Indigenous Australian TV presenter quits show over racist backlash

CANBERRA, Australia — Prominent Indigenous journalist Stan Grant has announced he will step down from his television hosting duties after Monday after viewers responded with racist abuse III. On his remarks at the coronation of King Charles on the plundering of the historic natives.

Grant, a member of the Wiradjuri tribe of indigenous Australians and a former international correspondent for US CNN, has come under fire since he participated in a panel discussion about the Australian Broadcasting Corp. ahead of the May 6 coronation ceremony in London. Topics included the quest for a president to replace the British monarch as Australia’s head of state, and Aboriginal people suffering from colonialism.

Critics complained that the ABC had spoiled the celebratory mood of the coronation.

After more than 30 years of news experience in Australian television, Grant wrote in his regular ABC online column on Friday that Monday will be the last time he hosts his weekly national panel discussion show ‘Q+A’ for the foreseeable future. news media and abuses of social media.

“I am extending the time because we have shown again that our history – our hard truth – is too big, too fragile, too valuable for the media. The media only sees battle lines, not bridges. All he sees is politics,” Grant wrote. “The media has turned public debate into an amusement park. Social media is a pathetic sight at its worst. Grotesque burlesque. Lives become mockery and ridicule.”

“I don’t want to be a part of it. I want to find a place of grace, away from the stench of the media,” Grant said.

Grant was asked to take part in the panel “as a Wiradjuri man to discuss his own family’s experience and the role of the monarchy in Australia in relation to Aboriginal history”, ABC news director Justin Stevens said.

“ABC news management is responsible for the coverage, not Stan Grant,” Steven said.

Indigenous Australians make up 3.2% of the national population and are Australia’s most disadvantaged ethnic minority.

Political divisions have emerged over the centre-left Labor government’s plan to hold a referendum this year that would create an Indigenous Representative Body, known as the Voice of Parliament, to advise lawmakers on issues affecting Indigenous lives.

The main conservative parties oppose such a change to the constitution, arguing that it would divide the nation along racial lines.

The increasingly visible neo-Nazi movement has led several Australian states to ban swastikas, and football competitions have introduced sanctions to try to stamp out racial abuse by spectators directed at Indigenous players.

The Australian Monarchist League has submitted an information request to the ABC about the planning of the broadcast to determine “how this deplorable turn of events could have taken place”, league president and former senator Eric Abetz said.

“Directing the broadcast into a monologue about everything that could possibly be in trouble with our great country, and then laying it all at the feet of our constitutional monarchy, was on the one hand blatantly absurd, and on the other hand, it was a misuse of the occasion,” Abetz said in a statement. “This Freedom of Information request exposes the warped thinking and those responsible for the unprecedented and unprincipled adoption of what should have been factual commentary on an exceptionally historic event.”

Grant said that since the coronation he had seen “people in the media lying and twisting my words”. She said she and her family were “regularly subjected to racial taunts or abuse” and that no one at the ABC had publicly supported her since the coronation.

ABC chief executive David Anderson apologized to Grant in an email to staff on Sunday, saying Grant’s experience since the coronation had been “distressing and confronting” for the company.

“Stan Grant stated that he did not feel publicly supported. For that, I apologize to Stan,” Anderson wrote. “The ABC strives to support its staff in the unfortunate moments when they are affected by external abuse.”

Stevens said the company filed a complaint on Twitter this year about Grant’s racist abuse that was posted on the social media platform. Any threats against Grant will be referred to police, Stevens said.

Media coverage of Grant’s participation in the panel discussion was “untrue, inaccurate and irresponsible,” Stevens said. “It has contributed to the horrendous personal and racial abuse,” he said.

The ABC ombudsman investigated public complaints related to the broadcast. The ABC did not comment on News Corp reports that it had received more than 1,000 complaints about the coronation coverage.

News Corp reported that the ABC broadcast focused largely on issues related to the republican movement and the widespread harm inflicted on Aboriginal Australians by the monarchy and its colonial enterprise.

Anderson said “anti-ABC reporting” by some trade media had been “persistent and vitriolic” and announced an investigation into the ABC’s response to racism involving staff.

“Racism should never be tolerated and I am devastated that Stan was subjected to such sickening behavior,” Anderson said. “This has real consequences for ABC presenters and journalists who are being personally attacked and vilified.”