Abbott's Attack on ABC - Yet another distraction

It appears that Abbott government has decided that the ABC is the enemy or at least an enemy sympathiser. Prime Minister Abbott speaking Sydney shock jock and government mouthpiece Ray Hadley of 2GB has told his Sydney audience it, “dismays Australians when the national broadcaster appears to take everybody's side but our own’’.

He statements are another sign that the Prime Minister is struggling with the transition from opposition leader to leader of the nation. Seemingly stuck in opposition mode the attack on the national broadcaster this morning while not surprising is the latest in ‘look over there’ tactics. 

Abbott and his government seem to be looking to pick fights on a number of fronts not flagged before the election. In what is doubtlessly is a deliberate strategy to distract from its’ incoherent and patchwork policy agenda, the government has opened up a number of fronts including a re-opening of tiresome “history wars”, curriculum reform, industrial relations with the ministry contemplating a royal commission into the building industry and a review of welfare benefits and the definition of welfare recipients. 

But let’s take a look at what the PM is actually suggesting in his attack on the ABC. His main contention is that ABC’s main role and the role of other media outlets, the Guardian Online has also been singled out, is to unquestionably support government policy, its’ implementation and those that implement it.  That seems a little bit scary crazy to those of us who romanticise about an open and free media. 

With this sort of mentality it was a bit remiss not to thank the ABC and his other enemy Fairfax media for delivering him his government’s agenda by exposing  alleged corruption and connection with organised crime within the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU), but no. 

It’s not ABC’s role to be the loyal mouthpiece of our dear leader. There are enough shock jocks  around the country to shout the government’s agenda. The extraordinary attack is part of the government’s agenda to attack its’ and the vested interested that supported the LNP’s accession to office.  Now it’s time to bring home the bacon and the perhaps the easiest target to get things going is our ABC. 

It will be interesting to see how long the various battles initiated by the government will distract the electorate from the things that mean the most to them such as cost of living pressures, education, health and law and order. It’s two and a half years until the next election and in this age of the 24 hour news cycle that’s a long time to go without scrutiny and it seems that Abbott is hell bent on putting one of its major scrutineers in its’ place before the long road ahed to the next election.