Advertisers abandon Southern Cross Austereo for ‘bowing down to cancel culture’ by axing Jessica Rowe’s podcast featuring Pauline Hanson
Pauline Hanson and her chief of staff, James Ashby, have taken action against Southern Cross Austereo after the right-wing politician’s interview with The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show podcast was removed following a Twitter storm.
The Queensland Senator, 67, has advised SCA, the media company that hosted the podcast on its LiSTNR platform, she has pulled One Nation’s expensive TV campaign from the network.
Mr Ashby contacted SCA CEO Grant Blackley and senior staff members to confirm the party would be suspending its campaign, which was scheduled to air in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.
Cancelled: Pauline Hanson (pictured on June 17) and her chief of staff, James Ashby, have taken action against Southern Cross Austereo after the right-wing politician’s interview with The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show podcast was removed following a Twitter storm
‘The network needs to readdress the way it deals with issues like this,’ Mr Ashby told The Australian.
‘The problem is the interview showed a human side of Pauline that the keyboard warriors who despise everything about her didn’t want you to see. But I feel for Jess that she was so hurt by what happened.’
Hanson had appeared on Jessica Rowe’s LiSTNR podcast to discuss her time in prison for electoral fraud in 2003, her children, and other lighthearted topics like her favourite tipple.
Response: The Queensland Senator has advised SCA, the media company that hosted the podcast, she has pulled One Nation’s expensive TV campaign from the network
Chat: Hanson had appeared on Jessica Rowe’s LiSTNR podcast to discuss her time in prison for electoral fraud in 2003, her children, and other lighthearted topics like her favourite tipple
Rowe promoted the podcast on social media as Hanson talking about ‘love, raising kids and why she keeps going’.
But the episode soon faced backlash on Twitter, with Australian of the Year Grace Tame accusing Rowe of ‘subtly enabling’, ‘normalising’, and ‘valorising’ Hanson.
Rowe later asked LiSTNR to ‘take down the Pauline Hanson interview’.
Removed: The episode faced backlash on Twitter, with Australian of the Year Grace Tame accusing Rowe of ‘subtly enabling’, ‘normalising’, and ‘valorising’ Hanson. Rowe later asked LiSTNR to ‘take down’ the episode and Hanson’s team responded by posting this parody image
As a result, One Nation will no longer air advertisements on SCA’s TV channels.
The party was planning to pay for a series of ads across the company’s regional stations to promote Hanson ahead of next year’s federal election.
Blackley received a scathing text message from Ashby after the podcast was pulled.
It read: ‘Cancel culture is a scourge on modern media and if we continue to allow it to permeate through society, SCA will forever be beholden to these minority groups.’
Fuming: Hanson’s chief of staff, James Ashby (pictured), later texted SCA CEO Grant Blackley: ‘Cancel culture is a scourge on modern media and if we continue to allow it to permeate through society, SCA will forever be beholden to these minority groups’