Australian media doyenne Ita Buttrose will be announced as just the second woman to chair the ABC — ending a five-month search for a new leader for the public broadcaster — after Federal Cabinet met in Sydney on Tuesday and approved her appointment for the next five years.

In trying to defend the ABC as an institutional pillar of a fearless free media in Australia’s robust democracy, first, we have to confront paranoia.It comes in the form of constant Murdoch Press complaints that the ABC is biased and a force for “left wing” ideology. “All the ABC’s presenters are left wing!” columnists and ABC critics have written. I found myself on a recent Monday night (4 February 2019) on Sky News “after dark” being interviewed on the Chris Kenny on Media program. And again ...