ABC Still In The Poop For Monday’s Iffy Q&A Segment

Just in case you’ve been living under a rock, the ABC has been dead silent over the controversial Q&A questioner. But it looks like some media opinion writers are taking this silence as ABC’s guilt.

Opinion writers have gone bonkers over Zaky Mallah’s comment during this week’s Q&A. Mallah said Aussie Muslims who disagree with Liberal politicians are ‘justified’ in joining ISIS. A comment which was shut down by Q&A host Tony Jones, and director of ABC Television Richard Finlayson called “an error in judgment”.

That hasn’t stopped some opinion writers calling for ABC’s head on the chopping block, as well as the cancellation of Q&A.

Andrew Bolt Herald Sun

“And I challenge Abbott: We’ve known for years what side it’s on. Now, what will you do about it?

“There should be no surprise that the ABC gave a national platform to Muslim extremist Zaky Mallah, once jailed for threatening to kill ASIO officers.

“The ABC has been at this kind of thing for years, thanks to bias in our biggest media organisation that is systemic, unlawful and dangerous.”

Miranda Devine Daily Telegraph

“Q&A is a platform designed to betray the national interest. It uses the credibility of the ABC’s prestigious taxpayer funded news division to elevate fringe views into mainstream respectability.

“Almost every show sets up a lone conservative or two to be ridiculed, using the dark arts of TV to manipulate the makeup of the panel, the positioning of the guests, and the questions from the audience in order to promote a particular point of view. Nothing is spontaneous.”

Jonathon Holmes Sydney Morning Herald

“Zaky Mallah has always been an attention seeker and a loose cannon. He was guilty of publishing appalling and inexcusable tweets about News Corp columnists Rita Panahi and Miranda Devine some months ago, and again today. But there was no reason at all for Q&A’s producers to suspect that he would suddenly become an advocate for Islamic State.

“And nor did he. His final, notorious comment was not a call to arms – although it’s easy to see how many viewers took it that way. It was, if you watch it again, the comment of an angry young man, a born and bred Australian with no other nationality, who has been trying for some years to counter the lure of Islamic State in his own community, and who had just been told by a member of the government that ideally he should be expelled from the country by ministerial decree.”

Jennifer Oriel The Australian

“No woman should have to fear for her bodily safety in Australia when she exercises her democratic right to free speech — especially on our public broadcaster. And yet, that is precisely what I now feel about the prospect of appearing on Q&A.

“There are serious questions which must be answered about the modern Left and its indulgence of Islamist terrorism and misogyny. We might begin by asking why the taxpayer-funded ABC indulged a man who promoted the idea of gang-raping female columnists.”

Sam de Brito The Age

“What’s far more disturbing than the predictable outrage every Tuesday morning, is how large sections of Australia seem to flirt with the idea people like Fred Nile or Zaky Mallah should be silenced.

“This is not to say trickheads like either of these men should be given their own syndicated radio show, but is Australia’s moral psychology really so fragile it can’t resist the occasional late-night cameo from the fringes of pluralist society?”

Shouldn’t we just all stop talking about it because we’re giving Zaky Mallah the profile that he wants? mmmmm logic.

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