0/5

Paul Murray defends John Mangos

“It’s ridiculous that I’m even saying this but John Mangos is not racist," SKY's Paul Murray told viewers on Monday night.

“Before we get into things I have to talk about the elephant in the room,” Paul Murray told viewers last night on SKY News.

“It’s ridiculous that I’m even saying this but John Mangos is not racist.

“Obviously I can’t support the statement itself but it was not motivated by racism.”

Mangos was told on the weekend his contract would not be renewed after a comment he made on Paul Murray Live following a story on a Chinese lottery winner who disguised himself as Spiderman when collecting his cheque.

“I don’t know why he bothered. I mean, I can tell you now – he’s Chinese. He’s got straight black hair and he’s got squinty eyes and yellow skin,” he said.

Mangos apologised the next day for describing a light-hearted joke as an error of judgement.

SKY News‘ parent company Australian News Channel has just increased its existing programming deal with Chinese broadcaster CCTV and Shanghai Media Group.

Murray said he had been talking to SKY News executives during the week and was disappointed by the decision to dump Mangos.

He encouraged viewers who shared his sentiments to contact SKY News at the email [email protected]

Source: News Limited

15 Responses

  1. Paul,

    Pokies are for losers, however what happens when the Pokie pays out the Jackpot on $200.50 and you have just walked away after spending your $200 limit. C’mon the Casinos are just cleaning up…

    Tiger Airways – When motorists get it wrong you fine the driver not the car company…
    Its the Pilots that need to be pinged, not the airline – 7.000,000 Passengers since commencing operations. This country is run by w*nkers.

  2. Reinstate John Mangos!!!!! It obviously was a honest mistake when trying to be light-hearted during a moment of pressure. Not fair, I think Sky’s actions are more embarrassing, John has always been a decent bloke!!!!!!!!

  3. Paul people watch your show because they are generally “fair minded” people.

    We realise that all is not what it seems based on 1 dumb comment or grab on tv.

    To sack a person who over a long and distinguished career who has never been known in the past to make a rascist comment is extreme.

    I know you hate the term but this really is “Un-Australian”.

  4. Paul Murray was forced to comment on Monday night, he was flooded with tweets on Monday which forced his hand.

    The #PMlive twitter feed were (and still are) so outraged at Sky News’s decision to fire John Mangos. I do feel sorry for John Mangos he’s been reporting news for 30+ years & Paul Murray cause the incident happened on his Show.

    It wasn’t right to just sack him after 16yrs of reporting for Sky News after he makes his first slip up on Sky News.

  5. Mr. Do-Bee,

    In regard to your offering of “Go ahead, Sky News. Pander to the Chinese but remember you are nothing without the respect of your Australian viewers.”

    You are truly a moron. Nothing more needs to be said or written.

  6. We bandy about words like racist or racism with such regularity these days that they have lost all meaning. A racist is someone who discriminates against another person based on that person’s racial background.
    As someone who was watching the comment as it happened, I got quite the chuckle. It was funny because John was actually making fun of the guys pathetic disguise which consisted of regular clothes topped off by a $2 shop Spiderman mask that didn’t really disguise him at all.
    So to all the PC crowd who shriek “Racist!” at the drop of a hat – chill out and get a life!

  7. It’s a really ugly sentence. A tiny bit milder and he may have gotten away with it. If I was running SKY I’d have dumped him too. Although it’s a tad ironic they sack him after hiring tools like Hadley! to stir the pot.

  8. It’s getting to the point people will be afraid to make any jokes regarding anything.
    Maybe Sky should hire Robots
    No one condones any racist or prejudicial statements and as a Pom I’ve been on the end of many Jokes over the years.

    They all look the same to us and any jokes about being Gay, “Not that there;s anything wrong with that” are just jokes and should be treated as such

    Lighten up Sky. Mangos is not a racist and shouldn’t be treated as one

  9. @ Allie – I agree. Most workplaces wouldn’t tolerate remarks about asians all having ‘slitty eyes and yellow skin’. The fact that this presenter’s job involves broadcasting to thousands of people doesn’t help.

  10. I’m in the opposite camp- I think he was rightly sacked for this. Sorry, you can’t say stuff like this publicly, it is a seriously bad look. It may or may not have been motivated by malice or racism, but perception is everything, and John’s comment sounds very racist and it panders to a stereotype that Asian people may well find offensive. If I made this comment openly in my workplace, I’d be out on my rear-end quicksmart.

Leave a Reply