Ukraine to blame for MH17

Alex Romanoff writes: Re. “Crikey says: war doing wonders for Abbott’s ratings ” (yesterday). What about this as a counter-proposal? Russia had nothing to do with the shooting down of MH17. It was most likely shot down by a jet fighter of the US-installed fascist-dominated coup regime in Kiev in a premeditated false-flag operation that included the immediate explosion of anti-Russia hysteria in the Western media. What is really behind Abbott’s anti-Putin, anti-Russia histrionics?

ABC must be transparent

Glen Frost writes: Re. “ABC’s flagships could be sacrificed to fund online future, warns Scott” (yesterday). Mark Scott may well huff and puff about government funding, but the fact is that he must demonstrate value to the people of Australia as well as the minister, and to do that, Scott must be very clear about what it costs the ABC to make and buy programs, and what it costs to deliver them. The delivery cost should be split between the cities and the country, so we can all discuss why we are paying tens of millions of dollars to deliver TV and radio to a very, very small number of people.

Telstra did this — it is called the USO, the Universal Service Obligation, and it changed the debate from one about government funding to what bits we want to subsidise, and why. Surely the managing director of a publicly owned asset, and one in the business of communicating information, can use a better comms strategy than his predecessors?

Doggone wrong

Drew Baker writes: Re. “No notes at airports” (yesterday). Your story yesterday was just plain wrong.  The explosives test is undertaken at most domestic airports and often by contracted security guards, usually at the security screening point entering the secure area of the terminal.  That has nothing to do with Customs and Border Protection, whose detector dog program is generally focused on narcotics or other prohibited substances at the border — in other words inbound travellers at international terminals.  Just saying …