Home » “Fairfax Is Dead”: Controversial Columnist Clementine Ford Quits Over Censorship Fury

31 January, 2019

“Fairfax Is Dead”: Controversial Columnist Clementine Ford Quits Over Censorship Fury

Contentious columnist Clementine Ford has quit writing for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in a drawn-out twitter rant, claiming “Fairfax is dead”.

Ford who is known for her controversial feminist columns posted several scalding tweets revealing her resignation.

She tweeted: “Also, here’s some tea and I can spill it now that I have resigned from Fairfax: in September, they threatened to fire me because I had called transphobic Scott Morrison a ‘f***ing disgrace’ on Twitter and they said that new policy was we ‘didn’t disrespect the office of the PM”.

I am not the only writer who's had pieces knocked back that were critical of other news sources' practices and elevating of bigotry. The reason? "We don't criticise the competition." And this too, which I heard consistently over the last year or 2: "When they go low, we go high."
— Clementine Ford ?‍♀️ (@clementine_ford) January 30, 2019

To be clear, my 'you're a fucking disgrace' tweet was in response to his 'gender whisperers' transphobia bullshit from last year. I received a call from my then boss telling me that a memo had recently been circulated dictating the office of the PM was not to be disrespected.
— Clementine Ford ?‍♀️ (@clementine_ford) January 30, 2019

I expect at some point a line will be trotted out about how I was 'difficult'. Don't believe it. I was a loyal and committed contributor for 7 years and they benefited greatly from me being connected to the masthead.
— Clementine Ford ?‍♀️ (@clementine_ford) January 30, 2019

Ford continued: “I asked if it would be acceptable for me to call him ‘a disgrace’ instead and the person disciplining me said that they would need to check.”

Another tweet said: “I am not the only writer who’s had pieces knocked back that were critical of other news sources’ practices and elevating of bigotry. The reason? “We don’t criticise the competition.” And this too, which I heard consistently over the last year or 2: “When they go low, we go high.”

In a statement to B&T, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age’s Life editor Monique Farmer said: “Clementine Ford has been a contributor for The Herald and The Age for the past seven years and we thank her for her work over that time”.

Ford’s departure comes off the back of Nine Entertainment and Fairfax media’s $4 billion dollar merger in November last year, which saw ‘Fairfax’ disappear from Australia’s media scene.

With a strong 124,000 following on Twitter, Ford is well-known for her divisive commentary and articles, particularly concerning to her strong feminist views.

She has previously tweeted comments such as “Kill All Men”, “All men must die” and “I bathe in male tears”, which prompted a petition against her appearance at a charity fundraiser in May last year and gained almost 14,000 signatures.

This morning, Ford added to her tirade that she was not “difficult” during her seven years at Nine Newspapers.

She said: “I expect at some point a line will be trotted out about how I was ‘difficult’”.

“I was a loyal and committed contributor for 7 years and they benefited greatly from me being connected to the masthead.”

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Clementine Ford Sydney morning Herald The Age