Pauline Hanson and Tommy Robinson meeting becomes grist for News Corp’s social media mill | Weekly Beast

Karl Stefanovic’s decision to interview with Tommy Robinson last month was considered so out of step with mainstream media standards it led to his termination from Nine. But for the Daily Telegraph, Robinson’s far-right anti-Islamic activism is just more content for its social media accounts.

A Robinson video, in which he walks the streets of Luton in the UK with Pauline Hanson in tow, complaining that immigration has ruined his home town, has been republished on the Tele’s Instagram and TikTok accounts.

“One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has joined UK far-right activist Tommy Robinson on a walking tour of Luton, saying she was ‘gobsmacked’ by the demographic and that she doesn’t ‘want Australia to become like this’,” the Tele said on Instagram. ⁠

On TikTok it’s the same. Robinson: “What do you think about the demographic?”

Hanson: “I’m gobsmacked. I don’t feel like I’m in England. I definitely don’t want Australia to become like this.”

The Tele editor, Ben English, did not reply to a request for comment.

The meeting between Robinson and Hanson was filmed for a 7News Spotlight exclusive to air on Sunday.

“Liam Bartlett follows Senator Hanson from Australia to the UK, gaining extraordinary access as she seeks guidance from the darlings and delinquents of the UK’s far right,” the publicity guff says. “But has Hanson’s UK visit taken her views to the extreme?”

‘If you don’t like my show, then don’t watch it’

Stefanovic had a pointed message for the former Nine colleagues who critiqued him when he appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored this week: “They can go fuck themselves!”

Uncensored, indeed. Stefanovic was asked about an article by Tina Quinn published in Crikey featuring former insiders commenting on his career trajectory. It included the choice line about the then-young reporter from Brisbane: “Yeah, well, he might be your new boy-wonder, but I’ll tell you what, mate, he’s a 24-carat fuckwit.”

Stefanovic dismissed the criticism.

“I’ve got too much to do, too much I want to do – those people aren’t working in the industry any more, so they can …” Stefanovic said, while sticking two middle fingers to the camera repeatedly.

“You know what I’m saying?” he said, again flipping the bird to laughs of delight from Morgan. “I really want to say it,” Stefanovic went on, and was egged on by Morgan, who cried: “You’re on Uncensored!”

After his expletive and with his mainstream media shackles well and truly off, Stefanovic maintained that he “stands by” his controversial interview with Robinson and thanked Morgan for his support ahead of his return down under.

Stefanovic, who was removed from Today hours before he interviewed Morgan on his podcast, The Karl Stefanovic Show, reflected on that discussion.

“That was a weird day,” he said. “It is what it is, you can be critical of the interview, you can be critical of the choices, but this is my show … I just want to relax into interviews now … If you don’t like my show, then don’t watch it.”

Noted.

Alan Jones trial looms

It’s been a long and complex run-up to the judge-alone trial but the case of R v Alan Belford Jones is scheduled to start in a fortnight, on Monday 3 August.

In November 2024 Jones was charged with alleged historic indecent assault and sexual touching offences spanning two decades. He had stepped away from daily broadcasting in May 2020 after dominating breakfast radio in Sydney for 35 years. The 85-year-old pleaded not guilty and denies all wrongdoing.

This week a pre-trial hearing saw the parties argue about the admissibility of evidence before the judge, Glenn Walsh, at Downing Centre local court in Sydney.

The prosecution told Walsh four more charges would be dismissed, leaving 22, including 20 counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual touching. The number of complainants has been reduced from 11 to six.

The media contingent was put in its place after a complaint from the team of the defence counsel, Gabrielle Bashir SC, that reporters may be able to see solicitors’ laptop screens if they sat behind them. Media dutifully moved to the left-hand side of the public gallery, behind the prosecution. Walsh quipped that the dock was also available.

He ruled that no exhibits would be released to the media during the trial, which has been estimated to run between six weeks and four months, with 76 witnesses listed.

An AO error

The US studies centre at the University of Sydney is charging up to $899 for a one-day forum titled Alliances in an Age of Disorder. For that priced you’d expect a good lineup. The centre sent out a media release this week saying speakers include former US lawmakers and two distinguished Australian recipients of an AO.

Peter Varghese AO, chancellor at the University of Queensland, and “Mike Pezzullo AO Former Secretary of the Australian Department of Home Affairs”.

But wasn’t Pezzullo stripped of his Order of Australia honour after he was found to have breached the Australian public service code of conduct?

At the time Pezzullo told the ABC losing the honour “does not amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world”.

He probably won’t mind then that the studies centre has now stripped him of the honour again in a revised press release published on its website after someone pointed out the error.

An appetite for demotion

Never one to balk before the limelight, the former prime minister and Australian ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, appeared on The Ezra Klein Show this week to discuss “what Americans need to understand about China”.

A beaming Rudd joked to the New York Times heavyweight, after being praised for his “amazing biography”, that he had a “permanent appetite for career demotion”.

“I was prime minister, then foreign minister, and then did a PhD, became ambassador, and now I’m running a thinktank – so it’s one steady slide for me,” he said.

The episode, clocking it at a cool one hour and 42 minutes, has amassed more than 150,000 views on YouTube and 50,000 views on Spotify since it was published on Tuesday.

Slow clap, fast comeback

Gemma Tognini, a columnist for The Australian and a commentator on Sky News Australia, made her views crystal clear during a discussion of Labor’s tax reform. “I hate these socialists, I hate them, I hate them,” she said on Sky. “I couldn’t loathe these socialist money-grubbers any more than I do. The end.”

But there is something Tognini might hate even more: a delayed flight.

She posted on X: “Flight back to Sydney delayed because we have to wait for a pilot to hitch a ride and that pilot is currently …. on another aircraft that hasn’t yet landed in Brisbane. So we are just sitting on the tarmac. Slow clap.”

Qantas was quick to reply, with the added detail that Tognini was delayed for just over 10 minutes:

We’re sorry about the delay getting out of Brisbane last night Gemma. Understand sitting on the tarmac for operational reasons is frustrating. Glad we were able to make up some time in the air to get you into your destination a little over 10 minutes behind schedule. Hope you had an otherwise enjoyable flight.

Ouch.

– Additional reporting by Caitlin Cassidy