Everybody
needs to draw breath over this Albrechtsen thing. Opposing her
appointment simply because she’s a conservative and a Howard mate
doesn’t cut it. Nor is the fact that she contributes to a Murdoch
publication. The Left has no credibility on attacking political
appointments when it never worried about the blatantly political
appointments made by Labor – David Hill, Brian Johns, John Bannon, just
to mention a handful.

Opposing Albrechtsen because of her
political leanings only serves to reinforce her argument that the ABC
is captured by a bunch of lefties who can’t bear the idea of anybody
who doesn’t agree with them joining the club.

Also, to
oppose her because she writes for the Murdoch press is incredibly
hypocritical given how many ABC types have freelanced for News Ltd over
the years, myself included. Indeed, if memory serves me, Quentin
Dempster was criticised by Stuart Littlemore for selling pieces to The Australian. Littlemore was out of line and, now, so is Quentin for the same reason.

The
media landscape is too small for scribes not to be able to flog their
work to whoever will take it. There is no conflict of interest because
Albrechtsen has shot herself in the foot by no longer being able to
take shots at the ABC in her opinion pieces, a restriction she is on
record as accepting. To believe that she would feed confidential
information garnered from ABC board meetings to her masters at News Ltd
is taking conspiracy theorising too far, even for a paranoid lefty like
me who can’t bear Albrechtsen and her rabid opinions.

Albrechtsen
should not be a board member of any media organisation, or for that
matter a contributor of content to any media outlet, because she has
been found guilty of a serious breach of ethics and has refused to
acknowledge that she’s done anything wrong.

CRIKEY: Check out our earlier coverage of Albrechtsen appointment here – What lies ahead for Albrechtsen