Columnist sacked over ‘grope’ comments to ABC radio program

Fired for cynicism

Prominent Crikey columnist and correspondent-at-large Guy Rundle has been sacked after its publisher was told about an offensive text he sent in to Radio National’s Breakfast Show this week, adding to years of messages sent to the program.

Rundle’s message, sent to the show on Thursday, said rising sexual assault complaints are because “every grope is now a sexual assault”.

This led to ABC managing director David Anderson expressing his concern in a note to Crikey publisher Private Media’s chair Eric Beecher and chief executive Will Hayward, highlighting the message, alongside a long-term pattern of messages directed at the Radio National breakfast show and its host, Patricia Karvelas.

Hayward condemned Rundle in a statement provided to this masthead, saying the company was appalled to hear Rundle’s comment on Radio National, and confirming he would no longer be published by Crikey, despite not being employed on a full-time basis.

“Rundle is a writer with significant talents and a body of insightful and challenging work, but we condemn those kinds of comments and our working relationship has become untenable,” he said. “Therefore, we will no longer be publishing his work.”

https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/crikey-columnist-sacked-over-grope-comments-to-abc-radio-program-20241019-p5kjm5.html

***************************************

All my main blogs below:

http://jonjayray.com/covidwatch.html (COVID WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

https://westpsychol.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH  -- new site)

https://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

http://jonjayray.com/select.html (SELECT POSTS)

http://jonjayray.com/short/short.html (Subject index to my blog posts)

***********************************************