This morning I thought it was a joke (I listened to PBS FM and they have the radio festival to attract subscribers - so they want to make up how important they are).
Well, the Victorian Liberals really wants to discuss it this weekend:
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/state-liberals-propose-priva...
The Victorian Liberal Party's state conference this weekend will vote on a motion urging the federal Coalition to make a full-scale ''operational review'' of the ABC and SBS to ''look at the feasibility of partial or full privatisation of both''.
I am concerned with the suggestion that the ABC/SBS be privitised. An statutory independent public media provides for a positive externality. Just as mass literacy provides a social benefit in addition to the private benefit, a quality public media provides the benefit of more informed public. More to the point, I am very concerned of the potential debasement of the formation of public opinion. Rupert Murdoch recently indicated that he hoped people had "tuned out" of political discussion. His media is quite well known for providing very low, sensationalist standards which disinforms. This has a significant social cost (we may recall how The Australian beat the drum hard for the invasion of Iraq). Murdoch has made no secret of his intense dislike of public broadcasters, as they have the capital ability to provide news content free of charge and to pay reporters and journalists who are relatively independent. It was not that long ago that he made it quite clear that he wanted them sold off for this very reason. It was unfair competition for his "paywall" approach. The same reasoning applies on why Murdoch opposes a FTTP NBN. The idea that people can have television on demand is bad enough; the idea that they could be effective content-producers themselves is completely destructive his monopolistic intention. All the best, -- Lev Lafayette, mobile: 61 432 255 208 http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt