Barry vs Bolt: I’ll show you my salary now you show me yours…

Nobody has ever explained exactly why tax payers should know the salaries of ABC employees.

But let’s go along with Bolt’s argument and accept that they are – on the basis that they are entitled to know how they money is being spent. I don’t personally agree with this, but I can see there is some semblance of logic to that argument.

Using that same logic, I would equally expect Bolt (along with all his News Ltd colleagues) to disclose their income to News Ltd shareholders. Has he done this? I’m sure News Ltd shareholders would be equally interested in how their money is being spent as Australian taxpayers are in how their money is allocated.

To be fair, more people read/know about Andrew Bolt than they do of Media Watch or Paul Barry… So maybe Bolt is doing him a favour by not revealing how much he gets paid out of professional kindness?

Another shining example of the journalistic credibility of the ABC, and why its overpaid, under-informed right wing commercial ‘competitors’ remain in the shadows.

NewsCorp shareholders should be entitled to know how much columnists like Bolt are being paid, particularly considering the substantial losses the newspapers are racking up, and taking into account previous efforts by Bolt to entice his blog and column readers to pay to read online were a complete disaster. Nobody wanted to pay.

It’s no secret within NewsCorp there is substantial animosity about the pay packets of ‘The Chosen Ones’ like Bolt, who complains constantly about how management won’t pay for blog moderators, while low graded journalists are clocking up what amount to seven day working weeks, and are being asked to moderate comments on stories they did not write. The abuse, racism and filth many of them have to wade through is having negative impacts on their private lives, but they are allegedly being told “that’s part of the job.”

And NewsCorp newspaper, like Fairfax, are to a certain level “taxpayer-funded”. Taxpayer funds pay for all those Defence recruitment ads, plus all the other government-related advertising.

Defence alone spends something like $40 million a year on advertising, and a fat portion of that goes to NewsCorp newspapers, propping up newspapers that are, for the most part, unprofitable with falling readerships.

Bolt sounds and reads like he’s having some kind of freakout, he needs a holiday.

To really answer whether or not taxpayer ‘value’ is being achieved – the important question is how do ABC salaries compare with industry standards? Are they are above or below the average? To do this you need to benchmark against commercial equivalents; which, I know for certain, are a lot higher.

This is just more neo-liberal propaganda in an attempt to discredit one of the few credible news orgs in Australia; Simply because NewsCorp shareholders want to maximise their dividends by achieving a near total monopoly.

Surely a couple of ABC staffers answering here?
Wow.

Is it really that important for us to know? I fail to see why we need to be across this information, and why high pay-checks for these people are necessarily a bad thing. This is jut News Ltd being News Ltd and turning non-stories into news to try and make its competitors look bad.

“Not a bad salary for hosting a weekly 15 minute program.”

Yes, because I’m sure all Paul Barry does is rock up five minutes before it goes to air and read what’s put in front of him, and he’s on his way home in a taxpayer-funded limo by the time the audience applause at the start of Q&A has died down.

@Alberto Contador

probs not, but to be fair i don’t think paul is doing a 40 hour week either, and even if he was, $191k is pretty staggering.

that said i DO feel that i’m getting value for my money watching him and the rest of the media watch team go after ill-informed, fear-mongering, climate skeptics like bolt, jones and co every week – the public service they provide is invaluable.

If Bolt has any credibility he will declare his News Ltd and TEN pay packets to show either how much or little ABC staff are paid. Otherwise he is just another hypocritical ranter.

Bolt is a moron. If you cannot see why, then you are a moron. Lets face it. The nerve of the one sided, un-ethical, broadcast nobody.

My Mother would have called Mr Bolt “a nasty piece of work”. About as bad as she ever got.

I’m so sick of bent people – bent politicians, bent journalists, bent proprioters. I’m sick of professional loudmouths like Bolt and Jones and Hinch and Hadley all railing at something and deliberately using words like “outfit” to perjoratively describe groups or companies.

They certainly do their best to dumb down their audiences.

And the kowtowing print lackeys do their best to amplify the message. Hacks, why are they still there? Aren’t newspapers dead?

And in the end, when education has fallen even lower around our ankles as Gonski is another broken promise, they’ll look back at the Golden Era with wishful nostalgia; little realising they squandered and pissed away their own Golden Future.

sigh. Such fools, such utter, greedy, arrogant fools.

Like the crazy hoon driver who only gets home safely because the rest of us follow the road rules, this lot, this “outfit”, shamelessly and calculatingly exploit our collective courtesy, smugly getting away with their shenanigans. Bullys, all.

$191K for reading an autocue for 15 minutes a week.
Times 42 weeks – that’ a total of about 10-11 hours a year.
That’s round about $19,000 per hour of word done.
Paul Barry is a pompous, self-important disgrace, who should hang his head in shame at his plundering of taxpayers’ money.
It’s clearly time for the ABC to have its budget cut by around $800M, so they can once again taste reality.

Hey @rhys 1.1million viewers for media Watch
0.1m for Bolta
Source: ozTam
who knows who?

Great point Chris. News Corp shareholders deserve to know exactly how much money they are losing propping up the failing newspapers. The last 3 years has seen non-stop ad campaigns for the Daily Tele across print, outdoor and TV – which must be costing a fortune – only to see circulation continue to decline by double digits. Seems to be a last ditch attempt by Mr Murdoch to retain political relevance and power. But if that’s the strategy, News Corp should be upfront with its shareholders about it (good luck!).

The ABC is getting bang for its buck with Paul Barry. He is a respected journalist with great insights into the media sector. The show is extremely well researched, written and produced – and it’s clear that Barry plays a key role in this. You only have to check his Twitter account to see he regularly responds personally to tips from viewers etc.

Wasn’t Bolt’s point in asking for Barry to declare his salary to point out that it was pretty hypocritical for ABC staff to be up in arms about leaking of information – in this case their salaries after leaking that the Australian government had been phone tapping the Indonesian President?
I think all the indignation is pretty funny and makes me wonder how these people (ie ABC staffers) expect me to believe that they are unbiased and intelligent when they can’t see this basic point that Bolt is making

I own some Newscorp shares as part of a portfolio, plus I pay a monthly fee to subscribe to News Limited’s online service. I tested the waters by posting to Bolt’s blog and asking for his salary, on the basis that I’m a stakeholder in the company that employs him. As might be expected, the silence was deafening, except from a couple of his wingnuts who told me that shareholders of a private company have no right to know employee salaries.

Actually, I tend to agree. I think salaries at any company or organisation, public or otherwise, are a private matter between the employer and individual employees. Shareholders and taxpayers should only have access to that kind of data on a need-to-know basis. ABC salaries are only being bandied about to whip up class envy. And of course whatever Paul Barry is getting you can bet your life that Bolt receives twice over and then some.

Individuals are entitled to the same benefits – 4 weeks holiday, superannuation, and PRIVACY – whether they work for private or publicly funded entities.

It is a nonsense to suggest that because the entity they work for is funded by the taxpayer, that they should as a consequence lose their right to privacy.

The only thing the public is entitled to know is the overall amount the ABC spends on salaries – not the individual salary of every employee.

But let’s say Bolt & Co’s has some validity – then, by his own argument, the shareholders must be entitled to know his salary. After all, they pay for it.

Let’s see him reveal his salary to all the many News shareholders out there then? OK Bolt?