News Corp celebrates as U.S. slashes public broadcasting

When News Corp voices call for cuts, it’s not about saving money — it’s about silencing Australia’s source of truth.

The predictable push to defund public broadcasting is back again

From opinion pages in The Daily Telegraph to talking heads on Sky News , an all too familiar refrain from News Corp is back: the ABC is an outdated luxury in a "media-saturated" world, hopelessly biased, and that it must be dismantled.

It’s a playbook lifted straight from the U.S., where Donald Trump’s administration is moving to strip $1.7 billion from PBS and NPR. The talking points are identical: taxpayer-funded news is "partisan," it doesn’t serve or reflect rural area needs, and — our personal favourite — emergency broadcasting is overrated in a country where fires, floods, and cyclones are apparently just quaint inconveniences.

In Tim Blair’s (paywalled) Daily Telegraph column, the ABC is a "government-run media monstrosity" we’re tragically "stuck with." He invites us to imagine an Australia "without the ABC" as some kind of paradise. Presumably one where people have to guess what’s happening in the world — and hope the next disaster sends a text message warning via Australia’s patchy mobile phone network before it hits.

On Sky News, Chris Kenny linked the U.S. cuts to PBS and NPR to a call for the same here — implying that in the internet age, who needs a trusted, independent broadcaster when we have an endless buffet of opinion and misinformation for free?

Here’s the problem with that line: it’s not just wrong. It’s reckless.

The ABC is not a luxury — it’s a lifeline

Public media doesn’t exist to compete with the commercial market. It exists to do the things the commerical media outlets won’t:

Reporting from the most remote corners of the country.
Holding power to account without fear of losing advertisers.
Keeping local coverage on the air in disasters, when the going gets tough.

When fire takes out phone towers or floodwaters cut internet access, the ABC remains on air with life saving local coverage until the danger passes. In 2017-2018 the ABC handled around 251 emergency broadcasts. In 2023-24 that number rose to 659 – and that number continues to rise.

We need the ABC now more than ever

This isn’t nostalgia for “Aunty.” It’s defending the democratic infrastructure that keeps Australia informed, connected, and — in many cases — safe.

- Restored funding — reversing the $140 million annual shortfall left by a decade of cuts.
- A broadcaster for all Australians — with real investment in local and regional coverage.
- Independence — no ads, no political interference, no commercial strings.
- Strong emergency broadcasting — because disasters don’t take holidays.
- Secure future funding — indexed to real costs, not wishful thinking.

The U.S. is not our model

If defunding public broadcasters worked, America would be a paradise of high-quality, widely accessible news. Instead, it’s a fractured media landscape dominated by corporate giants and partisan echo chambers. Interesting how that never makes it into the defunding pitch.

Tim Blair, Chris Kenny and NewsCorp may see silencing the ABC as a win. But for Australians in remote and regional communities, or for anyone who wants facts over noise, it’s a loss we can’t afford.

Cuts to public broadcasting aren’t inevitable. They’re deliberate political choices. And we can make a different one.

Phil Evans
ABC Friends

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