ABC, Seven also put racist Cottrell on air, but Sky is the one banned

Blair Cottrell made an appearance on the ABC. Picture: AAP

Blair Cottrell is a violent, racist, sexist bully, and the fact Sky News last week put his ugly mug to air has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact Sky News has now been banned from the big screens at all Victorian railway stations.

The decision to ban Sky is 100 per cent political.

How do we know?

Because it wasn’t like Cottrell was making his media debut on Sky. He’s been spraying his particular brand of hate all over town for years, including, wait for it, on the ABC.

That’s right: the ABC was first among the geniuses to give this bozo airtime. He appeared on Hack Live on ABC2 back in 2016 and, yes, if he’s appalling now, he was appalling then.

Asked a question on the ABC about the murder of indigenous Australians during the early years of white settlement, Cottrell said: “So what?”

Truly, he is vile.

But where’s the fuss? The ABC is beamed into Melbourne’s Federation Square every day. Is the relevant minister going to pull the curtains on the ABC because it once put Cottrell to air?

That’s not all: Cottrell has also appeared on the Seven Network, rabbiting on about some rubbish while lots of shots of the pale-skinned adult virgins who comprise his followers aired in the background.

Did the Victorian government ban Seven from the town’s big screens? No.

Ten’s The Project also tried to get him on. He turned them down.

He didn’t turn Seven down. He didn’t turn the ABC down. He didn’t turn down Sky, which now finds itself banned.

If all that were not evidence enough, on Monday Cottrell made a veiled threat to rape a female journalist, but that was not on Sky, that was on Twitter, and there’s been no ban there, either. So let’s not pretend the ban is anything to do with what Cottrell said on Sky.

Most people don’t even know what he said on Sky, and certainly nobody standing on any Victorian train station saw it, because the interview was never shown there.

It’s about punishing Sky. It’s 100 per cent political. If it wasn’t, they’d have gone for Hack on the ABC; they’d have gone for Seven; they’d have gone for Twitter; for Facebook, for any target that isn’t as easy as this one.