In an email to it’s thousands of members, the left leaning activist group Get Up wrote: 

Get this, 

Today, the (Institute of Public Affairs) IPA released a report purporting to uncover “media bias” in the ABC’s reporting on coal seam gas, mining and renewable energy, calling for our popular and iconic public broadcaster to be privatised as soon as possible. 

We actually had a good laugh, until we realised – this is no joke. 

As we all know by now, the right-wing think tank just happens to be supported by the likes of Rupert Murdoch and Gina Rinehart. Can you you think of two people who would benefit more from a privatised ABC and more sympathetic mining rhetoric in the media? 

It would, of course, be a tragedy if the ABC were privatised. Seriously, there’d be riots in the streets if the government dared sell off the public broadcaster which consistently wins poll after poll as Australia’s most trusted media outlet. Much more trusted than politicians. It’s doubtful that either the IPA or Get Up could match it.

If it’s the ABC’s stance on coal seam gas that’s getting up the IPA’s nose then Get Up could do worse than to enlist 2GB broadcaster Alan Jones to their side. Jones is perhaps Australia’s most outspoken critic of fracking, the highly controversial method used to extract CSG. 

Alan Jones and Get Up working in harmony? I’d like to see that!

 Peter Saxon