Sacked ABC presenter Antoinette Lattouf slammed over ‘offensive and tacky’ comments about broadcaster’s audience

Sacked ABC presenter Antoinette Lattouf has ignited another media controversy, this time over a now-deleted slur directed at the broadcaster’s viewers.

Sacked ABC presenter Antoinette Lattouf has ignited another media controversy, this time over a now-deleted slur directed at the broadcaster’s viewers.

The former ABC Radio host penned an opinion piece for Nine newspapers, half-jokingly suggesting herself as a replacement for Paul Barry as the host of Media Watch.

However, her reference to the ABC’s older audience as the “colostomy-bag crowd” sparked immediate backlash.

Cartoonist Kaz Cooke took to X, describing the term as “odd and cruel”, while Journalist Lucie Morris-Marr called it “one of the most hideous, offensive, and nasty phrases I’ve ever heard”.

The offensive term was subsequently removed from the online version of the Sydney Morning Herald column, but it had already made it to print.

“The national broadcaster needs younger viewers to survive,” Lattouf had written in the original piece. “You can’t cater to the colostomy-bag crowd forever.”

Guardian Australia’s Weekly Beast column quoted SMH opinion editor Chris Harrison, who stated the reference was cut to avoid “upsetting others”.

Ms Cooke urged Lattouf to reconsider how she refers to older people, while another reader highlighted the rising trend of colon cancer and other bowel ailments among young people, noting that colostomy bags are not exclusive to the elderly.

Another woman in her twenties with Crohn’s disease chimed in: “I don’t have a colostomy bag, but lots of people of all ages with Crohn’s and other conditions have them! It’s already such a stigmatised medical device and should not be flung around as an insult... gross.”

The Herald’s Letters page also saw a flurry of criticism.

“Antoinette Lattouf’s description of ABC viewers as ‘the colostomy-bag crowd’ is insensitive,” wrote one reader.

“As bowel cancer rates rise among the young, it’s not even an accurate dig against an older demographic. Perhaps Paul Barry could discuss the comment next week.”

Sky News host Erin Molan also slammed Lattouf over the article on the Friday edition of her show, Erin.

“She wrote, and I assume satirically, regarding a replacement for outgoing Media Watch host Paul Barry – ‘You can’t cater to the colostomy-bag crowd forever’,” she said.

“In other words, I assume she’s trying to encourage them to target a younger audience.

“Your reference is offensive and tacky.”

Sacked ABC presenter Antoinette Lattouf has ignited another media controversy, this time over a now-deleted slur directed at the broadcaster’s viewers.

Ms Lattouf, who is of Lebanese heritage and whose parents came to Australia as refugees in the 1970s, is outspoken on her social media accounts and was eventually laid off in December over controversial social media posts relating to the Israel-Gaza conflict.

She was let go after sharing a post about the conflict in Gaza, with ABC management telling her she was not allowed to post about controversial issues while in the presenter position.

She drew intense criticism for suggesting videos of pro-Palestine protesters chanting “gas the Jews” at the Sydney Opera House in October were unverified.

In a judgment published on June 3, the Fair Work Commission found the ABC had terminated her employment, dismissing ABC’s claims to the contrary, and opening the door for her to pursue the national broadcaster in the Federal Court.

Ms Lattouf was called up to fill in for host Sarah Macdonald for five shifts starting on Monday December 18 but was told not to come in for her final shifts on Thursday and Friday that week.

In his judgment, the Commission’s deputy president Gerard Boyce said ABC’s chief content officer Chris Oliver-Taylor “made the ultimate decision to take (Ms Lattouf) ‘off air’.”

Mr Oliver-Taylor concluded that the social post breached the ABC’s social media policy, according to the written decision of the Fair Work Commission.

Ms Lattouf, who is of Lebanese heritage and whose parents came to Australia as refugees in the 1970s, is outspoken on her social media accounts and was eventually laid off in December over controversial social media posts relating to the Israel-Gaza conflict.

The ABC argued that it had not terminated Ms Lattouf’s contract and it was entitled to act as it did according to her casual employment contract, and that she was paid for the full five days.

The Commission found that there was nothing said to Ms Lattouf during the December 20 meeting about her being paid for the full five days.

“In this case, I find that the employment relationship between the Applicant and the ABC, was terminated at the ABC’s initiative,” Mr Boyce said in his judgment.

In a statement, Ms Lattouf’s lawyer Josh Bornstein from Maurice Blackburn, welcomed the Fair Work Commission’s decision to dismiss the ABC’s attempt to strike out her unfair dismissal claim.

“We will add the claim of unlawful termination to the claim currently before the Federal Court that alleges that the ABC also violated its enterprise agreement by sacking Antoinette Lattouf without due process and without a proper basis,” Mr Bornstein said.

“If the court is satisfied that the ABC acted illegally, it has broad powers to make orders including reinstatement and compensation together with the ability to impose penalties.”