Rita Panahi: Magda Szubanski’s A Current Affair chat a hot mess of divisive spin
Channel 9’s attempt at damage control only poured fuel on the fire and further exposed Madga Szubanski’s far Left views.
Rita Panahi
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What a monumental own goal by Channel Nine.
Worried Magda Szubanski, the star of the Weakest Link was making headlines for being the Wokest Link and trolling the First Lady, Nine moved swiftly into damage control mode.
But in trying to spin the controversy to make Szubanski the victim the network only succeeded in further exposing her far Left views and gave new life to a story that has been among the most read all week.
Szubanski’s friendly pre-recorded interview with A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw should’ve been a slam dunk but the comic made further divisive claims, indulged in a bizarre conspiracy theory and failed to adequately answer the soft questions posed by the host.
What made it to air was a hot mess of obfuscation and spin but the full interview is said to be even more damaging with some of Szubanski’s absurd responses wisely cut.
Also, in the spotlight is Grimshaw’s lackluster questioning including around Szubanski’s claims that she didn’t even recognise Jenny Morrison in the picture she posted because she didn’t have her hair and makeup done.
Grimshaw also failed to pin down an answer about Szubanski’s most extreme tweet about the First Lady; the suggestion that she is a white supremacist or making a white supremacist symbol.
Szubanski knew precisely what she was doing when she tweeted a picture zoomed in on Jenny Morrison’s hand with the forefinger and thumb touching, sane people call it the ok sign, but among the hard Left it’s considered a symbol of far-right white supremacy.
The picture was sent to Szubanski by a follower who called Jenny Morrison “obnoxious” which Szubanski retweeted posing the question: “what’s this little hand signal thingy??”
ACA showed edited versions of the tweets; the graphics deliberately cut out the words Szubanski quote-tweeted about the Morrisons from far Left trolls including one referring to their photo as “creepy, chilling and enraging”.
It’s apparent that in Szubanski’s narrow circle hyperbolic reactions to the photo were the norm. “I was a bit staggered that I got drawn into this over such a nothing observation that thousands of people had already made,” she said.
But for most others the images (and there’s also pictures of the PM watching on as Jenny signed the condolence book but Nine failed to show that, too) were unremarkable and worthy of neither mockery nor rage.
What was “wacko” wasn’t the picture, but the demented reaction to it from the loud Left.
Normal people see a benign picture of the PM & his wife signing a condolence book for Prince Philip.
— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) April 13, 2021
Twitter Lefties see chilling, terrifying, ominous misogyny, literally handmaid’s tale, sickening & depressing sexism blah blah blah pic.twitter.com/4twUjbPmaW
Most reasonable people, whatever their political persuasion, don’t believe politicians’ spouses should be under intense scrutiny but Szubanski rejects that view and blamed the PM for Jenny Morrison’s plight.
“Scott Morrison is the one who has brought her into public life, and as we know once you‘re in public life, we all cop it, that is what happens,” she said.
“If (Jenny Morrison) is going to have some sort of influence in public life, I want to know: What are her values? What kind of a woman is she?”
On Twitter, without the benefit of Nine’s editors, she went further:
“The PM has weaponised Jenny. He has confirmed she is basically a quasi policy maker,” Szubanski wrote.
“The infiltration of the religious far right into Australian politics is ... disturbing. Re Jenny. @ScottMorrisonMP (the most powerful man in the country) wheeled her into the political arena. She is his conscience.”
Umm okay, Magda, that’s one way of looking at a husband and wife conversing about the issues of the day in the privacy of their own home.
Szubanski did admit in the ACA interview that there was an ideological motivation behind the tweets.
“That was a mild way of drawing attention to the fact I do have concerns about, and trust me this is not about the majority of Christians, but the element of the far-right,” she said.
“In terms of the increasing presence of the religious right in politics in this country, then I will say something.”
Earlier this month Szubanski attacked Liberal senator Amanda Stoker tweeting: “This reshuffle has handed power to Amanda Stoker, another of the small but noisy “Christian Soldiers” faction hijacking the national agenda.”
On Wednesday Szubanski tweeted this odd mix of righteousness and victim-playing: “I’m not “walking back” from anything!
Simply stating facts.
Nor will I be forced into an apology for...nothing. I see what the Christian Soldiers are doing here. They have drawn a “pink line” & I’m the Big Game. Let the fat shaming begin!”
It’s no secret that Scott and Jenny Morrison are devout Christians but it’s curious that Szubanski who campaigned for same sex marriage has had nothing to say about the demographics of electorates that voted “no” at the 2017 plebiscite.
It wasn’t the conservative coalition heartland that voted “no” but safe Labor seats with the highest concentration of Muslim voters; 12 of the 17 electorates that voted no were in western Sydney.
On ACA Szubanski even indulged in a little conspiracy theory positing that the attention on her trolling of Jenny Morrison was a ploy to deflect attention from Christine Holgate’s testimony at a senate hearing.
“The fact that it turned into a big issue is no doubt in my mind partly to distract from the fact that Christine Holgate was making her testimony,” she said.
Little problem with that paranoid fantasy; the Szubanski trolling story blew up early Monday afternoon but Holgate’s testimony didn’t happen until the following day.
And, many of the people appalled by Jenny Morrison’s treatment also stand with Holgate and believe she was unfairly treated.
Indeed, it’s been conservative women from Janet Albrechtsen to Pauline Hanson who have for months championed Holgate’s cause.
The fact that readers and viewers are interested in the story of a famous comic and actor trolling the First Lady is not some nefarious plot and Nine only added fuel to the fire with their car crash interview.
The very same audience that Nine wants watching the Weakest Link care about this story and the hypocrisy of the far Left.
You can be an activist poking fun at Christians, conservatives and mainstream Australians as much as you like, you can even falsely malign them as “far-right,” but don’t be surprised if the people you defame don’t want to watch your programs.
IN SHORT
Good on the dancers whose twerk routine caused a minor media meltdown for calling out the ABC’s “creepy” and “deceptive editing” of the video.
The ABC has apologised to Governor-General David Hurley for falsely depicting him in the audience but the dancers have received no apology.
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