After former terrorism suspect and Q&A audience member Zaky Mallah said that “the Liberals have just justified to many Australian Muslims in the community tonight to leave and go to Syria and join ISIL” (panellist and Liberal MP Steve Ciobo had told Mallah he’d be happy if Mallah was kicked out of the country; Tony Jones immediately apologised for Mallah’s comment), all hell broke loose.
Now, as the final episode of Q&A for the year fast approaches, Tony Jones has at last spoken about the boycott shitstorm – to Fairfax Media, natch.
“It never occurred to me actually that what [Mallah] said – the intent of what he said – would be reversed [by some in the media].
“Even though he’s pretty extreme in many of his views, he is absolutely not a supporter of ISIS. Which, if you look at the front pages and you’ve got ISIS flags – I’m talking about News Limited tabloids in particular – you’ve got ISIS flags with the ABC logo on as if somehow this guy was backing ISIS terrorism or that he was in fact a member of ISIS or something along those lines … he wasn’t ISIS. So I didn’t think anyone would turn around and say he was.
“In the end, the big lie sometimes wins out in propaganda wars and there was a sense – a kind of general sense from people who hadn’t seen the program or had misunderstood it – that we put on a program a guy from ISIS, deliberately. We didn’t.”
Unsurprisingly, News Corp journos are hitting back at the interview, including noted terrible person Miranda Devine. [Proof: HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. Note to world: if Miranda Devine is on your side, you might want to change sides.]
Q&A host Tony Jones trying to rewrite history about Mallah disgrace – no due diligence, no apology. https://t.co/mynlDSO8dI
— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) November 22, 2015
We’re counting down the minutes before Andrew Bolt weighs in on this debate, tbqh with you.
Image: ABC.
