC’s alleged comedy program Tonightly with Tom Ballard airing a segment on the Batman by-election which called the Australian Conservatives candidate Kevin Bailey a c**t. Now at least there is some recourse being taken by the Minister responsible.
The context was the segment was exploring alternative names for the Batman electorate because the left believe that John Batman who founded Melbourne and negotiated with the local indigenous people to acquire the land ripped them off and was still an evil colonizer. Apparently leftists almost 200 years later think they know what was best for the Indigenous people in that time.
Given this leftist mindset Greg Larsen one of Ballard’s offsiders proposed renaming the electorate “Batman is a ct”. Then he redid all of the candidates posters with that name but because Bailey’s poster did not have the word Batman on it it read “Kevin Bailey is ct”. Ballard responded by saying “no you can’t do that, take that down immediately” but the segment would have clearly had his approval and been rehearsed. Larsen claimed he made the poster because Bailey turned him down for an interview.
Australian Conservatives Leader Cory Bernardi wrote a letter to ABC Managing Director Michelle Guthrie demanding an apology to Bailey stating “This attack goes far beyond satire, is completely unacceptable and warrants not only an apology from Mr Ballard and Mr Larsen but also from the ABC for allowing it to go to air”.
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has agreed releasing a statement which said “Candidates for elected office expect to be criticised and parodied. But this ABC segment clearly crossed a line” adding “Vitriolic abuse of this kind has no place on the national broadcaster and I will be asking the ABC to investigate. The ABC should also immediately offer an unreserved apology to Mr Bailey.”Fifield also appeared on Sky News this afternoon to reinforce this statement and said the segment’s greatest crime was that it just wasn’t funny.
The so called comedians at the ABC clearly like to call those with right wing views cts as its indigenous comedy program Black Comedy released a trailer for its 2018 season where it aimed to parody the recent Sunrise segment where panelists called for Indigenous children being abused to be removed from their parents. Because the people on the Sunrise panel were white the Black Comedy skit had an all Indigenous panel where they said “white people are cts”.
If anybody is expecting any heads to roll at the ABC they shouldn’t hold their breath. Even Coalition Ministers for Communications have had little influence changing the leftist group-think at the ABC. In 2013 the Chaser broadcast a photoshopped image of Chris Kenny having sex with a dog, described him as a “dogf**ker” because he dared suggest the new Abbott government cut funding to the ABC. Kenny had to sue the ABC to get some type of apology out of them.
While must of the focus on ABC bias is aimed at the news division it is the comedy department which spouts the most leftist propaganda, often being abusive and vitriolic to those on the right, plus not being funny. The cultural left will no doubt rally around Tonightly and accuse the government of trying to censor the ABC, but when you are funded by the taxpayer we expect a certain standard, and when something is described as a comedy it actually makes you laugh.
