- Kim Williams said activist journalism is available on ABC
- Laura Tingle continues to declare Australia ‘racist’
- Will ABC’s new boss bring Tingle online?
This weekend we heard another activist opinion from ABC chief political correspondent Laura Tingle.
The 7:30 Reporter used a platform at the Sydney Writers Festival to declare Australia a “racist country”. But his self-described “little rant” didn’t end there.
Tingle went on to suggest Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s new immigration policy has given white Australians “licence” to abuse anyone who looks a little different to them at property auctions.
Tingle told his audience that he had “this sudden flash of people turning up trying to rent a property or at an auction and looking a little bit different, however you define different, that basically he (Peter Dutton) has given them license to be abused’.
Talk about a long bow. It’s an extraordinary insult, one she would never direct at the other side of politics, by the way.
ABC chief political correspondent Laura Tingle (above) has declared that Australia “is a racist country and always has been.”
Don’t forget that Tingle has form when it comes to talking about one side of politics and not the other in his spare time.
In a late-night tweet during Scott Morrison’s leadership, he accused the then-prime minister of “ideological bastardry.”
At least he had the grace to delete the tweet the next morning.
ABC’s new president, Kim Williams, has boldly declared that activism is over now that she is at ABC.
Williams said in March that anyone who wants to continue practicing activist journalism should seek employment elsewhere.
So will ABC’s new president act on his words and force Tingle, one of his top correspondents, to fall into line, ensuring it doesn’t happen again?
Or is Tingle, also an elected staff representative on the ABC board, simply too tall to follow the rules set for others?
While truth is a defense when it comes to throwing barbs in public, are Tingle’s statements true? That this nation is racist to the core?
Did you cite any data or international comparisons as evidence of your certainty that a nation of 26 million people is unequivocally racist? No.
“We always have been,” apparently, according to Tingle.
Or is Tingle simply reflecting the private musings of his own friendship circle? Even her own family? Or perhaps his own private opinions, God forbid?
Of course not. I suspect she wants to slander others, not herself or those around her.
Tingle and his inner circle would no doubt be aggrieved by even the ironic implication that they are a bunch of racists.
And that is the point.
New ABC boss Kim Williams (left) joins Anthony Albanese in Parliament as his appointment was announced.
Great Dirty Australians who live in suburbs that ARE actually diverse, rather than simply trumpeting diversity from the top of the nation’s capital, also have a right to feel aggrieved by the widespread and baseless insult from Tingle, a paid employee of the public broadcaster they finance. with his tax money.
Australia is an internationally recognized beacon of successful multiculturalism. Compared to events happening globally where racial hatred rises to the surface in violent and unimaginable ways all too often, here in Australia people have a record to be proud of.
There is always room for healthy debate for and against new policies proposed by political parties. That includes Dutton’s immigration. political ads in his budget response speech.
But it should be rational, evidence-based and – certainly when it comes to the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster – it MUST be balanced and free of personal bias. Especially when the rant comes from ABC’s most senior political journalist.
Fortunately, 7.30 is hosted by Sarah Ferguson, a complete professional and master of the political interview who is willing to give it to both sides, something she highlighted again in her post-Budget interviews.
Tingle could learn a thing or two from his colleague.