Monday night’s episode of Australian Story featuring Labor MP Sam Dastyari caught the eyes of a number of politicians from different political parties, but not in a positive way.
Australian Conservatives leader Cory Bernardi, Labor MP Michael Danby, Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson, government minister Zed Seselja, and Liberal backbencher James Paterson have all accused the ABC of using the program to plug Dastyari’s soon-to-be-released book about his Iranian heritage, according to Fairfax
The politicians have described it as a “puff piece”, “propaganda”, and an “infomercial”, and have called on the ABC to – as Pauline Hanson would say – “please explain”.
According to OzTAM’s overnight figures, 616,000 Aussies tuned in to Monday night’s episode of Australian Story.
Dastyari used his appearance on Australian Story to promote an event on Tuesday night in Sydney, where he will be –yes, you guessed it – talking about his new book.
So if you watched #AustralianStory you can watch @domknight take me apart tomorrow in SYDNEY https://t.co/KlXoFugQNG
— Sam Dastyari (@samdastyari) July 31, 2017
Listeners to ABC’s RN Breakfast on Tuesday morning also noted how Dastyari used his interview on the radio show to plug his new book numerous times.
Sam Dastyari has mentioned the name of his book at least six times in an interview with Frank Kelly this morning on ABC #auspol
— Bevan Shields (@BevanShields) July 31, 2017
How many times can @samdastyari get ‘One Halal of a Story’ into one interview on @RNBreakfast. Top effort
— Mark Travers (@mark_travers) July 31, 2017
