Right-wing activist clashes with Allison Langdon on Today Show
Right-wing commentator DeAnna Lorraine has accused the Today Show of censorship following a tense exchange with host Allison Langdon.
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US political commentator DeAnna Lorraine has accused the Today show of censorship after her interview abruptly ended following her clash with co-host Allison Langdon.
The right-wing activist was grilled about comments she made likening Melbourne’s COVID-19 lockdown to prison and she later complained about her treatment on Twitter.
So @TheTodayShow of Australia claims that my appearance was cut short due to a “bad feed†and not due to the things I was saying about C0Vid.
— DeAnna Lorraine 🇺🇸 (@DeAnna4Congress) July 15, 2020
Alrighty. You all made no attempt to reconnect tho?
In that case, should we reschedule?
Seems free speech is dead in Australian media. pic.twitter.com/AfeDGR2d37
This is literally Prison. Total enslavement.
— DeAnna Lorraine 🇺🇸 (@DeAnna4Congress) July 12, 2020
Australians aren't allowed to even leave their own homes for 6 plus weeks? Police put a "ring of steel" around the city, with "checkpoints anytime anywhere" to enforce the measures? SICK. Fight this people!https://t.co/9Vr0vR0Gol
She also claimed she was being “silenced” in an Instagram post.
A Channel 9 spokeswoman denied Lorraine’s claims.
“Today interviewed DeAnna Lorraine who is a prominent Californian former Republican candidate on her views that Victoria’s COVID-19 are “total enslavement”. But as soon as the interview began DeAnna ranted about dangerous conspiracy theories about Coronavirus. Her Skype link coincidentally dropped out and it was too difficult to conduct a measured debate with a patchy line making any discussion impossible,” a spokeswoman said.
During the interview, Langdon became frustrated after Lorraine shared conspiracy theories about COVID-19.
“...Almost every facet of COVID-19 has been a fraud,” the failed politician said.
“It’s been the draconian measures that have been taken in response to COVID-19 have been based on false premises and false figures.”
After the interview ended, Langdon complained to her co-host Karl Stefanovic about giving Lorraine a platform.
“I don’t think we should be giving her any airtime,” Langdon said.
Stefanovic responded saying, “You knew that interview was happening last night. You can’t go and say ‘I don’t like what she is saying now’. She has the right to her opinion. There are complete whack jobs in this country who think the same thing.”
Lorraine recently made headlines after weighing in on Melbourne’s lockdown.
“This is literally Prison. Total enslavement,” she tweeted.
“Australians aren’t allowed to even leave their own homes for 6 plus weeks? Police put a ‘ring of steel’ around the city, with ‘checkpoints anytime anywhere’ to enforce the measures? SICK. Fight this people!”
It comes after Channel 9 conceded it has some work to do to improve the Today Show’s ratings after it was beaten by ABC News Breakfast again.
Today became the third-rating breakfast program last week behind News Breakfast and Channel 7’s Sunrise and Today’s Director of Morning Televison Steven Burling told Confidential that despite the defeat, he’s proud of staff.
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“I won’t be happy with the ratings till we’re #1 but I’m certainly satisfied with a 10 per cent lift in numbers this year. Not to mention a 19.6 per cent lift in the 25-54 year-old demo, Burling tweeted.
“We have world class hosts and a committed and dynamic production team – I’m extraordinarily proud of all of them.”
Last week, Today had 195,000 metro viewers tune in during Wednesday’s episode, compared to the ABC’s 225,000 (across two channels) and Channel 7’s Sunrise with 257,000 and was third for the overall week.
Today has come third to Sunrise and News Breakfast 14 out of 28 weeks this calendar year to date and ratings have dropped below 200,000 metro viewers 39 days this calendar year.
ABC hosts Lisa Millar and Michael Rowland began the year trailing behind Stefanovic and Langdon but has managed to narrow the gap and overtake Today.
However, both shows have proven they’re no match for Channel 7’s Sunrise, with co-hosts Samantha Armytage and David Koch drawing in some of their best ratings in years.
Sunrise boss Michael Pell previously said Today’s ever-changing panel could be to blame for its struggle with ratings.
“I’m quite surprised at how all of that’s gone down with that show. Not to talk too much about them, but I’ve never seen that many people sacked that quickly for no apparent reason,” Pell said. “I think the audience is punishing them for that still. The audience doesn’t like a company that treats people badly.”
Originally published as Right-wing activist clashes with Allison Langdon on Today Show