The ABC’s Red Roots

Quadrant Online recently re-published an essay from Jan-Feb, 1983 on the origins of the lockstep leftism that continues to dominate thinking at the ABC, with author Anthony McAdam making mention of “Jon ‘Darce’ Cassidy (inset), ‘a Maoist and former revolutionary activist with secondary students and university students in Sydney and Melbourne in the late ’sixties and early ’seventies’ who held the position Supervisor, Radio Talks.’

In the latest edition of his Media Watch Dog, the Sydney Institute’s Gerard Henderson expands Cassidy’s profile:

…Cassidy commenced as a journalist at the ABC in Melbourne in 1964 and remained in this role until 1989. He was, variously, a radio and television broadcaster and, later, an executive producer. From 1989 until 1997, Cassidy was the ABC’s manager for South Australia.

During his time at Monash University, Cassidy called himself “Darce”. When at the ABC he was commonly known as “Jon”. And now Cassidy again goes by the name of…