Officials at Channel Nine have moved swiftly to drop Senator Pauline Hanson as a regular guest on The Today Show, after a disastrously racist segment was aired this morning that quickly attracted widespread condemnation.
Hanson appeared this morning, bafflingly, to provide comment on the punitive hard lockdown of nine public housing towers in Melbourne which has seen the commission flats turned into de facto prisons as scores of police forcibly keep people inside their homes in a bid to curb growing COVID-19 numbers in Victoria.
Following furious uproar, Nine (who wholly owns this publication) confirmed that Hanson has been axed and will not be booked to appear on Today again.
In a live cross from Queensland this morning, Hanson bleated out “The fact is a lot of them are drug addicts as well, they are getting their medication, they are alcoholics so they’re being looked after in that way,” applying a shocking broad brush to the scores of diverse, underprivileged, vulnerable people who live in those towers.
They are actually getting paid extra money. Why are they getting paid extra money? For what? They are not leaving the premises. A lot of these people are from non-English speaking back grounds, probably English is their second language who haven’t adhered to the rules of social distancing,” Hanson asserted.
The One Nation senator even went so far as to suggest, quite strongly, that the people in the towers should indeed be subject to the insanely strict lockdown conditions, stating “Why is it they are in that situation? Why has the Government gone to this high-rise building and shut it down? Possibly because a lot of these people weren’t doing the right thing.Is the Government worried about the other areas that are shut down? You know, the people in their homes, are they able to actually get out and buy the food as well? There has to be a reason why they have targeted this set of blocks, apartment blocks. Ask that question.”
The segment received very little immediate on-air pushback from the show’s hosts.
Following that, questions were raised as to the purpose of shows like Today repeatedly booking Hanson on-air, who time and time again has revelled in the unfettered airtime to broadcast her fundamentally racist ideology with little consequence. More to that, Today itself copped widespread backlash for willingly booking Hanson despite her repeated missteps and racist sentiment.
A short time ago, Nine’s director of news and current affair Darren Wick issued a concise statement confirming Hanson’s removal from Today’s roster of guests.
The Today Show has advised Pauline Hanson that she will no longer be appearing on our programme as a regular contributor,” Wick stated.
“We don’t shy away from diverse opinions and robust debate on the Today Show. But this morning’s accusations from Pauline Hanson were ill-informed and divisive. At a time of uncertainty in this national and global health crisis, Australians have to be united and supportive of one another. We need to get through this together.”
Senator Hanson has yet to issue a statement in response. Whatever she says will be shit and not worth publishing regardless.
