Not since Zaky Mallah asked a question on Q&A – prompting then-prime minister Tony Abbott to ask the ABC “whose side are you on” – has the public broadcaster been such a hot topic.

Everything from the ABC handing out executive bonuses, to Aunty sending a TV crew to London to cover the royal wedding, has been subjected to the blowtorch.

News Corp columnists, including the Australian’s Gerard Henderson, the Herald Sun’s Andrew Bolt and the Courier Mail’s Des Houghton, have all lined up to denounce the ABC in the past few days.

Here is a taste from the Australian’s Chris Kenny: “Since last week’s budget the ABC has taken a bit of a break from demonising Australians as deplorable xenophobes, Islamophobes, homophobes, misogynists and racists to focus on its own funding problems.”

• Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

The Courier Mail’s Mike O’Connor: “Climate change (the ice caps are melting, the Barrier Reef is doomed, coal is the new heroin), anything negative regarding President Trump, anything relating to LGBTI issues – you’ll get it early and often on the ABC.”

But communications minister Mitch Fifield, whose portfolio includes the ABC, is chief prosecutor. Fifield has been on the hustings not so much to sell the budget as to berate the ABC for daring to complain about the budget cut, its salary bonus scheme and other alleged inefficiencies. Sources told Weekly Beast the minister’s office has been keen to steer journalists to the ABC annual report – tabled in October last year – as a source for juicy yarns about lavishly paid execs on the public teat.

The Herald Sun had an “exclusive” story based on this seven-month-old annual report, headed “Australian Bonus Corporation”, geddit?

Only the support of the people can save the ABC now | Emma Dawson Read more

“The ABC forked out almost $3m on taxpayer-funded bonuses – some as much as $70,000 – to some of its highest-paid staff last year.”

Fifield made it pretty clear that salaries and bonuses would be under the microscope at the upcoming efficiency review of the ABC and SBS, also announced in the budget, as he was all about “enhanced accountability for the public broadcasters and enhanced transparency”.

As the minister responded to shock jock Chris Smith on 2GB when asked if ABC staff got bonuses for just “doing their job”: “I guess it’s nice work if you can get it.”

We wonder if Fifield will be as keen to monitor the salary rates at the NBN, another agency in his portfolio, because that agency makes the ABC look positively frugal.

According to questions on notice from Senate estimates, 8% of NBN Co staff receive a salary of $200,000 or more, compared with just 2.9% of ABC execs. At NBN Co roughly 2% receive $300,000 or more while just 0.4% of staff at Aunty are on that salary.

The ABC has 139 staff on more than $200,000 compared with the NBN’s 484, and 21 are on more than $300,000 compared with 120 at the NBN. We can’t wait for Fifield to show his even-handedness by hitting the airwaves to berate the NBN about efficiency.

Here come the jibes ...

We did think it was unfortunate timing when the day after ABC news chief Gaven Morris said “There is no more fat to cut in ABC News. From this point on, we’re cutting into muscle”, ABC TV publicity announced some special arrangements for the “wedding of the year”.

Jeremy Fernandez and Annabel Crabb will be on the ground in London, alongside ABC correspondents Lisa Millar and James Glenday to report live from the royal wedding.



Budget cuts are an attempt to bully the ABC into silence | Andrew Fowler Read more

This news sparked a whole new round of Aunty bashing. But can you imagine what they would say if the ABC didn’t make a fuss of the royal wedding? Would they be ignoring our colonial past?

On Thursday, Peter Dutton stepped up to slam Aunty’s decision to fly the journalists when they already have correspondents in the UK.

News Breakfast (@BreakfastNews) When in London... @JezNews is getting in the #royalwedding spirit by stocking up on merch - @mjrowland68 has called dibs on the plate! pic.twitter.com/0obfmEG3IJ

“If you have a look at the largesse of their studios at the ABC, these bonuses they’ve just paid out, I’d love to know the criteria,” Dutton told 2GB radio.

The Daily Tele was outraged on taxpayers’ behalf: “Two of the ABC’s star presenters jetted into London yesterday on taxpayer-funded business class flights to cover the royal wedding – and wasted no time in getting down to the important task of shopping for souvenirs.

“In Australia the public broadcaster has been criticised for handing out $2.6m in bonuses while resisting a government funding freeze to its whopping budget. But in London, presenters Annabel Crabb and Jeremy Fernandez spent the day zipping around the British capital, posing for selfies outside Buckingham Palace and hunting for ‘trashy’ royal wedding souvenirs.”

Anna Whitelock (@AnnaWhitelock) Great fun to hang out with the legend that is Australia’s @annabelcrabb talking all things royal past and present in a London cab! #RoyalWedding pic.twitter.com/NPjyWYyi14

The ABC was quick to correct the story, saying the broadcaster had forked out for economy fares only. “In April 2011 more than 1.1 million Australians watched ABC TV’s coverage of the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton,” the statement said.

“With the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the ABC is pleased to again be able to provide this valued service to our audiences across the country.”

Our sources say there is no bad blood in the London bureau about the addition of Fernandez and Crabb, the former who landed feeling sick after sharing cattle class with the masses, while Seven’s Samantha Armytage and cohort enjoyed the luxury of business class.

Perhaps the ABC should have saved some cash by staying home and covering it with a cardboard cutout like the rather ingenious Newcastle Herald.



Fairfax Regional (@FairfaxRegional) Look who stopped by Stockton on the way to the #RoyalWedding ...https://t.co/2Dw5bqCbcq via @newcastleherald pic.twitter.com/vePUxmntPB

Tele’s monumental stuff-up

The Daily Telegraph under editor Chris Dore is known for its spectacular front pages. But some are more spectacular than others, and inevitably crash and burn. Last year’s “AUSSIE TALIBAN: PC vandals’ bid to tear down our history” was one of these.

Christopher Dore (@wrongdorey) As taylor swift would say ... https://t.co/fmUgX6OWc4 pic.twitter.com/Q59fauQjP7

The Tele reported there was a politically correct push to remove or alter monuments from our colonial history like the statue of Captain Cook in Hyde Park, and likened said moves to the Taliban and Stalin.



“The debate began when Indigenous ABC journalist Stan Grant attacked the inscription on the memorial to Captain Cook in Hyde Park stating that the British explorer ‘discovered this territory’,” the paper said.

On Thursday the Australian Press Council found the article, which stretched over three pages, was misleading and not accurate and lacked reasonable fairness and balance.



The conclusion was so damning it may as well have just said the article contained no facts: “The article did not identify any individual or group in fact proposing to remove or alter any monument.

“While the article contained neither comments from nor identification of anyone advocating the removal or alteration of the monuments, the publication included comments from several people critical of a supposed ‘push, ‘bid’ or ‘groundswell’ of threats to tear down or alter Sydney monuments,” the council said.