Yet again, Karl has made a woman’s life harder
GEORGIE Gardner got her role based on reputation, professionalism and appeal. She is a class act, a newswoman, not an entertainer, writes Wendy Tuohy.
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LET’S leave aside the question of Karl Stefanovic’s entitlement to push his on-air partner into taking greater risks with her live opinions for a moment to focus on the ramifications at hand: Georgie Gardner is now damned if she does go harder, and damned if she doesn’t.
Of course, her dilemma would be completely different were she a male presenter.
As we know, men with opinions not only climb the career ladder faster, but if they do have those opinions attacked, at worst, they get called some lame names.
Women with opinions, at best, have their womanhood attacked — their looks, sex appeal, age, general appearance, even their suitability to be a mother or a wife — at worst, they get rape threats. That is not uncommon.
In his now-infamous Uber chat to his brother, fellow Channel 9 reporter Peter Stefanovic, on loud-speaker, Nine’s very own human headline-in-the-making reportedly chided his new co-host as a “fence sitter,” i.e., playing it too safe.
The Uber driver has claimed Stefanovic “became angry as he declared (Gardner) needed to ‘step up’ if she ‘wanted to stay on the show.’” Get out of your comfort zone or get off is the message received there.
How ironic that the man whose employer must frequently wish Stefanovic was controversial for all the right reasons — not the ones that have humiliated people around him and, to a lesser extent, the network in recent times — sees himself as the judge of whether the person sitting next to him is provocative enough.
How selfish, even, for him to imply that since Gardner is not ramping up the outrage to an eye-catching 11, she is not doing her job well, which, presumably, may affect him.
Georgie Gardner got the role vacated by former women’s magazine editor Lisa Wilkinson based her reputation, professionalism and the sophisticated appeal. She is a class act, a newswoman, not an entertainer.
If she does start shooting from the hip in a way that is manufactured, not heartfelt, it will damage her sober, and thoughtful, brand.
You would have thought Karl Stefanovic would be pleased to work in the slipstream of such a credible presenter, given the chatter some of his Peter Pannish antics have generated in the not-too-distant past. Instead, he sees fit and feels he has the right to want to manipulate the image of a woman with zero need for her image to be tampered with. Except now, he’s ensured she does.
Thanks to her co-host’s tactlessness, viewers will tune in not to see this widely-respected presenter getting into her stride in the high-pressure new gig, but to check if Gardner does get forced by Karl to lean into territory she has henceforth not chosen to get into voluntarily.
If she starts to affect more rage than she feels or feels is appropriate to an issue, it will look desperate and fake.
If she doesn’t choose to go there, now Stefanovic has drawn our attention to it, she may indeed be determined to be bland (compared with the man fast becoming Nine’s serial ‘Mr. Sorry’ next to her).
Television exposes people, but such are the charms of Karl he has, until now, been able to do what he likes and remain very popular. Good for him.
But better than trying to shove Georgie Gardner into being more of a loud mouth would be Karl keeping his eyes in the vicinity of his public image and going to work on that.
Messing with someone whose track record is immaculate and whose departure from the show in the first place to spend more time with her kids triggered an ocean of on-air and viewer tears could just be the straw that finally breaks the viewer-goodwill back.
Wendy Tuohy is a Herald Sun columnist.
Originally published as Yet again, Karl has made a woman’s life harder