ABC Reins In Faine

Wonders will never cease!  The obnoxious Jon Faine has, at last, been censured by the ABC over his disgracefully prejudiced and unfair treatment of Michael Smith and Editor-at-Large, Mark Baker during their ‘right of reply’ interview conducted on 23^rd November, 2012.  Faine’s treatment of both men was appalling.

I posted about the incident on the 24^th November, last year.

Yesterday, the ABC’s Audience & Consumer Affairs, who, I imagine, received a truckload of complaints from listeners who had come to the end of their tether with Local Radio 774’s week mornings host, Faine and his obvious bias, issued an apology citing there had been a “lapse in standards”.  Now, there’s an understatement in relation to Jon Faine.  Faine has repeatedly illustrated he has only one standard – and that is standard according to the political far Left.  No other standards need apply for an interview with Faine because they will be belittled and talked over.  This seems to be Faine’s preferred tactic to censor dissenting opinion!

I have a question for the ABC.   If 2GB had to attend a radio re-education camp, according to an ACMA ruling and radio broadcaster Alan Jones was directed to offer an on-air apology to Lebanese muslims in December of last year for comments he made in 2005 which were deemed inappropriate in our New World of political correctness, then surely the same should apply to the ABC and 774 morning host, Jon Faine.  Will Local Radio 774 and  Jon Faine be marched off to the ABC’s (non-existent, apparently) equivalent of ACMA’s re-education camp?   Unfortunately Auntie is immune, generally, to ACMA’s fangs, which is a great pity, in my opinion.   Apparently, ACMA will only intervene when there has been a resolution stalemate.  No level playing field.  One rule for the bulk of mainstream media and another toothless rule for the ABC.  This anomaly must change as the ABC is now a large mainstream media player.   The ABC must not be given free rein to self-regulate.  It has to stop, regardless of some common sense determination by the Audience & Consumer Affairs in relation to the antics of Jon Faine.

More importantly, will Faine be required to offer both Michael Smith and Mark Baker an on-air apology?  If not – why not?  ABC – you know that would be the right thing to do.  Simply putting up some token grovel statement on Faine’s website and on the ABC’s Upheld Complaints page is not good enough.

By the way, at the time of writing this post, no such apology appears on Faine’s website which can be found here.

Further reading, The Age and The Australian.