Sky News Faces Fallout From Airing Interview With Far-Right Extremist, As Commentator Quits

Sky News Faces Fallout From Airing Interview With Far-Right Extremist, As Commentator Quits

It appears Sky News’ apology for airing an interview with a former leader of the United Patriots Front wasn’t enough for one of its commentators.

Ex-Labor minister Craig Emerson has quit his role as a commentator on Sky News, after the network hosted far-right nationalist Blair Cottrell (pictured above, left) on The Adam Giles Show last night to talk about immigration

Sky News shared out videos and live tweets of Cottrell’s controversial argument that immigration should come down to a matter of race, sparking a wave of criticism on social media and forcing the network to apologise and delete its Twitter posts.

Emerson announced via Twitter this morning he had quit Sky News as a commentator due to the interview.

However, Emerson wasn’t the only member of the Sky News camp to criticise the interview, with political reporter Laura Jayes and political editor David Speers also dishing it out to their own network.

Australia’s race discrimination commissioner, Tim Soutphommasane, described it as a “shameful low”.

Cottrell was found guilty of is of inciting serious contempt for Muslims last year after protesting a mosque in Bendigo being built by posting a video of a fake beheading.

This is not the first time Sky News has made headlines in recent months over its on-air content, with the network suspending a producer of The Outsiders program who allowed crude comments made during the broadcast to appear in an on-screen strap.




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