The ABC has defied calls to apologise to Gina Rinehart for a “satirical” video that aired on the national broadcaster which depicted an imaginary, savage assault on the mining tycoon.
The clip, which featured in a segment on the ABC’s Race Around The World program last week, showed a contestant acting out a doomsday scenario in which Mrs Rinehart would be violently tortured.
“Because when the revolution comes, will you hide under your bed or will you know exactly how to shove a stick right up Gina Rinehart’s butthole, stirring it round, mixing her guts up nice and smooth, making her into one big sausage roll, to make something outta nothing,” the contestant, Kate McGuinness, said in the video.
On Friday, the ABC defended McGuinness’s comments as being “satirical in tone”.
“While contributors are not ABC journalists, all content broadcast by the ABC is subject to the ABC’s editorial standards, policies and review processes. In this case, the film was intended to be satirical in tone and considered to be editorially justifiable within the context of the program,” an ABC spokesperson said.
On Saturday, a spokesperson for the Rinehart-owned Hancock Prospecting said the ABC owed the businesswoman a public apology, but also urged it to investigate how the video made it to air in the first place.
“This appalling material, presented by the taxpayer-funded ABC as ‘entertainment’, illustrated and graphically described Mrs Rinehart being sodomised and tortured in a manner that would kill her,” they said. “It is nothing short of disgusting that the ABC would encourage and normalise violence and murder by broadcasting, publishing and continuing to distribute this content.
“This was not an unscripted live comment; it passed through production, editorial and broadcast processes.
“If the ABC believes it can hide behind the false shield of ‘satire’ to glorify sexualised and political violence and murder, it has completely lost sight of its editorial responsibilities.
“Surely this is outside its charter?
“A public apology would be the minimum appropriate response, but more importantly, a light must be shone on who let this go to air in primetime, and action taken.”
One Nation’s Chief of Staff James Ashby has slammed the ABC, calling for the public broadcaster to be defunded and moved to a subscription model after the broadcast.
Mr Ashby on Sunday night outright rejected the broadcaster’s characterisation of the content as satire.
“No, it’s far from that. That was just vile content. It was almost something that I would class as terrorising to any individual,” Mr Ashby said. “The reality is, it wasn’t funny.”
Mr Ashby called into question the ABC’s editorial independence, arguing the broadcaster had never achieved genuine balance in its coverage.
“The issue here is we at One Nation have been arguing for a very long time for fair and balanced coverage within the ABC. They’re far from that.
“The ABC should hang their head in shame,” he said.
Going further, Mr Ashby called for the broadcaster to be stripped of its $1.3 billion in annual public funding and forced to stand on its own commercial footing.
“We should defund the ABC, send them to a subscription model, get rid of them,” he said.
“The biggest challenge that I’ve got with the ABC is we pump $1.3bn into it. We as taxpayers don’t get a say in that. It’s a slap in the face to the Australian public … it’s disgraceful.”
Neither the ABC chairman Kim Williams nor the national broadcaster’s managing director, Hugh Marks, responded to The Australian on Sunday when asked if Mrs Rinehart deserved an apology.
An ABC spokesperson declined to answer questions on the editorial oversight of Race Around The World, and refused to name the ABC manger who approved the video clip before it went to air.
The ABC has defied calls to apologise to Gina Rinehart for a “satirical” video that aired on the national broadcaster which depicted an imaginary, savage assault on the mining tycoon.
The clip, which featured in a segment on the ABC’s Race Around The World program last week, showed a contestant acting out a doomsday scenario in which Mrs Rinehart would be violently tortured.
“Because when the revolution comes, will you hide under your bed or will you know exactly how to shove a stick right up Gina Rinehart’s butthole, stirring it round, mixing her guts up nice and smooth, making her into one big sausage roll, to make something outta nothing,” the contestant, Kate McGuinness, said in the video.
On Friday, the ABC defended McGuinness’s comments as being “satirical in tone”.
“While contributors are not ABC journalists, all content broadcast by the ABC is subject to the ABC’s editorial standards, policies and review processes. In this case, the film was intended to be satirical in tone and considered to be editorially justifiable within the context of the program,” an ABC spokesperson said.
On Saturday, a spokesperson for the Rinehart-owned Hancock Prospecting said the ABC owed the businesswoman a public apology, but also urged it to investigate how the video made it to air in the first place.
“This appalling material, presented by the taxpayer-funded ABC as ‘entertainment’, illustrated and graphically described Mrs Rinehart being sodomised and tortured in a manner that would kill her,” they said. “It is nothing short of disgusting that the ABC would encourage and normalise violence and murder by broadcasting, publishing and continuing to distribute this content.
“This was not an unscripted live comment; it passed through production, editorial and broadcast processes.
“If the ABC believes it can hide behind the false shield of ‘satire’ to glorify sexualised and political violence and murder, it has completely lost sight of its editorial responsibilities.
“Surely this is outside its charter?
“A public apology would be the minimum appropriate response, but more importantly, a light must be shone on who let this go to air in primetime, and action taken.”
One Nation’s Chief of Staff James Ashby has slammed the ABC, calling for the public broadcaster to be defunded and moved to a subscription model after the broadcast.
Mr Ashby on Sunday night outright rejected the broadcaster’s characterisation of the content as satire.
“No, it’s far from that. That was just vile content. It was almost something that I would class as terrorising to any individual,” Mr Ashby said. “The reality is, it wasn’t funny.”
Mr Ashby called into question the ABC’s editorial independence, arguing the broadcaster had never achieved genuine balance in its coverage.
“The issue here is we at One Nation have been arguing for a very long time for fair and balanced coverage within the ABC. They’re far from that.
“The ABC should hang their head in shame,” he said.
Going further, Mr Ashby called for the broadcaster to be stripped of its $1.3 billion in annual public funding and forced to stand on its own commercial footing.
“We should defund the ABC, send them to a subscription model, get rid of them,” he said.
“The biggest challenge that I’ve got with the ABC is we pump $1.3bn into it. We as taxpayers don’t get a say in that. It’s a slap in the face to the Australian public … it’s disgraceful.”
Neither the ABC chairman Kim Williams nor the national broadcaster’s managing director, Hugh Marks, responded to The Australian on Sunday when asked if Mrs Rinehart deserved an apology.
An ABC spokesperson declined to answer questions on the editorial oversight of Race Around The World, and refused to name the ABC manger who approved the video clip before it went to air.