Indigenous TV host Stan Grant says he doesn’t watch the news or consume media since quitting

The former ABC television presenter has lashed out at the media and says he doesn’t watch the nightly news anymore.

Stan Grant appearing on SBS TV to give the Elder in Residence Oration 2024. Source: SBS.

Former ABC presenter Stan Grant has declared he’s “never been happier” since quitting the media last year and said he no longer consumes daily news.

Grant addressed the inaugural SBS Elder in Residence Oration last week alongside Aunty Rhoda Roberts and told the audience he was fed up with negative headlines, including debates between people who hold vastly different views.

“I don’t believe in journalism anymore,” Grant said at the Oration that aired on SBS TV.

“I don’t watch the nightly television news, why would I?

“A fire here, a killing there, a car crash here, what some lying politician has told us today. Who hates who today? What endless war are we covering today?”

Grant, a Wiradjuri, Gurrawin and Dharawal man, last year quit his role as a presenter at the ABC — which included hosting political panel show Q+A — after a furore erupted over his comments about colonisation during a live broadcast for King Charles III’s Coronation.

Stan Grant previously hosted ABC’s Q+A program.

“I had spoken with what I believed were the truths of our history, the truth of what invasion and colonisation, exclusion, segregation had meant for us and how it still plays out in our lives,” Grant said last week. “In return I was vilified, my family was abused and we were threatened. I realised at that point that journalism, the media, no longer have the language or the love to deal with the fragile spirits of our country and our world.”

After leaving the ABC he was appointed to a role at the Professor of Journalism at Monash University, and as Asia-Pacific director of the Denmark-based Constructive Institute, but later quit.

Grant also took aim at America — before the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on Sunday – and accused the media of giving the former president a worldwide profile.

“Look at the United States, a country that is meant to be a beacon of democracy but is almost ungovernable and we say, ‘it’s Donald Trump’s fault’,” he said.

“Really? The media created Donald Trump. We love Donald Trump. We love the sideshow of Donald Trump.”

Originally published as Indigenous TV host Stan Grant says he doesn’t watch the news or consume media since quitting