ABC drops Marieke Hardy article
Screenwriter Marieke Hardy casts her thoughts on who the most hated Aussie is but ABC's website drops her published article.
- Published by David Knox
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Screenwriter Marieke Hardy, who appears regularly on ABC’s First Tuesday Book Club, has had an opinion piece dropped by ABC website The Drum after editor Jonathan Green says it failed to meet the standards for argument.
Entitled “The Christopher Pyne experiments” the article looked at the question of whom Australia despised the most: Kyle Sandilands, India, AFL star Brendan Fevola or musician Kanye West.
Of Liberal politician Christopher Pyne she wrote “It seems that nobody in the whole of Australia likes him,” Hardy wrote.
“Which leads me to presume that perhaps there is nobody in the entire world who is loathed by Australia more than Christopher Pyne.”
In her inimitable writing style, she began her piece by saying an appearance by Mr Pyne on Q & A had caused the nation to “silently pray for him to get attacked by a large and libidinous dog”.
She went on to claim that Australia “hates Christopher Pyne more than we hate Kyle Sandilands”, also comparing him unfavourably to India and Brendan Fevola.
The editor of The Drum, Jonathan Green, today wrote that he was wrong to publish the article.
“It was not up to her standards, and failed to meet the standards for argument and well-thought opinion we try to maintain on this site. As her editor I should have told her that and pulled the piece.
“We’ve dropped it from our site now, and we take this opportunity to apologise to Christopher Pyne for the both the attack and for its deeply personal nature. There is no formal pressure on us to do this, but we think it’s the right thing to do.
“Mistakes happen in daily publishing. Sometimes things see the light of day that on reflection ought more properly have been cut, re-written or dropped altogether. I take the view that while it’s regrettable to make the error in the first place, it’s never too late to both apologise and do what you can to correct the situation.”
It has also triggered considerable debate via Twitter
Hardy’s articles in print and online are notable for their cheeky but insightful writing style, regularly attracting fervent readers. In addition to appearing on Book Club, Hardy has been a writer of TV dramas including Packed to the Rafters, and her series LAID is coming to ABC1 next year.
Pyne did not make a complaint to the ABC.
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- Tagged with AFL, First Tuesday Book Club, LAID, Packed to the Rafters, Q&A, The Drum
29 Responses
Didn’t John Howard get ‘The Glass House’ axed in a roundabout way?
ABC NSW hatred of the ALP has been well documented, in fact it has been mentioned on this site before, not just by me. The news gathers 90% of it’s views from the murdoch press, espescially the Australian tabloid, whose right wing views is no secret. The failed estate blog is a great site that explores this issue in depth.
The ABC showed it’s true colors during the recent election, when it failed miserably to examine any coalition policy, but consistently used a fine tooth comb on the government’s. As for the NSW ALP, it has not gone unnoticed by many the actual contempt in certain news readers voices when they have to utter the term “ALP”. in it’s news reports, not to mention the bias shown by it’s political reporter. So it is of no surprise to this poster that the ABC would pull an article that does not reflect well on a conservative member of politics, just don’t expect the same “fairness” to be applied to the so called left wing ALP.
I’m with Neon Kitten – on Last Man Standing – i thought was a terrific show, and maybe ahead of its time – underrated and underwatched! If broadcast now, it might emulate the figures of Offspring – also a dramedy – and a contemporary, narrative of manners. Marieke’s writing was fresh, funny and sexy.