Rita Panahi: Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s selective ABC is plain offensive
IT’S one thing for ABC presenter Yassmin Abdel-Magied to proclaim Islam as “the most feminist religion,” but quite another to insult Anzac Day, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
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- ABC presenter ‘disrespects Anzacs’
- ABC backs host after Anzac insult
- Sharia law has no place in our society
ABC host and DFAT darling Yassmin Abdel-Magied has again said something spectacularly stupid.
This time there are calls far and wide for Abdel-Magied to be sacked from her taxpayer-funded role with the ABC after she insulted the memory of the Anzacs by imploring Australians to think about Palestine and Nauru instead of fallen soldiers.
It’s one thing to go on the ABC and proclaim Islam is “the most feminist religion,” but quite another to insult a day that means so much to so many Australians and is synonymous with the values that this nation holds dear.
Abdel-Magied’s idiotic Facebook post, “Lest we forget (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine)”, went from causing a minor social media storm to an almighty furore in quick time.
But the ABC is standing firmly by their girl and called her decision to delete the post and apologise “appropriate”.
Related: ‘Stop the war’ Anzac heckler arrested
“Ms Abdel-Magied is a part-time presenter on the ABC program Australia Wide, introducing stories done by ABC reporters from around the country. When presenting for the ABC she works in accordance with ABC editorial and other policies,” the ABC statement read.
It’s strange that when newsreader Natasha Exelby made an innocent two-second mistake she was banished from her role until a viewer uproar led to her reinstatement.
It seems the ABC is rather selective in determining who is treated with zero tolerance.
There is no doubt which “mistake” has damaged the broadcaster’s reputation more and it certainly wasn’t Exelby’s delightful reaction to being caught unaware on camera.
Personally, I am not a fan of sacking people for saying or posting things that are dumb, provocative or just plain offensive.
That is a tactic used by the Left to silence dissenting voices; the rest of us should be better than that.
Just imagine if the Left were held to the same standard that they demand from everybody else?
There’d be a spate of media roles opening up.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist rita.panahi@news.com.au
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