Rita Panahi: Ill-informed Caro doubles down on Tredrea attack

By doubling down on her attacks against Port Adelaide great and board member Warren Tredrea, veteran footy writer Caroline Wilson has shown how ill-informed she really is.

Caroline Wilson has doubled down on her bizarre attack against Port Adelaide great and board member Warren Tredrea. And, in doing so the veteran football reporter has revealed she is dreadfully ill-informed and intolerant.

Caroline Wilson has doubled down on her attack on Warren Tredrea. Picture: Scott Barbour

But don’t dare call her political or a Leftie despite the fact that she’s clearly both. There’s nothing wrong with being political or an ideologue but at least be honest about it and don’t present your personal opinion as ‘news’ or the sentiments of nameless, faceless “sources”.

It’s clear now that her initial attack piece against Tredrea was very much motivated by her own worldview. Wilson claimed on Channel 7 that the premiership captain’s “strong” and supposedly “unusual” political views, often shared on social media, were causing deep concern at Alberton Oval. And, yet the tweets that were displayed on screen during Wilson’s rant were hardly unusual unless one exists in a Leftist echo chamber with little contact with people with conservative views.

As I wrote last week it’s curious that Kane Cornes, with his impeccable Port Adelaide

contacts, has not heard of any disquiet at the club about Tredrea’s political views. On the same program he was quite clear in stating that no one at the football club had expressed dissatisfaction with Tredrea holding or sharing his mainstream conservative views.

This week Tredrea posted a response to Wilson’s criticism arguing that “different ideas and perspectives should be encouraged not these types of baseless attacks on character.” He also said: “It was a personal attack, there is no other way to take it … she has done it multiple times.”

That saw Wilson step up her rhetoric, condemning Tredrea in much stronger terms, and making it clear that this was very much personal.

Tredrea spoke out against Wilson’s “personal attack” this week. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

“He is accusing me of having the opposing political views, you don’t have to be a Left-winger to not support the anti-Semitic and archaic medical views of Robert F Kennedy Jnr,” Wilson said.

RFK Jr being anti-Semitic would be news to every Jewish person I know, and I know plenty from both sides of politics, who to a man admire the Democrat turned Republican’s staunch support of the only Jewish state.

Jewish Journal praised RFK for his “unwavering commitment to Israel as a Jewish state” which was described as “sincere and integral to his political values”. The most pro-Israel man I know, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, is glowing in his assessment of RFK Jnr who he considers a close personal friend.

“Bobby Kennedy is one of the only Democrats who spoke out boldly to protect Israel with its recent Jenin assault on terrorists. He defended Israel,” he said.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Picture: Jim Watson

But Jews everywhere clearly need to consult with Wilson about why a man who is proudly pro-Zionist is in fact an anti-Semite, one so irredeemable that merely supporting his desire to take on Big Pharma is deplorable and worthy of comment … on a football program.

“I think his comments publicly and on social media are divisive, not because they are Right wing but because he is backing people who I think in the past have been racist, conspiracy theorists and anti-Semitic and I think he needs to be careful, I really mean that,” Wilson said.

She also didn’t shy away from indulging in some straw man arguments during her latest attack. “You don’t have to be Left wing to think it’s a bit odd to demand or ask of a board that they are transparent with their board papers, how on earth are you going to re-sign a player if his wage becomes public,” Wilson said.

Of course Tredrea has suggested nothing of the sort and has been clear in stating that he wants greater transparency but not at the expense of confidentiality.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist