Much of the criticism of the ABC seems to miss the point. The right (or at least the Liberal Party) calls for more balance, which seems to imply that politics and culture are two-sided debates ... as if a few voices from the right would fix things.

It might help, but there are many views in the community that just don't fit into the current boomer left versus the neo-conservatives stoush.

There has long been a generational struggle going on in the ABC as well. In the '90s in Britain and the United States, there was a generational turnover - new blood came into broadcasting and brought in a different, more accelerated aesthetic to television.

Throughout the '90s, ABC programming that appealed to people under 35 was dubbed youth programming. In Britain it is simply called programming.

Youth programming was carefully quarantined to a small playground well out of earshot of mummy and daddy. Then in the late-90s, 18 to 35-year-olds were abandoned by ABC TV - the station figured they would come to the ABC once they reached middle age and were ready for "serious" TV.

High-rating shows such as Race Around the World and Good News Week were downsized or chased out of the ABC by a management that wanted a quiet life, away from programs that might generate controversy or an angry phone call from the federal Liberal Party director Lynton Crosby.

As the boomers have aged, they've needed to redefine the concept of youth, in order to make those younger bastards serve a very long apprenticeship in the marketplace of ideas. I'm 36 and yet I'm still often regarded as a young person. The ABC very kindly had me on Stateline as a "young" republican in 1999, when I've been voting now for 18 years, I'm married and have a child. My humor might be undergraduate, but as far as a 20-year-old is concerned I'm an old fart.

With John Safran, the ABC had a seriously brilliant 20-something maverick on their hands who holds no brief for anyone.

John has the best cultural bullshit detector I've ever encountered in TV and is a kind of hero in the community for puncturing Ray Martin's self-importance by hanging around outside his house with a camera, wearing a Mike Munro mask, demanding to know why Ray wasn't at work at 9.30 in the morning.

Safran made the best series pilot I've ever seen for ABC TV comedy, which was only ever aired in part - on Media Watch. After assembling his first edit, he found himself dealing with an executive producer who insisted (I swear I'm not making this up) that he watch a few episodes of Mother and Son to get a better grasp of how TV comedy really works.

I could go on with other examples:

The brilliant relegation of Recovery to a 10.30 Friday night timeslot - the one time of the week when anyone in their 20s is certain to be out for the evening. This was a prelude to its axing (no doubt due to low ratings).

The effective quarantining of non-boomers on ABC radio to JJJ, keeping the metropolitan stations free for twee, comforting pap for the mums and dads.

The annoying consistency with which the 7.30 Report turns in stories on "how we're helping the damaged kids out there". Kerry O'Brien always manages to assemble that look of deep concern for those teenagers who were too underprivileged to ever know what a Whitlam government was like.

The net result of all this was wholesale abandonment of the ABC by anyone under 35.

The current management has been accused of being ratings obsessed. But in 1999 when Jonathan Shier took the job, the ABC did not have a single show in the top 50 most-watched programs in that demographic. Not one.

When that happens the ABC does indeed have a ratings problem.

As the Nine network struggles to retain its dwindling old-fart demographic it is forced into intergenerational hot-button issues, which will only alienate younger viewers even more.

The old boomers at the ABC see their loss of younger viewers differently. They see it as evidence that young people just aren't as serious, as committed as the boomers were when they were - gulp - young.

So amid all the calls for the ABC to adequately represent both sides of the spectrum, I'd ask you to bear in mind there are other struggles - generational, class-based, regional - that often work at right angles to the old boomer left vs the neo-conservatives tug-of-war.

Comedian Richard Fidler has worked on and off for 12 years for the ABC as a writer/presenter. His 13-part series, After Shock, goes to air on ABC TV from May 3. This is an edited extract of his address for a recent Institute of Public Affairs conference about the ABC.